THE SOUNDS OF MONTEBELLO GAMELAN

This is a collection of the percussive sounds of a Central Javanese gamelan (‘gamelan’ derives from ‘gamel’, to hit with a hammer or mallet). Non-percussive gamelan sounds, which have been excluded from this collection, are those produced by instruments such as the rebab (bowed), the siter (plucked), the suling (blown), and the human voice.

This library presents the sounds of one particular gamelan. It should be reminded that each gamelan has its own tuning. That is, pitches and intervals may vary from one gamelan to another, while maintaining the two basic systems of scale - the slendro scale (five notes in the octave) and the pelog scale (seven notes in the octave).  The gamelan recorded here is Kaduk Raras (pelog) Raras Sari (slendro), also called Montebello Gamelan. It was made in Central Java by various gamelan makers, including Tentrem Sarwanto of Surakarta and Suhirjan of Yogyakarta.  It was tuned after the well-known Kaduk Manis Manis Rengga of Kraton Surakarta. It resides in its own specially built ‘pendopo’ on a hillside named Montebello, not far from Turin, Italy.

This library has two sections. The main section comprises 311 sounds of instruments of the classical gamelan. An additional section presents sounds which complement the traditional ones - namely, 127 gamelan sounds of 7 Javanese-built chromatic instruments in the 12-tone tempered scale. Also, 20 natural sounds of a lithophone pertaining to the Montebello residence are included.

The classical instruments of the Montebello Gamelan recorded in this album are:

6 gong ageng, 5 gong suwukan, 8 kempul, 14 kenong, 5 bonang, 1 bedug, 3 kendhang, 2 slenthem, 2 gender, 1 gender panerus, 6 kemanak, 2 slentho, 2 demung, 2 saron, 2 peking, 2 gambang gangsa, 2 gambang kayu, 1 keprak.

Recordings made in 2011.

THE TRACKS

01   slenthem  pelog   7 tones     2:07

02   slenthem  slendro   7 tones     2:04

03   gender pelog   17 tones     4:08

04   gender slendro   14 tones     3:06

05   gender panerus  slendro   14 tones     2:38

06   gong kemodong      0:31

07   bonang panembung  pelog   14 tones     1:19

08   bonang barung  pelog   14 tones     1:04

09   bonang panerus  pelog   14 tones     1:04

10   bonang barung  slendro   10 tones     0:51

11   bonang panerus  slendro   10 tones     0:46

12   kenong  pelog   8 tones     1:20

13   kenong  slendro   5 tones     0:55

14   kenong jap., ketuk, kempyang, engkug kemong   7 tones    0:43

15   kempul  pelog   5 tones     0:58

16   kempul  slendro   3 tones     0:37

17   suwukan  pelog   3 tones     0:52

18   suwukan  slendro   2 tones     0:31

19   gong ageng '5'   59Hz     0:31

20   gong ageng '3' iron   47Hz     0:31

21   gong ageng  'Sekar Sepi Sendiri'   59Hz     0:31

22   gong ageng  'Bali'   37Hz     0:31

23   gong ageng '3'   47Hz     0:31

24   gong ageng '2'   37Hz     0:31         

25   bedug       0:31

26   kendhang ageng      0:33

27   kendhang ciblon      0:31

28   kendhang ketipung       0:31

29   slento  pelog   7 tones     1:25

30   slento  slendro   7 tones     0:56

31   demung  pelog  iron   7 tones     1:53

32   saron  pelog  iron   7 tones     1:19

33   peking  pelog  iron   7 tones     1:00

34   saron  pelog   7 tones     1:36

35   saron  slendro   9 tones     1:35

36   peking  slendro   7 tones     1:48

37   gambang gangsa  pelog   23 tones     5:13

38   gambang gangsa  slendro  iron   17 tones     2:35

39   gambang  pelog   21 tones     1:32

40   gambang  slendro   20 tones     1:32

41   kemanak   6 tones     0:45    

42   keprak        0:31

43   chromatic slenthem   13 tones     2:47

44   chromatic gender   13 tones     2:52

45   chromatic gender panerus   13 tones     2:56

46   chromatic demung  iron   13 tones     3:05

47   chromatic saron  iron   13 tones     2:08

48   chromatic peking  iron   13 tones     2:02

49   chromatic bonang  iron   49 tones     3:52

50   lithophone (montebello stones)   20 natural tones     1:25

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