Javanese Gamelan

Front 1

gong

Back 1

One of the largest and lowest-metallophones, used to indicate the beginning and end of a large cycle.

Front 2

gongan

Back 2

A unit of time beginning and ending with a gong stroke.

Front 3

metallophone

Back 3

A musical instrument in which the sound is produced by metal, usually struck with a mallet.

Front 4

kethuk

Back 4

A small horizontal gong, one of the colotomic instruments. Depending on the size of the form, the kethuk may play from two to eight times per kenongan. In ladrang form, it plays between kempul and kenong beats. In larger forms, it plays in analogous "off-beat" positions; usually the number of kethuk beats is doubled in the second section of a large-form gendhing.

Front 5

colotomic

Back 5

Marking time. The colotomic instruments (gong, kenong, kempul, kethuk, kempyang) mark off the temporal framework of a piece of gamelan music.

Front 6

kenong

Back 6

A set of 5 to 7 horizontal gongs, one of the colotomic instruments. Typically the kenong is struck four times per gongan.

Front 7

kenongan

Back 7

The unit of time/musical phrase between two kenong strokes.

Front 8

kempul

Back 8

A set of hanging gongs higher in pitch than the gongs proper, one of the colotomic instruments. Typically the kempul plays midway through every kenongan except the first.

Front 9

kempyang

Back 9

1. A high-pitched horizontal gong, one of the colotomic instruments, played in alternation with the kethuk in certain forms.

Front 10

ladrang

Back 10

A form with 32 balungan notes to each gongan.

Front 11

lancaran

Back 11

A form with 8 balungan notes per gongan.

Front 12

pélog

Back 12

One of two scales in Javanese music. It has seven pitches (now called 1 2 3 4 5 6 7), and the intervals tend to be either smaller than a whole tone or larger than a minor third.

Front 13

slendro

Back 13

One of two scales in Javanese music. It has five pitches (not counting barang miring), now called 1 2 3 5 6, and the intervals are more even than those of the pélog scale, being no smaller than a whole tone and no larger than a minor third.

Front 14

wayang

Back 14

A type of theater, usually with puppets. Wayang performances have both entertainment and religious value and typically go on for hours. Also, a puppet.

Front 15

wayang kulit

Back 15

Wayang performed with carved-leather shadow puppets. One may watch the action viewing the puppets themselves or the shadows they cast on a screen. Traditionally one dhalang manipulates the puppets and voices all the dialog for the duration of the show (about 9pm till dawn).

Front 16

wayang wong

Back 16

Wayang with live actors.

Front 17

bonang

Back 17

A set of 12 to 14 small horizontal gongs resting on cords in rack. One of the elaborating instruments. The bonang panerus plays one octave higher than the bonang barung; the bonang panembung one octave lower.

Front 18

panerus, panerusan

Back 18

Generic term for higher-octave instruments (i.e. bonang panerus, gender panerus).

Front 19

saron

Back 19

A metallophone with 5 to 7 (sometimes more) keys. Most gamelans have at least two in each octave range: saron demung (lowest), saron, and peking (highest). All typically play the balungan with little or no elaboration.

Front 20

imbal

Back 20

An often-used technique of elaboration in which two instruments play alternating notes of a melody or accompanying pattern. Similar to hocket in Western music. Imbal is used by bonang, peking, demung, saron, and slenthem (with demung).

Front 21

mipil

Back 21

A principal technique of elaboration on the bonang. Each pair of balungan notes is played in double, quadruple, or even octuple time (with rests and some variation inserted to avoid monotony). Example:
Balungan: 3 2 3 1
Bonang: 323. 3232 313. 3131

Front 22

balungan

Back 22

The "bones" of a piece of music, played on the sarons and slenthem. It's sometimes called the core melody but often would be better called a condensation of the lagu, or true melody.

Front 23

kendhang

Back 23

The drum(s) that leads a gamelan. There are four sizes in common use: ageng (or gede or gendhing), ciblon, batangan, and ketipung. The kendhang ageng and ketipung, usually played together, lead the gamelan in ordinary tempi; the ciblon leads in faster, more highly ornamented sections.

Front 24

gong ageng

Back 24

The largest gong.

Front 25

gong suwukan

Back 25

The next-to-largest gong.

Front 26

suwuk

Back 26

Ending. Usually a piece ends by slowing down and stopping at a gong (suwuk biasa). Alternatively, it may speed up and stop suddenly at a gong (suwuk gropak).

Front 27

lagu

Back 27

The essential melody of a gendhing, including shifts of register -- a single-octave instrument like the saron can play the balungan of a piece, but the lagu will likely go out of its range.

Front 28

gender

Back 28

A keyed metallophone with resonating tubes beneath the keys (similar to a vibraphone), played with two padded mallets.

Front 29

siter

Back 29

A plucked-string instrument.

Front 30

celempung

Back 30

A plucked-string instrument.

Front 31

suling

Back 31

A bamboo flute

Front 32

patalon (talu)

Back 32

A suite of pieces played as a kind of overture to a wayang. Typically it starts with a large-form gendhing like "Cucur Bawuk" and transitions to smaller and smaller-form pieces, ending with sampak.

Front 33

sampak

Back 33

A small and somewhat irregular form, much used in wayang, especially for fight scenes. Typically it consists of 3 to 5 gongan, each 8 to 12 beats long. The most-used sampak are actually condensed versions of srepegan.

Front 34

srepegan

Back 34

One of the smaller forms, much used in wayang. Typically it is 3 to 5 gongan, each 16 to 24 beats long. If you speed it up and omit every other note, you get a sampak.

Front 35

pathet

Back 35

Can be loosely translated as "mode." Each of the six (or more) pathet is realized by emphasizing certain pitches and avoiding others; see individual pathet cards for more.

Front 36

pathet nem

Back 36

1. One of three slendro pathet; used in the first part of wayang. Music in slendro p. nem emphasize pitches 2, 3, 5, and 6 and often cadences on 2.
2. One of three pélog pathet. It emphasizes pitches 1, 2, 3, and 6, and often cadences on 6.

Front 37

pathet lima

Back 37

One of the three pélog pathet. It emphasizes pitches 1, 2, 4, and 5, often cadencing on 5.

Front 38

pathet sanga

Back 38

One of the three slendro pathet, used in the middle of a wayang. It emphasizes pitches 1, 2, 5, and 6, and often cadences on 5.

Front 39

pathet barang

Back 39

One of the three pélog pathet. It emphasizes pitches 2, 3, 6 and 7, and rarely uses 1. It often cadences on 6.

Front 40

pathet bem

Back 40

A collective term for the pélog lima and pélog nem, which use pitch 1 regularly and 7 very rarely.

Front 41

pathet manyuro

Back 41

One of the three slendro pathet, associated with the end of a wayang. It emphasizes pitches 1, 2, 3, and 6, and usually cadences on 6.

Front 42

pathetan

Back 42

A relatively short, partially-improvised piece for a few quiet instruments (voice, rebab, gender, gambang, suling, gong) which sets both the pathet and the mood for an upcoming scene or musical piece. It is also common to use a pathetan for a kind of postlude.

Front 43

wantah

Back 43

The long version of a pathetan (as opposed to jugag).

Front 44

jugag

Back 44

The short version of a pathetan (as opposed to wantah).

Front 45

slenthem

Back 45

A metallophone with 6 or 7 bronze keys suspended over resonating tubes; it typically plays the balungan.

Front 46

ngelik

Back 46

The higher section of a gendhing, e.g. the second gongan of "Moncer". One srepegan, srepegan slendro nem, also has a ngelik.

Front 47

ompak

Back 47

The beginning/lower section of a gendhing.

Front 48

buka

Back 48

Literally "opening". The introduction to any piece of music, usually played by rebab, bonang, kendhang, saron, or gender.

Front 49

bowo

Back 49

A vocal solo typically used to introduce a piece (similar to buka, but longer and sung).

Front 50

gerong

Back 50

The male chorus of a gamelan, generally providing vocal lines in unison, often providing keplak (clapping) and alok (stylized cries) in ornamented sections.

Front 51

irama

Back 51

The ratio of elaborating notes to balungan notes. Nearly all pieces begin in irama lancar (1:1 for most elaborating instruments) and immediately "slow" to irama tanggung (2:1); this may be followed by irama dados (4:1), irama wilet (8:1), or (rarely) irama rangkep (16:1).

Front 52

gendhing

Back 52

Broadly, any piece of music. Specifically, a piece in a form larger than ladrang. The form is usually described as "gendhing kethuk N", where N indicates the number of kethuk beats per kenongan.

Front 53

ketawang

Back 53

A 16-beat form with 8 balungan beats per gongan and only 2 kenongan per gongan. Typically a ketawang has 5, less often 4 gongan. Played in irama tanggung, its pace is slow and courtly.

Front 54

bubaran

Back 54

A 16-beat form with 4 balungan beats per kenongan and 4 kenongan per gongan. Bubaran are typically 2 gongan, are played in irama tanggung, and are closing pieces.

Front 55

laras

Back 55

Scale, i.e. slendro or pélog.