Gamelan gong kebyar
Gong kebyar music is based on a five-tone scale called pelog selisir, and is characterized by brilliant sounds, syncopations, sudden and gradual changes in sound colour, dynamics, tempo and articulation, and complex, complementary interlocking melodic and rhythmic patterns called kotekan.
Gamelan Gong Kebyar was 1st documented to exist in North Bali in the early 1900s. The 1st public performance was in December 1915 at a gamelan gong competition in Jagaraga, North Bali. Ten years later, I Mario of Tabanan is said to have created kebyar dance to accompany the music.
Following their violent invasion of the island, Dutch occupiers responded to international criticism by building cultural institutions. They sponsored these competitions until Japanese forces ended their rule in World War II.
In addition to island-wide arts competitions, Gamelan Gong Kebyar has become an essential part of modern Bali Hindu ceremonies. They are required for annual birthday ceremonies for temples, odalan, as well as major holidays as accompaniment for sacred dances. They are also appropriate for the class of rituals centered around human life, Putra Manusia, such as weddings.
Instruments in Gamelan Gong Kebyar offer a wide range of pitches and timbres, ranging five octaves from the deepest gongs to the highest key on a gangsa. The high end can be described as "piercing," the low end "booming and sustained," while the drums as "crisp." Kebyar instruments are most often grouped in pairs, or "gendered." Each pair consists of a male and female instrument, the female being slightly larger and slightly lower in pitch. See tuning in this article to learn why this is.
The gangsa instruments play elaborate ornamentations on the underlying melody (pokok, or trunk of the tree) of a piece of music. The explosive feeling of the gong kebyar style derives mainly from the dynamic range of these instruments, whose bright, sharp tones can sound anywhere from soft and sweet to extremely loud and aggressive. Each gendered male/female pair of gangsa is also divided into two interlocking melodic parts, polos (mostly plays on the beat) and the sangsih (mostly plays off the beat) during kotekan, which permits extremely rapid, virtuosic, and complex patterns to be played.
There are four kantilan in kebyar, two male and two female. See gendered instruments within this article. These instruments are the highest sounding in the kebyar ensemble, with its highest note being around C7. It has ten keys, and a range of two octaves, and is played with a wooden hammer. Players often sit on the floor to play this instrument.
There are also four pemadé in kebyar, two male and two female. These instruments also have ten keys, a range of two octaves, and are played with a wooden mallet, but are exactly one octave lower than kantilan. Players often sit on the floor to play this instrument.
There is often only one ugal in the kebyar ensemble, and it is usually female. It is played by one of the leaders of the ensemble. A second, male ugal is sometimes used. The ugal is taller than the other gangsa, and the player sits on a short stool, so as to allow the player to cue the ensemble visually with ease. The instrument also has 15 keys, with a range of two octaves, and is played with a hard wooden mallet, slightly larger than the other gangsa panguls and usually with additional ornamentations so the leader's sometimes theatrical cues actively catch the light. Its notes are an octave lower than those of the gangsa pemadé. The ugals play a combination of gangsa parts and cues, melodic solos, and the underlying melody with flourishes. The first, front ugal cues and plays elements of the polos interlocking gangsa part, and if there is a 2nd ugal, it plays elements of the sangsih part (gangsa notes more often off the beat).
There are two jegogan in kebyar, one male and one female. These instruments have a range of one octave, and are one octave below calung. The keys are considerably larger than those of other gangsa, and are played with a large, cloth-coated, rubber-padded spherical mallet. The jegogan plays the deepest tuned notes in the ensemble, typically playing key notes in the underlying melody of a piece of music instead of every note of that melody.
The next higher pitched of the gangsa is the jublag or calung. This instrument, like jegog, also requires long resonating bamboo tubes so is often played while sitting on a small stool, and consists of one female/male pair. These instruments have a range of one octave, in between pemadé and ugal. Some have five keys (1, 2, 3, 5, and 6) but seven key jublag are also commonly found in Bali (though gong kebyar ensembles typically don't use notes 4 and 7, using only the pelog selisir scale). It usually plays at submultiples of the pokok; the keys are struck more frequently than the jegogan and usually less frequently than the ugal (playing the pokok). The calung part is often the full the pokok while the ugal part includes some ornamentations and flourishes; however, the calung don't play full kebyar sequences, for example. This instrument is one octave above the jegogan and overlaps tones with the ugal.
Gongs come in different sizes, and provide a structure for phrasing for the music by repeating a four or eight beat pattern. This pattern is called the gong cycle. Gongs are mounted vertically.
Also referred to as just gong, gong gedé is the deepest, and most resonant. Gede, sometimes written gde, means 'big' in Balinese. Because it is the largest of the gongs, it is considered to be the most sacred instrument in kebyar. It is never dampened, always allowed to decay. Because of its deep tone, it penetrates through the ensemble and can be heard for miles. It is struck with a large, padded mallet.
A medium-sized gong, the kempur is very similar to gong gedé as it has very similar qualities, but is just higher in pitch. It is struck with a large, padded mallet.
Also known as the kemong, this is much smaller and higher in pitch than the kempur. It is struck with a harder mallet than either the gong gedé or kempur, which allows it to have a sharper attack.
Also spelled, reong, this instrument consists of 12 kettles mounted horizontally in a row on a frame. It is played by four musicians, each taking responsibility for 2 to 4 of its kettles. The players, who sit in a row, are split into two groups, the 1st consisting of the 1st and 3rd players in the row, and the 2nd consisting of the 2nd and 4th players. Both people in the same group play the same part, but doubled an octave apart. The parts of group one and of group two, when played together, are interlocking. The reyong has both melodic and non-melodic percussive roles.
The trompong isn't usually used in kebyar, as it is associated with older genres such as gamelan gong gdé. When it is used, however, it is positioned in front of the ensemble, facing the audience. Constructed similarly to reyong, it consists of 10 kettles, with a range of two octaves. It is played by only one person, and that person may be a leader of the ensemble who sits on a short stool, playing the main melodic line. The trompong is also played by a dancer in dance pieces such as Kebyar Trompong and Kebyar Duduk. Because of the size of the instrument, the melodies are composed to allow one to slowly shift one's position to reach the extremes of its range.
The tawa tawa is a small kettle held in the lap or arm and struck on the boss by a mallet with a soft round head. It plays the beats of the gong cycle and acts somewhat like a metronome.
The kempli and kajar are small kettles set over cords strung on a boxlike stand. They are mainly used as tempo keeping instruments. They are usually played with a cord wrapped stick like those of the reyong and trompong. The kettle is struck on the boss while dampened with the other hand to produce a sharper, dryer sound.
Also written klinang, it is a very small kettle, about 5 inches in diameter, either set on its own stand or held in the hands. It, too, is played with a cord wrapped stick. It plays every 2nd beat of the tempo, usually alternating with the kempli or tawa tawa.
The kajar is a small kettle with a recessed boss, held on the lap and played with a hard stick. The kajar plays accents to important parts of the rhythm.
The kendang is a double-headed drum of jackfruit wood and cowhide. The exterior is shaped like a truncated cone while the negative space of the interior is sculpted like an hourglass. This shape and the cinching action of hide straps creates two distinct, approximate tunings in one drum. Like most gamelan instruments, kendang are paired: the larger, lead part female, wadon, and the other male, lanang. The surfaces inside the kendang wadon are carved straighter than those in the lanang, resulting in a more resonant, booming timbre.
Much like the syllables for pitches used for pitched instruments, kendang have a set of onomatopoetic spoken syllables for each stroke producing a total of 14 types of sound. Kendang are played with either bare hands only or bare hands plus one mallet. The kendang wadon player typically tops the hierarchy of the ensemble, setting tempi and aurally cuing transitions like a conductor.
Related Sites for Gamelan gong kebyar
- Musical Instruments of Bali, Indonesia used by Gamelan Tunas Mekar read Gamelan gong kebyar
- Gamelan Ensembles read Gamelan gong kebyar
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