GAMELAN 2 tonality melody texture rhythm structure

LEARNING OBJECTIVES To understand the tonality of gamelan music To understand the relationship between melody, harmony and texture in gamelan To study the rhythm and structure of Baris

TEST What is it? What is its function in the ensemble?

TONALITY Pelog is a scale: Pelog selisir = the pentatonic subset of pelog which uses notes There are other modes, e.g. pelog tembung = 45612, pelog sunaren 56723

TEMPERAMENT Equal Temperament Approximate pitches of pelog Varies from village to village! Not set in stone. Wide tuning Pairs of instruments deliberately slightly out of tune with each other to create interference beats  shimmering timbre (ombak) D D#D# EF F#F# G G#G# A A#A# BC C#C#

MELODY Based on pelog selisir Core melody = pokok in Bali (Java: balungan) Played by the Ugal Original form at U (p 523) Notate it in Western notation What is its range? What about at H (p 527)? What are the Jegogan and Calung doing?

TEXTURE Layers Varies dramatically from section to section – what is this a feature of? When is the texture fullest? When is it thinnest? Heterophony – between which instruments? What are the gangsa and reyong doing? Gong Kebyar Angsel sections Beginning Ugal & Calung in B sections Embellishing the pokok with high melodic decorations

HARMONY No harmony “Chords” happen when more than one note is played at once but this isn’t considered harmony Pentatonic but only because all the instruments are Notice on 4 th (kempli) beat everyone plays note 2 – can be a useful way of following the structure

LET’S PLAY A GAMELANS!

RHYTHM Basis of all Gamelan Remember that this music is written to accompany a dance Each section will correspond to what the dancers are doing Gamelan ensembles take great pride in rhythmic skill, precision and ensemble (they practise a lot!) Leader: kendhang (signals tempo/section changes)

RHYTHM 2 Constant pulse (except start and end) Colotomic structure = hierarchy of rhythms. Every instrument has a specific role End accent – most important beat is the LAST one 8-note rhythmic cycle (like a bar) called a gongan Gongan defined by the Gong! e.g.  (written in Jegogan part) Jegogan on beat 4 Which tuned instrument plays on every beat? Which untuned instrument plays on every beat?

RHYTHM 3 Reyong has a really complicated part with interlocking rhythms (This is called kotekan) What do you notice about how the kendhang part changes from section to section?

STRUCTURE How would you describe the structure? Identify three ways in which variation is achieved when sections are repeated. How do the players know when to move to the next section? Kendhang accents ANGSELUsual tune

ESSAY QUESTION Identify those features of Baris Melampahan (extract) which indicate the ritualistic and communal nature of this music (13 marks – 9+ well illustrated points).