Gamelan Music An introduction

Making a gong ageng

The Gamelan

4 component parts of Gamelan Balungan instruments Gongs Embellishing instruments Drums

Balungan Saron panerus Saron barung Slentem 11113322 55665533 1 1 3 2 1 1 3 2 5 6 5 3 Slentem 1 1 3 5 6 5

Saron Panerus – part of the Balungan group of instruments

Gongs The gongs mark the smaller sections in the piece. The gong ageng marks the beginning of each cycle. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 X

Gong Ageng

Embellishing instruments The embellishing instruments play repeating patterns and decorate the melody

Gender panerus – an embellishing instrument

The drums control the tempo and control other changes in the music.

Drums

Writing your own Gamelan piece. Key Questions

Balungan How many notes need to be in the balungan? How many versions of the balungan are you going to have in your piece? What are the key differences? Will your balungan have any repeating sections? What instruments will you use to play it?

Gongs How will you mark the beginning of each section, and the divisions of each section?

Embellishing instruments • Will you have you embellishing instruments playing all the way through?

How will they control the direction of the piece? Drums How will they control the direction of the piece?