13 SEPTEMBER 1960,
DI RUMAH DR. MILO WOLF, “ANGGREK”, DAGO HILL COMPLEX.

Ladies and Gentlemen.

Within teh scope of this introduction, it is quite impossible to deal with maniford features of the music of the populations of the hundreds of islands of  Indonesia. As these populations are in many stages of development and culture. I shall only attempt to give a broad outline of the music which is to be found in Java, Bali and Madura. The music of this three islands has many characteristics in common and has grown within a typical indigenous orchestra – called “gamelan” and within the scope of its own musical laws and regulations. Gamelan music in its highest form is to be considered as the expression of a very high culture, still bearing many potentialities for further development.

Archaeology, history and ancient literature has proved the existence of indigenous musical instrument in pre-hindu times before the Indonesians were able to make musical instruments of bronze, such as the bamboo-zither, the split-bamboo drum and the angklung.
    
The “bronze age” was introduced to the archipelago in the first millenium B.C., together with the art of casting tools, weapons, ornaments, drums and gongs of bronze.

The wave of immigrants coming from India since the beginning of our era has introduced zithers, drums, earthenware resonators and xylophones. The lute is of Persian, Arabic or Chinese origin. The Hindu colonists and the Brahma and Buddhist missionaries who introduced Indian culture and art, did not step into a vacuum. They merged with the natives populations which outnumbered them by far.

A new type of civilization arose, a civilizaton of unique charm and attraction, neither wholly Indian, nor wholly Indonesian, but composed of elements of both parents cultures. Musical influences from other regions have been organically absorbed and transformed into real indigenous art and there are proofs that the newly received methods have seen independently developed to a much higher degree then were their origins.

The influx of Western culture has driven gamelan music out of South and East Sumatra in favour ot the so-called “kronchong” music, using Western instruments and composed on a Western scale. The kernel of gamelan music is to be found in Java and Bali and in less developed stages in Western Lombok, Banjarmasin (in South Kalimantan) and in South Sumatra.
    
In gamelan music there are fixed scales, which have grown alongside the development of the instruments. These scales are all within the range of two systems, the Pelog system and the Slendro system.

There are seven basic tones in the Pelog system  and five basic tones in the Slendro system. Pelog is typified as “female”, as it appeals more to our sense of humanity, and Slendro as “male”, being more suitable for leftiness and more rigid in its appearence. These two opposite descriptions of “male” and “female” are derived from the native terminology, and commonly used for describing some types of music or sets of musical instruments.

Modern research in this field seems to show that the Pelog type is indigenous to Java and Bali, and points out the possibility that the Slendro type may have been introduced into these region via the ruling house “Cailendra” in Sumatra in the eight century A.D.

The similarity of the name “Cailendra” and “Salendro” is remarkable, as is the fact that in Java – particularly in vocal music – Pelog enjoys greater popularity than Salendro. In many areas of West and East Java and also in Bali, Pelog enjoys instrumental hegemony.

Pelog and Salendro systems are derived from the overtones of old Chinese bamboo flutes, originally comprising five tones in an octave; later two more tones were added to the Pelog system. The divine of supernatural origin of the gamelan (for example that it arose out of the sea on a holy night) and its scales is generally accepted both in Java and Bali.


INSTRUMENTS

A complete gamelan set of both types consists of about 25 instruments of various kinds. The various keys of these instruments are tuned to a range of seven octave in a Slendro set and six octaves in a Pelog set.
    
There are six main types of idiophones: The saron, the bonang, the gambang, the gender, the single sound-kettle and the gong.
    
The saron is a bronze xylophone. There are usually three instruments, each comprising a single octave within the range of the three highest octaves.

The bonang consists of a double range of bronze beating-kettles, which are shaped like small gongs, and placed with the open side downward. These kettles have a fairly heavy boss. They are made to sound by beating this boss with a stick provided with a cylindrical head wound round with either woll or cord. The range of the bonang is two octaves.

In a West Javanese gamelan one may also find a bonang set of one octave, with kettles of a large format. This instrument is called “jengglong”.

The gambang is a wooden xylophone, comprising from just three to more than four octaves. This instrument is played with two sticks consisting of a soft-wooden disc mounted on a fairly long, slightly flexible stick. The main use of the gambang is to express the basic melody of the music.

The gender is a bronze xylophone, the keys of which are suspended over bamboo resonators. There are usually three instruments, lying within the range of the four highest octaves. In West Java genders occur only sporadically and are not used by the common people.

The single sound-kettle. In a complete gamelan set there are usually three of it, viz, the “kenong”, the “ketuk” and the “kempyang”. The kenong is a single sound-kettle with a very high rim. It is placed upon crossed cords on top of a wooden, bottomless box. It has a high-pitched, clear sound and is used in the gamelan, chiefly for the purpose of subdividing the large gong-periods into medium-sized phrases. The ketuk too, is mounted by means of crossed cords above a wooden box on short legs. It is much flatter and lower than the kenong, and has not such a bright sound. Its chief duty in the orchestra is to subdivide the “kenong-cuts” into smaller periods. The kempyang, origonally exclusively a pelog-instrument, consists of two-sound-kettles. They are beaten simultaneously.

The gong. The largest of all gamelan isntruments are the gong, by which is meant vertically soundbowls, usually hung up ona stand. In West Javanese gamelan sets there are generally two. The largest is callen “gong-gede”. Its diameter may be up to one meter and its weight amounts in most cases 25 kg. The other one which is of the same shape as the gong-gede is called “kempul”. Its tone is a fifth higher than that of the gong-gede, so that in the ensemble its pitch may be clearly distinguished by the hearer, in contradistinction to the “Gong-gede”-sound. The gongs serve chiefly to mark the close of the melody periods.

The drum or kendang. Normally there are two instruments in an orchestra. They are played with the bare hand, slapped with either the fingers or the whole hand.

Sometimes one may see the drumheads beaten with a short bare wooden stick. This is in order that the drumpaling may be audible to the robust sound of the sarons and bonangs. This, however, is an exception. A beating stick is used during “topeng” (mask-dance)-performances, and in the wayang-golek, when either Dasamuka or Menakjingga appears on the stage.

The rebab, probably of Persian-Arabic origin (the name, at any rage, is Arabic), is a two-stringed bowing lute with a more or less heart-shaped body. The back is generally pierced by a small rosette of little holes. The strings, of copper wire, are tuned by means of two gracefully-shaped transverse pegs provided with a knob. Now you will hear the rebab being played as a solo instrument by Mr. Kandi, lecturer of the Karawitan Conservatory.

Although the orchestral leader usually plays the kendang, yet it may also happen that he prefers the rebab.

According to our conception the rebab may be called the “raja” (emperor), and the kendang the “patih” (prime minister) of the gamelan community. The gong, which subdivides the composition according to fixed laws, may be called the “jaksa” (judge in the court of justice). In other words, according to this view the rebab is admittedly the principal instrument. It has the leading of the orchestral society, to the kendang, which translates the former’s instructions into a form easily understood by the community, whilst the gong  sees to it that all melodic phrases are equitably allowed the same length.

Besides this traditional gamelan set there is also the so called “kechrek”. This is a rattle-instrument consisting of a number of small rectangular iron slabs loose bundled together. During the fighting episodes in a wayang play the noise of battle and ratling of weapons is imitated with this instrument by the dalang.

To remind us of the devine origin of the gamelan, the most famous orchestras have received the title “Kyai” or “Nyai” (sometimes “Sri” instead of “Nyai”) which means “The Reverend”, for instance Kyai Kanyut Mesem from Solo, Kyai Kodok Ngorek from Yogyakarta and the sacred Nyai Sekati from Solo.

Special mention is due to the orchestra of Mr. R.T.A. Sunarja, ex-Bupati of Tasikmalaya Jln. Gunung Kareumbi 4 Ciumbuleuit complex, because it is said to be a present from Sultan Ageng to one of Mr. Sunarja’s ancestors in 1623. This ancient slendro gamelan is called Kyai Layem.

According to Mr. Sunarja the Kyai Layem used to be played exclusively on very solemn or festive occasions for instance during the reception of very highly-placed visitors. Its tone-series is still being copied for preference by newly built ensembles.

There is yet another old and good orchestra in Jln. Halimun 22, called Kyai Sukalila, belonging to Mr. Tan Kiong Liep a Chinese music-lover, Director of the Mantrust N.V. (Management Trust Company Ltd.). The brightly shining kettles and keys are placed on a beautifully carved wooden stands. The rebab is provided with a neck made entirely from ivory. It is worthy of note that the Kyai Sukalila is a double gamelan, consisting of a pelog and a slendro-half. These two halves share between them only the large gongs, the drum and the rebab. Needless to say the slendro-and the pelog-halves are never played simultaneously.

Finally we may mention the Sri Ayu, an old pelog set manufactured in 1872, which is an inventory of the Cultural Branch of the Department of Education and Culture Jln. Naripan 12. This gamelan is often played in Savoy Homann Hotel to accompany dance performance in honour of highlt-placed foreign visitors.


PELOG AND SALENDRO SYSTEM.

In the archetype of pelog there are five tones in an octave. This archetype consists of a group of three tones divided by equal intervals, and a group of two tones. Between the subsequent groups there are long intervals. Successively these pelog basic tones nearly harmonize the order c – e – f – g – b – c. Ascening to Sundanese solfa syllables the order is as follow: da – la – ti – na – mi – da (dinyanyikan).

As an illustration of this pelog type now we will play a record of instrumental music, performed by the R.R.I. gamelan orchestra, conducted by Pak Emon. This popular melody is called “Sekar Mawar” (flower-song). In this record we can hear the rebab and gambang part very clearly.

As a contrast to this song in pelog, now I will give you a song in slendro. Because of its scale the slendro is quite different from the pelog. The five notes in a slendro octave have equal intervals in relation to each other. Therefore it is theoretically possible to use every key of the instrument as the tonic in order to get scales of different tonality. It should be noted that this slendro scale consists of tones which are not to be found on the keyboard of the piano. When the starting note is for instance c, the third of it is neither e nor f, but is just a quarter tone lying between e and f.

Consequently the sight slendro scale is not easy to sing, especially if one is accustomed to the Western scale. To illustrate this slendro type of music, I will give you the following song. This song is called “Sandang pangan” (in English: clothes and food) performed by the “Mundinglaya” gamelan orchestra, conducted by Mang Koko.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

This time I am forced to limit my lecture to the Indonesian music, in particular its tone-system pelog and slendro. I hope I will be able to give a second lecture on Indonesian dances or another subject that might be interesting to you next time.

Thank you.