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Figure 4. Modern Javanese dance class, with gamelan in background.
(In Lindsay Javanese Gamelan, photo 22)

Figure 5. Gamelan instruments in the making. (In Lindsay
Javanese Gamelan, photos 10-14)

Their size, resonance, and means of striking naturally affect their volume and speed of note patterns playable
upon them. They fall into two general categories known as "loud" and "soft." In addition to the multiple tuned
percussion instruments—loud sarons and bonangs, and soft slentems, genders and gambangs—hand drums
and single soft instruments enrich the ensemble: a bamboo end blown flute (suling), a two-string bowed spike
fiddle (rebab), a multi-stringed plucked zither (celempung), and singers. Unlike a Western orchestra, in which
players bring their own instruments upon which they are experts, the gamelan stays put and the players come to
it. They join together from all walks of life, starting even in childhood, and traditionally pass on their music to
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each other aurally. Each player is competent on all of the instruments. Each gamelan has its own home and its
own name, and each is revered as having special, even supernatural, qualities. 15

Gamelan tuning contrasts with that of Western music. The traditional Javanese slendro scale has five pitches
spaced approximately equally over the octave. Thus each interval is larger than a major second and smaller than
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a minor third. The approximate nature of the "equal" spacing creates intriguing differences between Go to top