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What is the structure of gamelan music?
The instruments of the gamelan are divided into three classes according to their musical function: the structural instruments, the melody instruments and the elaborating instruments. The structure and rhythm is articulated by gongs of various sizes.
What is the basic melody called in a gamelan piece?
balungan
The balungan (Javanese: skeleton, frame) is sometimes called the “core melody” or, “skeletal melodic outline,” of a Javanese gamelan composition. This corresponds to the view that gamelan music is heterophonic: the balungan is then the melody which is being elaborated.
What does the gamelan mainly consist of?
Gamelan, the term for a traditional musical ensemble in Indonesia, typically refers to a percussion orchestra composed predominantly of tuned gongs of various types and metal-keyed instruments. The ensemble is conducted by a drummer, and often includes voice, bamboo flute, xylophone, and stringed instruments.
What instruments are in gamelan music?
A gamelan is a set of instruments consisting mainly of gongs, metallophones and drums. Some gamelans include bamboo flutes (suling), bowed strings (rebab) and vocalists. Each gamelan has a different tuning and the instruments are kept together as a set. No two gamelans are the same.
How many instruments does gamelan have?
The gamelan ensemble is made up of sixteen bronze xylophones, several gongs and gong-chimes, drums, cymbals, and bamboo flutes—over forty instruments in total.
What are the main musical features of gamelan music?
the lower the pitch,the longer the note values
What does the gamelan sound like?
The gamelan is a collection of musical instruments, mostly metallic and with gong- or bell-like sounds. The gamelan plays the traditional music of Java, a music that has been passed down by oral tradition for well over a thousand years. Javanese gamelan music created a sensation among European musicians.
What instrument are used in a gamelan performance?
Gamelan is an Indonesian orchestra that mainly consists of percussion instruments such as gongs and metallophones . Female singers (pesindhen) and a male chorus (penggerong) are also involved in a complete ensemble. In Indonesia, particularly on Java and Bali, gamelan is an essential accompaniment for wayang performance and other dramatic forms.
What does scale do gamelan use in music?
A gamelan may be tuned to the scale of slendro (in which the octave is divided into five tones roughly equidistant) or to pelog (a scale consisting of seven notes of varying intervals of which five are given principal stress).