Indian Art and Letters

Author(s): India Society
Publisher: India Society

Page 79

The Music of Java tial melody is strengthened at equal distances-for instance, each time after four ketek (rhythmic unit, the original meaning of the word is heartbeat), by beats on the slentem or gender panembung and-but this is only in Jogja, as we have mentioned-on the bonang panembung. Sometimes the bonang barung is found to herald those strengthened tones in quite a remarkable manner.
Every melody is subdivided into periods or phrases by colotomic beats, rather like a poem by commas, semicolons, and full stops; only much more regularly.
The longest periods end with a beat on the biggest gong, the gong ageng or gong gede. These beats may be compared to the full stops.
Each of these phrases (gongan) is subdivided into a number of shorter phrases, which end in a beat of the kenong: these beats take the place, more or less, of the semicolons. At the end of the last phrase of a gongan we hear not only the gong, but also the kenong.
Each period ending by a kenong-beat (kenongan) is again subdivided by beats of the ketuk.
In the smaller forms of composition, called ladrang and ketawang, the ketuk is alternately played with the kempul.
The orchestral compositions are arranged in different categories, according to the differences in the colotomic structure mentioned above.
If the gamelan were composed only of the instruments I have mentioned, the musical effect produced would undoubtedly be too rigid, not to say unwieldy, however much it might be flavoured with agogic and dynamic spices. Fortunately this melodic framework is filled in with beautiful paraphrases and ornamented with delicate musical arabesques. These ornaments, which become especially elaborate in the soft lyrical passages, are executed by the so-called panerusan, the paraphrasing instruments. The principal instruments of this kind are: the gender barung and the gendèr panerus, the gambang kaju and, occasionally, the tjelempung, a kind of cither.
While the essential melody and the punctuation of a gending are unvariable quantities, the players of the panerusan are free to play their paraphrases according to their inspiration. But, as in all manifestations of Oriental art, this liberty has been strongly bridled by tradition. Nevertheless the panerusan form one of the most fascinating parts of the orchestral whole.
From the European as well as from the Indonesian side opposition has arisen again fixing those panerusan-parts by putting them down in the scores for the sake of assisting the Javanese musicians. It is to be feared, however, that it might result in killing the natural aptitude for the spontaneous creation
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