Indian Art and Letters

Author(s): India Society
Publisher: India Society

Page 80

The Music of Java
of ornaments and pretty paraphrases. The same thing has happened to our Western pianists, who, on the whole, have stopped cultivating their talent for improvising, since the figured bass has been replaced by piano-parts written out in detail. Still, if the Javanese music, which is at present passing through a period of stagnation, is to go on developing, and if the Javanese artist of the future wishes to use it as a medium for the free expression of his genius, it will be necessary to note down the panerusan-parts as well as the rest.
Finally, for the agogic function, there is the kendang, which, together with the rebab, is the most important instrument of the gamelan. It is played by the leader of the orchestra, the lurah gending-at least, when he does not prefer to play the rebab-who, by means of the most delicate shades in the movement, hardly perceptible to the uninitiated ear, marks and varies the time of the composition and heralds the transition to its following parts.
The kendang gending is most frequently used. However, for the accompaniment of dances and for certain kinds of compositions (ladrang and ketawang) the kendang tiblon is substituted, which is smaller. Then we know the kendangan kalih or kendangan loro, the double kenḍangan, where the orchestraleader plays besides the kendang gending, also a very small drum-viz., the penuntung or ketipung.
name.
There are several ways of playing the drum; each of these has a special For each of the two tonal systems there are about twenty-five. Most of them are essentially reducible to five principal ways of playing, which in the staff-notation of the Jogja kraton are represented by special signs.
Here I may conclude the description of the grand gamelan of the Principalities. I shall omit that of the smaller ensembles. I only wish to point out that many of these have a special function to fulfil-e.g., the gamelans Munggang, Kodok ngorèk and Sekati.
Every gamelan-composition, whether gending or ladrang or ketawang, opens with an introduction, bebuka or bukaning gending, which enables the performers to enter into the spirit of the piece and to get into touch with each other and arrive at a mutual understanding. We may distinguish the bebuka swårå or båwå-the vocal introduction-and the B. bonang, B. gender, B. kendang, according to the instrument that plays the principal part in the prelude. The instrumental bebukȧ never lasts more than a few "bars," and is always concluded by a beat of the gong. The vocal introduction can be much longer, as it is a complete song. After that the gending proper begins attacca. In the compositions consisting of two parts-that is to say, in all the
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