Gamelan Selonding

The range of variation in Balinese & Javanese tunings is well known. A
recent recording of the Balinese ritual 7-tone iron Gamelan Selonding (to
be more precise, a copy of a ritual instrument from the village of
Tenganan) provides a startling illustration of either (a) the range of
variation within the Saih 7 (Balinese pelog) conception or (b) grounds for
some reconsideration of the whole family of scales.

C. McPhee made two divisions of the Saih 7 family: that based upon the
Gambuh (a theatrical music apparently imported from East Java), from which
the more familiar large bronze ensembles derive their tunings, and that of
the Gamelan Gambang, with which he identifies the Gamelan Selonding
tunings. Like the G.Gambang, Selonding (the spelling is wildly variable) is
used in ritual practices; it is found almost exclusively in East Bali
(hence, furthest from Javanes influence) and nearly each village maintains
their own, and distinct, practice. Furthermore, McPhee identified two
tendencies in Balinese practice, on one hand towards an island-wide
standardization of tuning (in both pitch height & interval structure) and
on the other towards deviation. Selonding clearly falls into this category.

Two caveats before I proceed: (1) I am dealing with precious little
substantial data, much of that unclear about which instrument or register
is in question & attempts to fill in gaps have so far been met with little
success and (2) an iron gamelan, with relatively thin keys, is extremely
malleable, so all that follows may be for nought!

The usual model for Saih 7 is something like E F G A+ B C D. For
comparisons sake, I will transpose the following examples to E, indicating
in parentheses the approximate original pitch level, and giving cent values
wherever possible.

The Tuning McPhee gives for the South Tenganan Gamelan is:

E F G A Bb C D (where
E is actually a low 257.5 Hz "D")
intervals in cents 132 184 181 159 158 255
cum. cents 0 132 316 497 656 814 1069

The main melodic instrument begins its scale on the second degree, and
continues to the octave of this pitch. Interestingly, his transcribed
examples are rich in triads and a series of meantone-like triads can be
derived from this tuning.

The recording I have (WDR), made from the copy of another (?) Tenganan
orchestra, has two pieces in the same 5-tone mode (my transcription, within
10 cents):

(x) F G A (x) C
D (F=E+33cents) cm. cents
0 180 380 660 890

This is the tuning for the main melodic instrument. For the record, several
of the other instruments have a very high second degree, ca 310 cents,
giving a scale like F G# A C D (untransposed: E Fx G# B C#). (I find the
clash of the various second degrees to be charming). Please note the triad
F A C, again, in the meantone direction.

The only monograph source on the topic, Ernst Schlager�s Rituelle
Siebenton-Musik auf Bali, gives, unfortunately, no measurements in cents (I
find this a bit surprising as Schlager was a professional scientist).
However, his notation in 12tet shows some rough scalar profiles:

Village Level of Pitch 1 Scale, transposed
Selat A E F# G# A# B
C# D#
Ngis E E F# G# A B
C# D
Bugbug Eb E F# G# A B C#
D
Timbrah D# E F G A Bb
C D
Bungaji E E F G A Bb
C D
Asak E E F G A Bb
C D
Tenganan 1 E E F G A B
C D
Tenganan 2 (E) F G Bb
C D

Of all of these distinct profiles, only Tenganan 1 is a normative Saih 7!

Having just begun to work with these materials, I have no conclusions, but
suspicions, to report: a tendancy towards meantone-like triads, the
diminishing of the 1 - 5 fifth, and
making a fourth out of the 1-4 interval. (The 1-7 interval, seems to be
7/4-ish thoughout the greater pelog family). Curiously, the Euler Genus
(1,3,5,7), an eight tone set, yields two seven tone scales, through the
omission of a single pitch, one of which bears harmonic (if melodically a
bit stretched) similarities with normative Saih 7 or Pelog and the second
of which approaches Selonding:

Euler Normative: 1x5, 3x7, 1x3, 1x3x5x7, 3x5, 1, 5x7
Euler Selonding: 1x5, 3x7, 1x3, 1x3x5x7, 1x7, 1, 5x7

To find such harmonic resources imbedded in these tuning strikes me as
reasonable, if these tunings are indeed "well temperaments", compromises
made by the gamelan maker in order to play in more than one transposition
level (patet/key/mode). That the linear series behind the temperament might
have meantone-like qualities is happy speculation on my part, but might be
suggestive to composers working with gamelans, or in search of interesting
and attractive pitch materials.


Daniel Wolf
Frankfurt/Main

Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl
with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Wed, 11 Sep 1996 20:46 +0200
Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA26187; Wed, 11 Sep 1996 20:48:06 +0200
Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA26321
Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI)
for id LAA22513; Wed, 11 Sep 1996 11:48:04 -0700
Date: Wed, 11 Sep 1996 11:48:04 -0700
Message-Id: <199609111446_MC1-960-9675@compuserve.com>
Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu
Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu