Re: [tuning] Digest Number 1119

Jacky Ligon:

--- The three drums used in a standard central Javanese gamelan are all double
headed with an internal hourglass shape. The largest, kendang ageng or kendang
gendhing, and smallest, kendang ketipung, are usually played together in the
least dense irama (= temporal density level), while the medium sized drum,
kendang ciblon or batangan (or, in my case, a slightly larger kendang wayangan)
is used for the more dense, lively irama. The drums are tuned to specific tones,
with the kendang agengs two heads roughly a fifth apart.

--- I agree that position, mallet type, and attack method are important to the
timbre, and in my experience the commercially available samples of Indonesian
instruments have been almost all misplayed, to the point where they are not
useable for anything resembling the original style. Caveat emptor!

--- The boss, or _pencon_ is the raised knob in the center of a gong that is
struck and plays an important role in determining the apparent pitch of the
gong. Some people refer to the boss as an impeller, which is an apt description
of its function on the surface of what otherwise is a metal membranophone. Sam
Quigley does indeed have a web site, with articles on gongsmithing and his
pencon project. http://www3.shore.net/~samq/

I've been engaged in Javanese music as a player, not especially as a composer,
so a cd is still a long way off. But a cd with my string trio and a radically
minimal trio by Hauke Harder is available from
http://home.snafu.de/djwolf/cdad.html

Daniel Wolf