The sacred and secular 7-tone orchestras of Bali

The Gamelan Gambuh, Gamelan Semar Pegulingan, Gamelan Gambang, Gamelan Charuk, Gamelan Luang and Gamelan Selundeng are understood to be the oldest existing musical forms on the island of Bali.  There are, in addition, six distinct classical forms that have emerged more recently, over the last 4 centuries, and these are not discussed here.

In each case, the musical form carries the name that is also used for the ensemble that performs the music.  Therefore, as an example, the body of compositions (Bal: gending) known as gending Luang are exclusively performed by the Gamelan Luang.  Today, there are only a handful of Luang ensembles still in existence in Bali and the instrumentation in each of the Luang ensembles is essentially the same.  All Gamelan Gambang ensembles use the same instrumentation and the instruments and number of musicians is completely unlike that of the Gamelan Luang or any of the other forms mentioned here.

Balinese music contains a great variety of musical instruments.  In the older forms, each musical form is played by an ensemble containing a key instrument or instrument-type unique to that form and not found in any other form.  As a consequence, the music of each of these forms will have a very distinctive character.   An example, the unique, 1 meter long, end-blown bamboo flutes of the Gamelan Gambuh are not known in any other Balinese musical form.  The bonang or trompong, a double row of kettle gongs is unique to the Gamelan Luang.  The gambang, a unique bamboo idiophone is exclusively heard only in the Gamelan Gambang.  The Gamelan Selundeng is the only iron-keyed ensemble in Bali.  The lead instrument of the Gamelan Charuk, known as the charuk, is not heard in any other musical form.

Tuning/Scale Systems

Some of these musical forms contain their own unique scale systems derived from a tuning system that is common to all these forms.  The Gamelan Gambuh uses a heptatonic tuning system known as pelog.  It is commonly referred to by the Balinese as saih Gambuh.  Pelog is one of two tuning systems in existence in Bali and Java, the other being slendro.  Pelog is a 7-tone scale with uneven intervals and slendro is a 5-tone scale in which the intervallic relationships are more or less equal.  Kunst states that the Javanese believe slendro to be the more ancient of the two.[1]  However, Kunst has assumed the contrasting position that pelog is older than slendro, claiming that pelog was introduced by the ancestors of the Javanese and Balinese and that slendro did not appear until the 8^th century.[2]  He mentions that in the extreme east of Java, in the Tengger mountains near to the Bali Straits where the last of the Indic Javanese sought refuge at the end of the Majapahit era,[3] is found an ancient form of pelog and it has maintained its dominant position in that remote region until 1949 when his book, Music in Java, was published.  Kunst also mentions that Stutterheim is inclined to share his view that pelog is the older system.[4]  Widdess bases his research on an early first-millenium Indian text, the Natyasastra, and finds a two-scale system, not unlike pelog and slendro, in South India.[5]  Based upon a comparative study of each of these systems he has concluded that there is a strong similarity between the South Indian and slendro and pelog systems and thereby deduces that Indonesian musicians were influenced by Indian scale-types but, unfortunately, is not able to date these scale systems or to determine which was more prevalent in South India or Indonesia.

The Gambuh pelog system consists of five modes or five different 5-tone scales that are derived from the seven tones in the pelog scale.  Of the five scales, only four are in regular use.  One such 5-tone permutation is referred to as the selisir scale.  Today, nearly all the music that has emerged in recent centuries, six distinct repertoire, are permanently tuned to the 5-tone selisir scale as found in the Gambuh tuning system.

The six orchestras that use the 7-tone pelog scale system are generally considered by the Balinese to be the oldest.   Of these six orchestras, only the Gamelan Gambuh and the Gamelan Semar Pegulingan perform secular music.  The other four orchestras are used to accompany religious ritual.   Of these four, the Gamelan Gong Luang, Gamelan Gambang and Gamelan Charuk are performed for rites relating to the dead.  The Gamelan Charuk and the Gamelan Gong Luang have also been known to be used occasionally for temple anniversaries in certain villages.  The Gamelan Selundeng, the only iron-keyed ensemble in Bali, belongs to the Bali Aga, is considered to be sacred, requires periodic purification rites and is used in various ceremonies that populate the Bali Aga calendar.  All of these venerable 7-tone ensembles are few in number today in Bali.

The Gamelan Charuk is found mostly but not exclusively in Bali Aga villages.  Its instrumentation is a simplified form of the Gamelan Gambang with which it shares the same repertoire.  These ensembles use a combination of bamboo idiophones and very simple bronze metallophones. The lead instrument in the Gamelan Charuk is an idiophone known as the charuk.   The Gamelan Gambang, a larger ensemble, takes its name from the lead instrument, the unique idiophone known as the gambang.   This instrument is played with two forked mallets, a total of four mallet heads, the distance between the two mallet heads on each fork being fixed and different in each case and therefore resulting in a different interval being played by each mallet/set.  The arrangement of the bamboo keys is similarly distinctive.  Kunst has been able to date this instrument back to 1181 in Bali and there are other permutations of this instrument found elsewhere in the Indonesian archipelago that are older.[6]  In the Gamelan Gambang, four such instruments perform in interlocking parts and they produce the most complex and impressive polyrhythm to be found on Bali.

The Gamelan Gong Luang has the appearance of a somewhat reduced in scale and simplified form of the Gamelan Gong.  It is the only ensemble in the group of sacred 7-tone ensembles that contains a gong.  A single drum is found in this ensemble and its role is purely colotomic.  A second drum is added only when this ensemble is performing ritual dance music in the temple.  The Gamelan Gong Luang is comprised of metallophones and one idiophone in addition to a small group of percussion instruments and the ensemble is complete with about 10 musicians.  Particularly noteworthy is the relative higher level of technology represented in its bronze instrumentation.  The trompong, in this case a double row of bronze kettle gongs played by four musicians, are smaller than those found in later ensembles and have a rather delicate design.   Kunst definitively dates the bronze kettle gong to the 11^th century in Java and suggests that it may be datable as far back as the 9^th century.[7]

Kidung

The Gamelan Charuk, Gamelan Gambang and the Gamelan Gong Luang have traditionally been used to accompany the singing of Kidung.[8]  Kidung is a literary form considered to have originated in Bali during the 16-17^th Centuries.  However, today the tradition of Kidung singing associated with these ensembles has unfortunately died out, probably during the early part of the 20^th century.  Therefore, the music of these ensembles is today performed without vocal accompaniment.

Although there is no evidence to suggest that Gamelan Selundeng ever accompanied Kidung singing[9], this ensemble does have an important connection to Kidung.  Most Selundeng repertoire has been drawn from that of the Gamelan Gambang.   The 7-tone tuning system of the Gamelan Selundeng is said to have been derived from Kidung melody and the study of Kidung singing is an important part of the training of the musicians who perform in this ensemble.  Further, Gamelan Selundeng performs in 5 modes that are different than the modes in the Gambuh system and each mode is named for the Kidung prosody from which it is derived.[10]

The Gamelan Selundeng is comprised of 5 metallophones with large iron keys and rough hewn trough resonators.  As compared with the elegant instruments of other Balinese orchestras this ensemble does indeed seem rather crudely manufactured, suggesting its antiquity.

The Gambuh Theatre has an important connection to Kidung, as well:  Kidung literature is the source for the Malat cycle and the libretti of the Gambuh Theatre are drawn from the Malat.

The Gamelan Semar Pegulingan, the remaining ensemble within the group of 7-tone ensembles, is a ensemble that performs instrumental music exclusively, not intended to accompany dance or theatre forms.  The Semar Pegulingan repertoire has no particular connection to Kidung, per se.  Its music is a transcription and re-orchestration of the music of the Gambuh Theatre.

A singer called a Juru Tandak performs together with the Gambuh ensemble.  The Juru Tandak sings or more precisely performs in a “recitative-style” somewhat freely but always with consideration for the contour of the melody.  This “recitation” is performed at specific locations in the composition.  The vocal style can be characterized as somewhat florid with much ornamentation.  The dancers sing as well from time to time, in alternation with the Juru Tandak.   It is significant that, although the singing of Kidung is not performed in Gambuh Theatre, there is a tradition of singing associated with this repertoire and the text that is being sung is drawn from the Malat, a text derived from Kidung literature.

Unaccompanied Kidung singing is often performed during temple ceremonies.  The singing can be characterized as a very slow and deliberate, almost chant-like vocal style.  By comparison, the music of Charuk, Gambang and Gong Luang is played at much faster tempi and therefore it is difficult to imagine how Kidung singing fit into this music, giving rise to the theory that Kidung singing was added to these repertoire at a later date.  In recent years, I Wayan Sinti has attempted to reconstruct this vocal tradition, a difficult task given that there are no known recordings and those who would remember the tradition of Kidung singing in the context of these ensembles no longer exist.  McPhee, in the 1930’s, made note of the fact that he was unable to find any musicians who could remember how to perform Kidung singing in the context of these ensembles.  It is therefore possible that this tradition has been lost.

The five ensembles discussed above share the 7-tone pelog scale and an important connection to Kidung, four of which having a direct connection to the vocal tradition associated with the recitation of Kidung.  The Gamelan Selundeng, Gamelan Charuk and the Gamelan Gambang, as stated, are very closely related in terms of repertoire.  The Gamelan Gong Luang and Gamelan Gambuh perform repertoire that is completely unrelated to each other and to that of the other three.

The Bali Aga, the only Balinese who maintain and perform on the Gamelan Selundeng, staunchly hold that their culture pre-dates Indic influence and it is widely considered that the Bali Aga have resisted Indic influence to preserve the purity of their antique customs and belief system.  Indeed, to this day most Bali Aga isolate themselves from the greater Balinese.  However, the existence in their culture of Kidung, an Indic-influenced form, must be viewed as an appropriation of an external vocal and literary tradition.   This does not diminish the fact that the culture of the Bali Aga is quite different from that of the greater Balinese.   Indeed, the Gamelan Selundeng, in terms of its instrumentation and playing style, is a completely unique ensemble.

It is interesting to note that the Bali Aga produce a highly unique form of hand woven textile used for ceremonial purposes that is made using a very rare and difficult technique known as double-ikat in which the warp and the weft threads are dyed using the ikat resist technique prior to weaving.   This textile is known locally as kain Gerinsing and the Bali Aga are well known by textile experts worldwide for this.  The designs thus produced are of two types:  geometric and representations of figures that are reminiscent of characters in the Wayang puppet theatre.  Virtually every island in the Archipelago including Java and Bali produces its own unique form of textiles that are hand woven using the technique known as single-ikat, technically a much less challenging process.   It is significant that this double-ikat technique is not found anywhere else in the Archipelago but has been produced at least as far back as the first millennium in Gujarat State, India where it is known as patola,[11] and this would suggest that long ago there may have been a direct connection between the Bali Aga and India, not necessarily having come through Java. Further, significance can be attached to the fact that Wayang figures are found in these textiles, Wayang having derived from a similar form of shadow puppet theatre found in India.   Is it then possible to postulate that the music of the Bali Aga was influenced by Indian forms directly?  In such case, the Gamelan Selundeng may be a very ancient form that much later acquired a connection to Kidung.

Solfege Systems

There remain the repertoires of the Gamelan Gambuh and the Gamelan Gong Luang.  The scale system of Gong Luang and the Gamelan Gambuh use a 5-tone solfege system in which the unused two tones of the original 7-tone pelog scale are referred to as penyerog and pamero.  The names of the 5 notes are not fixed within the 7-tone scale but shift relative to the specific 5-tone mode in use.   Gamelan Charuk, Gambang and Selundeng by comparison use a fixed, 7-tone solfege system in which the names of the notes given to each of the 7 tones in the pelog scale are assiduously employed in their original position in all 5-tone modes.

Discussion of placing the development of these musical forms in a timeline

There is scant information on the origin and sequence of development of the 7-tone orchestras but certain observations can be made.  Based upon available data, the gambang and the long bamboo flutes of the Gamelan Gambuh may be the oldest primary instruments represented here.  Therefore, we are led to conclude that the Gamelan Gambang and Gambuh may be the oldest forms.  By extension, this would suggest that the Gamelan Selundeng and the Gamelan Charuk emerged at about the same time or, more likely, somewhat later by virtue of the fact that these repertoire are dependent upon Gambang.   The bronze instrumentation of the Gamelan Gong Luang, however, represents a technological advancement as compared with the other sacred ensembles and this is also true of the Gamelan Semar Pegulingan.   So, from the perspective of the level of technology required to produce the instruments in these ensembles, Gamelan Gambang, Charuk, Selundeng and Gambuh are the oldest.  Gamelan Gong Luang and Semar Pegulingan emerged at a more recent date.  The Semar Pegulingan is a larger ensemble than the Gong Luang and its bronze instrumentation is among the most delicate to be found in Bali and, by utilizing the same criteria, it can be surmised that Semar Pegulingan is the most recent of the 7-tone ensembles.

In terms of repertoire a slightly different picture emerges.  The most sophisticated form of melodic invention is to be found in the Gamelan Gambuh.  This statement can arguably be made not only in comparison with the other 7-tone ensembles but with all Balinese classical music.  As Gambuh music stands alone in this regard and in view of the fact that there is no known musical form that predates Gambuh from which Gambuh could have developed leads to the possible conclusion that Gambuh music is not native to Bali.  It is certainly possible that this music originated in Indic Java but, as is the case with kain Gerinsing, it is also possible that it or an earlier form out of which it developed came directly from India and not through Java.    Many believe that Gambuh Theatre is a Majapahit form but there is no concrete evidence of this.[12]

The earliest court records on Bali were written in Old Balinese and suddenly, beginning in 1072, all court records commenced to be written in Old Javanese, a fact that dates the beginning of Javanese influence in the Balinese court to a period nearly 400 years prior to the Singhasari and Majapahit Dynasties.   Stutterheim goes even further than other scholars in stating his belief that Javanese dominion over Bali can be dated back to the Javanese Kingdom of Sanjaya (732).[13]  Taking this into account and assuming that Gambuh music or a form no longer in existence from which Gambuh was derived was either a purely Javanese or a Javanese-influenced Balinese form, it is eminently possible that Gambuh repertoire could have originated in the Javanese or Balinese court as far back as the 8^th century, six centuries before Majapahit.  According to Kunst, there is documentary evidence of the existence of the instrument known as the gambang in Bali as far back as the 11^th century.[14]  Based upon depictions of musicians and instruments on bas reliefs found on ruins of Indic Javanese temples what little scholarship exists in this area tends to favor a Javanese origin.  According to epigraphic data, the earliest documented contact between Bali and Java was in the 8^th century, during the reign of the Javanese raja Sindok.  Bas reliefs found at the lowest level of Borobudur, a Buddhist shrine in central Java that was completed in the 9^th century, depict instrumentation not unlike that of Gambuh, so it is conceivable that this music can be dated from this period.  Similar reliefs are found from the same period in which the gambang is depicted, including its unique forked mallets, and this would lead to the conclusion that the Gamelan Gambuh and Gambang and, by extension, Gamelan Charuk are more or less contemporaneous.  In view of the fact that Kidung, a much later literary form, is deeply integrated into the tuning system of the Gamelan Selundeng, as discussed, it can be surmised that this is a more recent form.  Other 7-tone forms do not rely upon Kidung as a source for their tuning systems.  It is possible that these repertoire existed for centuries before the introduction of Kidung vocal accompaniment.

The Gamelan Semar Pegulingan, a 7-tone ensemble comprised primarily of bronze metallophones and percussion instruments, is a court orchestra that developed later than the Gamelan Gambuh.[15]  Its music is drawn exclusively from the repertoire of the Gamelan Gambuh.  The Gamelan Semar Pegulingan and the Gamelan Gong are the oldest of the larger sized ensembles in Bali.[16]   The Gamelan Semar Pegulingan has been designed to play the compositions of the Gamelan Gambuh using the saih Gambuh tuning system.  However, this orchestra performs the music of the Gambuh Theatre without actors or dancers.  Here the melodies of the Gambuh Theatre have been presented as purely instrumental works and given new life through elaborate orchestration performed by a much larger ensemble of highly sophisticated bronze instruments.  The lead melodic instrument is the trompong, in this case a long row of suspended kettle gongs played by one musician.