source file: mills2.txt Date: Wed, 11 Sep 1996 08:40:18 -0700 Subject: Re: Gamelan Selonding From: Daniel Wolf <106232.3266@compuserve.com> 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