Pelog

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pelog is one of the two essential scales of gamelan music native to Bali and Java, in Indonesia. The other scale commonly used is called slendro. Pelog has seven notes, but many gamelan ensembles only have keys for five of the pitches. Even in ensembles that have all seven notes, many pieces only use a subset of five notes.

Pelog selisir (file info) — play in browser (beta)
- The pelog selisir scale, played on a gangsa.
- Problems listening to the file? See media help.

1 Tuning
2 Note names in Java
3 Subsets
- 3.1 Java
- 3.2 Bali
4 References
5 External link

[edit] Tuning

Since the tuning varies so widely from island to island, village to village, and even gamelan to gamelan, it is difficult to characterize in terms of intervals. One rough approximation expresses the seven pitches of Central Javanese pelog as a subset of 9-tone equal temperament. An analysis of 27 Central Javanese gamelans by Surjodiningrat (1972) revealed a statistical preference for this system of tuning.^[1]

As in slendro, although the intervals vary from one gamelan to the next, the intervals between notes in a scale are very close to identical for different instruments within the same Javanese gamelan. This is not the case in Bali, where instruments are played in pairs which are tuned slightly apart so as to produce interference beating. The beating is ideally at a consistent speed for all pairs of notes in all registers. This contributes to the very "agitated" and "shimmering" sound of gamelan ensembles. In the religious ceremonies that contain Gamelan, these interference beats are meant to give the listener a feeling of a god's presence or a stepping stone to a meditative state.

[edit] Note names in Java

The notes of the slendro scale can be designated in different ways; In Java, one common way is the use of numbers (often called by their names in Javanese, especially in a shortened form. An older set uses names derived from parts of the body. Notice that both systems have the same designations for 5 and 6.

Number	Javanese number		Traditional name
	Full name	Short name	Full name	Literal meaning
1	siji	ji	bem/panunggal	head
2	loro	ro	gulu	neck
3	telu	lu	dada	chest
4	papat	pat	pelog
5	lima	ma	lima	hand (five fingers)
6	enem	nem	nem	unknown
7	pitu	pi	barang	thing

[edit] Subsets

[edit] Java

Though the full pelog scale has seven tones, usually only a five-tone subset is used (see the similar Western concept of mode). In fact, many gamelan instruments physically lack keys for two of the tones. Different regions, such as Central Java or West Java (Sunda), use different subsets. In Central Javanese gamelan, the pelog scale is traditionally divided into three pathet (modes). Two of these, called pathet nem and pathet lima, use the subset of 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6; the third, pathet barang, uses 2, 3, 5, 6, and 7. The remaining two notes, including 4 in every pathet, are available for embellishments on most instruments, but they do not usually appear on gendér, gambang, or interpunctuating instruments.

[edit] Bali

In Bali, all seven tones are used in gamelan semar pegulingan and gamelan gambuh. All seven tones are rarely heard in a single traditional composition. Like in Java, five-tone modes are used. There are three modes, selisir, tembung and sunaren. Gamelan gong kebyar instruments have five keys in the pelog selisir mode (heard in the audio example above). Unlike Java, there are only five names for the notes, and the same five names are used in all three modes. The modes all start on the note named ding, and then continue going up the scale to dong, deng, dung and dang. This means that the same pitch will have a different name in a different mode. The modes are arranged as follows: