Perspectives of NewMusic-Kebyar

BALINESE KEBYAR MUSIC
BREAKS THE FIVE-TONE BARRIER:

NEW COMPOSITION FOR
SEVEN-TONE GAMELAN
WAYNE VITALE
over the elaborately car ved threshold, and

into the home of the Dewa family of Pengosekan is always a pleasure.
This comes in part from the dramatic change of scene: one leaves behind
an insane road full of buzzing near-death motorcycles and roaring trucks,
and enters the tropically luxuriant and relaxed atmosphere of a Balinese
compound. Like many that retain traditional architecture, the Dewas
home is composed of an array of small buildings (bal), each fronted by a
sitting platform or porch, just 10 to 20 feet from each other. The proportions of this layout are comfortably human-sized, not surprising because
traditional architects use measurements of the owners hands as the basis
for the layout and spatial relations between buildings. The various bal
TEP P I N G F RO M T HE RO A D ,
Perspectives of New Music Vol. 40, no. 1 (Winter 2002): 569

Copyright 2002 Perspectives of New Music
Legally obtainable only at www.perspectivesofnewmusic.org
Per spectives of New Music
are complemented by the lush gardening; everything is intertwined with

flowers, vines, and broad-leafed tropical plants. In most homes, a visitors
first order of business is full immersion in the long, relaxed Balinese welcome, as the host invites you to kopi Bali, sweets, and conversation, sitting together on one of the bal.
But this is not most homes. The Dewas of Pengosekan are a family of
brilliant gamelan musicians, and their home is also the seat of Sanggar
udamani, a thriving center of music and dance famous throughout the
area. Here the usual rites of greeting might be deferred for a moment,
since, seated just a few steps away on a large and shaded pavilion, one of
the worlds hottest orchestras is passionately playing the dance piece
Taruna Jaya. The rehearsal is led by four young brothers, each a virtuosic
player, who occupy key positions in the orchestra. Their father, himself a
skilled drummer fluent in the intricacies and spontaneity of arja and
legong drumming, is seated next to the gamelan. He is lost in peaceful
contemplation, smoking a kretek, listening to every note. I am drawn to
the low platform as if by magnetic attraction.
The group that the Dewa family leads and hosts in their home is, in its
most characteristic manifestation, a kebyar ensemble: a large modern
bronze gamelan orchestra played by about thirty musicians. It is not the
standard kebyar set, however, but a gamelan semara dana, a hybrid
gamelan created about fifteen years ago which combines the full seventone palette of older ritual and court gamelan ensembles with the instrumentation of the normally five-tone gamelan gong kebyar. The young
musicians are already polished players. They are accompanying a young
dancer in preparation for an upcoming gamelan competition. Of course,
as members of a sanggar or private arts club, they have many other roles,
as teachers, organizers, or guardians of neighbors children who are
studying dance at absurdly young ages. The musicians might also transform (in another dramatic scene change) into a team of prop and decoration makers for an upcoming temple event to which theyre invited to
play, working and joking over a mountain of split bamboo, twine,
colored paper, and carving knives. But at the moment, theyre doing
what they seem to enjoy most, judging from the intensity of their
rehearsals. They play not only with near technical perfection, but with
that elusive quality that the Balinese call taksucharisma, energy, magnetism. Sparks emanate from each and every note as they accompany the
fleeting and sharply etched expressions of the skilled seventeen-year old
dancer. The smiles and the notes are both electric.
This is, of course, the appropriate attitude for a group playing this
quintessential kebyar piece. Taruna Jaya (Dance of the Victorious
Youth) is an eighty-year old work that has become a centerpiece and
Balinese Kebyar Music
icon of the kebyar style. It is, by turns, fast, furious, powerful, slow, playful, sexual, innocent, defiant, audacious, teasing. The piece was revolutionary, in its every pore, from the moment of its birth (engendered by
the teamwork of two great musician/dancers and their group in the
North Balinese village of Jagaraga, circa 1920). Taruna Jaya is one of a
triumvirate of formative kebyar pieces, all created between 1915 and
1925. The others, now known by the names Palawakia and Kebyar
Duduk, are also in the repertoire of the udamani players, as they are of
most groups. All three celebrate the wedding of movement and music in
various ways, and find their energies in vivid dramatic contrastsa
startled wide-eyed expression morphs into a soft smile; a dancer suddenly
picks up mallets and is transformed into a musician with elaborate improvised gestures; the music explodes, out of whisper, into cascading glissandi.
Now, after more than eight decades of development, kebyars raw sensationalism has been tempered by age and complexity; qualities such as
skill, polish of presentation, unity of ensemble, and maturity are frequently mentioned. The udamani musicians manifest all these qualities
to an unusual degree, even compared to far more experienced groups. In
Taruna Jaya, part of what inspires them to such heights is their personal
connection to this arrangement: Dewa Aji, the father of the group leaders, developed a set of drum variations for this work with his drumming
partner from years gone by, Wayan Gandra from the village of Peliatan.1
Recently, in a gesture of support and local artistic pride, Dewa Aji and
Gandra, two elder musical statesmen, trained these young sanggar players (their kids, as they say) in an older and more original version of
Taruna Jaya. It is the version they used to play dugas nika (back then),
when they were shining lights on local stages. They conveyed this
arrangement, including the unique drum variations, in all its dramatic
inflection, stylistic uniqueness, and loving structural detail. In the process
of absorbing it, the young taruna of this orchestra also infused their
new/old rendition with great energy, re-creating the excitement that was
part of its original genesis.
The birth of a new genre of Balinese music is taking place within and
around this group and their peers in other parts of south Bali, through a
similar regenerative process. One of the groups founders, Dewa Ketut
Alit, has composed new music for their gamelan semara dana which
takes full advantage of the potential inherent in its hybrid designa
cross-fertilization of kebyar style with older seven-tone music and modal
techniques. The work Geregel (a vocal term loosely meaning vibrato or
embellishment), composed in the summer of 2000, is one of the most
vibrant new works of Balinese instrumental composition in recent years,
Perspectives of New Music
not only through its use of modal techniques in a kebyar setting, but in
the ways they are exploited through innovative approaches to orchestration, formal design, phrase structure, and vertical relationships.2 Alit has
produced this work in udamanis fertile musical atmosphere, a garageband-like scene of young academy-trained musicians who play music,
hang out together, drink beer at night, and discuss music and dance
incessantly. They are immersed in gamelan competitions, temple festivals,
recording sessions, and international projects. Alit is one of a handful of
composers, most of whom are still in their thirties (Alit himself was only
28 when he composed Geregel) and working in the densely populated
and artistically rich south and central regions of Bali, who are regarded as
the islands vanguard. They do not seek a break with the past: all continue to receive the musical wisdom of their elders through intensive
training as performers of older repertoire. Most are graduates of STSI,
the National Academy of the Arts, and present their works in tried and
true venues within STSIs artistic sphere such as the annual gamelan
competitions of the Bali Arts Festival (Pesta Kesenian Bali). But they are
also looking in new directions, by recombining and developing musical
techniques, performance aesthetics, and dramatic conceptions through
which the traditional reservoir of musical substance and knowledge can
be re-interpreted.
The title Geregel illustrates this orientation. It is, for the composer,
evocative of embellishment or ornamentation in a larger sense than its
originally narrow vocal definition. He interprets it to mean, Many roads
leading to one goal, (banyak jalan menuju yang satu) in which the
roads represent differing variations, manifested in many musical layers
and in the various sections of the orchestra. The goal they are headed
towards is none other than the stroke of the large gong, the ultimate
manifestation of unity (metric, tonal, aesthetic, and spiritual) in the
gamelan tradition. But the various ways of getting to each gong are, for
Alit, unique, idiosyncratic, and special to each player or section of the
ensemblea vision of combined personal expression that is both collectivist and individually expressive, a thoughtful re-interpretation of the
gamelan aesthetic.
The background and specifics of what makes Geregel a significant work
in the evolution of new Balinese music are the subjects of this study.
Although it is probably not the first of its kind in any particular technical,
modal, or orchestrational innovation, the particular way these dimensions
are fused and given dramatic life in Geregel places it in a special category
of new Balinese work, standing above the many tabuh kreasi baru (new
instrumental works) created each year. As such it has undoubtedly played
a role in the recent ground shift within the Balinese new music scene: In
the eighteen months since Geregels creation, new and wildly experimental seven-tone kebyar works are proliferating rapidly, especially in the
Ubud area where there are several gamelan semara dana.3
TH E BAL I N ES E MO DA L SY S T EM
As mentioned above, the gamelan semara dana combines the overall
instrumentation, construction, and range of the ubiquitous five-tone
gamelan gong kebyar with the seven-tone scale of the older and rarer
gamelan semar pegulingan. It is, essentially, a gong kebyar expanded to
include the two other notes of its parent heptatonic scale, the so-called
pelog scale which has been known in Indonesia for as long as two millennia. In traditional terms, the seven-tone scale (saih pitu or row of
seven) opens up the possibility to play in any of the modes, variously
known as patut[an], saih, patet, or tetekep.4 A mode is formed by choosing five of the seven tones in a particular sequence of adjacent vs. skipped
tones. Traditionally, that mode is then used for an entire piece or section
within a piece. (Shifts between modes, involving pivoting on tones common to both in what Balinese musicians now call modulasi, are increasingly common in recent seven-tone music and will be discussed below.)
It cannot be overemphasized how central the pentatonic tendency is to
the Balinese musical conception. (Here pentatonic is used simply to
mean a five-tone scale, rather than the particular black-key scales with
which Western musicians often associate the term.) While there are
notable exceptionsfour-tone scales, for example, are employed in a few
well-known gamelan types such as angklung, bebonangan, and the giant
bamboo jegog; while certain rare modes are said to use all seven tones
they lie outside of the mainstream of the Balinese tonal impulse. The
variety and proportion of interval sizes that can be formed within pentatonic scales are, evidently, just right for the Balinese. A bronze gamelan
permanently tuned to selisir mode, as are the thousands of gamelan gong
kebyar throughout the island, is not considered incomplete or lacking in
any way. Its pentatonic tonal universe is made richly multi-dimensional
by the vibrating intensity of the paired tuning system,5 the dense enharmonic overtone spectrum produced by bronze percussion instruments
struck with wooden mallets, and the wide range of frequency and timbre
spanned from deepest gong tone to highest splash of the ceng-ceng
cymbals. (This is a large part of the reason that gamelan music transcribed directly to Western instruments seems so plain or timbrally flat: it
loses several layers of tonal richness heard in the original gamelan orchestration.)
10
Yet another layer of complexity derives from the individuality of

gamelan tunings. Since there is no absolute standard of reference, like
A440 in the Western system, nor a precisely defined intervallic structure,
each gamelan can be said to have a unique tuning, slightly (or dramatically) different than the next. This brings an individual character to each
gamelans sound that is akin to that of a vineyard-designated vintage
wine. A gamelan tuning is the unique result of the owners taste, the
intended use of the gamelan, the particular gongsmith chosen, the age of
the instruments, and other factors.6 Taken together, the attributes and
complexity of this sonic universe are compelling even in a relatively
simple composition; foreign listeners are often surprised, on first hearing
of a Balinese gamelan, to learn that music of such richness is created with
only five tones.
Once the seven-tone door is opened, another musical universe
obtainsyet one in which the pentatonic impulse remains the predominant force. This is a dimensional leap into a multi-pentatonic system of
modal formation, as meaningful to Balinese musicians as the contrast
between diatonic and chromatic is to a Western musician. In fact,
hearing the various modes of saih pitu music makes one think of the term
chromatic in its original, non-equal-tempered meaningan array of
distinctly colored strata, each with its own character and hue.
The chart of Example 1, familiar in general outline to any academytrained musician in Bali, shows in simplified form how the modes are
usually selected within the seven-tone pelog scale. Usually, because the
identity and interrelationship of the modes as outlined in this chart are by
no means uniform throughout Bali, between groups, or even between
individual musicians who play in a single gamelan. While there is general
agreement concerning the relationship of selisir, tembung, and sunaren,
the two othersbaro and lebengare often interpreted differently. There
are many reasons for these discrepancies. From the most general perspective, such variation is a normal feature of Balis highly integrated oral culture, in which there is a great deal of consistency in underlying generative
principle and much less so in the manifestation of surface detail and terminology. A comparison of religious offerings between neighboring villages, an intricate and richly semiotic system, would reveal similar
differences. The Balinese gloss for such diversity, which they implicitly
approve, is lain desa lain adat (different village, different customs).
For that reason, in the realm of religious practice and ritual law (adat),
just as in music, the issue of regional variation versus standardization
one locally generated, the other externally imposedhas been the subject of intense discussion for many decades, touching as it does not only
on diversity but also issues of regional pride and autonomy versus centralized authority.
notated pitch
c
interval, in cents
7-tone scale
c#
d#
116
159
Selisir
Tembung
u a
u
Baro
Lebeng*
f#
258
Sunaren
m5
& 5 5
m
g#
172
120
i
a
a#
185
190
116
159
u a
i o
u a
u
f#
258
o e
e
d#
c#
m5 5
m5
m5 5
m5 5
11
g#
a#
172 120
185
o e
u a
eu
u a
ai
i o
eu
u a
ai
* The extra tones in lebeng, labeled eu and ai and pronounced deung

and daing, are named by combining their neighboring tone vowels.
E XAMP L E
1:
T HE FIVE BA L INES E CLASSICAL MODES:
TH E IR FO RMA T IO N, INT ERVA L S ( IN THE TUNING OF

GA MEL A N U DA MA NI) , A ND NOTATION
On a more technical level, understanding the varying interpretations of

mode would require tracing the evolution of seven-tone scales and their
gradual transfer from one gamelan type to another, all within an essentially oral tradition. Seven-tone systems are found on a variety of older
gamelan types, bringing a profusion of interpretations. Each uses a different terminology, has a unique tuning, and applies its modal system
somewhat differently in actual practice. The primary source for the semar
pegulingan modal system was the courtly gambuh ensemble, in which the
melodic material is carried exclusively by meter-long bamboo flutes,
suling gambuh. As noted by McPhee (1966, 3847) many changes
occurred in the transferal of modal systems from gambuh to the bronze
gamelan, in which all the keys have fixed pitches.
Despite the variations, consensus is slowly emerging around the way in
which these five classical modes are interpreted on bronze gamelans.
This is partly the result of the increasing academization of Balinese music.
The chart in Example 1 was created in 1959 by Nyoman Kaler, Gusti
Putu Griya and Nyoman Rembang, three of Balis most widely recognized music scholars of the mid-twentieth century. This interpretation
was then disseminated at KOKAR, the newly-formed Indonesian Conservatory of Music, at which they were all faculty or guest lecturers. Today it
12
is taught as mainstream musical theory at the two current music academies, SMKI and STSI. The letters i, o, e, u, and a are short for ding,
dong, deng, dung and dang, the Balinese solfge, which is explained
below. Two complete octaves are shown, together with the tuning
scheme of actual frequencies from the udamani instruments.
Examining closely the sequence of intervals in each of these modes
(with the exception of lebeng, discussed below), it becomes clear that the
same pattern is repeated throughout, created by the absent tones. The
notes of a five-tone mode are always grouped in a sequence of three and
twothat is, three consecutive scale degrees (separated by intervals of
116258 cents in this gamelans tuning), followed by a larger interval
(here 266430 cents), two more consecutive scale degrees, finally followed by another larger interval as the pattern repeats itself in the next
octave. This consistent intervallic grouping in a 3/2/3/2 pattern generates the characteristic interval sequence of pelog. Such gapped-scale
formation is one of the distinguishing features of Indonesian scales and
modes in general.
Based on this sequence, each tone is assigned a solfge name that gives
it a unique identity within the scale. The names for the tones are ding,
dong, deng, dung, and dang, where ding is always the lowest of the group
of three tones and the others fall in place accordingly. The relative distances between notes are thus codified in the solfge, which plays an
essential role in Balinese performance practice.7 To get a different view of
these relationships, the modes could be reoriented according to their
note identitiesthat is, hypothetically raise or lower the pitch of each
mode until the note ding of each scale is the same, thus obtaining a comparative look at their interval structures. (See Example 2.)
c#
Selisir
Tembung
Sunaren
Baro
Lebeng
E XAM P L E
2:
d#
f#
g#
e
o
i
i
u
eu
c#
u a
u
e
a#
u a
o e
o
u a
i
ai
T H E INT ERVA L L IC S T RU CT U R E OF FIV E MODES
CO M P A RED FRO M A CO MMO N S T A RTING PITCH
13
Once a mode is chosen, the remaining two tones are external for the
moment to that pentatonic formation. But one or both might reappear as
pamero, false or auxiliary tones, used to add a striking melodic color at
important moments in the music such as the approach to a gong tone or
to an important structural downbeat.8 Even in bronze orchestras that use
only one of the modesthat is, where all the keys and gongs are permanently tuned to a particular five-tone scalethese blue notes might
reappear briefly, touched upon by the suling or a singer. In most cases the
brevity of their appearance makes them strictly coloristic in nature, and
brings no implied or perceived shift to another mode.
It should be noted that, among the various patutan, selisir is far and
away the most commonly employed in the tuning of five-tone bronze
gamelan and may be thought of as the default pelog mode. This alone
may explain the numbering system, now in common use, in which ding
of selisir is labeled as 1; a few earlier interpretation of Balinese modes
pegged the starting point of the scale elsewhere.
As presented within this chart, one of the modes, the rarely used
lebeng, seems to defy the 3/2 rule, and the Balinese modal conception in
general, since it encompasses all seven scale tones. In fact, this is but one
relatively recent interpretation among many. As interpreted at its source
in the gambuh tradition, lebeng is indeed a pentatonic mode of gapped
formation like the others. The problems arise since a few of the actual
tones produced on the meter-long gambuh flutes fall in the cracks of the
seven-tone scale, and seem to therefore lie outside the tonal matrix. Also,
probably for that very reason, there are ambiguities in the solfge, so that
players in a single ensemble sing tunes in lebeng in at least two different
ways.9 When transferred to the gamelan semar pegulingan, the modes
must, by the very nature of fixed-pitch bronze instruments, lie in the
same matrix; musicians therefore have no choice but to force a square
peg into a round hole and assign lebeng a place within it. While McPhee
does report various pentatonic interpretations on bronze instruments in
his research from the 1930s (1966, 39), modern experts in semar
pegulingan saih pitu seem to have thrown up their hands by declaring
lebeng an exception to the modal rule, including all seven pitches and
with the same solfge as selisir. When asked, all claim that this interpretation is based on a single semar pegulingan work, Sumambang Jawa.
However, this piece can easily be understood as a combination of two
existing modes, sunaren and baro, with a few appearances of the remaining tone, pitch 1, as a pamero. (See Example 15 below.) While the use of
all seven tones within a single piece is extremely rare, nowhere does
Sumambang Jawa combine them in any balanced or consistent fashion; it
remains as true to the pentatonic impulse as any other work.
14
RECEN T AD D I TI ONS
TO THE
CHA RT
OF
PAT UTAN
In recent years, the modal chart has been enlarged in ways that shed light
on how Balinese composers regard the saih pitu universe. Through the
re-emergence of interest in seven-tone music over the past two decades,
musicians have learned that other patutan can be derived from the heptatonic set that were not part of the traditional gambuh/semar pegulingan
matrix, at least in the now-standard interpretation shown in Example 1.
These additional modes fall into two groups. One consists of theoretical
constructs that are logical extrapolations of the existing systemthat is,
the results of taking the 3/2 rule and applying it to other possible
positions, even in the absence of existing repertoire that uses the resulting modal constellations. Two such theoretical modes are shown in
Example 3.10
c
7-tone scale
c#
1
d#
d
2
Pengenter
o e
Pengenter Alit
E XAM P L E
3:
f#
g#
a#
c#
1
d#
o e
f#
g#
a#
TWO RECENT L Y DES IGNA T ED THEOR ETICAL MODES
The other newly defined group, the so-called slendro modes, requires a
bit more elaboration. Their inclusion as possible subsets of the heptatonic
pelog system brings up a strange contradiction between historical, cosmological, and common-practice interpretations of Balinese music. According to most scholars understanding, slendro and pelog scales trace
separate historical roots and are considered independent tuning systems.
Balinese musicians refer to them as the two distinct laras (tunings) of
their music, as opposed to the various patutan (modes) found within
pelog. If true, how can one be a subset of the other? Even from a strictly
acoustic perspective their differences are clear. Slendro scales are characterized by a greater uniformity in interval size, which ranges only from an
approximate major second to a minor third, and where, as McPhee puts
it, pelog-like steps approaching a semi-tone or major third are
unknown. He illustrates the differences between these two scales, reproduced in Example 4. Slendro scales are almost always pentatonic, never
larger, though in some gamelan types one note is omitted. Some versions
15
approximate a black-key scale on the piano. Others spread out the five
tones more evenly within the octave, so that theorists are forever tempted
to imagine an idealized scale of five exact 240-cent intervals to which it
might be aspiring, though none exists in reality.11 Slendro and pelog scales
are thought to have arrived in Java at different times, perhaps separated
by several centuries.12
c#
pelog (selisir)
d#
f#
g#
a#
u a
c#
gamelan gong, Gianyar
slendro
gender wayang, Kuta
EXAM P L E
4: CO MP A RIS O N O F S L EN D R O AND PE LOG

( A DA P T ED FRO M MCP HEE 1966, 52)
SCALES
Their contrasting qualities and origins are borne out in contemporary

practice. In both Java and Bali, slendro and pelog have found distinct
instrumental homes and carry essentially distinct repertoire. Particular
gamelan sets are tuned to one or the other system, which becomes a
significant aspect of their identities, affecting the choice of repertoire and
contextdramatic, social, ritualin which it is played. In Bali, slendro
tunings reside, most famously, on gamelan gender wayang, the small
ensemble that accompanies the shadow puppet play; and gamelan
angklung (which has both four- and five-tone variants), associated with
death rituals. In Java, the two tunings are often juxtaposed for dramatic
contrast: Since the mid-nineteenth century, double gamelan sets are
used, in which instruments of a slendro-tuned gamelan are placed alongside those of a pelog gamelan. The players need only turn ninety degrees
to access one or the other tunings and their distinctive sound worlds.
Considering all these differences, it is surprising that musicians are
finding slendro scales within the pelog universe, as if they pulled a rabbit
out of a hat. (One is reminded of the appearance of Hanuman, the great
monkey-king of the Ramayana, in certain Balinese and Javanese interpretations of the Mahabharata, the other great Hindu epic poem. This
is a shock at first, as if the character jumped, Disney-like, right out of the
pages of one text and into the other.) This practice has entered the musical mainstream over the last decade with the emergence of the gamelan
semara dana. Uncovering its origins has engendered no small amount of
16
discussion amongst musicians and scholars, Balinese and foreign alike. It

has been noted, for example, that antecedents exist in other parts of
Indonesia. Sundanese dalang (puppeteers) have created multi-laras
(multiple tuning) gamelan of spectacular appearance and sound production, which have allowed them to significantly enlarge not only the
wayang repertoire but their own superstar status; experiments in this
direction began in the mid-twentieth century and culminated with the
creation of a seventeen-tone gamelan in 1969 (Weintraub 2001).13
Vocalists throughout Java and Bali are accustomed to intermixing the
two scales; one example occurs in the combination called barang miring,
in which Javanese rebab players and singers take brief pelog-like excursions
within an otherwise clearly slendro melodic environment.14 Another is
the Balinese dramatic vocal form arja, in which the only melodic
instruments are voices and flute.
Other researchers point out that the mixing of the pelog and slendro
scales, in an all-encompassing cosmological vision of sound and spirit,
can be found in the two esoteric treatises, Aji Gurnita and Prakempa,
written in the nineteenth century or perhaps earlier. These two texts,
which share a large, previously composed section and may therefore
represent the work of several authors,15 present a courtly and mystical
cosmology of Balinese music, in which the notes of the scale are aligned
with particular gods, sacred syllables, colors, and cardinal directions. All
is tied together in a philosophy of complementary opposites, as expressed
in the sexual union of male and female. One section of the Prakempa, for
example, seeks a grand cosmology in which pelog, the five waters,
unites with slendro, the five fires, in a ten-tone system (the dasasuara)
producing in the listener a state of ecstatic rapture connecting the inner
and outer universes (buana alit and buana agung). While the two
treatises are important source documents for research into eighteenthand nineteenth-century court-sponsored philosophy and musical idealizations, it is difficult to imagine them as reflecting musical practice.16
Nevertheless, present-day musicians share a high regard for these texts
and increasingly turn to them for inspiration, terminology, and philosophical underpinning in the creation of new work.
While it is difficult to trace a direct line from any of these previous
occurrences to the current slendro-within-pelog sleight of hand, their
existence is not surprising. In Indonesia, slendro and pelog scales have coexisted for centuries; independent and varied examples of their crossfertilization are inevitable. With the new gamelan semara dana, Balinese
composers, like the Sundanese dalangs before them, are taking advantage
of the evocative and referential powers of the two laras, so perfectly
suited to a dramatic tradition obsessed with historical re-creation. From a
17
present-day composers point of view, this is straightforward: If certain

constellations of notes in the seven-tone pelog system sound like slendro,
why not use and name them as such?
Two interpretations of slendro-in-pelog modes, as given to me by Ketut
Gede Asnawa, are shown in Example 5. Alternate solfge possibilities are
also shown.17 Note that the 3/2 rule remains inviolate in each case, but
the solfge does not always adhere to the usual rule in which the lowest
of a three-note group is defined as ding. This reflects common solfge
practice in the traditional slendro environments of angklung and gender
wayang. In general, the greater variability of solfge use in slendro scales
is probably the result of the greater uniformity of interval size compared
to pelog. Note also that the intervals of these scales, in the particular (and
typical) tuning of the udamani instruments, resemble neither the evenly
spaced slendro scale described earlier nor the black-key pentatonic
familiar of Western scales; they fall somewhere in-between as described
by McPhee.
c
interval, in cents
7-tone scale
c#
d#
d
116
159
f#
258
g#
172
Slendro Gede
alt. solfge 1
alt. solfge 2
alt. solfge 3
i
o
u
a#
a
120
185
c#
190
o
e
a
e
u
i
u
a
o
d#
d
116
159
f#
258
g#
a#
172 120
a
i
e
i
o
u
185
o
e
a
e
u
i
u
a
o
a
i
e
Slendro Alit
(o)
(o)
alt. solfge
(a)
(a)
E XAM P L E
5:
SL EN D RO MO DES WIT H IN THE PE LOG SCALE
Finally, another new mode should be mentioned in passing. It is the

one that evokes jegog, the four-tone gamelan of giant bamboo marimbas
found originally in West Bali. The jegog mode is a striking collection of
intervals, three large and one small. As with the slendro-within-pelog
issue, the chances are small that the creators of the gamelan jegog actually
derived its scale from seven-tone pelog. Rather, composers discovered
after the fact that the jegog scale could be conjured on the a seven-tone
gamelan and therefore started including it in their charts. None has yet,
to my knowledge, used it in an actual composition. (The jegog mode is
included in Example 6.)
18
TH E CO M P L ETE CH A RT
By condensing the above discussion to essentials, and eliminating a few
of the variants, the chart of Example 6 is generated. It is intended only
for the sake of reference within this article, not an attempt at codification.
The reasons are obvious, even in the narrowest scope: Dewa Alit himself
refers to the two slendro modes in an opposite (and, to my knowledge,
unique) manner, so that slendro gede becomes slendro alit and vice versa,
though he does use the solfge shown here. He describes the mode
pengenter, but does not use it in Geregel. He sees no use for the modes
lebeng, baro, and jegog (the first has little meaning as a mode if described
as including all seven tones; the second is essentially the same as slendro;
the last is too specialized and remote from the mainstream bronze
gamelan traditions). Thus, his tonal palette for Geregel encompasses only
five modes: the three classical patutan around which there is general
agreement (selisir, tembung, and sunaren) plus his own versions of the
slendro modes.
notated pitch
c#
interval, in cents
7-tone scale
d#
116
159
Selisir
Tembung
u a
u
Baro
Pengenter
o e
Slendro Alit
Jegog
e
(o)
i
EXAM P L E
f#
6:
a#
120
185
o e
i
c#
190
u a
d#
116
159
f#
258
i o
u a
g#
a#
172 120
185
u a
i
o e
eu
u a
ai
i o
eu
u a
ai
o e
g#
172
Sunaren
Lebeng
258
Slendro Gede
m5
& 5 5
m
m5 5
m5
m5 5
m5 5
i
a
(o)
i
i
i
A CO MP L ET E CH A RT O F BALINESE PATUTAN
19
TRAD I TI O N AL MO DA L US E
As the preceding description implies, the typical composition for seventone ensemble such as gambuh or semar pegulingan remains confined to
a particular pentatonic mode throughout, with at most brief appearances
of pamero. However the reality on the ground reveals a more complex
picture. Example 7 offers a preliminary survey of modal use, based on the
large collection of seven-tone works transcribed by Wayan Rai (1996).
As Example 7 shows, a significant number of works in this sample use a
combination of two modes, either in short excursions from a
predominant mode into new territory, or in more extended and balanced
combination. In most of these combinations, each mode is clearly
defined, and the manner of switching between them is straightforward, as
described below. However in a few cases the other tonal territory is not
a 3/2 gapped-scale formation at all, but a collection that includes four, or
sometimes five, adjacent tones. These instances are relatively brief, but
long enough so that the extra tones do not seem to be mere pamero.
They form areas of striking tonal contrast within the span of the entire
work. The internal mechanics of how these unusual tonal collections are
introduced, which tones are emphasized, and how they might relate
motivically or structurally to the surrounding material, remain to be
identified in future analysis. Such analysis may reveal, among other
One mode only
pure
with occasional pamero
Tabuh Gari II
Tabuh Gari III
Godeg Miring
Biakalang
selisir
selisir
tembung
baro
Gineman Selisir
Bapang Selisir
Perong Condong
Gending Lasem
Sekar Gadung
Lengker Cenik
selisir
selisir
selisir
selisir
baro
selisir
Two or more modes

brief excursion(s) from a primary mode
extended combination
Gending Subandar
Tabuh Gari
Gending Tembung
Bapang Gede
Bremara
Langsing Tuban
Bapang Selukat
Sumambang Jawa
Gending Dagang
selisir / sunaren / 2345

selisir / 2345
tembung / selisir
tembung / selisir
sunaren / 67123
EXA MP L E
7:
selisir / tembung / 1234

sunaren / 2346
sunaren / baro (+ pamero)
2345 / selisir
A S U RVEY O F S EVEN-TONE WOR K S FOR
GA M E L A N SEMA R P EGUL IN GA N, A ND THEIR USE OF MODES
20
things, additional facets of Balinese modal and melodic practice relating

to hierarchy within any single five-tone collectionthe approach clearly
articulated in Javanese conceptions of pathet but thus far barely touched
upon in the Balinese musical discourse.18
Even in the absence of such theory, certain general principles can be
articulated regarding the way modal combination operates in traditional
contexts, which will help frame the innovations taking place in newer
work.
1. A single work never utilizes more than two modes in any clearly
manifested fashion. When there is a third tonal area, its appearance
is too brief to establish a new mode, and might instead be considered the result of a few reiterations of a pamero tone.
2. Two modes combined within a single work are always closely
related, together comprising a total of six tones (see Example 8).
For that reason the combinations selisir-baro or tembung-sunaren
are never found. Also, works that use two modes rarely touch upon
the remaining, seventh tone as a pamero.19
&
mm
m
sunaren
5 5 5
5 5 5
selisir
EXA MP L E
8:
sunaren
5 5
5 5 5 5
baro
T WO CL O S EL Y REL A TED MODES
3. Changes between modes tend to happen before or after stressed

points in the larger metric or formal framework, such as a structural
downbeat articulated by jegogan and/or gong, or the start of a new
section, rather than coinciding with them.
As an illustration of these three principles, a selection from the semar
pegulingan piece Langsing Tuban is notated in Example 9, which shows a
typicaland, according to Ketut Gede Asnawa, archetypalmodal
shift.20 Note that the solfge, of primary importance in Balinese melodic
conception, must shift along with the mode, a phenomenon now
referred to as modulasi. This reinterpretation is often felt to take place
before the actual appearance of the foreign tone, at a point where the
melodic contour will, in later retrospect, suggest. The combination of
modes found here, selisir and tembung, is one of the most common, due
both to selisirs general predominance, and to the fact that a modal shift
21
can be easily effected through simple melodic toggling between pitch 4,

here notated as F (for tembung) and pitch 3, here notated as E (for selisir). Moreover, the shift takes place a few beats before gong, thereby preparing the next section just before the actual structural boundary.21
E XAM P L E
9:
A S HIFT FRO M T EMBUN G TO SE LISIR IN THE
I N S TR U MENT A L P IECE L A N GSIN G T UB AN. THE V OWELS

BEL O W T H E JUBL A G L INE INDICATE THE SOLFG E
MEAN I N G
O F TH E
PAT UTA N
Aside from the content and etymology of these modes, what do they
mean to a Balinese listener? They are clearly not abstract collections of
22
tones used to paint on a tabula rasa musical canvas. In fact, they are
imbued with many associations and latent meanings. Certain modes
derive their perceived character from the type of gamelan most closely
identified with them, which in turn brings associations to repertoire and
ritual function. Such a connection is clear, for example, in the two slendro
modes, precisely because they made the categorical jump from the other
laras of Indonesian music and are now encompassed within the pelog system. Slendro alit, as mentioned above, evokes the sound of a gamelan
angklung, one of sweet melancholy and even sadness to the Balinese ear
since it traditionally accompanies cremations and other death rituals.
Slendro is also the laras of the gamelan gender wayang, the quartet of
instruments which accompanies the Balinese shadow puppet play and for
which a distinct and complex musical language has evolved. Wayang
music already traces an intertwining relationship with that of kebyar in
exchange of repertoire and techniques of elaboration, most notably during in the late 1970s. One section of Geregel further mines these techniques and musical vocabulary (see Example 21). Finally, perhaps as a
cumulative result of the performance contexts of both slendro gamelan
types (or, one might argue, a cause for their use in such contexts), slendro
scales are associated with the supernatural. This is exploited in recent dramatic accompaniment using seven-tone gamelan, where the appearance
of demonic figures or voices from the unseen world (niskala) are
painted in slendro colors.
However these may be considered a secondary tier of relationships,
due to slendros late assimilation into the pelog system. The core of five
original gambuh-derived modes (selisir, tembung, sunaren, baro, and lebeng) derive their perceived qualities not through association with ritual or
ceremony per se, but from the rarefied courtly drama of gambuh plays.
Each is closely allied with one or more stock charactersking, princess,
prime minister, retainer, buffoon, warriorthat appear in the course of
the play. Through study of gambuh practice, some Balinese composers
and scholars have mapped out direct connections between mode and
character type, as shown in Example 10.
A quick scan of qualities and characters makes it clear that this is no list
of distinct affects, like those associated with the Western medieval modes;
all carry connotations of nobility and rank. Rather, this interpretation
suggests that the modes might be placed along a continuum that reflects
characteristics of strength, refinedness, and, to a lesser degree, gender.
(See Example 11.)
This is reflected as well in the widely held conception that tembung is
low, (and therefore the strongest in affect) sunaren lies in the middle
and selisir is high (and therefore the sweetest and most refined)a
23
Patutan
quality
associated character
Selisir
sweet, bright, rened, elegant
noble rened male or female,

or their attendants
Tembung
big, sharp, strong, muscular, heroic
noble high-ranking male,

e.g., king or prime minister
Sunaren
less strong than Tembung
noble, gentle, dull-witted,

or eccentric
Baro
strong, muscular, heroic
noble, male-only
Lebeng
rened, regal; same as Selisir
noble, high-ranking, central

gures, e.g., Prince Panji
EXAM P L E
10: MO DE/ CH A RA CT ER REL A T IO NSHIPS IN THE GAMB UH PLAY

ACCO RDING T O RA I (1996, 7980; 100)
Strong, coarse, male
Tembung
EXAM P L E
Baro
11:
Sweet, rened, female or male
Sunaren
Lebeng
Selisir
P O S S IBL E CO NT INU U M O F R ELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN
MO DE A ND CH A RA CT ER IN T H E GAMB UH PLAY
conception that bears little relationship to the pelog scale as interpreted

on modern seven-tone bronze instruments.22
In fact, interviews with musicians in different areas of Bali, and with
those who perform in various genres, reveal that there is no consensus
around either of these characterizations of Balinese modes. While Rais
formulation is shared by several of the most prominent composers in
Denpasar and STSI circles and is disseminated to students and colleagues
through the musical accompaniments they create to dramatic works, it is
not universal, as they themselves recognize.23 Performers of gambuh, for
example, point out that characterization is the net result of a multitude of
musical and dramatic aspects, including tempo, drumming pattern, form,
voice quality, costume, bearing, and movement vocabulary. A particular
mode may be used to accompany a variety of characters and cannot be
pegged to a single inherent quality. Thus, the baro mode accompanies
the strong prince, Prabu Keras, but also the gentle and wise priest,
Begawan Melayuboth high-ranking males, but of decidedly different
character. Selisir is even harder to pin down, since it is the default mode
24
of the ubiquitous gamelan gong kebyar. Though relative to other modes

it is said to convey sweet or refined qualities, it is used in kebyar
music over a wide range of technical, affective, and dramatic contexts,
which have evolved over the many decades of kebyars predominance.
Many composers and gamelan tuners maintain that each individual
degree within the selisir scale has a unique qualitya concept probably
deriving from the esoteric cosmology of the Prakempa, but also reflected
in actual performance practice:
Heard in relation to specific musical contexts, scale tones are felt to
have individual character and affect. The acoustic reasons for this are
evident from the fact that they are separated by unequal intervals.
Beyond this, on the compositional level, the gong tone of a melody
(the final scale tone, which coincides with a stroke of the large gong)
is an indicator of the musics mood. Ding as gong tone is often
described as heroic or majestic, dong as sensual or demonic, deng
childish (also supernatural or frightening), dung feminine and graceful, and dang martial and aggressive. Musicians are not rigid or even
in general agreement on these linkages, but most hold opinions on
them. (Tenzer 2000, 36)
Thus, it is evident that the modal affects are themselves affected and
shaped by a wide range of factors, some stylistic, some genre-specific, and
others esoteric. Composition in seven-tone contexts is for that reason a
highly subjective art: the rich colors of the patutan shift, chameleon-like,
relative to who is looking and what he or she is trying to find. This fits
comfortably in the Balinese aesthetic of context-dependence, desa-kalapatra (place-time-situation). Far from creating disagreements or divergent schools of thought amongst Balinese musicians, such ambiguities
are embraced as a source of freedom and stimulant to creativity:
On the one hand many Balinese scholars are interested in developing
a more comprehensive modal theory, on the other they are afraid
that more theories and rules would stifle the rich variation among
the different areas of Bali. As a result, a kind of agreed silence has
been established by many of the professors at the conservatories
regarding this subject. Some Balinese composers and teachers feel
that the lack of comprehensive theories directly contributes to the
vibrant state of Balinese composition today. (McGraw 2000, 76)
The fluid nature of modal character makes it a perfect subject for that
most popular pastime of Balinese artists and philosophers, free and poetic
25
reinterpretation of source materials. At one moment a ritual gamelan is

conjured, at another a musical technique or texture is borrowed, and at
another the association to character-type comes to the fore. Whether the
high rate of modal change in Geregel (see Example 15) still allows these
myriad associations to rise to the surface for the Balinese listener, is an
open question. Perhaps this points to a new freedomto simply ignore
all such associations, as Alit admittedly does in several sections of Geregel.
With the emergence of the new gamelan semara dana, composers are
now able to play with modal materials in new ways, as if modern painters
re-discovered the startling hues of ancient pigments and began mixing
them freely together.
TH E RE BI RTH
O F T HE
GA MEL A N SEMA R PEGULINGAN
Other deep resonances of the two extra tones become evident by

glancing back over the last hundred years at the intertwining histories of
the two gamelan types that are the immediate parents of the gamelan
semara dana. Beyond their associations to ritual and drama, particular
gamelan types are historical entities which embody a constellation of values deriving from their original genesis and use. It was not a simple act of
artistic synthesis to fuse the gamelan semar pegulingan saih pitu, the
essence of ancient courtly prestige and refinement, with the gong kebyar,
the twentieth-century gamelan of sensational popular performance. It
was akin, rather, to a merging of social lineage, an intermarriage between
families of differing castes and economic classes.
Born in the Balinese courts of the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries,
the seven-tone semar pegulingan is considered truly klasik by Balinese
musicians. Unlike kebyar, which first appeared in their grandparents lifetimes and is still regarded as the modern ensemble of the masses, semar
pegulingan is felt to embody a fully evolved style descended from another
time and sensibility, a product of the rarefied atmosphere of the Balinese
courts. In fact, it barely survived into our own era: seven-tone semar
pegulingan became almost completely extinct in the early twentieth
century. As Wayan Rai reports, the decline of the feudal system in late
nineteenth-century Bali meant that court orchestras declined as well,
since the rajas and princes could no longer adequately support them. For
the semar pegulingan, this was the loss of its native habitat. The obliteration of royal privilege and power was epitomized in the famed puputan
(the suicidal final wars of confrontation with the Dutch colonizers) of
19068, during which two of the most famous heirloom court orchestras
26
were deliberately burned as part of the self-immolation of the rajas, their

families, and possessions. The heyday of sweet bronze gamelan tones
lulling the raja and his concubines to sweet dreams in his sleeping chambers was gone.24
The coup-de-grace was, ironically, the birth of the kebyar style in 1914.
As the new music and dance style swept the island, the popular craze created an immediate demand for new instruments. Whereas older and
usable gamelan instruments are now rarely destroyed for recyclingtheir
value is better realized by selling them to a wealthy individualin those
days of scarce wealth it was the norm. Almost all the remaining semar
pegulingan were melted down within the next two decades and refashioned into gamelan gong kebyar. So complete was the disappearance
that Colin McPhee mourned, in his famous treatise Music in Bali, the
vanished semar pegulingan.
In fact the style and repertoire had not died. The sole surviving court
musician of Badung, who had barely escaped the slaughter and suicide of
the puputan, was inspired to recreate the court tradition. He oversaw the
creation of a new gamelan semar pegulingan and resurrection of the
seven-tone repertoire. Though this group itself eventually declined in the
1940s, again a victim of war, the gamelan and its music survived by being
relocated to the village of Pagan Kelod, where it remainsperformed,
studied, and documented. A nearly identical process occurred in the
court of Klungkung, where a few surviving musicians commissioned a
gongsmith to make a new set and then revived the stately court compositions; this gamelan now survives in the adjacent village of Kamasan.
The extraordinary value and precious museum-like quality of this repertoire, rescued like a treasure from a distant era, no doubt affected musicians sensibilities and regard for it. For many decades (until the 1980s),
the primary impulse was one of simple restoration, requiring the revival
of the gamelan type itself as well as the collective memory around these
heirloom pieces. To this laudable end, the academies, KOKAR (later
SMKI) and ASTI (later STSI) played an important role, in accord with
their mission regarding the preservation of Balinese arts. The fact that
the tonal resources of the gamelan semara dana are only now being fully
exploited may be a reflection of the persistence of this attitude: it took
some time for feelings of reverence for the seven-tone repertoire and
associated modal techniques to give way to familiarity for the average
young musician, which in turn helped open the door to experimentation
with these resources. As ethnomusicologist Marc Perlman points out,
SMKI and STSI also played a converse, and perhaps unwitting, role in
this change and in the creation of the gamelan semara dana: by maintaining seven-tone gamelan semar pegulingan in their collections, side by
side with many other gamelan types, all have become increasingly de-
27
coupled from their native contextsritual, feudal, and social. While the
academys faculty and administration do maintain essential aspects of religious custom (offerings are made to gamelan instruments on auspicious
days) and occasionally use them in traditional contexts on and offcampus, these gamelan have become, more than ever before, mere sets of
musical instruments, demystified, sitting side by side and ready for classroom use. The loosening of intense social and religious constraints
helped make their cross-fertilization possible, awaiting only the right
needs and circumstances.25
TH E GA M E L A N SEMA RA DA N A
Once the various potentialities had converged, the actual creation of
gamelan semara dana happened quickly. As McGraw recounts (2000),
the process traced a lively back-and-forth bounce between evolving
needs, means, and the experimentation to bring them togetherthe typical fuel mix of instrumental development. Originally, the goal in creating
the gamelan semara dana was to tap into a wider stylistic and orchestrational palette for the accompaniment of dramatic works, primarily the
large-scale dance dramas known as sendratari (from seni-drama-tari, literally art-drama-dance) born in the 1960s. The first productions were
semi-serialized reenactments of stories from the Ramayana and Mahabharata epics, both very much alive in Bali-Hindu culture. Wayan Berata
is credited with creating the form, primarily as composer of the music for
the first sendratari productions. One of his first innovations was to put
two complete, and contrasting, orchestras on stage. The first such combination was of pelog ensembles: the ponderous and majestic gamelan gong
gede (orchestra of the large gongs) with the sweet-toned gamelan
semar pegulingan. Though nominally in the same pentatonic scalar system, the coloristic contrasts between their tunings (both in interval structure and overall tonal height) and timbre (both in sound color and sheer
volume) could be used to heighten or underline dramatic contrasts, particularly along the refined-strong (alus-keras) continuum: the alus characters were accompanied by semar pegulingan, the keras ones by gong
gede.
From that jumping-off point, and in light of Beratas stature as a composer, teacher, and gamelan tuner, the next steps seem almost inevitable.
An initial fascination with stark contrasts gave way to subtler considerations as he sought the means to effect a more seamless switch between
gamelan. Since none of the notes of the two gamelan in his first
experiment were exactly the same, each changeover was readily, and at
times jarringly, apparent. If, on the other hand, a tone of one gamelan
28
could be tuned in exact unison to a tone of the other gamelan, it could

act as a musical pivot point or bridge between the two sets of instruments, similar to a modulasi between modes. Such a bridge was already
familiar to Javanese musicians working with side-by-side pelog and slendro
gamelan, who name the common tone tumbuk. Since Berata was
working with two pelog sets, he went even further, completely re-tuning
two pre-existing gamelan so that all, rather than only one, of their corresponding keys were identical in pitch. He did this by lowering and
adjusting the pitches of a seven-tone semar pegulingan to match those of
a five-tone gong kebyar.26 Now, one could end a phrase on any note of
the gong kebyar, allow it to ring, and pick up again on the same note of
the semar pegulingan without a tuning shift. Well-trained players could
bridge the gap so smoothly that the changeover was imperceptible to the
audience. The drama of the switch would only become apparent when
the other notes of the seven-tone scale were brought into play. Also, the
Javanese style of side-by-side gamelan combination, with one rather than
two sets of musicians, was first tried at about this point.
With the creation of such matched gamelan sets, the possibility to put
everything on a single keyboard was suddenly in the air. Beratas
immediate goal was an orchestra that could function as either semar
pegulingan or gong kebyar, depending on the choice of notes and a few
minor changes in instrumentation, described below. He completed work
on this first hybrid orchestra in 1983. It was dubbed gamelan genta
pinara pitu (Gamelan of Seven Sounds) by STSIs director at that
time, Made Bandem, who is reported to have found the name in the
Prakempa, which he was currently translating.27 The new gamelan was
used, to great effect, by Nyoman Windha in the work Kindama, a
sendratari with choreography by Swasthi Bandem that was premiered
two years later (see Example 13).
However Berata perceived a shortcoming in the new gamelan: the
range of the gangsa instruments was one note less than that of a contemporary gamelan gong kebyar, since it omitted the lowest tone, dong. This
was the result of the precise way in which Berata intermingled the two
gamelan types: he decided to add the two extra tones in the higher register only (creating the full seven-tone complement in that range), while
leaving the lower register in selisir. But he also removed the lowest tone,
dong, so that the total number of keys was eleven (see Example 12). This
was the result of circumstances: Berata had adapted the wooden cases
(tatak) of a pre-existing gamelan gong kebyar for his experimental set;
eleven keys were the most he could squeeze on the normally ten-keyed
gangsa cases.28 While the omission of that note was not an issue for new
music composed for this gamelan, Berata felt it would compromise performances of pre-existing kebyar works by forcing players to rearrange
29
low-register passages.29 His next version of a hybrid gamelan therefore

included the low dong, resulting in twelve-keyed gangsa. Similar considerations informed the creation of the new reong (also shown in Example
12), which went from a kebyar-like low range to a semar pegulinganesque high range.
notated pitch
& 5
7-tone scale 1
m5
m5 5
5
Semar Pegulingan
gangsa
5
7
m5
i o
eu
m5 5
Gong Kebyar
gangsa
o
reong
e
e
u a
u a
i o
i o
e
e
Semara Dana
gangsa
o
reong
e
e
u a
u a
i o
i o
e
e
EXAM P L E
12:
m5 5
u a
ai
u a
u a
eu
eu
u a
u a
ai
ai
m5
m5
i
i o
i
i o
m5 5
eu
T H E L A Y O U T O F GA N GSA AND R E ONG K EYS OF TWO
S O U RCE GA MEL A N (SEMA R P EGUL IN GA N AND GONG K E B Y AR) AND

R ES U L T ING HY BRID (GA MEL A N SE MAR A DANA)
In terms of available keys, the new gamelan therefore had everything

of both its parents. This second-generation hybrid orchestra was dubbed
by Berata gamelan semara dana (or smara dana, semaradahana), named
after a twelfth-century epic poem about Semara, the Hindu god of
love.30 It appears to be in stable or semi-final form considering the
degree to which it has flourishedthere are now about twenty-five sets
in use, with an increasing number of new orders being received by
Balinese gongsmiths.
There are several other important differences in instrumentation
between the two source gamelans that must be observed to play their
respective repertoire on the gamelan semara dana. Most prominently,
semar pegulingan music uses no reong, with its characteristic repertoire of
melodic elaboration and agogic ocak-ocakan patterns allied to the drum
composition. Instead, a similar instrument, trompong, is played by a
single musician in free melodic elaborations, replacing the more incisive
ugal of the gong kebyar as the lead melody instrument. Likewise, smaller
drums, kendang krumpungan, are used for gamelan semar pegulingan,
and are played in a style different from kebyars heavier strokes. It features
30
the delicate semi-improvised interplay of resonant rim-strokes, as well as

a repertoire of characteristic angsel, musical breaks.
Once these few switches are made, Balinese musicians feel that the new
gamelan semara dana is entirely capable of delivering the music of the
semar pegulingan as well as that of the gong kebyar, with negligible compromise on either side.31 This is precisely what Berata intendeda multipurpose gamelan capable of delivering distinct musical styles without
switching instruments, not a new instrumental asset that could be the
medium for stylistic and modal synthesis.32 This orientation helps explain
the approximate fifteen-year delay between the creation of this gamelan
and its full exploitation as a vehicle for seven-tone kebyar music, apparent
in Geregel.
TH E CO N VE RG ENCE
OF
KEBYA R
A ND
SEVEN -TONE MUSIC
Despite the various constraints between style, gamelan type, and repertoire, a glance at new compositions in the late 1970s and 1980s shows a
clear trajectory towards the incorporation of modal techniques into the
mainstream musical language, preparing the way for the freedoms evident in Geregel. Innovations took place on several levels, from that of
conceptual (the new awareness that contrasting modes could be used
dramatically to evoke other gamelans, styles, and extra-musical contexts),
to instrumental (the increasing use of seven-tone gamelan, multiple
gamelan sets, and the semara dana), to the purely musical techniques of
modal and stylistic manipulation. Seen in retrospect, this was a true convergence of kebyar and semar pegulingan saih pitu styles, as each started
to be infused with elements of the other. The actual creation of the
hybrid gamelan took place not at the beginning of this musical evolution,
but in its midst, and was both an expression of a process already underway and a vehicle for further change.
Eka Dasa Rudra (premiered at the Festival of Young Composers,
Pekan Komponis Muda, in Jakarta in 1979), was one of the earliest and
formative works in this development. It opened the door to stylistic combination through its new dramatic conception: the composer, Komang
Astita, sought to re-create the atmosphere of the religious ceremony for
which it is named, a once-in-a-lifetime, island-wide ritual purification of
the cosmos. As in almost all large-scale Balinese ceremonies, several types
of gamelan accompanied specific ritual events in various locations. Sometimes two or more orchestras play so closely together that their sounds
overlap, intermingle, clash, and collide, creating that desirable state of
bustling, multi-level activity (ram) thought to please humans and
31
visiting deities alike. In dramatizing the ceremony, Astita used a seventone semar pegulingan to which was added a large array of hanging
gongs, kulkul (slit drums used as ceremonial signals), a bedug drum, and
assorted found instruments. The stage was filled with instruments and
players, who would alternately or simultaneously sing sacred melodies,
beat the kulkul, and play excerpts of music that evoke various sacred
ensembles and repertoireangklung, lelambatan music of the gamelan
gong (kebyar), and traditional semar pegulingan pieces, among others.
Thus the idea of using modal contrast on a single seven-tone gamelan as
a means of evoking distinct styles, with associated repertoire and instrumentation, was introduced. Selected sections of Eka Dasa Rudra were
later rearranged as a purely instrumental work for gamelan semar
pegulingan, entitled Semara Winangun (circa 1981).
Several years later, two new sendratari works were performed during
the 1985 Bali Arts Festival that demonstrated the growing interest in
seven-tone music. One was the Satya, with music by Ketut Gede Asnawa
and choreography by his classmate Made Wiratini; it was created as their
graduation piece from ASTI. In its instrumentation Asnawa combined
two gamelan sets, the seven-tone semar pegulingan with gong kebyar,
inspired no doubt by Pak Beratas concurrent experiments in this direction. While the overall point of departure and stylistic frame in Satya is
that of semar pegulingan style, kebyar textures emerge as striking dramatic contrasts. In this way Asnawa moved towards a greater intermingling or interpenetration of these two styles, along with their
respective orchestrational techniques. Each remained, however, essentially distinct, since the composers goal was (like Beratas) to use stylistic
juxtaposition for dramatic contrast and/or characterization, and not to
attempt to hybridize them. Thus, semar pegulingan style sections never
employ reong or ocak-ocakan patterns; kebyar sections are always in selisir
mode, and the overall orchestrational texture and structuring of colotomic and melodic patterns remain in similar stylistic accordeither one
or the other, briefly overlapping but never completely wedded.
Nyoman Windhas Kindama (also an ASTI graduation work, with
choreography by Swasthi Bandem) went much further. It was the first
and only work to use the newly fashioned gamelan genta pinara pitu,
which Windha skillfully exploited. Inspired by Beratas instrumental
melding, Windha crafted sections that reflected it in corresponding stylistic combinations, now true fusions of not only semar pegulingan and
kebyar, but other styles as well including angklung, leluangan, and a quotation of Javanese gamelan. The first slow section of the work
(pengadeng), for example, combines kebyar orchestration and drumming,
syncopated reong elaboration based on leluangan style, and modal shifts
32
between selisir and tembung. This section of Kindama may well be the
first clear expression of seven-tone tonal resources within kebyar textures.
And while the means of effecting the modal shifts in this section remain
in accord with traditional principles as outlined above (Example 8), other
passages in Kindama push the limits of one in particular, that of formal
positioning. Many modal shifts take place directly at formal boundaries,
in alignment with dramatic changes in texture, tempo, melodic contour,
and other features. They arrive without preparation, and are not the
result of melodic manipulation in the classical manner. An element of
freedom is clearly evident.
One passage in particular concentrates and frames the essence of stylistic and modal contrast in a striking fashion. After a lengthy first section,
entirely in tembung mode and semar pegulingan style/orchestration, a
kebyar-like passage suddenly bursts inthe first full orchestral texture of
the piecewithin which a phrase is stated first in tembung and then
immediately restated in selisir (see Example 13). The introduction of a
new mode is combined with an extreme ritardando, coming to rest with
the gong stroke that begins the first slow section of the work, the
pengadeng with leluangan elaboration described above. This bridge
thereby divides the piece, in a concentrated and dramatically effective
manner, between the semar pegulingan-based introduction, and the
broad kebyar-style pengawak that it prepares. Through passages such as
this, Kindama set a high water mark for seven-tone, multi-stylistic composition that would not be surpassed for at least a decade.
A few years after this (1988), a significant collection of works from the
traditional seven-tone repertoire was revived at ASTI, culminating in a
two-volume cassette release on the most popular local recording label,
Bali Record. The pieces recorded included both new arrangements of
gambuh and pre-existing semar pegulingan pieces, and included the participation of faculty and senior students. (In fact, one of the compositions, Langsing Tuban, had already been arranged from its gambuh
original by Ketut Gede Asnawa as part of his 1985 graduation concert,
and was performed together with Satya.)33 This recording project had a
great deal to do with further spreading interest in saih pitu repertoire,
since by then cassettes had become one of the primary media of musical
exchange in Bali.
From the opposite direction, and during the same period, the mainstream kebyar tradition began to reveal musicians increasing familiarity
with seven-tone resources. At first, these occurrences were either quite
brief, transitional, or layered upon a musical core which remained
essentially pentatonic, generated from the selisir tones of kebyar music.
This is no surprise, since initial experiments in this direction predated the
E XAM P L E
13 :
33
EXCERP T FRO M KIN D A MA, BY NYOMAN WINDHA, IN ITS
O R IGINA L S EN D RA T A RI A RRA NGEMENT
(1985)
creation of the gamelan semara dana, and for that reason kebyar music
utilized, by definition, gamelan gong kebyar instrumentation. The only
instruments capable of exploring unusual scales were the bamboo flutes
(suling) or, rarely, voicethe only non-percussion instruments in the
orchestra, which lie in a distinct orchestrational stratum and are peripheral to the primary musical architecture. Even after the new hybrid
gamelans were created, composers continued to utilize normal gong
kebyar instrumentation, assigning seven-tone excursions to flutes and
voice only. The reason for this has to do with performance context: the
single most important forum for new kebyar works has been, and continues to be, the island-wide gamelan competitions (Mrdangga Utsawa) of
the Bali Arts Festival (Pesta Kesenian Bali). Since Festival rules dictate
the type of gamelan usedfive-tone gamelan gong kebyar of explicitly
defined instrumentationalmost all experimentation in the mainstream
musical tradition of kebyar was done on this standardized set. The
gamelan semara dana was still a new and rare beast, unfamiliar and
unavailable to most musicians, and in any case regarded as a specialized
medium for dramatic accompaniment as typified in the few new seven-
34
tone works mentioned above. The overwhelming majority of composers

were born and bred in the pentatonic world of kebyar (some say, ruled
by it); and felt no compositional necessity to break free, in Harry Partchlike fashion, of its scalar limitations. Their imaginations were sufficiently
preoccupied in the many other spheresrhythmic, melodic, orchestrational, stylistic, formalin which development of the contemporary
kebyar vernacular was taking place.
In light of the above, it is not surprising that the first excursions of kebyar music into extended scales happened quite unobtrusively, as the two
rogue notes, with all their latent powers and meanings, tiptoed into kebyar space. One of their first appearances came about through a layering of
distinct traditions, as the normally ametric and unaccompanied vocal
melodies known as kidung, which frequently make use of six or even
seven tones, started to be combined with five-tone gamelan. This was
primarily the handiwork of Wayan Sinti, who collaborated with the highly
regarded musician and scholar Nyoman Rembang in the goal of reintroducing religious vocal music to secular gamelan performance. The
floating and hauntingly beautiful kidung melodies, originally allied with
the seven-tone gamelan gambang ritual orchestra (in a manner and
tradition now apparently lost), were accompanied by five-tone gamelan
gong kebyar. The earliest product of Sinti and Rembangs collaboration
was Gita Suadita, premiered at the 1978 all-Bali gamelan competitions.
Although such works, known collectively as gegitaan, were not immediately popular, this thread was later picked up and promoted by the local
government. The eventual result was a new choral/gamelan form called
sandhya gita, which appeared in the mid-1980s. In it, seven-tone vocal
melodies are often used, sometimes in two- or three-part textures based
on a Western choral aestheticbut always with normal gamelan gong
kebyar accompaniment (Wallis 1995).
The other, more important, locus of tonal expansion was within the
ametric and freely ornamented flute solos that typically introduced the
first major cyclic section of tabuh kreasi in then-current form. This practice was a natural application of a long-established practice. Flute players
have always had the freedom to accompany singers on momentary excursions into distant tonal territories as needed, for example in arja, topeng,
or other dramatic vocal forms. In the tabuh kreasi context, inclusion of a
flute solo (traceable, perhaps, to the bird-like suling trills of the piece
Gambang Suling, a Javanese tune adapted to Balinese gamelan, ca. 1955)
was as much the innovation as the appearance of tones foreign to the
kebyar scale. That fact, combined with the contrasting texture and character of these sectionsa single suling is no more than a delicate flutter
compared to the dense metallic texture of a full bronze gamelangave
35
these tones more the character of pamero, simple coloristic or borrowed

tones, than signposts of newly established modes.34 This remained the
overall impression even after the solo player was replaced by a whole
chorus of flutes, as later became the norm.
By the late 1980s, familiarity with seven-tone scales had grown, and
the two extra tones started to take on a life of their own even in the overwhelmingly selisir environment of kebyar. They started cropping up not
only in flute solos, but in the middle of orchestral textures, in passages
that effected true shifts into modal territory. This was accomplished
through a neat orchestrational trick: the bronze instruments would simply rest at the precise moments the two added pitches (numbers 4 and 7
in the chart) were played by the sulingleaving out a quarter-note here,
an eighth-note thereas if keys for those tones existed throughout the
orchestra but simply werent struck. With enough suling players, the brief
bronze dropouts were relatively unnoticeable, and a pseudo seven-tone
gamelan could be conjured into momentary existence. An example of
this occurs in Windhas work Jagra Parwata, played during the 1991
Festival by the kebyar group from the village of Munduk in the northern
Balinese district of Buleleng.35 Windha pairs the modal innovation with a
formal one: in the middle of the bapangthe fast and showy central section of tabuh kreasi which typically feature virtuosic drum variations and
tutti orchestral interjectionshe unexpectedly eases back the tempo and
ushers in a lilting 64-beat tune in sunaren mode, accompanied by drum
patterns deriving from pengecet meters (see Example 14; see also the
Appendix for an explanation of notation). The effect of this phrase was so
novel that, during the excitement of its premiere performance in the heat
of festival competition, the crowd of six thousand burst into applause.36
More complex use of seven-tone materials was made in the following
years by Wayan Gede Yudana, whose radical musical innovations have
played an important role in Balinese musical development by encouraging a more experimental approach to the composition of kebyar instrumental music. In several of his mid-1990s tabuh kreasi, Yudanas seventone flute lines attained a new level of integration within the total conception of the work, a result of their textural complexity, combination
with other gamelan instruments, extended length, and novel placement
(appearing periodically throughout the piece rather than in the opening
sections only). The entire fabric of his pieces was so experimental, that
the excursion into new tonal territory did not seem an anomaly of established kebyar style; it was but one strangely crafted element among
many.37
By the late 1990s, the gamelan semara dana had proliferated not only
throughout Ubud but Denpasar as well, and the momentum of
36
EXAM P L E
14:
EXCERP T FRO M T HE BA P A N G OF JAGR A PAR WATA
(K E N D A N G, CEN G- CEN G, A ND KA JAR OMITTED)
37
innovation with seven-tone materials started to be felt by many composers. In 1998, Ketut Suandita, a student at STSI, presented as his graduation piece a highly concentrated work for gamelan semara dana entitled
Maha Yuga, performed by the virtuosic musicians from the Denpasarbased club, Sanggar Printing Mas. Here, finally, seven-tone materials
were treated with near-complete freedom, in a stylistic and orchestrational context that was overwhelmingly kebyar-based. Maha Yuga
made abundantly clear that the seven-tone colors could now be treated
freely, as unconstrained but richly associative elements in kebyar instrumental composition.
TH E IN N O VATIO NS
OF
GEREGEL
In light of its background, Dewa Alits Geregel can be seen as a synthesis

of innovations, tendencies, and latent possibilities that had been in the air
for several years. Like many pivotal works in the development of musical
styles, its achievements lie not in any single technical breakthrough (most
of which had already happened in others works) but in the stunning way
that these potentialities are realized.
In terms of modal use, perhaps the most immediate way to demonstrate the degree to which Alit has departed from traditional models is a
graph of the entire piece, along a real-time axis, comparing Geregel with
two traditional seven-tone semar pegulingan pieces that use more than
one mode (see Example 15). While such a graphic should be read with
care since it distorts the psychological time of musical perception, it
makes the relative use of modal contrast clear. Note that, in contrast even
to certain classical models, nowhere in Geregel is there any ambiguity in
mode whatsoever. While Alit may occasionally combine more than one
mode vertically, and often switch rapidly between them horizontally, his
colors always remain pure. On the other hand, one of the most striking
sections of the piece (occurring twice in the pengecet, and described in
detail in Example 24) combines selisir with slendro gede mode, covering
all seven tones and therefore in contrast to the classical principle of combining only closely related modes.
Formally, Geregel lies in an unusual and particular relationship to the
usual tripartite formula gineman/bapang/pengecet of mid-to-late
twentieth-century tabuh kreasi style (summarized in Example 16), itself a
reinterpretation of the classical kawitan/pengawak/pengecet form that
originated in gambuh and gong gede repertoire.38
The difficulties arise because Geregel diverges from this layout on several levels affecting fore- to middle-ground structure, rendering this
38
LANGSING TUBAN
overlapping areas = ambiguous modal use
tembung
selisir
a
kawitan
a'
pemalpal
pengawak
pengecet
(3x)
(many repetitions)
pekaad
SUMAMBANG JAWA
sunaren
baro
partial
repeat
kawitan
pengawak
(2x)
pengecet
(2x)
GEREGEL
selisir
tembung
sunaren
slendro alit
slendro gede
partial
repeat
kawitan/kotekan group
minutes
E XAM P L E
15:
bapang
pengecet
(2x)
penyuwud
10
12
14
16
REA L -T IME GRA P H O F T H E P A TUTAN USED IN TWO
TRA DIT IO NA L P IECES , A ND IN G E R E GE L
archetypal design obscure. The composer himself claims to have thrown

out all normative models of formal construction in this work. Although
he uses a tripartite designation of sectionshe mentions kawitan (with
kotekan), bapang, and pengecet (with penyuwud)these were for him
mere wadah, empty vessels, to be filled with new material. Retaining
these names was, to him, a mere convention and practical convenience,
since they offer a means to communicate formal positions to the musicians in rehearsal.
Despite this claim, some of the landmarks of tabuh kreasi formal archetype are still faintly recognizable: the cyclic islands of the kotekan, bapang
and gambangan-like closing section (his penyuwud) all occur in more or
less typical formal positions and retain a generic resemblance to their
models. In the most general terms, we still see aspects of the three-part
design operating in the proportion and relative position of cyclic,
39
1. Gineman / kotekan group

a. Gineman: Opening statements for the gangsa, reong, and low instrument groups,
typically ametric and/or fragmented, separated by pauses which highlight the
instruments long sustain. Alternately, a kebyar opening: a dynamic orchestral tutti of
short ametric phrases.
b. Kotekan: A single, long, regularly pulsed melody with elaborate interlocking
guration (kotekan) played predominantly or entirely by the gangsa group; repeated
once or twice.
2. Bapang group
a. Peralihan (transition): lead-in to bapang proper
b. Bapang: The next large cyclic island, often consisting of one or more ostinati
(typically 8, 16 or 32 beats in length) in very fast tempi; elaborated with passages
successively highlighting the various instrumental sections (kendang/ceng-ceng,
reong, gangsa), with occasional tutti orchestral interjections.
3. Pengecet (or gambangan)
a. Peralihan (transition): lead-in to pengecet proper
b. Pengecet : A series of full orchestral statements in a medium or medium-fast
tempo, often in a balanced phrase structure (e.g. 8 + 8 or 16 + 16 beats). The overall
atmosphere is that of relaxed and regular tunefulness, in contrast to the dynamic
material of previous sections.
c. Short codetta (penyuwud)
EXA MP L E
16:
T Y P ICA L FO RMA L LAYOUT OF A
L A T E-T WENT IET H-CENT U RY T AB UH K R E ASI
regularly metrical material compared to transitional and/or ametric,

irregular material. As a result the overall dramatic arch of tabuh kreasi
form is still traceable through opening, middle, and closing areas, despite
the many strange detours along the way.
Contextualizating the piece within such a conventional model
requires, however, some double-edged sword work; it can both reveal
and distract us from what makes it so special. More than a form to be
filled or discarded, the kawitan/bapang/pengecet framework was a familiar place for Alit to hang his hat while he peered over a workbench filled
with strange and exciting gizmos, old reliable parts, and new tools; his
fascinated delight in taking things apart and putting them back together
again in novel or eccentric rearrangements is apparent throughout. For
example, the section Alit labels as bapang, while based characteristically
on a short ostinato and featuring drum variations, is a bizarre assembly:
the ostinato is no single eight-beat line with jublag and jegogan abstraction, but a three-voice contrapuntal texture played on the low instrument
group, six beats long, in tembung mode. Above this backdrop and
around the drum variations, the gangsas intersperse dry, staccato interlocking patterns, in selisir, deliberately reminiscent of vocal kecak texture.
40
The extended section that Alit refers to as a pengecet (it occupies, in

real time, about half the pieces total length) has even less kinship to traditional models. Here, instead of the preceding, so-called bapang section,
is found some of the material we might expect in a bapangfast tempi,
boldly drawn full orchestra textures with rhythmic ocak-ocakan, and kebyar outbursts. But strange things happen in the wake of these kebyar outbursts: several seem to become unraveled and peter out, almost
questioningly, into nowhere: long silences for the entire orchestra. A
couple of the phrases are then restarted in further kebyar episodes, as if
the music had just lost its way temporarily. At another point, the long
silence following one such phrase is dotted by pointillist gineman-type
fragments, only to gallop onward to a fake finish. And twice these kebyar
sections suddenly veer off into slow sections of completely alien character, orchestration, and metric design. Taken together, the net result is a
collage-like conglomeration of vividly contrasting stuff that has little to
do with the squarely assertive character of most bapang. For that reason
it is difficult to dismiss Alits designation as a simple misnomer. On the
other hand, none of this material, either separately and certainly not in
this unique amalgam, reveals the regular, balanced phrase structure and
relaxed character of most contemporary pengecet sections, as glossed in
Example 16. Clearly Alits goal lies in exploring new dramatic designs
and (as he would say) atmospheres, by playing with the sequence and
assembly of recognizable materials, almost in a cubist fashion, in the section in which composers are usually content to coast along on stylistic
autopilot.
The grand pauses of this pengecetrests of astonishing duration for
any tabuh kreasi, which riddle the latter half of the work like the holes in
Swiss cheesealso merit special note in contextualizing Geregel. Aside
from the dramatic value of these rests on a local level, they create unprecedented textural openings in the sonic world of the tabuh kreasi. No
other tabuh kreasi has them. They are breaches in the monolithic wall of
metallic gamelan sound, allowing air and light inside. Although young
composers understand breath quite well, having been well trained by
their teachers to appreciate its power in classical forms, they find it difficult in their own compositions to resist filling every possible space with
ornate detail. Alit seems to know this, since he plays with our surprise:
following a series of such long rests, an assertive tutti kebyar statement
breaks in and drives relentlessly towards a conclusive gong, seeming to
end it all. Here, in live performance, the musicians put their heads down
on their instruments as if to say, Sorry, its all over. But a moment later
they pop upright again as a melodic fragment sneaks back in on the two
jublag, and the piece is again re-started (to inevitable applause at the
false-ending effect).39 In the immediate drama of seeing Geregel
41
performed live, these grand pauses and foiled expectations, combined

with the works many other innovations of form and mode, leave the listener thinking, What just happened?a confused and thoughtful
afterglow of impressions.
In vertical construction, Geregel also reaches far beyond typical tabuh
kreasi textures. The degree of contrapuntal interplay between the various
sections is as great or greater than other Balinese kreasi to date. Alit does
not accomplish this by piling on additional strata within the total texture,
but by subdividing the various sections of the orchestra, while giving
each greater independence and/or a novel way of interrelating to the
others. The gangsa, for example, are almost always divided between the
four pemade and the four higher-octave kantilan; the low instrument
group is often divided into independent lines for the pairs of penyacah,
jublag, and jegogan. Even the reong (whose four players usually work as
an indivisible team) is divided, in one section, between two lower and
two higher players moving in separate melodic and metric strata. These
divisions are occasionally further augmented by the vertical combination
of modes, such as the bapang-with-kecak mentioned above, in tembung
and selisir. In fact, the interpart relationships seem so contrapuntally conceived, and the orchestrational strands so distinct, that at certain
moments it is difficult to hear Geregel in the usual heterophonic terms. In
this regard it only stretches, but never breaks, the primary vertical force
of the unison and octave, as is evident in several excerpts discussed below.
SE L ECTE D EX CERP T S
The very first phrases of Geregel already stake out the new turf the piece
will explore with a sense of expectant drama. Part of the drama is borrowed from the tabuh kreasi style and kebyar music in general, in which
the most characteristic opening gambit is the presentation of a series of
short contrasting phrases, each pausing on a tone that is allowed to ring
out in a long vibrating decay. Such an opening section is known as a
gineman, a descendent of the classical gineman trompong in which the
player of this lead melody instrument improvised a short lead-in to the
piece proper, pausing with repeated notes on the important pitches. In
modern contexts, the opening phrases of a gineman are often treated as
small semi-independent islands, ranging in texture from simple unison
lines to fast, metered outbursts of interlocking frenzy. The vibrating
pauses in between help create a sense of wide-eyed expectation; anything might followthough, in most kreasi, what does follow is predictable stuff. In Geregel, it is not. The piece launches with a statement of
interlocking octaves resounding through the gangsa and low
42
metallophone families. This is an opening of such uniqueness that its

unambiguous re-statements later in the piece (it will occur four more
times, in varied orchestration, to announce new sections) become clear
formal markers.40 The octaves are followed by two short contrasting
melodic statements, first from the two jublag and then the suling group,
both with jegogan underlining. The jublag line picks up the tempo of the
opening in a short upward melodic flourish; this is answered by sustained
tones from the suling group, moving at a freer, more tranquil pace. But
the little drama of their contrast is bathed in a strange light: they are both
in slendro alit modeour first hint that we are off on a unique excursion
(see Example 17).
Following this is a short fast motif played by the kantilan, still in
slendro alit. Aside from the mode, this is the kind of fast and rhythmically
jagged outburst that we would expect in the opening phrases of a tabuh
E XAM P L E
17:
T HE O P ENING INT ERL O C K ING OCTAV ES
AN D FO L L O WING T WO P H RA S ES OF GE R E GE L
43
kreasi. But it is followed immediately by its restatement in selisir mode,

now played by the entire gangsa section. Then, as if to declare in no
uneven terms his intent to explore new modal relationships, Alit presents
the fragment a third time, now in a combination of those two modes plus
a third, tembung, creating arresting parallelisms (Example 18).
Herein, in microcosm, lies the special drama of Geregel, the kebyar sensationalist promise admirably fulfilled. Not only are the seven-tone
materials laid out unequivocally in the first few phrases, but the modal
contrasts are underlined with a heavy marker. Patutan are often defined
as moods, or atmospheres (suasana), and by allowing the atmospheres
to clash, lightning-like, in the immediate dramatic foreground, Alit has
EXA MP L E
18:
T H E CL A S H OF PATUTAN
44
made plain his awareness of their powers. We sense the mad scientist at
work.
Having introduced selisir, three mysterious tremolo swells emerge
from the reong, and suddenly were off on a galloping swirl of interlocking reong parts over a nimble melody of changing meters. Each measure
is repeated, and a miniature AABBAA form is created. The return of AA
finds an angular kantilan countermelody added (see Example 19).
EXAM P L E
19:
THE
AABBAA
P H RA S E O F RE ONG FIG UR ATION
45
The generative rhythmic device here is the constant shifting between

5
duple and triple groups, represented in this transcription by the 4
3
(divided into 2 + 3) and 4 meters. Playing with these elements on a beatto-beat level is characteristic of current tabuh kreasi language, a natural
outgrowth of the 3:2 crossrhythm that is the basic stuff of interlocking
patterns. This will shortly be picked up and developed on a faster level of
subdivision (eighth notes), fomenting some beat ambiguities in the
process.
The next phrase, notated in Example 20, begins with a simple extension of the previous one, with the A material now taken over by the
gangsas. The orchestrational change is heightened by another modal
one: the music has shifted upwards into tembungthe third clearly
expressed mode of the piece, barely a minute out of the gate. The rapid
gangsa figuration reaches into the instruments upper registers, while
metric ambiguities multiply in the penyacah/jublag tune as a half-beat is
dropped. Without a beat-keeping kajar to spell it out, its left to melodic
grouping and jegogan reinforcement to suggest a new beat (or obscure
the previous one). The modal shifting continues, as the tune drops down
into selisir before reaching upwards once more into tembung. This is a
natural alliance of mode and register considering the layout of the gangsa
keys on this gamelan, since the lower registers of both gangsa and reong
contain only the notes of selisir, while the higher octaves contain all seven
tones (see Example 12 above). Finally, a cadence-like melodic gesture
brings a clear downbeat and pause on dong of tembung (here, the note
F), and a short solo of the two kendang pops out.
Immediately following the brief drum solo is the first restatement of
the openings interlocking octaves, along with the two melodic slendro
phrases that follow, all unaltered, as shown earlier in Example 14. We
realize that the first point of larger formal articulation has been reached.
But following the tranquil suling melody is something new: a kotekan, in
the proper sense of the word,41 entirely in slendro alit and in a relaxed
medium-fast tempo (by Balinese standards) of = 132 (see Example 21).
This is the first cyclic section of the piece, which starts quite simply on
gong without the usual lead-in or preparation, perhaps in accord with its
cheerful character. The kotekan is repeated twice with changing dynamic
profiles, a routine compositional process.
In this section the composer reveals his skills and willingness to reexamine kebyar materials. First, the nature of the contrapuntal treatment
is quite un-Balinese. Normally, melodic structure is characterized both by
a clear hierarchy of metric stratification, as each part moves at twice or
four times the rate of the one below; and heterophonic organization,
whereby all parts meet regularly in unisons or octaves. In more
46
E XAM P L E
20:
E XT ENS IO N INT O T EMBUN G MO DE; BEAT AMBIG UITIES;

T H E FIRS T ENT RY O F KEN DANG
EXA MP L E
20
47
( CO NT. )
conventional terms, all melodic parts (i.e., excluding drums, ceng-ceng,

and punctuating gongs) are either faster elaborations or slower distillations of a core melody. Here, such organizing principles are not ignored,
but freely reinterpreted. A core melody (the prevailing tune of the section, doubled by the suling) is indeed present. But the other parts weave
around it in unusual ways. The jegogan line, for example, is an elegant
countermelody rather than simple abstraction. Not only is it crafted
rhythmically to move mostly during the pauses (i.e., the held tones) of
the jublag line, but its undulations in two-note, short-long groups
(bracketed in Example 21) are loose metric expansions of the two-note
groups in the jublag line. The two top lines, for pemade and kantilan,
relate to one another in a similar contrapuntal manner, though inverted:
the lower line is the faster one. Taken together, the two upper lines show
a kinship in metric interrelationship and melodic contour, contrasting
with that of the lower lines.
One result of all this counterpoint is many clashesvertical simultaneities of neighboring or two-degree-distant scale tones, by Balinese reckoningwhich can be found at almost every jegogan tone. Here there are
48
EXAM P L E
21:
T HE KO T EKA N, IN S L ENDR O ALIT MODE
49
two possible factors at work. From the kebyar perspective, such simultaneities are the dissonance of the current musical vernacular, and
represent the pulling apart of essential musical glue of traditional models.
This is analogous to late nineteenth-century chromaticism in European
music, where an expansion of certain aspects of tonal harmony
threatenedbut did not yet overridethe gravitational forces that held
the system together. In Bali, the analogous primal force is the gong tone,
the point of metric resolution and unison convergence. In this section,
both the gong tone (on ding of slendro alit, here G) and the main
internal downbeat of the phrase (on dang, here F, indicated in Example
21) indeed act as polarizing axes around their respective notes. But these
two primary points are somewhat impure: though brief and (as the
composer points out) probably unnoticeable, the pemade part falls on
adjacent tones at those precise moments. Similarly, a scan of vertical
events at each jegogan tone reveals only a general, not complete, convergence around unisons and octaves.42
The other possible factor at work in these slight clashes is the mode
itself, through its associations to non-kebyar gamelan styles. Slendro is the
patutan of gender wayang music, the accompaniment to the Balinese
shadow puppet play. Gender music contrasts with that of larger bronze
gamelan ensembles, since the players usually execute both the core melody (with their left hands) and its elaboration (in their right). The coexistence of both lines on a single instrumental plane has affected their
interrelationship, since the melodic strands can overlap or intermingle.
Though different in function, the two parts are identical in timbre: both
are played with hard mallets and have the same richly metallic attack
partials (unlike large gamelan in which the contrasting timbres of rubbertipped vs. hard mallets help differentiate the pokok from elaborating
parts). On the gender, the left hands are thereby able to jump into the
fray and participate in percussive interlocking patterns. At other
moments, the normal relationship is turned upside down, as the players
right hands carry the core melody while the left elaborates in interlocking
figurations. And sometimes both parts are involved in textures that simply leave aside the usual dichotomy of core melody and elaboration. In
this milieu, simultaneities of adjacent tones (as opposed to the more
acceptable unison, octave, and four-note kempyung) regularly occur. The
nature of slendro scales themselves no doubt also play a role in allowing
these freedoms. Since every interval is a major second or larger, simultaneities of adjacent tones are less clashing than they would be in a typical
pelog scale. Wayang music, in short, uses a language of traditionally
greater vertical freedom, which Alit may be borrowing as desirable
baggage of the slendro scale.
50
This section shows yet another curious feature: the fastest part, played
by the four pemade, resembles in its rhythmic shape and dispersion of
rests one part of an interlocking pair in modern kebyar language. But
where is the other part? Leaving it out seems like sacrilege from a
Balinese composer, for whom interlocking elaborations form the predominant surface texture and substance of most pieces, and whose entire
performance aesthetic is shot through with expressions of complementary dualities or opposites (the ruwa bhineda principle). The reason
can be surmised by looking at the total fabric of this section. If a complementary interlocking part were included, following the usual practice,
the composite of the two parts would be a continuous or nearcontinuous stream of notes at the fastest level of subdivision (here
notated as sixteenth notes). Example 22 shows such a hypothetical part
added to the original line. If played in a balanced and well-coordinated
fashion, the individuality of each part would be, as in all kotekan, subsumed in the composite. That would cause the quirky offbeats and disjunct contours of the original, un-paired part to effectively disappear,
along with its motivic relationship to the kantilan line.43 Transparency
would be also lost since the interlocking gangsas would form a denser
line than the others, compromising the contrapuntal clarity that is
obviously Alits goal.
E XAM P L E
22:
A H Y P O T H ET ICA L S ECO ND INT E R LOCK ING PAR T ADDED

T O T H E SL EN D RO KO T EKAN
51
A side effect of this treatment is a curious little in-joke: in the context

of prevailing stylistic norms in kebyar, this sections attributes, including
tempo, melodic contour, and formal position, give it the character of
the kotekan of the piece, a landmark feature of modern tabuh kreasi
form.44 But by leaving out one of the parts Alit has removed the essence
of kotekan itself, so that what remains are all the attributes of the
kotekan except the very one for which it is named.
Skipping ahead to the pengecet, we arrive at one of the most striking
passages in the entire work (Example 23), featuring an eccentric melody
in slendro gede mode for the suling/jublag/penyacah group. The contour
of this melody, as well as the metric design, modal combination, and
orchestration of the other parts, make the passage unlike anything else in
Geregel, and certainly an anomaly in its placement among the bapang-like
full orchestral textures that surround it. The melody, prominently heard
(the gangsa, kendang, and ceng-ceng are silent), is distinguished not only
by its mode, found nowhere else in the piece, but by its unusual leaps and
off-beat note repetitions in the approach to gong. It is cast in further
relief by the fact that the other parts, reong and jegogan, are in selisir, and
relate to it in oblique ways on several levels.
Metrically, the section is another cyclic island, seven slow beats in
lengththough the metric rate, as expressed by the beat-keeping kajar,
has been shifted to a quarter-speed of the surrounding material, so that
the section occupies 28 beats of space relative to it. In typical fashion for
such a change in irama (metric level), one stratum of elaborating parts
has been correspondingly subdivided, with the result that its density ends
up the same as the fastest stratum of the previous sections texture. The
net effect might be compared to a highly elastic canvas stretched out to
twice or quadruple its length, with the newly available space filled in with
ornate detail. Changes between irama, an important feature in both
Balinese and Javanese music (and highly codified in the latter), are normally effected by a gradual process between sections: as the music undergoes a ritardando (or, in the opposite direction, accelerando), a point is
reached at which various strata are subdivided (or condensed) and related
changes are introduced, so that the new texture is established before the
structural downbeatnormally marked by a gong strokethat marks the
new section.
In this case, however, the new metric texture arrives quite suddenly at
the gong stroke, fully formed, highlighting the abrupt change in mode
and other striking attributes of the section. The metric retooling penetrates into the elaborating parts, which are played entirely on reong in an
unusual division of parts. Rather than doubling at the octave, the two
lower and two upper reong players are decoupled and play separate
composite parts. The upper pair, now the fastest level of subdivision
52
E XAM P L E
23:
EXCERP T FRO M T H E P EN GE CE T OF GE R E GE L
53
mentioned above, moves at twice the rate of the lower pair, so that the
two are cast in distinct melodic and metric layers. Adding to the strangeness of the orchestration, the higher part also features agogic ocak-ocakan
during the last several beats, seldom heard unallied to kendang and cengceng. In a parallel manner, the two jegogan are decoupled from the
melody group, their normal partners, and instead accompany the reong in
its selisir explorations. Note also the syncopated placement of kempur and
kemong strokes, reinforcing, together with the jegogan, vertical alignments of structural tones at unexpected points in the horizontal flow.
The last section of Geregel, the penyuwud, also manifests unique modal
and textural construction. Alit again puts a combination of modes on display in a new frame, treating them not as the basis of melodic construction, but as vertically cast pitch fields that are contrasted successively. The
result is an almost chordal effect, as a single dense texture is reharmonized in a steadily rotating progression through three modes,
selisir, slendro alit, and tembung. The patterning of the texture has a great
deal to do with the chordal impression: both the pokok melody and its
elaborations span, within each eight-beat gongan, all the notes of the current mode in unusually disjunct and angular contours, almost an arpeggiation. This shape is projected into the kantilan part, here doubled by
suling, in a mid-rate stratum of elaboration (represented in Example 23
by eighth notes), and into the pemade parts in a web-like figuration at the
fastest rate. This particular style of interlocking figuration, with its many
repeating notes and leaps, is not new; it originates in complex two-hand
techniques developed for the sacred bamboo ensemble gambang, which
were first borrowed in a composition for large bronze gamelan in the
early twentieth century.45
Alits use and placement of gambangan-like kotekan is, therefore, no
innovation. But its characteristic texture is exploited in a new way by the
block-like manner of cycling through the three modes. Each shift takes
place directly on the gong stroke, with no melodic preparation of any
kind, in contrast to the traditional treatment of modal change as a
melodic process that takes place before, after, but seldom exactly on, a
structural downbeat. The result is a kaleidoscopic effect of shifting colors.
Example 24 illustrates the contrasts for the first twelve gongan, four
repetitions in each of the three modes. Reong, kendang, ceng-ceng, and
kajar are omitted here, since they impose yet another overlay on a larger
formal level, discussed below.
This thick texture undergoes unusual rhythmic and metric manipulations. The kajar, normally the rock-steady and constant beat keeper in
such a texture, instead alternates at each eight-beat gongan between onbeat and off-beat playing, as shown in Example 25.
54
EXAM P L E
24:
T H E P EN YUWUD ( FINA L ) S EC TION OF GE R E GE L
(R E O N G, KEN D A N G, CEN G- CEN G, A ND KAJAR OMITTED)
E XAM P L E
25:
55
T H E KA JA R P A RT O F GEREG E LS PE NY UWUD SECTION
Allied with the kajar is a complex rhythmic ocak-ocakan part performed by reong, kendang, and ceng-ceng, shown in Example 26. (For
clarity the kendang and ceng-ceng are not notated, since they are realizations of the same part.) In synchronization with the kajar beat shifts, the
ocak-ocakan is also divided into two eight-beat halves; in the second eight
the reong byot chords are moved over one-sixteenth note to more
syncopated positions. Despite the fact that everything else in this texture
remains solidly and steadily in eight, these rhythmic manipulations convey an impression that the beat is inverted every other gongan, as if a half
beat were being added and then again subtracted.
E XAM P L E
26:
T H E O CA K- O CA KA N IN GERE GE LS PE NY UWUD SECTION

(KEN D A N G A ND CEN G- CEN G NOT SHOWN)
Following this, the reong and kendang fill out the next two eight-beat
gongan of each modal area with more typical elaboration (not notated
here): the reong with an interlocking melodic figuration, and the kendang
with improvised drumming based on arja style.
One of the challenges of performing this section is that the drummers
must suddenly switch to different sized drums with each modal change:
the largest, kebyar-style drums are played with selisir; medium-sized
kendang bebancian with slendro alit; and smallest kendang krumpungan
with tembung. Here Alit does not intend a stylistic contrast per se, but a
straightforward orchestrational one resulting from the varying timbre of
each drum type, from heavy and incisive (kebyar) to light and ringing
(krumpungan). This is another instance of the composer simply playing
56
with color, momentarily leaving aside associations to gamelan type, style,

and religious context. The freedom and ease with which he moves across
such boundaries is part of Geregels brilliance.
This penyuwud section, and thus the entire piece, ends with a
progressive elimination and condensation of parts, as if the texture of the
music is being peeled back or disassembled. After the first cycle through
the three modes and return to selisir, the ocak-ocakan are completely
eliminated, thereby shortening each modal area from four to two
ocak-ocakan
kajar:
on beat
free drumming; reong

melodic guration
off beat
on beat
off beat
a |f
|p
b |f
|p
c |f
|p
a |f
b |p kantilan: f
c |
key
a = selisir,
w/ large drums
b = slendro alit,
w/ med. drums
c = tembung,
reong / kendang / ceng-ceng:
f
reong out
a | pemade: f
w/ small drums
kendang /
ceng-ceng out
|
pemade out
c |
|
kantilan out
|
(G)
E XAM P L E
27:
A GRA P HIC REP RES ENT ATION OF THE
P EN YUWUD S FO RMA L P RO CESS
57
gongan. At the same time, Alit uses a well-known device of dynamic

shading in kebyar orchestration, whereby successive sections of the
orchestra play loudly while the others remain quiet. The effect is like
stepping momentarily into the spotlight and then stepping back again.
After this, in the third cycle around the three modes, yet another gongan
is eliminated, so that the length of each is reduced to just one eight-beat
gongan. And now the instrumental families taken even a further step
back, into complete silence, as they drop out one by one. All that is left in
the final cycle is the low instrument group, with punctuating gongs, back
again in the home turf of selisir. This entire process is graphically illustrated in Example 27. Approached in this way, the final gong seems to
arrive undramatically, an impression of deceptive simplicity considering
the sophistication of the preceding process, and indeed of the entire work
before it.
58
A P P ENDIX : K EY
TO
N O TATION
59
N O T ES
With gratitude to many friends for their assistance and support: Dewa
Ketut Alit, the composer of Geregel, for many hours of interviews, transcription sessions (of originally non-notated music), and far-ranging
musical discussions; to Michael Tenzer, for editorial and research assistance as well as his book, Gamelan Gong Keybar (2000), which is referenced throughout this article and forms its most substantial scholarly
foundation; to Peter Simcich, who engraved all musical examples; to
Sarah Willner for extensive editorial suggestions and unflagging support;
to Christopher Burns for assistance with music notation software; and to
Edmundo Luna for editorial assistance.
1. Gandra is well known in his own right through membership in the
near legendary Seka Gong Gunung Sari of Peliatan (known to many
simply as Gong Peliatan), the orchestra which toured the Europe
and U.S. starting in the 1930s.
2. The immediate motivation for its composition was the tour to Bali of
the San Francisco-based group Gamelan Sekar Jaya. The udamani
orchestra, and the village of Pengosekan as a whole, invited Sekar
Jaya to a mabarung performancea traditional battle-of-the-bands
competition between two gamelan groupsat their village pavilion
(wantilan), which took place on July 2, 2000. Dewa Alit reports that
the members of the sanggar requested a new piece from him for the
occasion.
3. Andy McGraw, personal communication from Bali (November
2001).
4. A note on terminology, both Balinese and English: the Balinese
terms translated simply as mode in this article have varying shades
of meaning and association with particular gamelan types and repertoire; here I use only patutan. According to musician and scholar
Wayan Sinti, the term patut(an) means tuning and is associated
with the traditions of semar pegulingan, pelegongan, gong kebyar,
angklung, and gender wayang (which he groups in the so-called
madia or middle aged traditions); the term saih means row or
scale, and is associated with the kuno (ancient) gamelan types
gambang, luang, selonding, all of which are connected with vocal traditions; while the term tetekep (closings) refers to the stopping of
the holes on the suling, the end-blown bamboo flute that features
60
prominently in the gamelan gambuh. There is also the Javanese term

pat(h)et, which is becoming more widely known in Bali (Alit himself
uses this word); however since the Javanese pathet system is so developed, both musically and theoretically, and since it refers to something closely related to, yet clearly distinct from, the Balinese
modes herein described, it is avoided. The Javanese sense of pathet
is, in fact, closer to the most common understanding of the English
term modea hierarchical ordering of tones within a particular
scalar collection, rather than a selection of tonal subsets from a larger
parent scale. It is still a matter of debate whether Balinese patutan
embody such an internal hierarchy in any consistent manner. (See
also note 18 below.) Thus they might themselves arguably be termed
mere scales. However reference to the patutan as modes is already
widespread in literature on Balinese music. In addition, changes
between patutanwithin a single work, or between workscarry
such constellations of associations and subjectively perceived qualities
(described elsewhere in this article) as to warrant the use of mode
rather than the more abstract or neutral quality suggested by scale.
5. In fact, it could be argued that the evolution of the paired tuning
system was made possible by the limited scalar environment, where
there is enough tonal space to accommodate the extra bandwidth
taken up by each paired unison. This is especially noticeable on the
lowest instruments: since paired tuning retains the same beat rate
throughout the entire range, from the lowest jegogan tones all the
way up to kantilan, lower paired unisons are proportionately much
farther apart than higher ones. For the two jegogan, achieving a typical beat rate of about 78 Hz requires a span (penyorog) between
paired tones of 50100 cents, which approaches the size of the
smaller scalar intervals themselves (roughly a semi-tone or slightly
larger). Such potential interference is clearly noticed: some gongsmiths artificially flatten the very lowest note on the jegogan, ding, so
that it is further away from its upper neighbor, dongotherwise the
high partner note, pengisep, of ding approaches too closely the lower
partner note, pengumbang, of dong.
6. While this oft-repeated observation remains true, the degree of difference in tuning between sets has become smaller in recent years.
Traditionally, regional tastes, intended repertoire, and other factors
relating to the individual identity of the group ordering the instruments favored a larger diversity of tunings, both in overall tonal
height (generally how high or low the tuning sat), interval structure,
and treatment of octaves. In the last three or four decades, the effects
61
of mass media such as the cassette, radio, and television industries;

the emergence of the academy performing groups as meta-regional
super stars, and the dissemination of academy-created music and
academy-trained musicians to the villages, have all encouraged a
standardization of taste. Now, when confronted with the question of
tuning in ordering a new set, most buyers simply request STSI tuning. Fortunately, many older gamelan sets are still in use, thus preserving a degree of diversity. And the re-awakening of interest in
seven-tone music may help re-stimulate interest in unusual and individualized tunings.
7. The ding-dong-deng solfge is universally known and used in Bali. It
provides a clear sense of orientation within the scale, and an unambiguous means of communication between musicians. Any musician can convey melodies to another with near perfect accuracyno
matter how much variation might exist between their respective
gamelan tunings, or in abilities of a musician to sing in tune. Identifying the sequence of notes in this way also facilitates the transposition of tunes from one mode to another, or between different kinds
of gamelan.
8. Other terms are sometimes used. In selisir, pitch 4 is also known as
penyorog, pushed tone, while pitch 7 is pemanis, sweetened tone
(Rai 1996, 97).
9. Richter (1992, 211; 216). This is part of a larger phenomenon. In
the actual practice of playing the suling gambuh, there are several
notes that either do not line up in perfect unisons, or fall completely
in the cracks (between consecutive tones) of the other modes.
Another, related, factor is that octaves produced on the suling gambuh are strikingly irregular, sometimes to the point that they are
quite transformed in the outer registers. Most octaves are stretched
while others are perfect or compressed, for varying (and perhaps
unintended) reasons of fingering, melodic contour, and the micromanagement of the flutes strange overtones. Richter presents a frequency chart that demonstrates these irregularities. Balinese musicians seem to delight in such idiosyncratic bends in the road from
one register to the next, placing relatively little value on consistent
octavesa tendency which carries over into the tuning practices of
bronze gamelans.
10. The two versions of pengenter were designated by Nyoman Kaler,
and are reported in Tenzer (2000, 289, footnote 8); and McGraw
(1998, 4); the informant in both cases was Wayan Berata. Wayan
62
Sinti, a theorist, composer, and former student of Nyoman Kaler, has

defined another theoretical mode, which he calls patut panji. Sinti
arrived at this through an investigation of the seven-tone ritual
orchestras gambang and gong luang, comparing them with the
modes of the semar pegulingan in the creation of his own modal
chart. For that reason it varies in several particulars from other interpretations. The other of Sintis theoretical modes, namedjust as
Kalerspengenter, is the same as the baro of the standard chart.
His version of baro, meanwhile, is different from any other, 1-346-7.
Sintis seven-tone system became the basis for an entirely new
gamelan type, dubbed Gamelan Manikasanti, for which he is now
creating or re-arranging compositions that exploit his unusual modal
interpretations.
11. McPhee comments on this theory (which probably originated with
Jaap Kunst) by illustrating an equidistant pentatonic scale alongside an actual slendro scaleand then denying its existence in practice: While Chart 8 may prepare the reader for the strangeness of
the slendro system, it cannot be said that it is ever approached in
Balinese practice. When Balinese slendro tunings are examined, each
is found to create a scale composed of intervals of recognizably different size (1966, 50). However, it should be noted that experimental gamelan tunings utilizing equidistant slendro intervals have
been created outside of Bali, but these have only been a realization of
this same theoretical model.
12. Opinions differ on the historical sequence. McPhee quotes Jaap
Kunst from a 1934 lecture, The Music of Java, as saying, There
cannot be any doubt about the fact that slndro came to Java and Bali
a good many centuries after plog. Plog was perhaps already
imported by Malay-Polynesian peoples who came to Java many centuries before our Christian era. Slndro seems to have entered Java
simultaneously with a later culture in the eighth century AD, when
the dynasty of ailndras ruled the central parts of the island, and to
have derived its name from that same royal family; gamelan slndro =
gamelan ailndra. (1966, 37, footnote 4). Warsadiningrat (1979,
358) claims an opposite, and equally distant, historical relationship:
In the year 287 Saka [365 A.D.] . . . Sang Hyang ndra created a
gamelan, called surndra, which commonly came to be called slndro
. . . In the year 1086 Saka [1164 A.D.] . . . Prabu Jaya Lengkara of
Purwa Carita (the great-grandfather of Radn Panji Inu Kartapati,
Crown Prince of Jenggala) . . . created a gamelan that imitated the
slndro gamelan but with different intervals in the laras [scale]. . . .
63
The sound of the laras was very beautiful. . . . Thus this laras was
called laras plag. It eventually came to be called laras plog. Plag
means good, beautiful, and noble (original brackets and italics).
13. Weintraub describes experimental work in developing an all-inclusive
slendro/pelog gamelan by theorist R.M.A. Kusumadinata (known
also as Pa Machyar) and Jaap Kunst, who worked together in the
1920s and 1930s. They attempted to develop all-inclusive slendro
and pelog systems which encompassed tones played on the fixedpitch instruments (rebab and voice). In 1969, Pa Machyar actually
did develop a set with a 17-tone octave called Ki Pembayun, which
was commissioned, but never played, for the Festival Ramayana at
Prambanan in 1971 . . . According to some musicians who participated in the rehearsals, it was too difficult to play/not worth learning how to play. Musicians say they dont know what happened to it,
but it was probably retuned and divided up into several playable
sets. (Weintraub, quoted here from a 1996 email discussion of multiple tuning antecedents to the Balinese gamelan semara dana.)
14. Marc Perlman and the Javanese musician Widianto, both in personal
communications (September and November 2001, respectively).
15. Tom Hunter, in the introduction to a translation of the Aji Gurnita
(unpublished, 1998).
16. Vickers (1985, 147). For an attempt in the opposite directionto
draw a direct connection between the scalar intermixing described in
the Aji Gurnita and Prakempa and actual musical practicesee
Richter (1992).
17. The alternate solfge number 1 for slendro gede, and that for slendro
alit, were suggested by Ketut Gede Asnawa (personal communication, November 2001) and are based on considerations of consistency with other modes in the pelog context; alternate solfge
number 2 is from Wayan Berata (Tenzer 2000, 278, footnote 8);
and reflects common practice for gender wayang. Alternate solfge
number 3 is from Dewa Putu Berata, older brother of Alit and director of Sanggar udamani.
18. Tenzer (2000, 129), but see also McGraw (2000, 75). Rais thesis
(1996) does indeed explore this aspect of mode in Balinese music,
but with Western harmonic termstonic, dominant, subdominant,
etc.borrowed from Mantle Hoods theory (see Hood 1990).
While Rais work is an important first step in bringing the issues into
the discourse, especially in its application of a single theoretical
64
model to a large sample of seven-tone pieces, an interpretation based

more directly on traditional Balinese melodic and modal conception
is now needed.
19. There are only two exceptions in Rais sample that touch on all seven
tones. One is Sumambang Jawa; this fact explains in part why it has
been designated as the one expression of a seven-tone mode, lebeng.
But, as described above, this interpretation is misleading since the
work is easily understood as a combination of sunaren and baro. The
other is Gending Subandar, but in this case the work is clearly in selisir, with two secondary tonal areas that both might be considered
the result of pamero reiterations (and therefore explained by the first
principle).
20. Personal communication, November 2001.
21. This suggests a parallel to irama shifts (described later in this article)
in choice of formal position. Both are an expressions of a more general principle of formal design in gamelan music, especially in
extended classical meters: areas of greatest activity, density, and
change tend to appear just before large structural downbeats and/or
formal boundaries, while complementary areas of calm, sparseness,
and stasis tend to appear just after such points. The structural downbeats in questions may be at the level of the palet (a single line
within a larger gongan, ending with a punctuating stroke such as
kempur), the gongan, or (to borrow Tenzers terminology) at a
larger, metacycle level.
22. McPhee (1966, 39) illustrates scales from gambuh and semar pegulingan ensembles of the 1930s as starting on ding of tembung (which
he also labels as the first tone of the seven-tone scale), rather than
ding of selisir. In this configuration, tembung is indeed lowest if we
use a common solfge starting point; however, the relationship of
sunaren and selisir does not fit to the current low-middle-high conception. This can only be achieved by combining aspects of the older
interpretation (starting point of the scales) with those of the current
one (the interrelationship of the modes). Such difficulties notwithstanding, the low-middle-high conception is widespread, and gongsmiths report using it in setting the overall pitch of a new gamelan
higher or lower in accord with the stated wishes of the buyer.
23. See McGraw (2000, 713) for a more complete description of these
composers characterizations of the modes, as well as their freedoms
and attitudes in interpreting them.
65
24. For a more detailed study of the decline of the semar pegulingan see
Rai (1996, 516).
25. Marc Perlman, personal communication, September 2001.
26. McGraw (2000, 67) quotes Berata that these two gamelan were
owned by KOKAR, now SMKI. Regarding their overall pitch levels,
it was the norm up until that point that semar pegulingan be tuned
generally higher than gong kebyar. That difference has now disappeared in the creation and tuning of most new instruments, partly
through this very process of hybridization. Thus, for example, the
extreme contrasts between the powerfully low tones of the gamelan
gong kebyar of Perean, and the sweetly delicate high pitch of the
gamelan semar pegulingan saih pitu of Pagan Kelod, are seldom to
be found in recent gamelan sets.
27. Rai (1996, 16) freely translates this as Heavenly Gamelan in the
system of seven tones. (genta = gamelan, pinara = sounds, and
pitu = seven; the heavenly reference is probably Rais acknowledgement of the sacred textual source). Concerning the Prakempa,
Bandems translation appeared two years later, in 1986.
28. Ketut Gede Asnawa, personal communication, September 2001.
29. This is the reason that instrumental evolution tends in the direction
of a widening tonal spectrum, which accommodates the most repertoire on a single instrumentthe same inexorable expansion that the
piano underwent in the eighteenth to nineteenth centuries. A countervailing constraint, specific to gamelan, is responsible for the fact
that certain instruments (e.g., jublag and jegogan) have remained,
with rare exception, limited to one octave in range, despite the ease
in which they might have been expanded in five-tone ensembles.
This may be due to the fact that a deliberately limited range requires
folding over at the extremes to follow the course of a melody that
will, on other instruments of wider range, be realized fully (i.e. in the
form that would be sung as the true melody). This infolding adds
melodic interest on a local level, and contributes to desirable octave
ambiguities on a larger orchestrational level. (See also Tenzer 1999,
57.)
30. The name is highly evocative: Semaradahana is a twelfth-century
Javanese epic poem (kakawin) which relates the story of Semaras
destruction by the god Siwa. Semara (also known as Kamajaya) was
consumed in self-sacrifice by a ray of fire from the third eye of Siwa,
angry at being awakened from a deep meditation. The story also
66
describes at length Semaras parting from his wife Dewa Ratih, who
grieves at his impending death. Dana in modern Balinese also means
donation or alms, as in the donations offered to a temple for a
major ceremony or renovation. (Ed Herbst, email communication,
May, 2001.) Thus, love (with associated meanings of attraction,
magnetism, and the pairing of opposites) is contrasted with fire (with
associations to death and destruction, Siwas potent realms; as well as
rebirth, as in the forging of gamelan keys), but also allied with generosity and wealth. All are directly associated with the Balinese musical
and dramatic aesthetic.
31. For the sake of reference and summary, some of these compromises
include: tuning (the distinctive qualities of each source gamelan are
melded together, as discussed above); timbre (the characteristic
sound qualities of eachdelicate/refined versus strong/incisiveare
similarly melded); technical challenge (playing virtuosic kebyar repertoire on the semara dana demands leaping over the extra notes,
often at breakneck speeds); and, in general, the loss of aesthetic and
cultural value surrounding individualized and specialized gamelan.
32. Although Berata achieved his immediate goal, neither the gamelan
genta pinara pitu nor the gamelan semara dana ever caught on as
the gamelan of choice in sendratari accompaniment, at least in STSI
productions. The former, of which there was only one example, did
not remain in Bali long; in 1987 it was purchased first by the Wye
Institute of Maryland and then by ethnomusicologist Mantle Hood,
who moved it first to the University of Maryland-Baltimore County
and eventually to his own home in Ellicott City, Maryland (Rai
1996, 18). The latter, meanwhile, has flourished predominantly in
the Ubud area, of which Alits village Pengosekan is a part. While
several gamelan semara dana of Ubud have been used for occasional
sendratari productions, the STSI-owned example has not. McGraw
speculates that players there might find the grandeur of multiple
gamelans on stage more in accord with oversized scale of sendratari
performances compared to the more normal-sized gamelan semara
dana (2000, 69).
33. Asnawas 1985 arrangement of Langsing Tuban added a series of
intricate, interlocking phrases during the opening gineman, reminiscent of kebyar style in their shape, speed, and separation by dramatic
pauses; these were removed in the later, more classically restrained
arrangements that were worked up for the Bali Record sessions.
67
34. An example of such a flute solo occurs in Grehing Kaulu, by

Nyoman Windha (1988), which may be heard on the cassette Festival Gong Kebyar 1988 (Bali Records B742).
35. Windha later rearranged Jagra Parwata for gamelan semara dana,
so that this and other such passages in the work could be orchestrated using that gamelans full seven-tone resources.
36. This moment was captured in a live recording, and can be heard in
the first track of Music of the Gamelan Gong Kebyar Volume 2
(Vital Records 501). The passage in question occurs at 7:40, with a
repetition at 9:18. In the interest of fair reporting it should be noted
that Festival audiences burst into applause during just about any passage they like, just as they are prone to jeering and catcalls for the
opposite reason.
37. A good examples of Yudanas handling of seven-tone flute melodies
occurs in Rada Dara, the tabuh kreasi composed for the Kodya districts representative to the gamelan competitions of 1996.
38. See Tenzer (2000, 3658 and elsewhere) for an in-depth description
of the relationship between the classical and modern interpretations
of tripartite form, summarizing these formal archetypes in their general features, their religious, philosophical, and aesthetic moorings,
and their widely divergent expression in particular instrumental and
dance compositions.
39. While the placement is effective, this is not Alits innovation: such
stage theatrics are already well-known in Balinese performances, and
are a natural extension of the flashy crowd-pleasing gestures that
have been part of kebyars heritage from the start.
40. That a Balinese composer would use formal markers in this way
almost motivicallyis itself unusual. Most composers are reluctant
to re-visit material in latter sections of a composition; to them it is
already used up. In Geregel, Alit has tried to express a formal
image of many arches, in which sections start and end with the same
material. This explains the placement and variation of the interlocking octaves.
41. Kotekan in its most widely used and generalized sense, simply means
interlocking melodic figuration, which pervades the fabric of most
Balinese music. In the present case, it is a specific formal designation,
referring to a discrete sectionmost often the first regularly pulsed,
cyclic section of tabuh kreasithat features elaborate interlocking
68
melodies played by the gangsa group. There is also a narrower sense,

where kotekan refers to a particular sub-group of interlocking figuration patterns, characterized by two-note units in each part. The rapid
sideways shift of the mallet needed to play the two-note units
explains its etymology: kotekan derives from ngotek, to slide.
42. The degree of dissonance found in this passage is mild compared
to some other contemporary instrumental pieces. Wayan Gede
Yudana, allows quite striking and frequent simultaneities to emerge
in his tabuh kreasi as a result of re-conceptualizing the pokok/elaboration relationshipfor example, creating a conceptual pokok (i.e.
one that is never played), then composing an elaboration of it in one
stratum, which in turn acts as a pokok for an elaboration in another
stratum, and so on in a chain-like fashion. In such a scheme the basic
heterophonic principle of unison/octave convergence operates only
in the background.
43. One of the most intriguing aspects of current kebyar interlocking
techniques lies in this contrast between part and composite. Often
the individual parts seem more interesting and varied alone than they
do in combination. In a certain sense, the gamelan musicians get
more satisfaction in perception of musical structure than does the listener.
44. See note 41 for a discussion of the various meanings of kotekan.
45. The first re-arrangement for large bronze gamelan, entitled simply
Gambangan, was composed by Wayan Lotring, circa 1930. Through
it, gambangan textures became popular and later found a niche in
the pengecet sections of tabuh kreasi. See Tenzer (2000, 657) for a
description of gambangan textures in kebyar orchestration.
69
R EFERENCES
Bandem, Made. 1986. Prakempa: Sebuah Lontar Gamelan Bali. Denpasar: ASTI.
Hood, Mantle. 1990. Balinese Gamelan Semar Pegulingan, the Modal
System. Ethnomusicology Progress Reports 3, no. 2.
McGraw, Andrew. 19992000. The Development of the Gamelan
Semar Dana and the Expansion of the Modal System in Bali, Indonesia. Asian Music 31, no. 1 (Fall/Winter): 6393.
McPhee, Colin. 1966. Music in Bali. Princeton: Yale University Press.
Rai, Wayan. 1996. Balinese Gamelan Semar Pegulingan Saih Pitu: The
Modal System. Ph.D. diss., University of Maryland-Baltimore
County.
Richter, Karl. 1992. Slendro-Pelog and the Conceptualization of
Balinese Music: Remarks on the Gambuh Tone System. In
Schaareman, Danker, ed., Balinese Music in Context, 195219.
Winterthur: Amadeus.
Sukerta, Pande Made. 1977. Gending-Gending Semar Pegulingan Saih
Pitu. Surakarta: ASKI.
Tenzer, Michael. 2000. Gamelan Gong Kebyar: The Art of TwentiethCentury Balinese Music. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Vickers, Adrian. 1985. The Realm of the Senses: Images of the Court
Music of Pre-Colonial Bali. Imago Musicae 2: 14377.
Weintraub, Andrew. 2001. Instruments of Power: Sundanese MultiLaras Gamelan in New Order Indonesia. Ethnomusicology 45, no. 2
(Spring/Summer): 197227.
Wallis, Richard. 1995. Why are These People Singing? Paper presented
at the annual conference of the Society for Ethnomusicology, Los
Angeles.
Wenten, Nyoman. 1992. Gamelan Semar Pegulingan: Court Music in
Transition. In Schaareman, Danker, ed., Balinese Music in Context,
297312. Winterthur: Amadeus.

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BALINESE KEBYAR MUSIC

BREAKS THE FIVE-TONE BARRIER:

over the elaborately car ved threshold, and

Perspectives of New Music Vol. 40, no. 1 (Winter 2002): 569

Per spectives of New Music

are complemented by the lush gardening; everything is intertwined with

Balinese Kebyar Music

Perspectives of New Music

Balinese Kebyar Music

Perspectives of New Music

Yet another layer of complexity derives from the individuality of

Balinese Kebyar Music

* The extra tones in lebeng, labeled eu and ai and pronounced deung

T HE FIVE BA L INES E CLASSICAL MODES:

TH E IR FO RMA T IO N, INT ERVA L S ( IN THE TUNING OF

On a more technical level, understanding the varying interpretations of

Perspectives of New Music

T H E INT ERVA L L IC S T RU CT U R E OF FIV E MODES

CO M P A RED FRO M A CO MMO N S T A RTING PITCH

Balinese Kebyar Music

Perspectives of New Music

TWO RECENT L Y DES IGNA T ED THEOR ETICAL MODES

Balinese Kebyar Music

gamelan gong, Gianyar

gender wayang, Kuta

4: CO MP A RIS O N O F S L EN D R O AND PE LOG

Their contrasting qualities and origins are borne out in contemporary

Perspectives of New Music

discussion amongst musicians and scholars, Balinese and foreign alike. It

Balinese Kebyar Music

present-day composers point of view, this is straightforward: If certain

SL EN D RO MO DES WIT H IN THE PE LOG SCALE

Finally, another new mode should be mentioned in passing. It is the

Perspectives of New Music

Balinese Kebyar Music

with occasional pamero

Two or more modes

selisir / sunaren / 2345

selisir / tembung / 1234

A S U RVEY O F S EVEN-TONE WOR K S FOR

GA M E L A N SEMA R P EGUL IN GA N, A ND THEIR USE OF MODES

Perspectives of New Music

things, additional facets of Balinese modal and melodic practice relating

T WO CL O S EL Y REL A TED MODES

3. Changes between modes tend to happen before or after stressed

Balinese Kebyar Music

can be easily effected through simple melodic toggling between pitch 4,

A S HIFT FRO M T EMBUN G TO SE LISIR IN THE

I N S TR U MENT A L P IECE L A N GSIN G T UB AN. THE V OWELS

Perspectives of New Music

Balinese Kebyar Music

sweet, bright, rened, elegant

noble rened male or female,

big, sharp, strong, muscular, heroic

noble high-ranking male,

less strong than Tembung

noble, gentle, dull-witted,

strong, muscular, heroic

rened, regal; same as Selisir

noble, high-ranking, central

10: MO DE/ CH A RA CT ER REL A T IO NSHIPS IN THE GAMB UH PLAY

Strong, coarse, male

Sweet, rened, female or male

P O S S IBL E CO NT INU U M O F R ELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN