Historical evidence for a nearly equidistant 9-tone gamelan pelog in Java

A historical instrument with a 9-tone pelog scale has apparently not been found. But there are reliable indications that a 9-tone scale had been established in the music of West Java.

Jaap Kunst (1934) writes in vol.1, pp. 52-3 of his famous book on "Music in Java:"

"Now, in the system under discussion [7-toned pelog] something has been done towards achieving equidistance, i.e. by intercalating a tone halfway between each of the two large intervals of the basic scale. These intercalated tones are called, in Sumedang, panangis, or wailing tone (between the tone III and IV) and pamiring, or deviating tones (between VII and I').... This splitting of the large intervals by intercalation then yields a nine tone scale ....."

This report indicates that there has been (according to some experts, there still is) the established habit to split the two large pelog intervals by two inserted additional tones. This was (and possibly still is) done by the players of accompanying instruments, in particular the rebab, and the singers, who thus made use of a nearly equidistant 9-tone scale.

It is clear that a tuner of a 7-tone pelog instrument must have this 9-tone practice in mind, wherever this practice is in use. In places where the practice has died out the old tuning habits can have lingered on for a long time.

Due to the work of Andrew Weintraub (1997) we also know that strong evidence for the 9-tone scale was provided by Koesoemadinata (1902-1979), the most influential music theorist of the 20th century in West Java.

Andrew Weintraub reports as follows:

1) "......he (Koesoemadinata) wanted the model to include the "principal" tones (murdasuara; sora lulugu) of a given scale, as well as "ornamental" tones (uparenggasuara; sora papaes) which were not available on conventional fixed-pitch instruments but were played on the variable-pitch rebab and sung by the vocalist(s) in conjunction with the fixed pitch instruments. After experimenting with various possibilities, he eventually settled on a 9-tone pelog model...."

2) "Koesoemadinata built two gambang with aluminum keys for Kunst, one "raras [laras] Pelog" with nine tones to the octave, and another "raras [laras] Salendro" with ten tones to the octave (before 1931)."

3) "Koesoemadinata continued to experiment, and in 1937 and 1938 he built a 9-tone pelog gamelan and a 10-tone salendro gamelan which were lost during the Japanese occupation (1942-45)."

An interesting and profound discussion of some historical and musical details of the 9-tone background of gamelan pelog is available in the August 2002 archives of the Gamelan Mailing List under various subjects related "pelog".

Literature:

Kunst, Jaap (1934) De Toonkunst van Java, English tr., revised 1949: "Music in Java", 3rd enlarged edition, edited by Ernst L. Heins 1973, 2 Volumes, Nijhoff, The Hague.

Weintraub, Andrew (1997) Constructing the Popular: Superstars, Performance, and Cultural Authority in Sundanese Wayang Golek Purwa of West Java, Indonesia. Dissertation, University of California at Berkeley.

Back to: gamelan page