Page 2 | Semar pegulingan

Gamelan semar pegulingan

Contents

Semar pegulingan (1)

Gamelan semar pegulingan (2)

Gamelan pelegongan (3)

I Wayan Lotring (4)

The current revival (5)

Bibliography (6)

Seleh Notes Volume 11 Number 1 November 2003

© Nick Gray

The term semar pegulingan is a catch-all phrase, sometimes used not only for the seven-note version, playing pieces derived from gambuh, but also for its five-note derivatives, gamelan pelegongan and bebarongan.

All are characterised by a higher-pitched, sweeter sound than gong gedé and gong kebyar.

Pieces in the seven-note repertory are led melodically by a trompong and, in the five-note repertory, by gender.

Although it is hard to date gambuh and semar pegulingan, both are associated with the Balinese courts following the fall of Majapahit and they still evoke this rarefied courtly atmosphere.

I Nengah Susila plays trompong

Semar pegulingan pieces are led melodically by a single trompong player, who is able to improvise around the melodic line to a degree rarely found in Balinese gamelan.

There are no reong, so ornamental interlocking figuration is played by several one-octave gangsa.

As in kebyar, the melody is underpinned by paired jegogan and calung.

The two kendang are smaller than those used in kebyar and instead of large gong and kempli, there is a smaller kempur and a kajar.

The ethereal sound is further emphasised by small ceng-ceng and other delicate percussion.

Old semar pegulingan that are still played include the ensemble from Kamasan in Klungkung and three in the Denpasar area.

The old pieces feature slow opening pengawak sections, with gongan even longer than those of the gamelan gong gedé. Colin McPhee comments that,

‘It is probably because of the slow tempo and unusual breadth of the opening movement to these compositions that they have lost their appeal for Balinese audiences of today’.

An example is the piece ‘Sumambang Jawa’ on the STSI cassette (see discography).

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