Panerusan
Encyclopedia
The panerusan instruments or elaborating instruments are one of the divisions of instruments used in the gamelan
. Instsead of the rhythmic structure provided by the colotomic instruments, and the core melody of the balungan
instruments, the panerusan instruments play variations on the balungan. They are usually the most difficult instruments to learn in the gamelan, but provide the most opportunity for improvisation and creativity in the performer.
Panerusan instruments include the gendér
, suling
, rebab
, siter
/celempung, bonang
, and gambang
. The female singer, the pesindhen, is also often included, as she sings in a similar fashion to the instrumental techniques. As these include the only wind instrument
s, string instrument
s, and wood
en percussion instrument
s found in the gamelan, they provide a timbre
which stands out from most of the gamelan.
The notes that the panerusan instruments play are largely in melodic formulas known as cengkok
and sekaran
. These are selected from a huge collection which every performer carries in his head, based on the patet, mood, and traditions surrounding a piece.
Gamelan
A gamelan is a musical ensemble from Indonesia, typically from the islands of Bali or Java, featuring a variety of instruments such as metallophones, xylophones, drums and gongs; bamboo flutes, bowed and plucked strings. Vocalists may also be included....
. Instsead of the rhythmic structure provided by the colotomic instruments, and the core melody of the balungan
Balungan
The balungan is sometimes called the "core melody" of a Javanese gamelan composition. This corresponds to the view that gamelan music is heterophonic: the balungan is then the melody which is being elaborated....
instruments, the panerusan instruments play variations on the balungan. They are usually the most difficult instruments to learn in the gamelan, but provide the most opportunity for improvisation and creativity in the performer.
Panerusan instruments include the gendér
Gendér
A gendér is a type of metallophone used in Balinese and Javanese gamelan music. It consists of 10 to 14 tuned metal bars suspended over a tuned resonator of bamboo or metal, which are tapped with a mallet made of wooden disks or a padded wooden disk . Each key is a note of a different pitch, often...
, suling
Suling
A suling or Seruling is an Indonesian bamboo ring flute. It is used in gamelan ensembles.Depending on the regional genre, a suling can be tuned into different scales...
, rebab
Rebab
The rebab , also rebap, rabab, rebeb, rababah, or al-rababa) is a type of string instrument so named no later than the 8th century and spread via Islamic trading routes over much of North Africa, the Middle East, parts of Europe, and the Far East...
, siter
Siter
The siter and celempung are plucked string instruments used in Javanese gamelan. They are related to the kacapi used in Sundanese gamelan....
/celempung, bonang
Bonang
The bonang is a musical instrument used in the Javanese gamelan. It is a collection of small gongs placed horizontally onto strings in a wooden frame , either one or two rows wide. All of the kettles have a central boss, but around it the lower-pitched ones have a flattened head, while the higher...
, and gambang
Gambang
A gambang, properly called a gambang kayu is a xylophone-like instrument used among peoples of Indonesia and the southern Philippines in gamelan and kulintang, with wooden bars as opposed to the metallic ones of the more typical metallophones in a gamelan...
. The female singer, the pesindhen, is also often included, as she sings in a similar fashion to the instrumental techniques. As these include the only wind instrument
Wind instrument
A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator , in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into a mouthpiece set at the end of the resonator. The pitch of the vibration is determined by the length of the tube and by manual modifications of...
s, string instrument
String instrument
A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...
s, and wood
Wood
Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...
en percussion instrument
Percussion instrument
A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
s found in the gamelan, they provide a timbre
Timbre
In music, timbre is the quality of a musical note or sound or tone that distinguishes different types of sound production, such as voices and musical instruments, such as string instruments, wind instruments, and percussion instruments. The physical characteristics of sound that determine the...
which stands out from most of the gamelan.
The notes that the panerusan instruments play are largely in melodic formulas known as cengkok
Cengkok
Cengkok are patterns played by the elaborating instruments in the Javanese gamelan. Typically they are melodic patterns that lead to the seleh, following the rules of the pathet of the piece....
and sekaran
Sekaran
Sekaran is a type of elaboration used in the Javanese gamelan, especially on the bonang barung.It is similar to the cengkok of other elaborating instruments in its floridity and openness to improvisation, but a sekaran generally happens only at the end of a nongan or other colotomic division...
. These are selected from a huge collection which every performer carries in his head, based on the patet, mood, and traditions surrounding a piece.