In Java

Java

Java is an island of Indonesia. With a population of 135 million , it is the world's most populous island, and one of the most densely populated regions in the world. It is home to 60% of Indonesia's population. The Indonesian capital city, Jakarta, is in west Java...

nese gamelan

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....

 music, the sampak is one of the gendhing structures derived from the wayang

Wayang

Wayang is a Javanese word for theatre . When the term is used to refer to kinds of puppet theatre, sometimes the puppet itself is referred to as wayang...

 repertoire. A sampak often follows a srepeg

Srepeg

In Javanese gamelan music, the srepeg is one of the gendhing structures derived from the wayang repertoire.The colotomic structure is:with both lines played together, and T indicating a stroke of the kethuk, P the kempul, and N the kenong. The kenong and kempul always play the seleh.Gongans are of...

. It is the fastest of the wayang structures.

The colotomic structure is:

NNNNNNNN NNNNNNNN

TPTPTPTP TPTPTPTP

with both lines played together, and T indicating a stroke of the kethuk, P the kempul

Kempul

A kempul is a type of hanging gong used in Indonesian gamelan. It is often placed with the gong suwukan and gong ageng, hanging on a single rack, at the back of the gamelan, and these instruments are often played by the same player with the same mallets...

, and N the kenong

Kenong

The kenong is one of the instruments used in the Indonesian gamelan. It is technically a kind of gong, but is placed on its side and is roughly as tall as it is wide. It thus is similar to the bonang, kempyang and ketuk, which are also cradled gongs. Kenongs are generally much larger than any of...

. The kenong and kempul always play the seleh

Seleh

The seleh note or nada seleh is a concept used in Javanese gamelan music. It is the final note of a gatra, or four-beat melodic unit.The main underlying melodic structure of a gamelan piece, called the balungan, is grouped into four-beat units...

. It does not use the kempyang.

Gongans are of varying length, usually two, three, or four gatra

Gatra

A gatra is a unit of melody in Javanese gamelan music, analogous to a measure in Western music. It is often considered the smallest unit of a gamelan composition....

s, based on a signal from the kendhang. The ending (suwuk) can occur at any point in the cycle, given the cue from the kendhang or kepyak

Kepyak

The Kepyak is a percussion instrument played by the dalang of a wayang performance in Java. It is a struck idiophone consisting of several bronze or iron plates attached by strings or a single plate , which the dalang plays with a small mallet held between the toes of his right foot...

, and consists of a gatra played after the gong

Gong ageng

The gong ageng is . It is the largest of the bronze gongs in the Javanese and Balinese gamelan orchestra...

. The melodic shape of a sampak is distinctive, as the gatras are repeated notes in the pathet

Pathet

The pathet is an organizing concept in gamelan music. It is difficult to explain, but is similar to the melody types, that is, for example, modes, ragas, or maqamat, of other musics....

. It is played in irama lancar.

Example

Sampak pélog

Pelog

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

 barang:

2222 3333 7777

7777 2222 6666

6666 3333 2222

Suwuk: xx22

This sampak has three gongan. The signal to end can come at any gong, where the player plays the next two notes as normal, and then 22 (as indicated by xx22).