The saron is a musical instrument of

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

, which is used in the

gamelan Gamelan (; ; , ; ) is the traditional musical ensemble, ensemble music of the Javanese people, Javanese, Sundanese people, Sundanese, and Balinese people, Balinese peoples of Indonesia, made up predominantly of percussion instrument, per ...

. It normally has seven

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals (such as phosphorus) or metalloid ...

bars placed on top of a resonating frame (''rancak''). It is usually about 20 cm (8 in) high, and is played on the floor by a seated performer. In a pelog scale, the bars often read 1-2-3-5-6-7 across (the number four is not used because of its relation to death) (in kepatihan numbering); for slendro, the bars are 6-1-2-3-5-6-1; this can vary from gamelan to gamelan, or even among instruments in the same gamelan. Slendro instruments commonly have only six keys. It provides the core melody ( balungan) in the gamelan orchestra.

Varieties

Sarons typically come in a number often sizes, from smallest to largest: *Saron panerus (also: peking) *Saron barung (sometimes just saron) *Saron demung (often just called demung) Each one of those is pitched an

octave In music, an octave (: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is an interval between two notes, one having twice the frequency of vibration of the other. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been referr ...

below the previous. The slenthem or slentho performs a similar function to the sarons one octave below the demung.

Playing techniques

The sarons are struck with a mallet (''tabuh''). Typically the striking mallet is angled to the right to produce a fuller sound. Demung and saron barung generally use a wooden mallet, while the peking mallet is made of a

water buffalo The water buffalo (''Bubalus bubalis''), also called domestic water buffalo, Asian water buffalo and Asiatic water buffalo, is a large bovid originating in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. Today, it is also kept in Italy, the Balkans ...

horn, which gives it a shriller sound. The other hand is used to dampen the previous note by grasping the key, in order to prevent a muddy sound. On repeated notes, the note is usually dampened half a beat before it is struck again. The saron barung and demung usually play less often and more simple parts. These are the usual techniques for playing them: *Mbalung: playing the balungan melody as notated, without elaboration *Tabuhan pinjalan: playing an interlocking pinjalan pattern between the saron barung, demung, and slenthem, which fills in the offbeats of the balungan *Tabuhan imbal: playing an interlocking

imbal Kunst, Jaap (2013). ''Music in Java: Its history, Its Theory and Its Technique'', p.169. Springer. . or (, ) is a technique used in Indonesian Javanese gamelan. It refers to a rapid alternation of a melodic line between instruments, in a way sim ...

pattern between two of the same instruments, usually either saron barung or demung. Note that the dampening must happen as soon as the other performer plays a note; this is usually twice as soon as when playing by oneself. *Pancer: sometimes a note is added between balungan notes if there is a great deal of space between them (i.e., it is in a slow irama). This is called a pancer. Saron panerus has distinctive patterns which make it different from the other sarons. It usually plays more often, and keeps a constant beat going throughout a piece. Its playing techniques include: *Nacah lamba: playing the balungan (with repeated notes if necessary, depending on the irama) *Nacah selang-seling: playing the balungan in pairs of notes (which may be repeated), making a more elaborate variation on the phrase *Imbal-imbalan: similar to tabuhan imbal for the other sarons

History

The earliest known appearance of a single-octave saron is in a relief at

Borobudur Borobudur, also transcribed Barabudur (, ), is a 9th-century Mahayana Buddhist temple in Magelang Regency, near the city of Magelang and the town of Muntilan, in Central Java, Indonesia. Constructed of gray andesite-like stone, the temple consi ...

, from the 9th century. It was formerly supposed that the saron derived from the decomposition of the gambang gangsa, after it fell out of use.

Mantle Hood Mantle Hood (June 24, 1918 – July 31, 2005) was an American ethnomusicologist. Among other areas, he specialized in studying gamelan music from Indonesia. Hood pioneered, in the 1950s and 1960s, a new approach to the study of music, and the c ...

rejected this hypothesis, and associates the preference for a single octave with the characteristic shape of the cadence in the

pathet Pathet (, also patet) is an organizing concept in central Javanese gamelan music in Indonesia. It is a system of tonal hierarchies in which some notes are emphasized more than others. The word means '"to damp, or to restrain from" in Javanese ...

. There is no evidence that the gambang gangsa is older than the saron; indeed, it may be younger.Hood (1977), p. 240-242

Footnotes

References

* Hood, Mantle (1977). ''The Nuclear Theme as a Determinant of Patet in Javanese Music''. New York: Da Capo. * Sorrell, Neil (1990). ''A Guide to the Gamelan''. United Kingdom: Faber and Faber. {{Authority control Balungan instruments Percussion idiophones Keyboard percussion instruments Gamelan instruments Indonesian musical instruments

Varieties

Playing techniques

History

See also

Footnotes

References