The ''balungan'' ( jv, skeleton, frame) is sometimes called the "core

melody A melody (from Greek μελῳδία, ''melōidía'', "singing, chanting"), also tune, voice or line, is a linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most literal sense, a melody is a combina ...

" or, "skeletal melodic outline," of a Javanese

gamelan Gamelan () ( jv, ꦒꦩꦼꦭꦤ꧀, su, ᮌᮙᮨᮜᮔ᮪, ban, ᬕᬫᭂᬮᬦ᭄) is the traditional ensemble music of the Javanese, Sundanese, and Balinese peoples of Indonesia, made up predominantly of percussive instruments. T ...

composition. This corresponds to the view that gamelan music is

heterophonic In music, heterophony is a type of texture characterized by the simultaneous variation of a single melodic line. Such a texture can be regarded as a kind of complex monophony in which there is only one basic melody, but realized at the same time ...

: the ''balungan'' is then the melody which is being elaborated. "An abstraction of the inner melody felt by musicians," the ''balungan'' is, "the part most frequently notated by Javanese musicians, and the only one likely to be used in performance."Anderson Sutton, Richard (1991). ''Traditions of Gamelan Music in Java: Musical Pluralism and Regional Identity'', p.xix. Cambridge University. . The group of instruments which play the closest to the ''balungan'' are sometimes also called the ''balungan'', or ''balungan'' instruments. These are the ''

saron SARON stands for Swiss Average Rate Overnight and represents the overnight interest rate of the secured funding market for the Swiss Franc (CHF). (Swiss Average Rate Overnight) is an overnight interest rates average referencing the Swiss Franc ...

'' family and the '' slenthem''. In many pieces, they play the ''balungan''. However, they can also elaborate on the parts in a variety of techniques. It is possible that there is no instrument playing the ''balungan'', although many musicians claim that the ''balungan'' is still present. The term has been a source of some controversy, as various writers may define it differently. Sometimes it is identified with the melody played on the ''saron'' (whose range is limited to an

octave In music, an octave ( la, octavus: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is the interval between one musical pitch and another with double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been refer ...

), but sometimes it is identified with a wider

tessitura In music, tessitura (, pl. ''tessiture'', "texture"; ) is the most acceptable and comfortable vocal range for a given singer or less frequently, musical instrument, the range in which a given type of voice presents its best-sounding (or characte ...

that is implied by the patterns on other instruments. This multi-octave melody is the one given in kepatihan notation, the cipher notation used for gamelan pieces. ''Lagu'' is a related term, which is used by

Sumarsam Sumarsam (born 27 July 1944) is a Javanese musician and scholar of the gamelan. Life Sumarsam was born in Dander, Bojonegoro, East Java, Indonesia. He first performed gamelan at the age of seven. He began his formal gamelan education in 1961 a ...

and is sometimes translated as "inner melody." It can mean the multi-octave ''balungan'', or a more implicit melody. There is no consensus on the use of either term, and they may be used differently by different writers or in different contexts.

Other uses

''Balungan'' is also the name of a tiger. It is also the name of a journal published by the

American Gamelan Institute The American Gamelan Institute (AGI) is an organization devoted to promoting and documenting all forms of gamelan, the performing arts of Indonesia, and their international counterparts. The Institute was founded in Berkeley, California, in 1981; ...

Definitions

Sumarsam argues that the use of the term, beginning directly after the introduction of notation, arose from the use of notation, theory, and pedagogy. *"The center of gravity of a gamelan composition, and the improviser's guideline, is a melody known as the 'skeleton' or 'framework' (''balungan''), played in a slow, even rhythm on he..''saron''." *"If the ''balungan'' is the same, then the elaborating parts should be the same." *"The instrumental melody called ''balungan'' (literally, 'skeleton', 'outline')." *"The balungan gendhing is important-if not, indeed, the most important-factor in the practice of karawitan, because as the framework of the gendhing it gives a composition its basic shape, and is used as a frame of reference and point of departure for the playing of the gamelan instruments."Supanggah (1988, p.9). Cited in Sumarsam (1995), p.152.

Other uses

Definitions

References

Further reading