The panerusan instruments or elaborating instruments are one of the divisions of instruments used in Indonesian

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 ...

. Instead of the rhythmic structure provided by the

colotomic ''Colotomy'' is an Indonesian description of the rhythmic and metric patterns of gamelan music. It refers to the use of specific instruments to mark off nested time intervals, or the process of dividing rhythmic time into such nested cycles. I ...

instruments, and the core melody of the

balungan The ''balungan'' ( jv, skeleton, frame) is sometimes called the "core melody" or, "skeletal melodic outline," of a Javanese gamelan composition. This corresponds to the view that gamelan music is heterophonic: the ''balungan'' is then the melody ...

instruments, the panerusan instruments play

variations Variation or Variations may refer to: Science and mathematics * Variation (astronomy), any perturbation of the mean motion or orbit of a planet or satellite, particularly of the moon * Genetic variation, the difference in DNA among individua ...

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. Hood, Mantle. ''The Nuclear Theme as a Determinant of Patet in Javanese Music''. New York: Da Capo, 1977. Pages 11–12. Panerusan instruments include the gendér,

suling The suling or seruling ( Sundanese: ) is a musical instrument of the Sundanese people in western Java, Indonesia. It is used in the Degung ensemble. Bamboo ring flute can also be found in Southeast Asian, especially in Brunei, Indonesia, Mal ...

, rebab,

siter The siter and celempung are plucked string instruments used in Javanese gamelan. They are related to the ''kacapi'' used in Sundanese gamelan. The siter and celempung each have between 11 and 13 pairs of strings, strung on each side, between ...

celempung The siter and celempung are plucked string instruments used in Javanese gamelan. They are related to the ''kacapi'' used in Sundanese gamelan. The siter and celempung each have between 11 and 13 pairs of strings, strung on each side, between ...

bonang The bonang is an Indonesian musical instrument used in the Javanese gamelan. It is a collection of small gongs (sometimes called "kettles" or "pots") placed horizontally onto strings in a wooden frame (''rancak''), either one or two rows wid ...

, and

gambang A gambang, properly called a gambang kayu ('wooden gambang') is a xylophone-like instrument used among people of Indonesia 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 A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator (usually a tube) in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into (or over) a mouthpiece set at or near the end of the resonator. The pitc ...

s, string instruments, and

wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin ...

percussion instrument A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

s found in the gamelan, they provide a

timbre In music, timbre ( ), also known as tone color or tone quality (from psychoacoustics), is the perceived sound quality of a musical note, sound or tone. Timbre distinguishes different types of sound production, such as choir voices and musica ...

which stands out from most of the gamelan. The notes that the panerusan instruments play are largely in melodic formulas known as

cengkok Céngkok ( jv, ꦕꦺꦁꦏꦺꦴꦏ꧀, translit=Céngkok) (old orthography: ''tjengkok'') are patterns played by the elaborating instruments used in Indonesian Javanese gamelan. They are melodic formula that lead to a '' sèlèh'',Brinner, Be ...

and

sekaran The panerusan instruments or elaborating instruments are one of the divisions of instruments used in Indonesian gamelan. Instead of the rhythmic structure provided by the colotomic instruments, and the core melody of the balungan instruments, t ...

. These are selected from a huge collection which every performer carries in his head, based on the patet, mood, and traditions surrounding a piece.

Sekaran

''Sekaran'' ( Javanese for "flowering") is a type of elaboration used in the Javanese

, especially on the '' bonang barung''. It is similar to the ''

'' of other

elaborating instrument The panerusan instruments or elaborating instruments are one of the divisions of instruments used in Indonesian gamelan. Instead of the rhythmic structure provided by the colotomic instruments, and the core melody of the balungan instruments, t ...

s in its floridity and openness to improvisation, but a ''sekaran'' generally happens only at the end of a '' nongan'' or other

division. It is usually preceded by ''

imbal ''Imbal'' () or ''imbalan'' (''imbal-imbalan'', ''demung imbal'') is a technique used in Indonesian Javanese gamelan. It refers to a rapid alternation of a melodic line between instruments, in a way similar to hocket in medieval music or ''kotek ...

'', an interlocking pattern between the ''bonang barung'' and the ''bonang panerus''. Different ''sekaran'' are used in different '' pathet'', but there are always a variety available. A good ''bonang'' player will choose a ''sekaran'' based on how the other instruments and the '' sindhen'' are improvising. Traditionally the ''bonang panerus'' did not play ''sekaran'', and simply continued in the ''imbal'' pattern, but now some players use ''sekaran'', as long as they maintain the fast character of typical ''bonang panerus'' parts.

References

{{Gamelan Gamelan instruments Gamelan theory

Sekaran

See also

References