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

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 ...

. Instead of the rhythmic structure provided by the colotomic instruments, and the core melody of the balungan 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 individual ...

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 ( Sundanese: ) is a musical instrument of the Sundanese people in Indonesia. It is used in the Degung ensemble. Bamboo ring flute can also be found in Southeast Asia, especially in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Sin ...

rebab ''Rebab'' (, ''rabāba'', variously spelled ''rebap'', ''rubob'', ''rebeb'', ''rababa'', ''rabeba'', ''robab'', ''rubab'', ''rebob'', etc) is the name of several related string instruments that independently spread via Islamic trading rout ...

, siter/ celempung,

bonang The bonang is an Music of Indonesia, Indonesian musical instrument used in the Javanese people, Javanese gamelan. It is a collection of small gongs (sometimes called "kettles" or "pots") placed horizontally onto strings in a wooden frame (''r ...

, 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 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 pitch ...

string instrument In musical instrument classification, string instruments, or chordophones, are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer strums, plucks, strikes or sounds the strings in varying manners. Musicians play some ...

s, and

wood Wood is a structural tissue/material found as xylem in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulosic fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin t ...

percussion instrument A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

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 of a musical note, sound or tone. Timbre distinguishes sounds according to their source, such as choir voices and musical instrument ...

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

cengkok 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, Benjamin (2008). ''Music in Central Java'', p.157. ...

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.

Sekaran

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

, especially on the ''

bonang barung 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 wi ...

''. 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, ...

s in its floridity and openness to improvisation, but a ''sekaran'' generally happens only at the end of a '' nongan'' or other colotomic division. It is usually preceded by ''

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 ...

'', an interlocking pattern between the ''bonang barung'' and the ''bonang panerus''. Different ''sekaran'' are used in different ''

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 ...

'', 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