From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The balungan (Javanese: skeleton, frame) is sometimes called the "core melody" of a gamelan composition. This corresponds to the view that gamelan music is heterophonic: the balungan is then the melody which is being elaborated.

The group of instruments which play the closest to the balungan are sometimes also called the balungan, or balungan instruments. These are the saron 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 implied.

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 limilted to an octave), but sometimes it is identified with a wider tessitura 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 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.

The gatra in a balungan have a distinctive pattern of notes and rests (pin), which are classified into several categories (given with an example in kepatihan notation):

• Balungan mlaku (or balungan mlampah) do not use rests:

2321 3123

• Balungan nibani uses rests between each note, having notes only on the strong beats:

.5.2 .3.5

• Balungan nggantung ("hanging balungan") sustains a note, especially by playing it twice at the beginning of a gatra, or emphasizing it on the third (weak) beat:

11.. ..1.

• Balungan pin mundur use rests at accented places, thus using syncopation:

3.2. 1.23

• Balungan ngadal subdivides the beats (keteg) of a gatra, notated by the overline, which means play twice as fast:

2535231

Different gendhing structures prefer certain types of gamelan. The implications of motion and stasis are important in achieving the mood of a composition.

Balungan is also the name of the Journal of the American Gamelan Institute.

• Hood, Mantle. The Nuclear Theme as a Determinant of Patet in Javanese Music. Groningen and Jakarta: JB Walters, 1954.
• Kunst, Jaap. Music in Java: Its History, its Theory and its Technique. 2 vols, 3d ed enlarged. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1973.
• Perlman, Marc. Unplayed Melodies: Javanese Gamelan and the Genesis of Music Theory. University of California Press, 2004.
• Supanggah, Rahaya. Trans. Marc Perlman. "Balungan." In Balungan, October 1988.

Indonesia Portal