Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T09:01:17.499Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Javanese Pélog Tunings Reconsidered

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 February 2019

Jay Rahn
Jay Rahn*
Affiliation:
York University, Downsview, Ontario, Canada
Get access

Extract

The fixed pitch instruments of Java are justly famous for the flexibility of their tuning. The absolute pitches of various ensembles differ substantially, and within an ensemble, tones of a given name vary greatly in pitch when produced on different instruments. Causes for these differences include the gradual changes which occur in the metals used in the instruments’ manufacture, and the high value placed on the production of acoustical beats among the instruments of a single ensemble (Kunst 1973:251; Hood 1966:31–33). Concordant with this diversity is the practice of assigning proper names, such as “Venerable Dark Cloud”, to individual gamelans.

Type
Articles
Information
Yearbook of the International Folk Music Council , Volume 10 , 1978 , pp. 69 - 82
Copyright
Copyright © 1979 By the International Folk Music Council 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Publications Cited

Barbour, J. Murray 1963 “Missverständnisse über die Stimmung des Javanischen Gamelans,” Die Musikforschung, 16:315–23.Google Scholar
Bukofzer, Manfred 1937 “Kann die ‘Blasquintentheorie’ zur Erklarung exotischer Tonsysteme beitragen?,” Anthropos, 32:402–18.Google Scholar
Bukofzer, Manfred 1944 “The Evolution of Javanese Tone-Systems,” In Papers Read at the International Congress of Musicology Held at New York, Sept. 11–16, 1939. New York: Music Educators’ National Conference for American Musicological Society (eds., Arthur Mendel, Gustave Reese, and Gilbert Chase), pp. 241–50.Google Scholar
Bukofzer, Manfred 1949–51 “Blasquinte,” Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 1:cols. 1918–24.Google Scholar
Ellis, Alexander J. 1884 “Tonometrical Observations on Some Existing Non-Harmonic Scales,” Proceedings of the Royal Society (London), 37:368–85.Google Scholar
Harrell, Max 1975 “Some Aspects of Sundanese Music,” Selected Reports (Los Angeles), 2(2):81–100.Google Scholar
Hood, Mantle 1954 The Nuclear Theme as a Determinant of Patet in Javanese Music. Groningen: J. B. Wolters.Google Scholar
Hood, Mantle 1966 “Sléndro and Pélog Redefined,” Selected Reports, 1(1):28–48.Google Scholar
Husmann, Heinrich 1951 Fünf- und siebenstellige Centstaffeln zur Berechnung musikalischer Intervalle. Leiden: E. J. Brill. (Ethnomusicologica, 2.)Google Scholar
Kunst, Jaap 1925 De Toonkunst van Bali: Beschouwingen over Oorsprong en Beinvloeding, Composities, Notenschrift en Instrumenten. Weltvereden: G. Kolff + Co. (Studien over Javaansche en andere Indonesische Musiek, 1.)Google Scholar
Kunst, Jaap 1973 Music in Java: Its History, Its Theory, and Its Technique. Third edition, enlarged and edited by E. L. Heins, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.Google Scholar
Land, Jan Pieter Nicolaas 1894 “Note sur la musique de l'île de Java,” Actes du Xe Congrès International des Orientalistes, Session de Genève.Google Scholar
Lentz, Donald A. 1965 The Gamelan Music of Java and Bali: An Artistic Anomaly Complementary to Primary Tonal Theoretical Systems. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.Google Scholar
Rahn, Jay 1977 “Some Recurrent Features of Scales” In Theory Only, 2(11–12):43–52.Google Scholar
Schlesinger, Kathleen 1970 The Greek Aulos: A Study of its Mechanism and of its Relation to the Modal System of Ancient Greek Music, followed by a Survey of the Greek Harmoniai in Survival or Rebirth in Folk-Music. London: Methuen, 1939 (repr. Groningen Bouma's Boekhuis).Google Scholar
Surjodiningrat, Wasisto 1972 Tone Measurements on Outstanding Javanese Gamelans. Jogjakarta: University Gadjah Mada.Google Scholar