GAMELAN SALENDRO Gamelan salendro was originally brought to Sunda before Dutch colonial times by the conquering Central Javanese. It differs from degung in construction and tuning. In general, there are more instruments, but they have a smaller range. The tuning comprises five almost equidistant intervals (which average out to 240 cents, somewhere between a major second and a minor third). Gamelan salendro is primarily used for accompanying wayang golek (rod puppetry) and dance. Ordinary Sundanese people without social pretensions tend to prefer it to gamelan degung.

dancing with gamelan in the late 19th century

In its performances, Sekar Enggal plays gamelan salendro repertoire on a gamelan degung with additional instruments and three extra keys or gong kettles in each octave, which make it possible to change to the equidistant salendro tuning. LISTEN TO SEKAR ENGGAL play gamelan salendro (short mp3 clips)

A rather fanciful Western painting of gamelan salendro and Sundanese dance from the same period

One difference between gamelan degung and gamelan salendro is that in degung the bonang (gong chimes) are in a single row of fourteen pots, whereas in gamelan salendro the ten pots are arranged on a rectangular frame (see below).

bonang for gamelan salendro

OUR TEACHERS Several members of Sekar Enggal have spent considerable time in Indonesia to study the music, and we owe a debt of gratitude to all our teachers there. One of our most important teachers for gamelan salendro is Pa Otong Rasta. His family's tradition of wayang golek is presented in a documentary video produced by the Open University.

In gamelan salendro, the rebab (two-stringed fiddle) is used instead of the suling (bamboo flute). Another important teacher for members of our group was the rebab and suling player, Pa Sulaeman Sutisna, who died recently. He is the rebab and suling player on the handful of Lokananta cassettes recorded by the RRI Bandung group in the 1970s.

Pa Entis about fifty years ago

Pa Entis at Simon's farewell latihan in 1998