Peking
The smallest and highest metallophone of the saron family, which doubles the melody at speed.
Clothing & Artefacts
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Culture-specific expressions
Terms, definitions, context, variants, usage examples, and references from diverse East Javanese cultural communities.
Pelog
A tuning system of seven tones with unequal steps, from which five are selected for any one piece, heard as tense beside slendro.
Local Knowledge
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Pengrawit
A gamelan musician, particularly a practised one. The word is preferred in teaching contexts, where it carries a sense of craft.
Social Structure
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Rancak
The carved wooden frame that holds the bars or kettles of an instrument. Its decoration marks the status of the set it belongs to.
Clothing & Artefacts
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Rebab
A two-stringed bowed spike fiddle. Not fixed to the tuning of the bronze, it leads the melody and sets the pitch for the singers.
Clothing & Artefacts
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Saron
A metallophone of thick bronze bars over a trough resonator, struck with a wooden mallet and damped by the free hand. It carries the core melody.
Clothing & Artefacts
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Sindhen
The solo female singer of karawitan, who sings elaborate melodic lines against the ensemble rather than with it.
Social Structure
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Siter
A plucked zither with strings on both faces of a box resonator, played with the thumbnails while the fingers damp.
Clothing & Artefacts
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Slendro
A tuning system of five tones spaced in near-equal steps across the octave, heard as open and even.
Local Knowledge
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Slenthem
A metallophone of thin bronze bars suspended over tuned tube resonators, sounding an octave below the saron with a sustained, soft tone.
Clothing & Artefacts
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Suling
An end-blown bamboo ring flute, which floats free of the ensemble pulse and fills the spaces in the melody.
Clothing & Artefacts
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Tata Krama
A system of etiquette, unggah-ungguh, and social behaviour emphasizing respect and social harmony.
Language & Expressions
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