Bonang

Bonang is a musical instrument in the gamelan orchestra of the Indonesian island of Java. The beaten with sticks Idiophone consists of several humpback gongs, which are movably mounted in a double row in a wooden frame on strings.

Design

A Bonang consists of two rows of boiler gongs. With rising pitch a gong is curved more toward his boss, in a deep tone he is flat. The gongs are loose each on two cords, which are clamped in a horizontal wood frame. The individual gongs can therefore be freely exchanged. There are almost always ornamental carvings on the sides of the wooden frame.

There are three different Bonang: The Bonang panerus is the smallest and thus located in the highest pitch instrument. This is Bonang ment larger than the panerus and sounds an octave lower. The Bonang panembung is even greater and thus still an octave lower in pitch than the revelation. It is an old instrument and is no longer used in modern gamelan ensembles. All three types of Bonang include two octaves. In an ensemble, there are of each Bonang one each in pelog (14 gongs) and one in slendro mood (12 gongs).

Play

The Bonang is one of the instruments in the gamelan, which decorate the basic melody. The game is both rhythmic melodic complicated than the basic melody. Bonang Bonang panerus and revelation play mostly verzahnend together (ie it sounds alternately a tone of revelation and of the parerus ), or the panerus plays twice as fast as the revelation. Be hit the gongs with two elongated clubs ( " Tabuu " ) whose front ends are wrapped with string to hit on the hump of the gongs. To avoid that a note is releasing too long is laying the bat after striking directly back to the hump of the gong on and thus dampens the sound.