Pitch Analysis of Keyed Instruments in the Malay Gamelan Ensemble

Previous technical works on gamelan instruments include topics such as tuning systems, acoustical analysis, tone measurement, timbre analysis, temporal and spectral characteristics. These works are heavily focused on the Javanese and Balinese gamelan but not on the Malay gamelan. In the Malay gamelan ensemble, the keyed instruments particularly from the balungan instruments, possess similar features but are different in terms of size, range and musical roles. The objective of this study was to obtain the pitch of the saron demung, a pair of saron baron, and a pair of saron peking in order to determine their relationship. A sound sample of each instrument was imported into an audio editor software to detect its fundamental frequency as well as harmonics. A Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) analysis indicated that the fundamental frequencies of each of the paired instruments are not necessarily similar due to the nature of how the instruments are tuned, which is by ear and “rasa” (instinct). The balungan instruments are found to have an octave relationship to each other, with the lowest being the saron demung, followed by the saron baron, and the saron peking.