1. ST. PAUL UNIVERSITY QUEZON CITY
00 Aurora Blvd., cor. Gilmore Ave., Quezon City
1 MUSIC III
INSTRUMENTS OF THE GAMELAN
 BONANG is a set of 10 small pot gongs on a wooden frame in a parallel
position. The graduated sizes of the gong enables this instrument to
produce various pitches. A padded mallet is used to hit the protrusion at
the center of the gong.
 CELEMPUNG is a wooden board zither. It has a box frame with two
parallel strings suspended in the middle. The small wooden platform in
the middle is it is struck with a piece of wooden stick.
 GAMBANG KAYU is a bamboo xylophone with a wooden box resonator
played with a pair of wooden stick.
 GENDER closely resembles a xylophone. However, it has this slabs of
alloy suspended over tube resonators made from bamboo. A wooden
hammer is also used to hit the keys of a gender. The gender also come
in three sizes, the largest is called slenthem. This particular instrument
doubles the melody (commonly played by the saron).
 GONG AGENG & GONG SIYEM is a mother and son pair of hanging
gongs. The ageng is bigger both in terms of size and thickness. Both of
them however, have prominent knobs at the center where it is hit with a
padded mallet. These gongs announces the beginning and the ending of
a gamelan cycle.
 KEMPUL is a set of four hanging gongs (in pairs), These gongs are
slightly smaller than the gong ageng & gong siyem. The knob of each
gong is positioned in such a way that they are facing one another and only
one player plays this instrument.
 KENONG is the counterpart of the kempul. This instrument is a set of
four large pot gongs mounted on a frame. They vary from one another by
virtue of their thickness.
 KETHUK is a single small pot gong mounted on a frame. It is sounded in
between sections of a gamelan gongan.
 KHENDANG is the only drum instrument belonging to the colotomic
section. It takes the shape of a barrel and it has two heads (one larger
than the other). The drum’s head is covered with animal skin unto which it
is truck with the player’s bare hands while in a sitting position. The
khendang comes in two sizes, the gedhe (large drum) and the ketipung
(small drum).
 REBAB is a two stringed fiddle with a bow. It has three parts namely, the
neck, the cross-like formation at one end and its heart-shaped resonator.
 SARON is a xylophone instrument with thick slabs of metal mounted on a
boat-like frame. The keys are graduated (meaning from longest to
shortest, from left to right) and it is sounded by hitting the edge of the keys
with a wooden hammer. There are three different sizes of a saron: the
panerus (smallest), barung (medium), and demung (largest).
 SULING is an example of a transverse flute with six finger holes, a
thumbhole (found at the back) and a mouthpiece where it is blown.