Contextual Associations

The saron barung is a metallophone idiophone of the Javanese people of Java, Indonesia. It is a melodic instrument that is part of the Javanese gamelan. The iron gamelan to which the instrument pictured on this page belongs has eight saron barung--four for each of the set’s tuning systems, laras sléndro and laras pélog.

Description

The saron barung (‘saron’ for short) is a one-octave metallophone with nearly rectangular keys (wilah) resting over a box resonator (rancakan kijingan). The steel keys on the demung pictured here are made from recycled leaf springs salvaged from trucks. Bronze and brass can and often are used for saron keys (see panerus). Holes for anchoring the keys on its casing are drilled at one-quarter of a key’s total length from each end, which are nodal (dead) points in the mode of vibration for rectangular keys. The keys rest on the top edge of the resonator’s sideboards, separated from it by cube-shaped cushions made of folded rattan (see detail photo). The keys and their cushions are anchored in place with pins (made from nails) that run through the holes in the keys and the cushions beneath them into the wooden sideboard. One hammer-shaped wooden beater (tabuh) is used to strike the keys.

Player - Instrument Interface and Sound Production

The saron player sits cross-legged on the floor facing the instrument (the player would be situated on the far side of the pictured instrument facing the camera) holding the stem of the tabuh in his right hand. The keys are stuck with hammer-like blows of the tabuh at the midpoint of their top surface. The keys produce a clear, sustained tone that necessitates a simple damping technique (with the hand not holding the beater). Each of the six or seven keys on a saron is tuned to a specific pitch and the keys are sequenced to produce a scale over a range of about an octave. See the ensemble entry Gamelan Besi (Iron) from Central Java for tuning and register information for the saron in this gamelan. Playing the saron necessitates no specialized technique, so all competent gamelan musicians are able to perform it. A performer sounds the skeletal melody (balungan) of a piece (gendhing) or some relatively straightforward elaboration of it. The instrument has a wide dynamic range. Because the beaters are not padded, the produced tones, and especially their attacks, are bright in comparison to other gamelan metallophones that are sounded with padded beaters.

Origins/History/Evolution

Kunst argues that a saron is depicted in the reliefs of the 8^th century CE Borobudur temple, but the image is vague and the identification questionable. It could be argued indirectly that Majapahit-period (14^th and 15^th centuries CE) ensembles included saron because some archaic Balinese ensembles, which might be viewed as Majapahit inheritances, have them.  The most archaic (pre-16^th century) Javanese gamelans in existence (gamelan monggang and gamelan kodhok ngorek) do not include saron, although it is known that two saron were added to one of them in the mid-18^th century (Vetter). The gamelan sekati, generally dated to the beginning of the 16^th century and still used today, do include saron, so we can say with certainty that the instrument goes back at least to the 1500s CE. However, in all likelihood, the instrument predates that era.

Bibliographic Citations

Kartomi, Margaret. 1984. “Saron,” NGDMI v.3: 299-300.

Kunst, Jaap. 1968. Hindu-Javanese Musical Instruments. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.

________. 1973. Music in Java. 3^rd ed. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.

Pickvance, Richard. 2005. A Gamelan Manual. London: Jaman Mas Books.

Vetter, Roger. 2001. “More Than Meets the Eye and Ear: Gamelans and Their Meaning in a Central Javanese Palace,” Asian Music 32/2: 41-92.