by Tony Scott ©

The Krontjong Orchestra consists of Western instruments (guitars, banjos, ukuleles, cello and bass) and the feeling is very Latin. The Gamelan Orchestra, which has Arabic influence, consists of gongs ranging in size from 18 inches diameter weighing 5 pounds, to 4 feet diameter weighing up to 150 pounds. There are usually 10 gongs. Also used are 4 marimba type instruments of wood, and 8 vibraphone-type instruments which are divided into two groups.(one playing the melody and the other playing variations) plus 4 drums (like the conga drum) played by 2 men.
The drums set the tempo, which varies throughout each piece.
Their scale is pitched to 5 tones, called the Pelok scale, and as in most old cultures has different relationships between notes which are unlike our Western scales, which has twelve semi-tones.
Debussy, the French impressionist, based his system of whole-tone music, consisting of 6 tones, to approximate the sound of the 5 tone scale used by many old cultures.
The music produced is quite exotic due to the fact that the sounds form a blanket of sound within the 5-tone scale and the melody is distinguished by certain instruments that play only melody. I neglected to mention that there are also singers and bamboo-flute players with the Gamelan Orchestra . The vocal with Gamelan is quite unlike our western style of singing, whereas the vocal in a Krontjong song is much like Latin sentimental style. Tony Scott