Pelog Salendro 10 Tones KF
This preset contains the combined pelog and salendro scales. These are the two tunings that ensemble instruments are tuned to in a Sundanese Gamelan Pelog Salendro. In traditional Sundanese music repertoire, though a Gamelan Pelog Salendro has instruments tuned in both tunings, the two are never used simultaneously, except for being used interchangeably in cases of modulation.
Salendro is a pentatonic scale with note names: S (Singgul)-G (Galimer)-P (Panelu)-L (Loloran)-T (Tugu) while Pelog is septatonic scale with note names: S (Singgul)-G (Galimer)-P (Panelu)-U (Bungur)-L (Loloran)-T (Tugu)-O (Sorog). Similar to how Pelog and Salendro are not played at the same time, Pelog is usually played using only one of three pentatonic subsets, Jawar, Liwung, or Sorog, at a time but can modulate between the three.
While there are seven Pelog notes and five Salendro notes, since the two tunings have two tones in common, L=Loloran in Salendro is tuned the same as U=Bungur in Pelog and Tugu is the also the same in both tunings (Tumbuk Nem), the total number of unique Pelog and Salendro tones is 10 (Gunawan, Milyartini and Masunah, 2022). See A Guide to Sundanese Gamelan Tuning for more information.
The Ableton tuning library includes examples based on recordings from two Pelog Salendro gamelans. This preset is based on Gamelan Kyai Kangjeng Fatahillah at Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia Bandung tuned in a Sundanese style with Tugu=451Hz. Within the preset, we use two letters to denote each note- the first letter designates whether the note comes from Salendro (S) or Pelog (P), while the second letter designates the note within the respective scale (see earlier).
This preset is organised so that the notes in the gamelan, match their closest equivalent in 12 tone equal temperament. If played using Live with a MIDI piano controller and the default MIDI Controller Layout, "All Keys", the notes are arranged as follows:
Figure 1. The default layout of the Pelog Salendro KF preset onto one octave of a piano keyboard. Salendro notes are in lower case and red, with Pelog notes in upper case and blue.
The tonal approach of linking Gamelan Pelog Salendro KF's notes with the nearest 12TET notes is particularly useful when composing contemporary gamelan works using this tuning in combination with Western instruments. For example, Dieter Mack's The Time After-Reset (2022) uses Pelog Salendro gamelan or you can also hear the simultaneous Pelog Salendro mix on the Grain Gamelan album.
With a mixture of these two scales we can play the four traditional pentatonic scales of Salendro, Jawar, Liwung and Sorog.
Refrences
Gunawan, I., Milyartini, R. and Masunah, J. (2022) 'The Use of Laras in Contemporary Gamelan Music', Harmonia: Journal of Arts Research and Education, 22(1), pp. 161–173.