The Existence of Penting Instruments in Gamelan Ensemble at Karangasem Regency, Bali

Abstract

Penting gamelan ensemble was one form of Balinese gamelan ensembles that lived and developed in the eastern part of Bali, namely the Karangasem area. In this penting gamelan ensemble, penting types of instruments were very dominant both in terms of their usage and in terms of their musicality. Penting instrument was the only type of Balinese gamelan instrument that was played by picking the strings, while other types of Balinese gamelan instruments were mostly played by beating (percussion instruments). In Karangasem, there were several forms of penting gamelan ensembles. In an ensemble the number of penting instruments was not fixed. In fact, there was one music group which included penting instruments as the only instrument that functioned as melody. Another condition revealed was the small number of young people who were interested in learning to play penting instruments. They were more interested in learning other types of instruments. In addition there were also only a small number of penting instrument makers, because it wass rare for people who want to posess penting instrument. By looking at such situations faced by penting instruments and penting gamelan ensembles, it could be said that the existence of this type of instrument was very alarming.

Keywords: Penting instruments, gamelan ensemble, Karangasem Regency.

DOI: 10.7176/ADS/73-03

Publication date:May 31^st 2019