Gong Kebyar Bali 1.42

Gamelan Gong Kebyar is the most common type of gamelan music that exists and is most frequently performed in Bali. Physically, Gong Kebyar is a simplification of Gong Gede with a reduction in the number of instruments. The word "kebyar" literally means fast, sudden, and loud; reflecting the highly dynamic, loud, and fast-tempo nature of Gong Kebyar gamelan music. Gong Kebyar has five basic notes called laras pelog: nding, ndong, ndeng, ndung, and ndang.

Gamelan Gong Kebyar, as a traditional Balinese musical art form, has its historical origins documented in Balinese chronicles. Gong Kebyar is estimated to have originated in Singaraja around 1915. The village often mentioned as the birthplace of Gong Kebyar is Jagaraga (Buleleng), which also started the tradition of Kebyar Dance. There are also other sources claiming that Gong Kebyar first appeared in the village of Bungkulan (Buleleng). The development of Gong Kebyar reached one of its peaks in 1925 with the arrival of a dancer named I Ketut Mario from Tabanan who created a sitting dance called Kebyar Duduk or Kebyar Trompong.

Gamelan Kebyar, derived from Gong Gede,
Derived from the gamelan palegongan.
Pure new creation.
The first one has a strike similar to the strike of the Gong Gede gamelan, which is somewhat low as found in North Bali. The second group uses a strike similar to the strike of the gamelan palegongan (its source), which is somewhat high as mostly found in the southern part of Bali. The pure new creations of Gamelan Kebyar mostly have a medium strike as found in various regions in Bali and outside Bali. This fact indicates that there is no standardization for the strike in Gamelan Kebyar in Bali.

Also known as gong kebyar, according to a quote from Ekadarmaputra's blog post in ISI Denpasar, when gong kebyar was struck for the first time it caused an extraordinary surprise. People were astonished and tied-up cattle in fields and sheds broke loose and ran wildly.

As mentioned in the same blog post, gong kebyar is played together and simultaneously by almost all components except for certain instrumentations like flutes, kajar, rebab, kempul, bebende kemong, kajar, and terompong.

The structure of Gong Kebyar
Gong Kebyar is one of the components/instruments of Balinese gamelan consisting of five notes (panca nada) with laras pelog, but each instrument consists of ten keys.

For the people of Bali, Gong Kebyar is very familiar since almost every village and banjar (community association) in Bali has one set/component of Gong Kebyar.

Because of this familiarity, Gong Kebyar is considered a relatively new component within Balinese gamelan compared to other types such as Gambang, Gong Gde, Slonding, Semara Pegulingan and many others.

The components/instruments of gong kebyar include:
Two sets (tungguh) pengugal/giying
Four sets (tungguh) pemade/gansa
Four sets (tungguh) kantilan
Two sets (tungguh) jublag
Two sets (tungguh) penyacah
Two sets (tungguh) jegogeg
One set (tungguh) reong/riyong
One set (tungguh) terompong
One pair of male-female gongs
One kempur
One hanging kemong
One bebende
One kempli
One (pangkon) ceng-ceng ricik
One pair of male-female kendang drums
One kajar