Gongs

The gong is one of the most universally known percussion instruments. One associates it often with the Chinese world. However, it is in South-East Asia that they are most many, most various and most used.

One can distinguish three types of gongs according to their physical features :

1. Flat gongs with a straight and rigid body. Clear sound.
2. Convex gongs, of greater size, with a supple wall.
3. Convex gongs with knob, stronger wall. Sound of a definite pitch.

A gong's timbre depends on its physical features. But within a same type, timbre varies also according to the gong's physical proportions, among which the size.

In India,
it is mainly gongs of the first type that one comes across. They make part of the ghana (solids) of the Indian classification of instruments. In the peninsula's south-west, one can hear them in percussion ensembles tied to temples or to dance. An example of second type gongs is played in Orissa during ratha (cart) processions. If one comes across third type gongs, in regions of the north-east, it is an influence from Burma (now called Myanmar) which is a country of South-East Asia.

In China,
and countries of strong Chinese culture, it is the second type that prevails, with a greater variety than in India. One can hear them in ensembles tied to dance (Peking opera, lion dance) and at processions. But, as in India, their role is more rhythmical than melodic. The third type is well represented, even if it hints to an influence from South-East Asia.

South-East Asia
is the region where gongs are the most many and where their role as much musical as cultural is the most important. They are nearly all of the third type. It is in this region that one comes across kulintang, piphat and gamelan, ensembles where gongs have a role both melodic and rhythmical. But it is in gamelan, southern orchestra, that gongs are the most profuse. It is there that they adopt the most varied forms; that they play the most beautiful melodies and the most complex rhythms; that their sacred quality is the strongest.

The origin of the gong is obscure. Is it Indian, Chinese, South-East Asian ? For the knobbed gong, it is in all likelyhood located in South-East Asia, if not indeed in Java.