Instruments with suspended keys

Suspended metal keys tend to vibrate better than the laying ones. This is an important feature exploited by the gendér, which is the most common instrument form in Bali today.

Instruments with suspended keys can broadly be split into three families, according on how the keys are resonated.

1. In the instruments of the first family, each key has its own resonator, generally a bamboo tube. These instruments are the most elaborate in make and finish, compared to the other two families. The gendér is a good representative of this family.
2. In the second family, the keys are suspended over a trough resonator, like with the laying keys. These instruments are of a simpler build and might represent a more archaic form from which the gendér family evolved with the addition of bamboo resonators. Instruments of the second family are quite common in various forms throughout South-East Asia, including in the piphat tradition. In gamelans, they are little represented in Java, compared to Bali where they are the basic form of the salunding and gambang ensembles. In any case, this family is far less common than the “gendér” family in making up gamelans.
3. In the third family, perhaps the most archaic of the three, there are no added resonators. A row of keys is simply stretched between two objects or in a frame whose main function is not resonance. The instruments can be xylophones (keys are bamboo tubes, strips of bamboo, wooden plates or bars) or metallophones (keys are metal plates). This family too is quite common throughout South-East Asia. Bamboo tubes is the most usual material and form. The Javanese calung and Balinese grantang are common bamboo tube xylophones.

Gamelan metallophones and xylophones (with the exception of bamboo tube xylophones) always have some sort of resonator. There are gamelans comprising instruments of the third family or entirely made up of them. But in this case, the instruments are always bamboo tube xylophones. It should be noted that these instruments are a special member of the third family because each tube acts as a resonator when it is struck. They could almost be considered as belonging to the first family. Gamelan does not escape the rule that it is a “resonated” music.