Guide to Sundanese Music - Free EBooks Library

4-2.4 Kendang in degung klasik
DEGUNG KLASIK: KENDANG
The drumming used for degung klasik is quite easy to learn: certainly no
harder than Javanese kendhang kalih. The drum parts are not as standardized
as those of kendhang kalih. That is to say, there are standard motives which
recur constantly, but these may be varied at will. Moreover, since sekar
ageung often have uneven phrase lengths, the kendang parts have to be adapted
to fit the melody.
Two ways of setting up the drums for degung klasik were described in section
1.2.1. Three sounds are used:
name
tung
dung
pak
Sundanese Javanese
symbol equivalent
t
d
P
description
the large head of one kulanter
struck with a beater
the large head of the large drum
struck with a beater
the small head of the other
kulanter slapped with the hand
Ideally it would be preferable to use the Sundanese symbols, since these have
the advantage of standing for the name of each sound. However, the majority
of readers of this handbook will already be very familiar with the Javanese
symbols for kendhang kalih. In order to make the following less confusing to
read, I will therefore use Javanese symbols. But do please try to use the
Sundanese names for the sounds.
The following is a very simple kendangan which could be played in short
pieces like Lalayaran, Catrik, Kulu-kulu, etc:
Lalayaran
jengglong
kendang
It consists essentially of two motives. The first is for trundling along:
A • . . •
I P P P .
and the second is a closing pattern to mark the goong:
B tl p b . tip p p p bll
81
I
__
P P
G
51
b
G