{"id":31,"date":"2016-10-17T15:32:58","date_gmt":"2016-10-17T15:32:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vetter.sites.grinnell.edu\/gamelan\/?page_id=31"},"modified":"2025-06-03T16:09:06","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T16:09:06","slug":"k-k-gunturmadu","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/vetter.sites.grinnell.edu\/gamelan\/kraton-yogyakarta-gamelans\/k-k-gunturmadu\/","title":{"rendered":"K.K. Gunturmadu"},"content":{"rendered":"

Acquired:<\/strong> during the Reign of Sultan Hamengku Buwana I
\nType of Gamelan:<\/strong> archaic–sekati<\/em>
\nTuning:<\/strong> p\u00e9log<\/em><\/p>\n

\"gunturmadu\"<\/a>
One of the two archaic gamelan sekati<\/em> of the Kraton Yogyakarta, K.K. Gunturmadu.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

K.K. Gunturmadu (“thunder honey”) is\u00a0one of the three gamelan pusaka<\/i> allotted to the First Sultan at the Treaty of Giyanti in 1755 (see also K.K. Gunturlaut<\/a> and K.K. Ma\u00e9saganggang<\/a>). It is an archaic form of gamelan<\/i> called sekati,\u00a0<\/i>after\u00a0which is named the event Sekat\u00e8n ,<\/i> a week-long festival leading up to the birthdate of the Prophet Muhammed in the Muslim lunar calendar. The creation of this type of gamelan is attributed in oral tradition to the 16th century Kingdom\u00a0of Demak, located on the north coast of Java. It was there and at that time (approximately the second quarter of the 16th century) that Islam as a state religion took hold in Java. Credited with this significant change were nine missionaries (some of them foreign, some of them native) known as the Wali Sanga (“nine holymen”). Amongst them, one in particular, Sunan Kalijaga, advocated the utilization of a loud-style gamelan, similar to types already used in that period, to attract local populations to the newly established mosque of Demak and to Islam. Rulers of subsequent Javanese-muslim kingdoms have continued this practice up to the present. The origin of the Kraton Yogyakarta gamelan sekati <\/em>K.K. Gunturmadu is\u00a0placed in the 17th century Kingdom of Mataram during the reign of\u00a0the much-admired Sultan Agung. Oral tradition has it that in 1644 CE Sultan Agung had a gamelan<\/em> sekati<\/em> constructed (the name of which is not known), which was then passed down to successive central Javanese rulers until the reign of Susuhunan Pakubuwana III of Surakarta (r. 1749-1788 CE). It was supposedly this old gamelan sekati,<\/em>\u00a0created in the previous century by Sultan Agung, that was divided by the Treaty of Giyanti in 1755, half of it remaining in Surakarta (filled out and eventually, in 1791, given the name K.K. Guntursari) and the other half going to the newly established Sultanate of Yogyakarta to become the core of K.K. Gunturmadu.\u00a0Yogyakarta court chronicles report that K.K. Gunturmadu was made complete in its instrumentation and given new casings in 1757. I must remind the reader that the above recounting\u00a0of the origin\u00a0of\u00a0K.K. Gunturmadu is oral history and should not be understood as factual information. However, it is the narrative, broadly known both inside and outside the Kraton Yogyakarta, that is attached to this gamelan and that shapes how Javanese muslims in the Yogyakarta region relate to this object. K.K. Gunturmadu, in effect, provides this community with a visual and sonic link to the much respected Mataram kingdom of Sultan Agung and, indirectly, to the introduction\u00a0of Islam\u00a0to the island of Java by the revered Wali Sanga.<\/p>\n

K.K. Gunturmadu and its nearly identical twin K.K. Nagawilaga<\/a> are\u00a0used today exclusively for Sekat\u00e8n ,<\/i> which means they are sounded only for six days each year (from the 6th to the 12th of the Javanese\/Muslim lunar month of Mulud). The restricted use of these sets and the\u00a0timing (the week leading up to the marking of Mohammed’s birth) and location (at the\u00a0Mesjid Ageng<\/a>,\u00a0<\/i>the Great Mosque of Yogyakarta, in two purpose-built structures called\u00a0pagongan<\/i><\/a>, or\u00a0gamelan buildings) of their utilization serve to further bolster their status as emblems\u00a0both of Islam, as practiced in central Java, and of the Sultan of Yogyakarta, to whom they belong, as “Abdurrahman Sayidin Panata Gama” (“Generous Master Over the Religion”) and “Kalifatulah” (“Successor of Mohammed”). The high regard in which these two gamelans are held by members of both the palace community and the general public can be readily seen in the behavioral gestures demonstrated by people toward these objects during Sekat\u00e8n . Offerings<\/a> are made to the gamelans before they are sounded; common people make requests<\/a> for assistance (nyuwun berkah<\/em>) to the spirits of these gamelans through religious intermediaries (see Video 1<\/a>); and the palace mounts impressive procession<\/a> spectacles (see Video 2<\/a>) to deliver these sets to the Mesjid Ageng and return them to the palace. During these processions, instruments that are deemed particularly powerful in each set (their\u00a0bonang barung, bedhug, and gong ageng<\/em>) are carried beneath royal parasols (songsong<\/i>) that are used specifically to mark the most significant individuals and\u00a0objects in the kraton<\/em> cultural domain.<\/p>\n

The instrumentation of the two Kraton Yogyakarta\u00a0gamelan sekati<\/em> is spare in comparison to common practice gamelans and, for the most part, absent of archaic instruments save for a pair of\u00a0bend\u00e9<\/i>\u00a0(small, vertically suspended gongs with shallow rims). Visually, their most distinguishing feature is the large size, vis-\u00e0-vis common practice gamelans, of their saron<\/em>-type instruments\u00a0and their\u00a0bonang barung<\/em>. This latter instrument is actually played by more than one musician and serves two separate musical functions: its jaler<\/em> row (higher register) gongs, along with its two pengapit<\/em> side gongs, is performed by one musician in the role of Lurah Gendhing (“melodic leader”) of the ensemble; the setren<\/em> row (lower register) gongs are used as a set of phrase-marking instruments (like the kenong<\/em> in a common practice gamelan) and played by one or two musicians. Also noteworthy regarding the instrumentation of these sets is the absence of kendhang<\/em>; the only membranophone in each\u00a0set is a\u00a0bedhug<\/em>.<\/p>\n

For anyone experienced in\u00a0listening to Javanese common practice gamelan music played in the\u00a0p\u00e9log<\/em> tuning system, the p\u00e9log<\/em>\u00a0tuning of\u00a0K.K. Gunturmadu is noticeably lower by an interval of approximately a perfect fourth to an augmented fourth. This contributes considerably to the distinctive sound quality of this ensemble\u00a0while at the same time making it impractical to incorporate\u00a0common practice gamelan singing practices with the set. Therefore, all performance on this set is strictly instrumental and played\u00a0soran<\/em> (robust, loud style).\u00a0The repertoire of pieces (gendhing<\/em>) played on\u00a0K.K. Gunturmadu is a complicated topic\u00a0and will be explored elsewhere on this site. For now it\u00a0will be said that many common practice\u00a0gendhing<\/em> can be played on the gamelan sekati<\/em>, but some of these pieces have unique versions specifically for when they are played on these sets. There is also a core set of about 15 gendhing<\/em> that are strongly associated with the gamelan sekati<\/em>, and many rules as to when they may or may not be sounded during the week of Sekaten. Regardless of whether a gendhing<\/em> is specifically associated with the gamelan sekati<\/em> or borrowed from the common practice gamelan repertoire, they all are shaped by the distinctive performance practice\u00a0that has evolved for this archaic type of gamelan in the Kraton Yogyakarta and therefore have an unmistakeable sound when realized on them. A sense of this “gamelan sekati<\/em> sound” can be garnered from viewing Video 3<\/a> on this page, which presents a short excerpt of K.K. Gunturmadu being performed during Sekat\u00e8n in 2007.<\/p>\n

Like many of the archaic gamelans in the Kraton Yogyakarta, K.K. Gunturmadu is painted a rich, dark red (abrit sepuh<\/em>). The highlighting of the basic borders and some vegetation<\/a> carving is accentuated in gold, but the most pronounced carving motif<\/a>–a majestic sawat<\/i> (wings and tail feathers of the mythological garuda<\/i> bird) that appears on several instrument surfaces–is highlighted in light blue and white.<\/p>\n

The impressive appearance and sound of K.K. Gunturlaut, and its deep associations with Islam in Java and with\u00a0Javanese kings, make it an effective agent in the ongoing relationship between the Kraton Yogyakarta and the general population of the Yogyakarta region. This relationship is symbolically refreshed each year during Sekat\u00e8n when the royal heirlooms K.K. Gunturmadu and K.K. Nagawilaga are ceremoniously paraded from the inner domain of the palace to the public space of the Mesjid Ageng where their distinctive sonic character and the beliefs it resonates are shared with the general public.<\/p>\n

Inventory:
\n<\/span><\/strong>gong ageng<\/em><\/span><\/a> (2)
\nkempyang<\/em><\/a> (1)
\nbendh\u00e9<\/em> (2)
\nbonang barung + 2 pengapit<\/em><\/a> (1)
\nsaron demung<\/em><\/a> (1)
\nsaron ricik\/barung<\/em><\/a> (2)
\nsaron peking<\/em><\/a> (1)
\nbedhug<\/em><\/a> (1)<\/span><\/p>\n

Audio and Video Clips:<\/strong>
\nVideo 1<\/a> [A woman requests the assistance of K.K. Gunturmadu through a palace religious official at Bangsal Ponconiti during the opening of Sekat\u00e8n in 2007]<\/p>\n

Video 2<\/a> [K.K. Gunturmadu being carried through Pagelaran during the procession from the palace to the Mesjid Ageng as part of Sekat\u00e8n in 2007]<\/p>\n

Video 3<\/a> [Ladrang<\/em> Sedya Asih performed on the gamelan sekati <\/em>K.K. Gunturmadu in the Pagongan Kidul of the Mesjid Ageng, March 28, 2007]<\/p>\n

<\/a>
The gamelan sekati<\/em> K.K. Gunturmadu on display inside the palace just prior to the opening of Sekat\u00e8n in December 2016.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Acquired: during the Reign of Sultan Hamengku Buwana I Type of Gamelan: archaic–sekati Tuning: p\u00e9log K.K. Gunturmadu (“thunder honey”) is\u00a0one of the three gamelan pusaka allotted to the First Sultan at the Treaty of Giyanti in 1755 (see also K.K. Gunturlaut and K.K. Ma\u00e9saganggang). It is an archaic form of gamelan called sekati,\u00a0after\u00a0which is named … Continue reading “K.K. Gunturmadu”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":24,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-31","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vetter.sites.grinnell.edu\/gamelan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vetter.sites.grinnell.edu\/gamelan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vetter.sites.grinnell.edu\/gamelan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vetter.sites.grinnell.edu\/gamelan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vetter.sites.grinnell.edu\/gamelan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31"}],"version-history":[{"count":59,"href":"https:\/\/vetter.sites.grinnell.edu\/gamelan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2889,"href":"https:\/\/vetter.sites.grinnell.edu\/gamelan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31\/revisions\/2889"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vetter.sites.grinnell.edu\/gamelan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/24"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vetter.sites.grinnell.edu\/gamelan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}