Timing in Palaran: Coordination, Control, and Excitement in Javanese Collaborative Vocal Accompaniment

Abstract

Palaran are elements within gamelan repertoire that are derived from the melodies used to recite texts written in Javanese poetic metres. When used as palaran within gamelan performance (rather than in their original form as poetic recitation, or macapat), these melodies are supported and constrained by a metrically fixed structure of core instrumental notes and surrounded by a web of spontaneous melodic accompaniment, involving multiple musicians. This chapter explores the complex ways in which musicians control, negotiate, and coordinate timing in this flexible yet precise form of musical interaction. It examines the rules of ideal cohesive performance, the transmission of strategies for successfully learning how to achieve this, and what can be learnt from occasions when palaran go wrong and the coordination of timing goes awry. It then argues that the sense of risk involved in managing timing in these ways is a significant part of what makes palaran one of the most popular elements within the gamelan repertoire.