Gamelan semar pegulingan

Gamelan semar pegulingan is the sweetest and most refined of Balinese gamelan ensembles, the gamelan of Semar, god of love, once played in the inner courts of Balinese rajas during meals, leisure and repose. Its seven-tone pélog tuning, bamboo resonators and rare instruments such as the trompong, the gumanak tube chimes and the gentorag bell tree produce a shimmering, intimate sound quite unlike the explosive gong kebyar. The repertoire, much of it associated with the composer *I Wayan Lotring*, survives in few ensembles, and the style is documented above all by the #Nonesuch# Explorer recording made in Peliatan in 1972.