The most primitive
beleganjur ensemble, known as
bebatelan, consisted of only nine instruments: • one "great gong":
gong ageng; • one secondary gong, with sunken boss instead of the usual raised one:
bendé; • four pairs of
cymbals: (
ceng-ceng); • two differently tuned
drums, considered male and female:
kendang; • one small handheld gong that acts as a metronome:
kempli. The drums and cymbals generally play interlocking patterns over the
ostinato of the
gongan gong cycle. Though
bebatelan itself is rarely heard nowadays, its instrumentation forms the nucleus of the more complex modern ensemble:
beleganjur bebonangan. The additional instrumentation of the
beleganjur bebonangan ensemble is: • a second
gong ageng, forming a male/female pair of gongs; • a medium-sized gong:
kempur; • four additional
ceng-ceng to total of eight • two tuned hand-held metal pot-gongs:
ponggang; • four similar but higher-pitched pot-gongs:
bonang • bamboo
suling vertical flutes in some bands The
bonang are identical to the individual pots of the
reyong; in fact, many groups simply remove the pots from the frame of a
reyong so they can double as
bonang, and
bonang are often referred to as
reyong for this reason. The
ponggang usually play a characteristic ostinato pattern while the
bonang play more complex interlocking patterns known as
kotekan. ==Cultural role==