Java, Indonesia
Javanese

Bronze, wood, pigment
ca. 1950s
Length: 29 in; Height: 10 in; Depth: 9 in
Idiophones – Struck Idiophones – Metallophones

This saron is an Indonesian melodic metallophone of the Javanese people of Java, Indonesia, used in Javanese gamelan.  It consists of seven nearly rectangular bronze bars/keys (wilah) in arch shape (where the bottom is flat, and the top is arched).  These bars/keys set on a wooden trough resonator (rancakan kijingan).  It is played by a performer seated with cross legs on the floor using a wooden mallet (tabuh) to strike the bars with one hand while the other hand is used to dampen the previous note by grasping the key.

There are basically three sizes, the smallest called saron panerus (nickname ‘peking’), the saron barung, and the saron demung.  This is the saron barung (often referred to as simply the saron) with medium size metal bars.  Its pitches are one octave lower than the saron panerus, and one octave higher than the saron demung.  There are two different types of tuning: pelog barung and slendro barung.  The pelog scale consists of seven notes of varying intervals of which five are given principal stress.  The slendro scale is an octave divided into five tones roughly equidistant pitches). 

Reference: Kunst, Jaap. 1968. Hindu-Javanese Musical Instruments. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff;  https://omeka-s.grinnell.edu/s/MusicalInstruments/item/1217