Notation of Javanese Gamelan dataset for traditional music applications

Abstract

The Javanese gamelan notation dataset comprises Javanese gamelan gendhing (song) notations for various gamelan instruments. This dataset includes 35 songs categorized into 7 song structures, which are similar to genres in modern music. Each song in this dataset includes the primary melody and notations for various instrument groups, including the balungan instruments group (saron, demung, and slenthem), the bonang barung and bonang penerus instruments, the peking instrument group, and the structural instruments group (kenong, kethuk, kempyang, kempul, and gong). The primary melody is derived from https://www.gamelanbvg.com/gendhing/index.php, a collection of Javanese gamelan songs. On the other hand, the notation of each instrument group is the result of our creation by following the rules of gamelan playing on each instrument. In Javanese gamelan songs, usually written only the main melody notation in the form of numerical notation and the characteristics of the song, such as song title, song structure type, rhythm, scale and mode of the song. Naturally, this is not an easy task for a beginner gamelan player, but a more complete notation will make it easier for anyone who wants to play gamelan. Each song is compiled into a sheet of music, which is presented in a Portable Document Format (PDF) file. This dataset is valuable for developing deep learning models to classify or recognize Javanese gamelan songs based on their instrument notations, as previous gamelan research has mostly used audio data. Furthermore, this dataset has the capability to automatically generate Javanese gamelan notation for songs of similar types. Additionally, it will be useful for educational purposes to facilitate the learning of Javanese gamelan songs and for the preservation of traditional Javanese gamelan music.

Keywords

• Notation
• Javanese gamelan
• Music generation
• Deep learning