Listen to the kempul
Tip: press play to see the sound's live frequency spectrum in blue over the waveform.
How the kempul makes its sound
In the Hornbostel–Sachs system, which classifies instruments by how they produce sound, the kempul belongs to the struck idiophones: the body is struck directly – bells, gongs, xylophones and cymbals.
More broadly it is one of the idiophones, where the solid body of the instrument itself vibrates, without strings or a stretched membrane.
Press play above and watch the spectrum: the evenly spaced peaks are harmonics, and their relative strength is what gives the instrument its character.
From Wikipedia
A kempul is a type of hanging gong used in Indonesian gamelan. The kempul is a set of pitched, hanging, knobbed gongs, often made of bronze, wood, and cords. Ranging from 19 to 25.4 cm (7.5 to 10.0 in) in diameter, the kempul gong has a flat surface with a protruding knob at the center and is played by hitting the knob with the "soft end of a mallet." The wooden mallet used has a ball shape head with heavy padding on a short wooden handle. The number of kempul gongs present in a gamelan ensemble varies but, "although there can be two to ten kempul on one separate rack, it is common to have five kempul hanging on the same rack as the Gong ageng and gong siyem" (two larger gongs).
Other struck idiophones
Frequently asked questions
What does a kempul sound like?
Listen to 1 recording on this page. As one of the struck idiophones, its sound comes from the way the body is struck directly.
What type of instrument is the kempul?
It is classified as struck idiophones (Hornbostel–Sachs 111.241.11).
Sources & credits
- Kempul dan Goong koleksi Jurusan Karawitan ISBI Bandung by Salomo Christian Hutajulu – CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
- Wikidata Q6387169 – CC0
- Wikipedia: Kempul – CC BY-SA 4.0
- Image by Tropenmuseum – CC BY-SA 3.0