Pélog
Seven-note gamelan scale with unequal steps, usually used as five notes.
What it means
Pélog is one of the two scales of Javanese and Balinese gamelan music. It has seven notes with unequal steps, of which usually five are used in a piece. The steps are neither even nor do they correspond to the notes of the European system; they sound strange and floating to European ears.
Musical use
Every gamelan ensemble is tuned individually, so that the intervals of the pélog steps differ slightly from instrument to instrument and from ensemble to ensemble. Beside pélog stands sléndro, a scale with five roughly equal steps. The two systems are not mixed in a gamelan orchestra. Claude Debussy heard Javanese music at the Paris World Exhibition in 1889, which influenced his sense of sound.
Pélog should be distinguished from the European scale with equal-tempered semitones and from the pentatonic scale, which has a fixed, usually evenly tuned spacing.
Performance practice
When you hear or play pélog, pay attention to the special color of the intervals and do not mix them with European pitches. Do not try to "correct" notes; the tuning belongs to the character of the ensemble.