Pathet

Awareness of such limitations, and exploration of variation within them reflects a basic philosophical aim of gamelan music, and indeed all art in central Java, namely, the restraint and refinement of one's own behaviour.

"[3] In essence, a pathet indicates which notes are stressed in the melody, especially at the end of phrases (seleh), as well as determines which elaborations (cengkok and sekaran) are appropriate.

In many cases, however, pieces are seen as in a mixture of pathets, and the reality is often more complicated than the generalizations indicated here, and depend on the particular composition and style.

The Javanese use the terminology padhang and ulihan, or question and answer, to describe the semantics of a balungan or lagu (melody).

[5] The scholar and ethnomusicologist Mantle Hood proposed certain ideas based on a single octave displacement of these characteristic cadences.

These ideas have been largely disproven as Javanese performance practice has been better understood, and later research has shown that matters of pathet and lagu are represented more clearly by multi-octave instruments such as rebab and voice.

The sections of the wayang are also associated with stages of life and a range of emotions; this influences the feeling, playing, and interpretation of pieces in each pathet.