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Generally the s/endro is more festive and cheerful while the pe/og is more solemn and sad. Game/an can't be compared with the compositions of the west's great polyphonic composers such as Bach whose music is so mathematically laid down. Javanese music is strange to the European ear because the scales are divided into unfamiliar intervals. Gamelan has over 14 different layers of sound and can construct scales appropriate to any kind of performance. It is much looser, freer, more flighty and unpredictable. Modulations aren't found and melodies aren't based on a fixed key note and the tonal material is very flexible. Like in jazz there's no written score, though gamelan is more rigidly structured. Neither is there as much solo playing as in western bands but more of an integration of sounds. The playing technique is handed down through successive generations and very outstanding gamelan which are handed down often carry such proper names as 'Venerable Dark Cloud' and 'Drifting in Smiles'.