The Musical Instruments of Mindanao

CHORDOPHONES (STRINGED INSTRUMENTS)

Kudyapi - is a guitar with two strings. It is about 1 1/2 m long and made of wood. It has a stick to support in its lower end and is played in the same position as cello. It is common among Tirurays of Cotabato.

Karaga - is a guitar made up of bamboo where the strings are slit from the bamboo itself. The bamboo is split and tied back in both ends, leaving a slit as resonator. The guitar has strings all around it. This is popular in Eastern Mindanao.

AEROPHONES (WIND INSTRUMENTS)

Sahunay - is a bamboo flute, leaving six holes for the fingers and trumpet made of coconut leaf. It is about 50 cm long and 3 cm in diameter. This is a bamboo flute of the Tausugs in Sulu.

Kinapaw - is a nose flute of the Tinguians.

IDIOPHONES (PERCUSSION INSTRUMENTS)

Kulintang - is a set of eight knobbed gongs in graduated sizes from largest to smallest mounted in a wooden frame, about a meter long. Muslim carvings decorated the frame. The kulintang is played by striking the gongs with two pieces of wood, about 12 inches long while the player squats on the floor. The instruments is popular in Sulu.

Gabbang - is similar to a xylophone. It is made of wooden box with one end wider than the other, and with an open top. Across top, wooden bars of different lengths are placed to fit the shape of the box, about 1 cm from each other. It is played by striking the wooden bars with a wooden hammer. This instruments is popular in Sulu.

Bunkaka or Bilbil  - is a bamboo musical instruments used by the Tinguians. It is a two-proged bamboo struck against the palm of one hand.

Agung - hangs from horizontal pole or wooden frame. The player stands besides the rim of the gong where he inserts his left arm through the ropes which suspend the instrument to position his hand comfortably at the knob. On the right hand, the player hold a mallet padded with rubber.

Gandingan - is a set of four graduated gongs, with thin rims and lower central knobs. They hang in pairs with the knobs of the lower pitched gongs facing each other. The same with the two higher pitched gongs. The pair of lower pitched gongs is positioned on the player's left side while the pair of the higher pitched gongs is on the right. The player usually a woman who stands between the two pair of gongs. Her body touches slightly the gong in the middle to prevent from swinging. She uses two padded mallets (one mallet for each air) to strike the gong's knobs.

Babendil - is small gong with thin rims and low central knobs. It is struck with thin bamboo sticks to produce a metallic sound.

There are three ways to play the babendil.

1. by striking the rim of the suspended gong  with a pair of sticks on the left hand.

2. by striking the gong's rim with the right hand using one stick while the left hand grasps the rim.

3. by laying the instruments upside and striking the gong's rim with the two sticks.

MEMBRANOPHONES (DRUM INSTRUMENTS)

Dabakan - is a goblet -shaped drum, which has a single head covered with goat, lizard or snake skin. It is struck with two thin bamboo sticks about 18 inches in length.

Neguet - is a drum from Cotabato, 30 cm high, 20 cm in diameter

Sulibaw - is a drum 1/2 meter long and 15 cm in diameter

Tugo - is a tiruray drum 25 cm long, 20 cm in diameter.

Reference

Developing Mind and Body through MAPEH II, Zenaida c. Serrano and Carmelita A. Orsoe, Mind Builders Publishing House, copyright 2008

Images: Google images.

Music of Mindanao

The coastal and lowland areas of western Mindanao are homes of the Islamic cultures. Folk culture and court music dating way back in the 10th century or even much earlier are integrated in the musical traditions of the pre-Islamic culture. Music is frowned upon the fundamental Islamic view, but the influx of foreign Islamic cultures of the Arabs and Persians, has changed this view. The musical practices of the people in the coastal and lowland areas of Western Mindanao are vital element in their social life are the main source of their ethnic identities. The musical practices of these indigenous people are a mixture of Western and Non-western ideas.

The Three Classic Traditions of Mindanao

The Magindanao, Maranao, and the Tausug are the three classic traditions of Mindanao.

The MAGUINDANAO KULINTANG ENSEMBLE is made up of five instruments - the kulintang, agung, dabakan, gandingan, and babendil. PALABUNIBUNYAN is the term given to the Maguindanao kulintang ensemble. It means an ensemble of loud - sounding instruments and is heard on various important occasions like wedding (KABILANG), water baptism (PAIGO or RAGAT), the curing rite (KAGAGIPAT).

THE MAGUINDANAO KULINTANG ENSEMBLE also called Palabunibunyan

1. two agung - one player each agung

2. one babendil - one player with two flexible sticks

3. one dabakan - played with two flexible sticks

4. four gandingan - played in pairs, one player to a pair

5. one kulintang - one player using two sticks of one inch diameter

TWO AGONG


ONE BABENDL



ONE DABAKAN

THE MARANAO KULINTANG ENSEMBLE called as the Pangkat Kulintang

1. 2 agong (panaggis-an and pumalasan) - two players
2. 1 babendil - one player with one stick
3. 1 dabakan - one player with two sticks

THE TAUSUG KULINTANG ENSEMBLE  is also called Pangkat Kulintangan

1. two dadabuan - played as a pair by one player with padded stick
2. two gandang - one player for each
3. one kulintangan - played by one with two sticks
4. one tungagalan - an agong played with padded sticks



the Tausug Kulintang Ensemble

link: http://www.kipas.nl/Instruments/Kulintangensemble.htm

reference: Developing Mind and Body Through MAPEH II pp39-41
                  Mind Builders Publishing House 1999, Project 3, Quezon City

Images from Google Images

bungkaka

kulibit

The Gangsa Ensemble of Highland Luzon Musical Instrument

Among the Kalinga people in the Cordillera region of Luzon Island, the gangsa is played in two ways. 

One way is called "toppaya" and the other is called "palook." 

In "toppaya" style, the musicians play the surface of the gangsa with their hand while in a sitting position, with a single gangsa resting on the lap of each musician. 

In the "palook" style, a gangsa is suspended from the musician's left hand and played with a padded stick held in the musician's right hand. 

In the "palook" style of playing, the players are standing, or they keep in step with the dancers while bending forward slightly.

http://www.univie.ac.at/muwidb/dias/diadatenbank.php?Anfangsposition=4150&id_sammlung=1&id_quelle=0&operator=&suchbegriff=#

Kulintangan ensemble

Babandir part of the kulintang ensemble

The babandil is a single, narrow-rimmed Philippine Gong used primarily as the “timekeeper” of 

the Maguindanao kulintang ensemble.

The babandil usually has a diameter of roughly one foot making it larger than the largest kulintang gong and comparable to the diameter of the Agung or Gandingan. 

However, unlike the gandingan or the Agung, the babendil has a sunken boss which makes the boss relatively non-functional. 

Because of their sunken boss, babendils are instead struck either at the flange or the rim, using either bamboo betays or a strip of rattan, producing a sharp, distinctive metallic clang and are sometimes considered “false gongs.” 

In fact, this distinction makes the babendil classified as a bell in the Hornbo classification

 (if it were struck at the boss, it would be considered a gong.)

Babandils are normally made out of bronze but due to the scarcity of this metal in Mindanao, most gongs, including the babendil are made out of more common metal such as brass, iron and even tin-can.

The babendil could be played while standing or when seated with the babendil hung half a foot from the floor. Proper technique requires the player to hold the babendil vertically, angled away from the body, with the gong held at the rim between their thumb and four fingers. With their thumb parallel to the rim of the gong, the players strikes the rim of the gong using their betay to play fundamental patterns that are similar to the drum pattern on the dabakan or the beat of the lower-pitched agung.

The babendil traditionally could be played by either genders. In wooden kulintang ensembles, the kagul is usually substituted for the babendil part.

The name Babendil is derived from Arabic word, bandair, meaning "circular-type pan Arabic tambourine or frame drum by the scholars.