Suling

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Suling , also seruling ( Indonesian "flute"), describes mostly lengthways flutes and some transverse flutes made of bamboo, which are played in the Malay Archipelago from Malaysia and Indonesia to the southern Philippines . A longitudinal flute with a gap on the outside core is the only wind instrument in the gamelan of Java and Bali and belongs to several chamber music ensembles in West Java. In some regions of North Sumatra the suling is a short transverse flute, in Aceh a thin, long flute called suleng is played. Several, predominantly long, longitudinal flute types of the Minangkabau in West Sumatra are called saluang . In South Sulawesi there are cross-blown suling . In Malaysia the suling types are also predominantly transverse flutes, the suling from Mindanao are similar to the Javanese straight flutes.

Javanese suling with outer core column (band flute, English ring flute ). Left: outer wind tunnel and cutting edge covered by a ring.

Origin and Distribution

Long suling in a Javanese gamelan . Recording of the ethnomusicologist and gamelan player Ernst Heins, 1966

Bamboo flutes are widespread in Southeast Asia and come in numerous variants up to the music of New Guinea . The University of the Philippines alone has a collection of several dozen different bamboo flutes in the country, to which the many native language groups have coined over 50 names; next suling among other paldong, palendag, kalaleng, lagtuban, lantoy, ongiyong, plawta, taladi, tappang, tongale and Bansi . The longitudinally blown bamboo flute khlui with core gap belongs to court music and folk music of Cambodia and Thailand .

In Indonesia, probably the most common type of flute is the longitudinally blown bamboo flute with an outer core gap (tape flute), which is common in Sulawesi as well as Java and Bali . The saluang in Sumatra is mostly of the same type . In Sulawesi, Sumatra and other islands there are also core gap flutes with an internal core gap. Nose flutes and pan flutes are only widespread regionally , the latter in northern Myanmar , in Thailand, West Java, Flores , Timor and New Guinea . Flutes are little known, they are mainly played by the Toraja in South Sulawesi and by Batak groups in North Sumatra.

In the first centuries AD, Indian traders and missionaries had a noticeable influence on the culture of Southeast Asia to this day. The Indian influence on the medieval Khmer empire in present-day Cambodia and the Sailendra empire on Java can only be recognized in the field of music from the relatively few musical instruments depicted on reliefs in Angkor and Borobudur (8th century). In Angkor these include hourglass drums , the disappeared bow harp ( Khmer pinn, from Sanskrit bin, vina ), the stab zither kse diev and the snail horn saing (from sankh ). What is striking today is the almost complete lack of transverse flutes, which are often depicted in medieval Indian temples and occupy an important place in Indian music (Sanskrit vamsha , known as bansuri ). In the Hindu-Javanese period (up to the 15th century), transverse flutes were depicted on numerous Javanese temple reliefs. In the literature of the time, these flutes had names from India such as wangsi, bangsi and wenu . The word suling was first documented in literature in 923, although it is unclear whether a transverse flute or a longitudinal flute was meant.

Some of the flutes found in the Philippines originate from the Spanish colonial era and another flute on the East Indonesian island of Ambon is also a product of Christianization. A common origin of the flutes occurring in a multitude of shapes and playing styles, whose name is suling or similar, cannot be identified.

Bamboo flutes are played in court and village light music as well as in ceremonial music in Southeast Asia. Court music mainly includes metallophones and bronze gongs . Musical instruments made of bamboo, on the other hand, are preferably made and played in rural areas. They include idiochorde tube zithers (like the Sasando ), mashed tubes, slit drums , rattles vessel (such as the angklung ), the West Javanese tube xylophone Calung , rattling , mouth drums and reed instruments .

Design and style of play

Central and East Java

Outer core gap flute , also known as a band flute , ring flute , with the rattan ring removed from the blowing edge. Photo taken before 1910.

The Javanese and Balinese suling is a longitudinal flute that is open at the lower end and is one of the outer core split flutes. The upper end is closed by a knot (Nodium, Indonesian ros ). At this knot, a narrow splinter is cut out on the outside and a five millimeter long, rectangular opening is cut out on the directly adjoining pipe. The edge of the opening opposite the knot is beveled on the inside. A ring made of bamboo fibers or rattan , drawn over the cut-out strip and the opening, directs the blown air, following the principle of tape flutes, through the gap at the lower edge of the opening into the tube. The sound generation principle of the tape flute also occurs in the Burmese bamboo flute palwei and is similar to that of the rare double transverse flutes (in India, surpava ).

The Javanese suling are tuned and named after the key (usually sléndro or pélog ) and the style of playing in which they are used. In central and eastern Java, the suling is 45 to 52 centimeters long and 1.55 centimeters in diameter. The suling sléndro gets by with four to five finger holes, the suling pélog has five finger holes around the former principality of Surakarta and further east as well as around Yogyakarta and six finger holes to the west. If no suling sléndro is available, the second and fifth holes of a suling pélog can be closed with six finger holes. In this way, with appropriate practice, the sound supply of a sléndro mood can be generated. A third type of suling in Java is the suling reog , which accompanies the dance games called Reog with masks in a small ensemble. The suling reog is shorter and thicker than the other flutes and has three finger holes. A transverse flute with six finger holes, also called suling , was only played in the music of the Central and East Javanese military bands ( prajurit music) at the royal courts, in Yogyakarta together with the rare, conical single -reed instrument puwi-puwi .

Gamelan refers to a large number of ensembles of court music in cities as well as urban and village ritual music, in which humpback gongs made of bronze, metallophones , drums, string instruments, xylophones , singing voice and the only wind instrument a flute can appear. Since the second half of the 19th century, the combination of a gamelan tunedin sléndro and a gamelan tunedin pélog has been commonin courtly light music on Java. A gamelan sléndro-pélog (or gamelan seprangkat ), which contains a complete set of instruments in both keys, has at least two copies in each size of an instrument type. Theonly melodic instruments that play a rolein Central Java, apart from the percussion instruments and the zither celempung andproduce a continuous tone, are the two-stringed spiked violin rebab (name related to the oriental rabāb ) and the suling .

Another division of the instruments is based on the sound quality into loud-sounding instruments made of bronze (metallophones saron and slenthem , gong series bonang ) and into a second group consisting of soft-sounding instruments. In addition to singing voices, these include the metallophone gender , the trough xylophone gambang , the celempung , the rebab and the suling . The loud-sounding orchestras, which also use double-reed instruments ( tarompet in West Java, selompret in Central and East Java ), play outdoors during processions and magical ceremonies, while the soft-sounding orchestras prefer to play indoors. Each of these two groups of instruments can sometimes be heard in harmony with the singing voices in a large gamelan , otherwise each group alternately plays for itself. The kendang barrel drums determine the beginning and end of a composition, the basic rhythm and changes in tempo in the course of the game . The loud percussion instruments provide the cyclically repeating, rhythmic and melodic framework and produce the main melody ( balungan , "skeleton", melodic framework that is played in a single melody line by several metallophones at octave intervals), while suling, rebab and vocal parts with theirs Ability to produce sustained tones, play around the main melody and ensure the linear musical flow of time. The main melody forms the central ordering principle of Javanese music in general; it is built up in layers by the melodic additions of other instruments to a heterophonic overall sound. This embellishing musical element, with which there is a certain freedom for improvisation, is called garap (literally “to work”) as a contrast to balungan . The suling is one of the Garap instruments. She plays certain melodic phrases that are rhythmically embedded in the main musical events given by the kenong series of humpback gongs and the large hanging gongs.

The range of a Javanese suling is approximately three octaves , but only the overblown second and third octave are clearly audible , while the first notes of the lower octave are barely audible. The overall sound of a gamelan can suling only in the third octave penetrate and only the top two tones are always clearly heard over all other instruments and vocals. These notes therefore serve as a signal or reinforce the signal given by the rebab player for the other musicians to switch to the higher-sounding part ( ngelik or lik ) of the composition. The melodies of the suling are played around so richly that their underlying tone sequence can often hardly be made out. Some players run their fingers very quickly over the finger holes between the notes, creating a kind of tremolo .

Bali

Gamelan gambuh with the flute suling gambuh and the stringed lute rebab in the village of Budakeling in the east Balinese administrative district of Karangasem

Numerous forms of gamelan are cultivated in Bali , some of which belong to dance theater styles. According to written sources, perhaps the oldest dance theater company is the gamelan gambuh . In the 15th and early 16th centuries, cultural influences from the East Javanese Hindu Empire Majapahit came to Bali. Palm leaf manuscripts point to a tradition of the very formal style, which has hardly changed to this day, which is a direct descendant of the theatrical styles listed at the royal houses and aristocratic palaces of Majapahit. Until the introduction of the gambuh , the pre-Hindu Balinese dances lacked the narrative element. In the gambuh , episodes from the life of the mythical Prince Panji, who also plays the leading role in several wayang theater forms, are staged on a makeshift stage ( kalangan ) outdoors .

The accompanying gamelan gambuh is derived from the earliest orchestras described in ancient Javanese literature. It took its name from the 90 centimeter long, deep-sounding longitudinal flute suling gambuh . With the gamelan gambuh , a complex musical form and a close connection between the music and the dance movements was introduced in Bali. Two to four suling gambuh , playing in unison, create a vibrating sound thanks to their fine pitch differences. The flutes with an outer core gap are blown with circular breathing; their six finger holes are arranged in two groups with a slightly larger center distance and are covered with the fingertips or the middle phalanx. They play long melodies, sometimes together with a string rebab , which are rhythmically structured by percussion instruments. The larger time units are marked by hanging humpback gongs, these are rhythmically filled with rincik (also ceng-ceng , hand cymbals ), kajar (lying gong) and the two-headed barrel drums kendang . These instruments are sometimes supplemented by gentorag (bell tree) and gumanak (small sheets of copper or iron rolled into a tube and struck with a stick). Each dancing figure has its own melody sequence with a certain modal structure ( tetekep ) that is appropriate to the character. For example, the beautiful Princess Candra Kirana is characterized by the music as dignified but sad.

The gamelan Gegenggongan, which is used to accompany dance theaters and dances, consists of the bamboo jaw harp genggong , the barrel drum kendang , the bamboo tubular zither guntang , the cymbals ceng-ceng and suling . The gamelan pelegongan ( palegongan ) is used to accompany the legong dance and other dance theaters. In its current expanded line-up, known as gamelan legong , the ensemble, tuned to sléndro , consists of several metallophones gendèr with 13 sound plates, the smaller metallophone saron , the hanging gong kempur and other gongs. Then there are the soft-sounding instruments rebab and suling . In the gamelan pajogedan , also tuned to sléndro , the metallophones are replaced by quieter xylophones with bamboo panels . The flute also appears in it. The mythical lion Barong appears in the Barong dance drama, which is accompanied by a pentatonic gamelan bebarongan formed exclusively for this purpose . Its instruments correspond to the accompanying orchestra of the Legong dance, with the local humpback gong series trompong being replaced by the metallophone gender rambat with 13 to 15 sound bars . In addition to the two gender rambat, there are other metallophones ( jegogan and jublag ), a large hanging humpback gong ( gong gede ) that marks the musical cycles, a drum ( kendang ), small gongs, a rebab and one or two suling with six finger holes.

One of the most famous Balinese orchestras is the gamelan gong kebyar with its extremely fast and virtuoso style of playing. In addition to the percussion instruments, the stringed lute rebab and a long, deep-sounding suling belong to it.

Lombok

The music of Lombok is shaped by the Hindu neighboring island of Bali in the west and by Islamic influences. Several gamelan , large ensembles with gongs and metallophones made of bronze come from Bali and Java , in their place, according to the strict interpretation of Islam, ensembles with frame and kettle drums should be used. The one meter long bamboo flute suling with six finger holes is the only musical instrument in several gamelan that produces a sustained melody tone. In the old ritual orchestra gamelan gendang beleq , the suling is occasionally supplemented by the double reed instrument preret . In the gamelan wayang sasak , with which the cycle of legends Serat Menak Sasak is performed as a shadow play, the flute follows the narrator's free rhythmic song ( dalang ) and leads the orchestra. This consists of several gongs, metallophones, a pair of cymbals ( rincik ) and two barrel drums ( gendang ).

A vocal style that originated in Lombok in the 19th century and spread to East Bali is cepung . The singer and reciter carries sections of the Sasak -narrative Lontar monyeh before ( "monkey Manuscript"), a version of the well known in Indonesia stories about the prince Panji. He is accompanied by a choir consisting of three to six men, the flute and the string lute rebab or redeb . The choir imitates the onomatopoeic instruments of a gamelan (drums, humpback gongs). Late at night , when the men are drunk on palm wine ( tuak ), they begin to dance wildly.

The suling is the only melody instrument that, together with barrel drums ( gendang ), provides the accompanying music for the peresean fight dance . Otherwise, the flute appears in various quasi-traditional ensembles for the entertainment of tourists.

West Java

Gamelan setting

Suling degung , played by a musician from the West Javanese group SambaSunda

The music of West Java is primarily the Sundanese music. The most respected type of ensemble is gamelan degung , which was formerly played at the ruling houses . In earlier centuries the degung ensemble consisted only of bronze instruments and one or two drums. Today, bonang (lying humpback gongs in two rows), saron (metallophone), panerus (a high-pitched variant of saron ), cempres (a form of saron with 14 sound bars ), jengglong (several hanging or framed humpback gongs) belong in varying numbers ), goong (large hanging gong), a pair of kendang and a small bamboo flute suling degung with four finger holes.

Even under Dutch colonial rule, the degung ensemble remained associated with the Sundanese upper class in the first half of the 20th century. When in 1921 an accompanying orchestra was sought for a new production of the Sundanese folk tale Lutung Kaserung in Bandung , it was decided to use the also Sundanese gamelan degung instead of the large gamelan sléndro-pélog that is otherwise usual for theater productions of the urban upper class . However, in order to be able to play melodies in the usual way in theater plays, this was supplemented by a suling and the barrel drum pair kendang indung (“mother drum”) and kendang leutik (“small drum”). The suling , known from chamber music, turned out to be too deep and too quiet. Therefore, a shorter flute with four finger holes and just over 30 centimeters in length was introduced, which sounds higher and louder. The four finger holes of the suling degung are sufficient to reproduce the five notes of the pélog degung scale. The suling degung has an achievable range of two octaves . Bonang and suling play the main melody in the gamelan degung , the two sarons decorate the melody, the other percussion instruments set rhythmic patterns in between and the kendang set the pace.

In the 1970s and 1980s this ensemble ( degung klasik ), now known as “classical” , in which until now only male musicians played, was also opened to female singers and popularized through an expanded repertoire that also includes entertainment songs. In this popular ensemble, degung kawih , the Sundanese box zither kacapi was added as a further melody instrument .

Tembang Sunda

Tembang Sunda is a singing style that developed from the ancient art of reciting the epic tales carita pantun, probably at the beginning of the 19th century as a courtly art form. The songs are mostly about love without addressing social problems. The background is about the longing for the West Javanese, Hindu kingdom of Pajajaran, which existed from 1333 to 1579 and which is presented as the golden age. The female singing voice is accompanied by two zithers, the larger kacapi indung and the smaller kacapi rincik , a quill rebab and a suling . Tembang Sunda songs are mainly performed in the pélog mood, other keys are sorog and sléndro. In the case of songs performed in sléndro , no suling plays along, in this case it is replaced by a rebab . The typical suling tembang (so named to distinguish it from the suling degung ) has six finger holes and is 62 centimeters long (60 to 65 centimeters long are possible). The strings of the kacapi are usually tuned after a 62 centimeter long suling (the pitch is called barang and corresponds approximately to f 1 with 349 Hz). If the ensemble leader wants to set the pitch, he gives the length of the corresponding flute.

Kacapi Suling

The kacapi suling ensemble corresponds to the tembang Sunda without a singing voice. The musical form has distant roots in a courtly style of the 19th century; it became popular as an offshoot of the tembang Sunda in Javanese cities in the 20th century and was particularly popular through music cassettes. The game of a suling (tembang) and two or three kacapi has an even, flowing character and serves as pleasant, inconspicuous background music in the lobby of a hotel or as a break filler on the radio. Kacapi suling is rarely performed on the concert stage . The suling player has more freedom than usual to improvise.

Baduy

The Baduy ethnic group, numbering a few thousand members, live in remote villages in the south of the province of Banten . The preservation of one's own animistic-Hindu tradition from external influences is the highest cultural imperative, especially the "inner Baduy" who rejects modern civilizing achievements. Nevertheless, they use musical instruments that are all used in Sundanese music, including the bamboo flutes of different sizes suling lamus, suling kumbang, elét and tarawélét . Apart from the jew's harp karinding , only men are allowed to play musical instruments. The four bamboo flutes are only used as soloists, only the 62 centimeter long suling lamus with six finger holes can also be played together with the kacapi and the string rendo (better known under the name tarawangsa ). The 20 centimeter long elét with five finger holes is mainly blown by boys. The suling lamus with a length of 62 centimeters and six finger holes is similar to the flute used in the Tembang Sunda with an outer core. The two longitudinal flutes are played with circular breathing. The suling kumbang (Indonesian "beetle flute") is a transverse flute with two finger holes in the middle, 1.7 centimeters inside diameter and a small range. With the flute tarawélét with a length of 58 centimeters and an inner diameter of 2.4 centimeters, the two finger holes are located at the lower end of the music tube, about 38 and 43 centimeters away from the blow-in opening.

Jakarta

The kroncong singer Waldjinah (center) with her ensemble ( orkes keroncong ) consisting of flute, two kroncong , cello, double bass and violin. 2013 in The Hague .

Some styles of music cultivated in West Java do not count as Sundanese music, but rather go back to a mixture of Javanese with European, Chinese or Oriental influences, from which independent or marginal, urban light music styles have been formed, depending on the point of view. In addition to the tanjidor brass orchestra , which was introduced during the Dutch colonial era , the kroncong ( keroncong ) song genre, which originated in Jakarta under the older Portuguese influence, belongs to the folk music of the common people who live in the densely populated outskirts ( kampong ) of the state capital. The Portuguese merchant ships in the 16th century brought not only European seafarers, but also African and Indian slaves. Many of them adopted Christianity, gained freedom, and settled in the vicinity of the trading posts. They were called Portuguese merdequa , Dutch mardijker (from Sanskrit maharddhika , "tax-exempt", later Indonesian merdeka , "free", "independent"). Kroncong is initially the Indonesian name for a small, five-string guitar that corresponds to the ukulele from Hawaii, and at the same time denotes the ensemble that is audibly influenced by Portuguese music. In addition to two kroncong belong to a typical ensemble one to three guitars, a cello, or two violins, a seruling called Flute, a rhythm instrument ( Triangle and frame drum ) and if necessary a mandolin . The catchy European melodies given by the singing voice, violin and flute are in a strict 4/4 time, which is emphasized on the first beat and hardly ornamented. A typical example of the old kroncong style, in which the guitars are limited to rhythmically struck harmonies, is the title Kafrinyo . The interplay of the instruments results in a pleasing, unsurprising overall sound. The use of the violoncello is a specialty. It is plucked kendang as an imitation of the drum drum that is beaten with both hands .

Although the Chinese have been in contact with Indonesia for over a millennium, their overall influence on music has remained small. It was not until the 19th century that two Chinese-influenced musical styles emerged among the Chinese overseas in Batavia (today Jakarta): the lenggo dance theater , which is accompanied by three frame drums ( rabana ), some violins and the Chinese yueqin ("moon lute"), and gambang kromong . The name of the orchestra, which became famous in the 1820s, is derived from that of the two Indonesian instruments gambang , a xylophone with 18 pentatonic sound plates, and kromong , a gong set of ten humpback gongs arranged in a double row. Both instruments are used in addition to the singing voice to form melodies. There are also the Indonesian percussion instruments kempul and goong (two hanging hump-back gongs), the barrel drum kendang and kecrek ( pairs of cymbals attached to a wooden box ). A string lute called tehyan (Chinese, because the bow is not passed over but between the two strings) and the small transverse flute suling come from Chinese music . This line-up can be supplemented by various European wind instruments ( trumpet , saxophone ), keyboard , electric guitar and Hawaiian guitar . The task of the flute (as well as the trumpet and Hawaiian guitar) is to play around the main melody.

Jaap Kunst (1949/1973) gives the name bangsing for the flute used in the gambang kromong (in North Indian languages bangsi, bansi, derived from bansuri , from Sanskrit vamsha ). In the gambang kromong he differentiates between a transverse flute with six, four and two finger holes. Bangsing also refers to a 30 centimeter long beaked flute with six to seven finger holes in West Java . Jaap calls art chalintu the usual west Javanese outer core gap flute with five finger holes . The flute bang singing part as the vessel flute taleot or mouth harp karin ding to the tools of local rural musical traditions.

A suling also belonged to the traditional instruments of the pop music style dangdut , together with drums ( kendang ) and the plucked gambus . Western instruments, which are mostly electrically amplified, have been used instead since the 1960s.

Sumatra

Minangkabau

In the highlands of the West Sumatra province, populated by Minangkabau , there are several variants of the close-blown external core split flute saluang , which are related to the most frequently played flute type in Java. Most often it is used uninterruptedly through circular breathing as a discreet accompaniment to the long epic chants saluang jo dendang . Singing voice and flute create a melancholy mood with just a few notes. The flutes are typically six to seven inches long; the saluang darek used for the epic chants is 60 centimeters long and has four finger holes. The roughly 42 centimeter long saluang pauah with six finger holes, the 72 to 80 centimeter long saluang panjang with three finger holes and the less than 40 centimeter long bansi with six finger holes and one thumb hole are beak flutes. The bansi is used especially on the south coast of the Minangkabau area for dance accompaniment and theater performances, sometimes as an addition to an ensemble with talempong (small humpback gongs in a double row) and rabano (hand-struck frame drums).

Bamboo flutes belong to different magical rituals. When a man-eating tiger threatened a village in the past , a suitably qualified shaman was hired to sing beautiful, calming melodies accompanied by a saluang near a trap set up for the tiger in the jungle , in which he praised the tiger for its elegance and intelligence and invited him to jump into the trap. With this act, may the tiger pay off its debt to the village community that it had incurred by killing people. The pre-Islamic, magical practices of catching a tiger with flute and song are also part of the tradition ( asali ) of the Minangkabau in Islamic times .

Aceh

Further north, in the Blangkejeren area (in Gayo Lues administrative district ), an ensemble called canang situ ("seven canang"), consisting of canang (reclining humpback gongs) and a wind instrument, accompanies dance performances, wedding processions and the demonstration of the martial art silek (a variant of the Malay silat ). In the canang kacapi ensemble there , up to five idiochords play bamboo tubular zithers ( kacapi ) and an outer core split flute bansi . The Gayo who live in Blangkejeren and the rest of the central highlands of Aceh Province call a flute bensi . In a Gayo ensemble that performs at weddings and public ceremonies, canang , idiochorde, bamboo zithers ( kacapi ) and a set of tuned drums ( taganing ) play together with other gongs, a cone oboe ( serune ) or a bensi and a frame drum ( guwel ).

Batak

Bamboo flute suling the Batak with six finger holes, before 1936
Beaked flute sinkadu the Mandailing on the west coast of North Sumatra , before 1936

The ceremonial music of the Batak , which is played to accompany the dance and at official festive events, is called gondang by the Toba-Batak , gendang by the Karo-Batak , gorang by the Mandailing and similarly by the other Batak language groups. The ensembles generally include different rows of humpback gongs, the double-reed instrument sarunei and drums. In addition to the gendang sarunei , the Karo-Batak also have the simpler gendang kenteng-kenteng ensemble (equipped with cheaper instruments) , which consists of two bamboo zithers ( kenteng-kenteng ), a porcelain bowl as a percussion idiophone ( mangkuk ) and as a melody instrument for a plucking ( kulcapi ) or a flute ( beluwat ). The mandailing know a corresponding division into an orchestra ( gordang ) for important occasions with different gongs ( ogung ), drums and a reed instrument ( sarunei, serunei ) and an orchestra for smaller occasions, which is called gondang boru or gondang dua-dua . These include a singing voice, a flute suling or a reed instrument. The ceremonial orchestras have a strong unifying function for society according to tradition ( adat ).

The Toba Batak the itinerant folk spectacles traveling theater is Opera Batak by a uning uningan ensemble accompanies the catchy, European sounding melodies from a sarune na met-met ( "little oboe"), two hasapi (plucked lute), a garantung (Xylophone), a hesek-hesek (iron impact plate , alternatively a beer bottle struck with a nail) and the flute sulim .

For the Simalungun Batak, the music played in the fields for pastime or courtship included a single reed instrument made of bamboo ( sarunei buluh ) or a flute: either the bamboo transverse flute sulim or the 45 centimeter long, diagonally played sordam with four finger holes and one Air hole near the air vent. The young man sent a message to a girl when he blew his nose flute in the house at night , to which the girl replied with the equally soft tones of a jaw harp . The pentatonic tuned saligung is 37 centimeters long, has five finger holes and is made from a five centimeter thick bamboo tube. In addition to these types of flutes , the Batak also play the taratoa , a longitudinal flute with a gap on the outside of the core, which corresponds to the Javanese suling . Instead of the Rontang band, it has a bamboo ring over the core gap. The different Batak beaked flutes are called beluwat, belobat, lobat, singkadut, suling and tulila.

Malaysia

Most flutes in Malaysia are straight flutes made of bamboo. They are called suling, kesuling, seruling (longitudinally blown outer core gap flutes) and nabat (beaked flute). There are also numerous names given by individual ethnic groups. Flutes and violins, introduced by the Portuguese in the 16th century, are the main melodic instruments in traditional music on the Malay Peninsula . In addition to their use in popular music, mouth-blown flutes were part of ceremonies connected with ideas of fertility and rebirth, while nasal flutes had an additional, magical-religious significance. This applies to the suling and sangui nasal flutes of the Orang Asli on the Malay Peninsula and the selengut and turali in the states of Sarawak and Sabah . The turali in Sabah and Sarawak, for example, is blown during the harvest festival pesta menuai in honor of the spirit of the rice plant.

During the 20th century, most bamboo flutes in city music were replaced by metal flutes based on the European model. The two most popular traditional dances in Malaysia are called joget and ronggeng . For Joget ( "dance", also called "dancing girl") is the ensemble Joget Gamelan consisting of a violin, a hump Gong (rhythmic basic structure), at least two frame drums ( Rebana ) or questionable time barrel drums ( Gendang ) and is in need of flute.

Moluccas

On the island of Ambon , which belongs to the Moluccas, a particularly distinctive European musical culture has established itself under the influence of Protestant Christians in a Muslim environment. The music in Christian worship and the music played during entertainment dances is shaped by forms that were fashionable in the Netherlands in the 19th century. The tuning of the instruments is accordingly roughly diatonic . The orchestras consist of several bamboo flutes of different sizes ( suling ), a clarinet and various brass instruments made locally.

The relative majority of the population on the Kei Islands professes the Roman Catholic faith. This religious community seems to preserve a certain form of traditional music more strongly than the Muslims and Protestants on the islands. The choir chants cultivated in the Catholic church services alternate with pure flute ensembles playing suling bambu ("bamboo flute"). The savarngil is a bamboo flute only 10 to 20 centimeters long with six finger holes that can accompany any of the 52 known traditional dances of the Kei Islands.

In the Moluccas, dances accompanied by instruments are often referred to as sawat . A dance style on the island of Buru is called tiwal sawat after the drum involved tiwal , which can be replaced by the frame drum rebana if necessary . The other instruments are a gong and the flute savarngil . The flute produces the pentatonic tone sequence C - D - E ♭ - F - G.

Sulawesi

Ensemble musik bambu of the Toraja . Blown bamboo tubes pompang and flute suling .

In the south of Sulawesi there are some musical instruments originating from Java. In Muslim areas there are instruments of Islamic culture such as the frame drum rebana and the lute gambus , while in areas with Christian populations the bamboo flute with six finger holes, known from the island of Ambon, is played. Several of these flutes, ornamented with burnt-in lines, form a flute ensemble. Toraja women perform a dance in which they simultaneously play the bamboo flute suling based on the Javanese model, the bowed spit lute arabebu (otherwise rebab ) and the bamboo beater fork rere . The latter should be able to drive away ghosts and may only be used after the rice harvest so as not to endanger it.

The longest fully blown flute in the Toraja is called suling lembang . It has six finger holes, an attached bell made of buffalo horn and is mainly used by professional musicians together with singing voices in a mámarakka ensemble at funerals. The flutes of this ensemble, which mostly play a pentatonic tone sequence in unison, achieve a range of three octaves by overblowing. The Bugis call such a flute basing bugisi .

The ensemble consisting of flutes is called musik bambu (also musik pompang or bas musik ). The catchy European-Christian flute melodies are accompanied by blown bamboo tubes pompang , which produce a single muffled tone, with an even-numbered rhythm. Such ensembles play on all public occasions - at funeral ceremonies to greet guests or in front of tourists - and are performed as an old Toraja tradition, even if flutes were only introduced by missionaries and teachers from the Moluccas at the beginning of the 20th century. The Torajas named the flutes as suling wajib (“compulsory / compulsory flute”) as the subject matter of their lessons . Flute music had a strong influence on the Christianization of school children.

In the administrative districts of Mamasa and Tanah Toraja , double flutes called suling rapi with an outer core gap occur. The two unevenly long bamboo tubes are connected by rattan fibers. The longer tube has five finger holes, the shorter tube has no finger holes and produces a high drone tone for the melody . This extremely rare type of flute can also be found on the island of Flores with the regional name doa ("two"). There, two 30 centimeter long play tubes with three finger holes each are blown by a musician. Two other flutes of unequal length are also played in pairs on Flores.

Philippines

Tumpong from Mindanao , a lip valley flute

Bamboo flutes are widely used in the Philippines . Nose flutes blown at an angle are mainly found on the northern island of Luzon ( tongale, enonggol, innung-ngor, bali-ing for the Igorot ; kaleleng, kurareng for the Bontok and Kankanai and ungiung for the Ifugao ). The mouth-blown lengthways flutes are divided into the main groups lip valley flute , beak flute and ring flute .

The lip valley flute is a deeply notched flute in which the blowing edge on the underside is cut out in a wide arc so that it adapts to the shape of the lower lip. Their length can be over a meter with an inner diameter of about two centimeters. The lower end of the air duct is determined by a node, the flute tube is longer for optical reasons - without affecting the sound generation. There are three finger holes in the top half and a thumb hole roughly in the middle. The three finger holes are each positioned at a distance of the outer tube diameter from one another and from the thumb hole. In Luzon the lip valley flute has names like abalao, sinongyop with the Bontok; balding, paldong, enoppok among the Kalingga (Igorot); tipano, paldeng with the Isnag and taladi with the Ibaloi. The flute type occurs throughout the country, in the southern province of Maguindanao as tumpong and palendag .

The short beak flutes are rarer. The player blows through the narrow channel of a wooden plug against a cutting edge behind it and usually uses three finger holes and one thumb hole to create a high-pitched, high-pitched sound that is particularly popular with boys. Beak flutes are known in Luzon as olimong by the Kalingga, as kallaleng by the Balangao, as teptepew by the Bontok and as ongiyong and tappang by the Ifugao.

The Filipino ring flutes , which are of the Javanese type, are called suling in many regions . They are particularly widespread among Muslim ethnic groups in Mindanao and the surrounding islands of the southern Philippines: among the Manobo ( Lumad ) and in the province of Maguindanao among the Tiruray and others, and among the Tausug , Yakan and Bajau in the Sulu archipelago . In addition, there are local names on Mindanao such as dagoyong in the Higaonon language, glantoy, seleli and thulali in Subanon, falandag and pulundag in Blaan, kinsi and kunsi in Bukidnon (Lumad) and lantey, poluypoy and saguysuy in the Manobo language. The kunsi has four finger holes and the lantoy three finger holes and one thumb hole. The flute, named in Subanon glantoy , occurs in the province of Zamboanga del Norte with two finger holes and one permanent hole. The suling types are as long as the lip valley flutes , they are played by both sexes with soulful melodies for their own entertainment.

There are other longitudinal flute types, pan flutes and a few transverse flutes in the Philippines. The latter are mostly takeovers of European flutes ( flauta, plawta and tipanu ) and are mainly played in regions that were under Spanish colonial influence.

The suling of Maguindanao is tuned to a hemitonic scale ( five- tone scale with semitone steps). The song titles express a feeling of worry and sadness. The very long notch flute palendag (also pulala ) in the same region, on the other hand, is tuned to an anhemitonic scale (without semitones) and the melodies played with it have no titles. The dinaladay called, anhemitonische scale of palendag is used for the description of nature and everyday life, while the hemitonische scale binalig the suling for expression of feelings such as sadness, happiness, love and courtship seems appropriate. The two tone scales, which are clearly separated according to the musical and social function of the songs, also appear in the two-string boat lute kutiyapi . In the province of Palawan , a smaller version of this lute without semitones is used for songs about observing nature, while the much larger and deeper sounding lute of the same name with the hemitonic kulilal scale is used exclusively for love songs.

literature

Web links

Commons : Suling  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ José Maceda: In Search of a Source of Pentatonic Hemitonic and Anhemitonic Scales in Southeast Asia . In: Acta Musicologica , Vol. 62, Fasc. 2/3, May – December 1990, pp. 192–223, here p. 196
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  6. ^ Roger Blench: The worldwide distribution of the transverse flute. Draft, October 15, 2009, p. 10
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  9. ↑ Cf. Kunz Dittmer: On the origin of the core split flute . In: Zeitschrift für Ethnologie , Vol. 75, 1950, pp. 83-89
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  30. ^ Ernst Heins: Kroncong and Tanjidor - Two Cases of Urban Folk Music in Jakarta . In: Asian Music, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Southeast Asia Issue) 1975, pp. 20-32, here pp. 23f
  31. ↑ Margaret J. Kartomi: Music in Nineteenth Century Java: A precursor to the Twentieth Century. In: Journal of Southeast Asian Studies , Vol. 21, No. 1, March 1990, pp. 1-34, here p. 29
  32. ^ Philip Yampolsky: Text accompanying the CD Music of Indonesia 3. Music from the Outskirts of Jakarta: Gambang Kromong . Smithsonian Folkways 1991 ( booklet online )
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  40. ↑ Tribudi Syahputra Purba: Studi organologis saligung Simalungung buatan Batak ja huat purba di desa Tengkoh, kecamatan Panombean Pane, kabupaten Simalungun . Universitas Sumatera Utara, Medan 2014, pp. 53, 57
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  45. ↑ Margaret J. Kartomi: Maluku . In: Terry E. Miller, Sean Williams (Eds.): The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music. Vol. 4, 1998, pp. 818f
  46. ↑ Philip Yampolsky: Booklet for the CD Music of Maluku: Halmahera, Buru, Kei. (Music of Indonesia, 19) Smithsonian Folkways, 1997, title 10 ( booklet online )
  47. ^ Paul Collaer: Southeast Asia. Music history in pictures. Volume 1: Ethnic Music. Delivery 3. Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1979, pp. 134, 138
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  49. ↑ Music Bambu "Pa'pompang" atau "Pa'bas". Youtube video
  50. ^ Dana Rappoport: Ritual Music and Christianization in the Toraja Highlands, Sulawesi. In: Ethnomusicology , Vol. 48, No. 3, Fall 2004, pp. 378–404, here p. 389
  51. ^ Jaap Kunst: Music in Flores: A Study of the Vocal and Instrumental Music Among the Tribes Living in Flores. Brill, Leiden 1942, pp. 137f
  52. ↑ Corazon Dioquino: Philippine Bamboo Instruments . In: Humanities Diliman , Vol. 5, No. 1–2, January – December 2008, pp. 101–113, here pp. 102–104
  53. ↑ José Maceda: In Search of a Source of Pentatonic Hemitonic and Anhemitonic Scales in Southeast Asia . In: Acta Musicologica , Vol. 62, Fasc. 2/3, May-December 1990, pp. 204f