Kulintang

**Kulintang** (, )
is a modern term for an ancient **instrumental form** of music played for centuries in regions of Southern Philippines, Eastern Malaysia, Eastern Indonesia, Brunei and Timor-Leste, composed on a row of small, horizontally-laid gongs that function melodically, accompanied by larger, suspended gongs and drums.

## Description

The instrument called the “kulintang” (or its other derivative terms) consists of a row/set of 5 to 9 graduated **pot gongs**, horizontally laid upon a frame arranged in order of pitch with the lowest gong found on the player’s left.

The gongs are laid in the instrument face side up atop two cords/strings running parallel to the entire length of the frame, with bamboo/wooden sticks/bars resting perpendicular across the frame, creating an entire kulintang set called a _"pasangan"_.

### Instrument specifications

The gongs weigh roughly from two pounds to three pounds each, and have dimensions of 6 to 10 inches for their diameters and 3 to 5 inches for their height. Traditionally they were made from bronze but due to the disruption and loss of trade routes between the islands of Borneo and Mindanao during World War II, resulting in loss of access to necessary metal ores, and the subsequent post-war use of scrap metal, brass gongs with shorter decaying tones became commonplace.

### Resonator

The kulintang frame is known as an _"antangan"_ by the **Maguindanao**  and _"langkonga"_ by the **Maranao**, both which mean, “to arrange”. The frame could be crude, made from simple bamboo/wooden poles, or it may be richly decorated with traditional motifs or arabesque designs.  The frame is a necessary part of the instrument, and functions as a **resonator**. It is considered improper to step over or cross over the frame while the kulintang gongs are placed on it.

## Culture

Kulintang evolved from a simple native signaling tradition, and developed into its present form with the incorporation of knobbed gongs from Sundanese people in Java Island, Indonesia.

_Kulintang_ is the Maguindanaon term for the idiophone of metal gong kettles which are laid horizontally upon a rack to create an entire kulintang set. It is played by striking the bosses of the gongs with two wooden beaters. It is called similarly in _Lumad_, _Ternate_, _Moluccas_, and _Timor_.

By the twentieth century, the term _kulintang_ had come to denote an entire Maguindanao ensemble of five to six instruments. Traditionally the Maguindanao term for the entire ensemble is _basalen_ or _palabunibunyan_, the latter term meaning “an ensemble of loud instruments” or “music-making” or in this case “music-making using a kulintang.”

### Southeast Asia

Due to its use across a wide variety groups and languages, the _kulintang_ is also called _kolintang_ by the people of  Maranao and Sulawesi, _kulintango_ by Mongondow, _totobuang_ by those in central Maluku, _kulintangan_ and _gulintangan_ by those in Brunei, Sabah, North Kalimantan and the Sulu Archipelago. Gulintangan or gulingtangan literally means rolling hands in Brunei, Sabah and Sulu.

## Infobox (instrument)

- **name**: _Kulintang_
- **names**: Calculintang, Gulingtangan, Kolintang, Kulintangan, Tifa totobuang, Totobuang
- **image**: Gong and Chime Culture Map.jpg
- **caption**: A _kulintang_ ensemble of the Maranao people with elaborate _okir_ carvings in the Museum of the Filipino People
- **image size**: 260px
- **classification**: *Percussion instrument
*Idiophone
*Gong
- **related**: bonang, kenong, canang, keromong, kromong, kethuk, trompong/terompong, rejong, talempong, chalempung, caklempong/caklempung, khong wong yai/khong wong lek, khong toch/ khong thom, khong vong, krewaing/krewong


## Infobox (music genre)

- **name**: Kulintang ensemble
- **cultural origins**: Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mindanao, Southern Philippines, Timor-Leste
- **instruments**: Kulintang • Agung • Gandingan • Babandil • Dabakan