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. Kalanduyan, Danongan S. "Maguindanaon Kulintang Music: Instruments, Repertoire, Performance, Contexts, and Social Functions." Asian Music XXVII.2 (1996): 3–18. 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.Benitez, Kristina. The Maguindanaon Kulintang: Musical Innovation, Transformation and the Concept of Binalig. Ann Harbor, MI: University of Michigan, 2005. 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.Cadar, Usopay Hamdag. "Maranao Kolintang Music and Its Journey in America." Asian Music 27(1996): 131–146. 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.Cadar, Usopay H.. "The Role of Kolintang Music in Maranao Society." Asian Music Vol. 27, No. 2. (Spring – Summer, 1996), pp. 80–103. Gulintangan or gulingtangan literally means rolling hands in Brunei, Sabah and Sulu.

References

Category:Indigenous Philippine music