Philippine Ethnic Instruments

List of Philippine musical instruments

To the ancient Filipinos and even to our present cultural communities, music is used to communicate feelings and emotions. It is used as part of their daily activities, rituals, ceremonies, festivities, and other celebrations.

A Kutiyapi

The Philippines is rich in different kinds of musical instrumentsor sound-producing instruments made by its ethnic groups. These group discovered that different sounds are produced by various sources. The differences lie in the manner of construction, the style of playing, and their size. Here are some of the ethnic musical instruments.

Agung

The agung. The left gong is the pangandungan, used for basic beats. The right gong is the panentekan, which complements the pangandungan.

The agung is a large, heavy, wide-rimmed gong shaped like a kettle gong. of the agung produces a bass sound in the kulintang orchestra and weighs between 11 and 15 pounds, but it is possible to find agungs weigh as low as 5 pounds or as high as 20 or 30 pounds each, depending on the metal (bronze, brass or iron) used to produce them.

Though their diameters are smaller than the gandingan’s, at roughly 22 inches (560 mm) to 24 inches (610 mm) in length, they have a much deeper turned-in takilidan (rim) than the latter, with a width of 12 to 13 inches (330 mm) including the knob.

They are hung vertically above the floor at or a bit below the waist line, suspended by ropes fastened to structures like strong tree limb, beam of a house, ceiling, or gong stand.

The larger, lower pitched gong of the two is called the pangandungan by the Maguindanao and and the p'nanggisa-an by the Maranao. Played on the musician's right, it provides the main part, which it predominantly played on the accents of the rhythmic structure.

The smaller, higher pitched gong, the thicker of the two, is called the panentekan by the Maguindanao and the p'malsan or pumalsan by the Maranao. Found on the player’s left, it is mainly played on the weaker double and triple beats of the rhythmic structure, in counterpoint to the pangandungan's part.

Luntang

Also called kwintangan kayo (Yakan)

The luntang is a type of Philippine xylophone of the Maguindanaon people, strung vertically, with five horizontal logs hung in ascending order arranged by pitch. The Maguindanaon refer to this instrument as a luntang while the Yakan call it a kwintangan kayo. The cylindrical logs are beaten at the edge to create sounds and can be played either solo or with two people on either side. Among the Maguindanaon, the luntang is used only for self-entertainment purposes, to keep farmers awake while at the same time keeping the birds away from the fields. Commonly used for long distance communication some times ago by the Maguindanaon, the Yakan have taken its use a step further: using it for social interactions between sexes as well.

Kubing

 The kubing is a type of Philippine jew's harp from bamboo found among the Maguindanaon and other Muslim and non-Muslim tribes in the Philippines and Indonesia. It is also called kobing (Maranao), kolibau (Tingguian), aru-ding (Tagbanua)), aroding (Palawan), kulaing (Yakan), karombi (Toraja), yori (Kailinese). Ones made of sugar palm-leaf are called karinta (Munanese), ore-ore mbondu or ore Ngkale (Butonese)

The kubing is traditionally considered an intimate instrument, usually used as communication between family or a love one in close quarters. Both genders can use the instrument, the females more infrequently than males who use it for short distance courtship.

Gandingan

The gandingan is a Philippine set of four large, hanging gongs used by the Maguindanao as part of their kulintang ensemble. When integrated into the ensemble, it functions as a secondary melodic instrument after the main melodic instrument, the kulintang. When played solo, the gandingan allows fellow Maguindanao to communicate with each other, allowing them to send messages or warnings via long distances. This ability to imitate tones of the Maguindanao language using this instrument has given the gandingan the connotation: the “talking gongs.”

Dabakan

The dabakan is a single-headed Philippine drum, primarily used as a supportive instrument in the kulintang ensemble. Among the five main kulintang instruments, it is the only non-gong element of the Maguindanao ensemble.

 

Kulitangan

Kulintang is a modern term for an ancient instrumental form of music composed on a row of small, horizontally-laid gongs that function melodically, accompanied by larger, suspended gongs and drums. As part of the larger gong-chime culture of Southeast Asia, kulintang music ensembles have been playing for many centuries in regions of the Eastern Malay Archipelago — the Southern Philippines, Eastern Indonesia, Eastern Malaysia, Brunei and Timor, although this article has a focus on the Philippine Kulintang traditions of the Maranao and Maguindanao peoples in particular. Kulintang evolved from a simple native signaling tradition, and developed into its present form with the incorporation of knobbed gongs from Sunda. Its importance stems from its association with the indigenous cultures that inhabited these islands prior to the influences of Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity or the West, making Kulintang the most developed tradition of Southeast Asian archaic gong-chime ensembles.

 

Babendil

The babendil is a single, narrow-rimmed Philippine gong^[1] used primary as the “timekeeper” of the Maguindanao kulintang ensemble.