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 Southern Philippines, Eastern Malaysia, Eastern Indonesia, Brunei and Timor, 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. 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.
Etymology Technically, kulintang is the Maguindanaon, Lumad Ternate, Moluccas, and Timor 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. 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.
By the twentieth century, the term kulintang had a come to denote an entire Maguindanao ensemble of five or 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.”
Geographic extent
Kulintang belongs to the larger unit/stratum of “knobbed gong-chime culture” prevalent in Southeast Asia. It is considered one of the region's three major gong ensembles, alongside the gamelan of western Indonesia and piphat of Thailand, Burma, Cambodia and Laos, which use gongs and not wind or string instruments to carry the melodic part of the ensemble. Like the other two, kulintang music is primarily orchestral with several rhythmic parts orderly stacked one upon another. It is also based upon the pentatonic scale. However, kulintang music differs in many aspects from gamelan music, primarily in the way the latter constructs melodies within a framework of skeletal tones and prescribed time interval of entry for each instruments. The framework of kulintang music is more flexible and time intervals are nonexistent, allowing for such things as improvisations to be more prevalent.
Because kulintang-like ensembles extended over various groups with various languages, the term used for the horizontal set of gongs varied widely. Along with it begin called kulintang, it is also called kolintang, kolintan, kulintangan,Sutton, R. Anderson. "Reviewed Work: Sama de Sitangkai by Alan Martenot and Jose Maceda." Ethnomusicology 27(1983): kwintangan, k’lintang, gong sembilan, gong duablas, momo, totobuang, nekara,Kartomi, Margeret J.. "Is Malaku still musicological "terra incognita." An overview of the music-cultures of the province of Maluku." Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 25(1994): 141–173. engkromong, kromong/enkromong and recently kakula/kakula nuada. Kulintang-like instruments are played by the Maguindanaon; the Maranao, Iranun, Kalagan, Kalibugan, Tboli, Blaan, Subanon, and other Lumad tribes of Mindanao, the Tausug, Sama-Bajau, Yakan and the Sangir/Sangil of the Sulu archipelago; the Ambon, Banda, Seram, Ternate, Tidore, and Kei of Maluku; and the Bajau, Suluk, Murut, Kadazan-Dusun, Kadayah and Paitanic Peoples of Sabah, the Malays of Brunei, the Bidayuh and Iban/Sea Dayak of Sarawak, the Bolaang Mongondow and Kailinese/Toli-Toli of Sulawesi and other groups in Banjarmasin and Tanjung in Kalimantan and Timor.
History
Kulintang music is considered an ancient tradition that predates the influences of Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, and the West. In the Philippines, it represents the highest form of gong music attained by Filipinos and in North Maluku, it is said to have existed for centuries.
Origin of the gong
The kulintang gong itself is believed to have been one of those foreign musical elements incorporated into kulintang music, derived from the Sundanese kolenang due to its striking similarities. Along with the fact that they play important roles in their respectively ensembles, both the kulintang and kolenang show striking homogeneity in tapered rims (as opposed to pronouncedly tapered Javanese bonang and non-tapered Laotian khong vong gongs). Even the word kulintang is believed to be just an altered form of the Sundanese word kolenang.Kunst, Jaap. Music in Java. 2. Netherlands: The Hague, 1949.
Development of the kulintang It was these similarities that lead theorists to conclude that the kulintang was originally imported to the Philippines during the migration of the kolenang through the Indonesian Archipelago. Based on the etymology, two routes have been proposed as the route for the kulintang to Mindanao: one from Sunda through Banjermasin, Brunei and the Sulu Archipelago, a route where the word “kulintangan” is commonly used for the horizontal row of gongs; the other from Sunda through Timor, Sulawesi, Moluccas and Mindanao where the word kolintang/kulintang is commonly seen.
As ancient as this music is, there has never been substantial data recorded regarding the kulintang's origins. The earliest historical accounts of instruments resembling those of the present day kulintang are in the writings of various European explorers from the 16th century who would have seen such instruments used in passing.Blair, Emma, and James Robertson. The Philippine Islands. Cleveland: The Arthur K. Clark Co, 1903.Forrest, Thomas. A Voyage to New Guinea and the Moluccas: 1774–1776. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1969.Vives, E.D.. The Rio Grande of Mindanao. 2. Cagayan de Oro: Xavier University, 1995.
Because of limited data concerning gong music prior to European exploration, theories abound as to when the prototypes of what is now the kulintang came to be. One theory suggest that the bronze gong had an ancient history in Southeast Asia, arriving in the Indonesian archipelago two or even three thousand years ago, making its way to the Philippines from China in the third century AD.Sachs, Curt. The History of Musical Instruments. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., Inc, 1940. Another theory lays doubt to the former claim, suggesting the kulintang could not have existed prior to the 15th century due to the belief that Javanese (Indonesian) gong tradition, which is what the kulintang was believed to be derived from, developed only by the 15th century.Skog, Inge. "North Borneo Gongs and the Javanese Gamelan." Ethnomusicology Research Digest 4(1993): 55–102.
In Borneo, the kulintang was originally played during the harvest festival and the Bruneian court. With the expansion of Bruneian empire which at some point encompassed the island of Borneo and southern Philippines, the tradition of kulintang was adopted by the inland Dayak tribes. With that, the tradition of kulintang was expanded to include various tribe ceremonies such as before and after head-hunting expeditions and silat.
Though different theories abound as to the exact centuries the kulintang was finally realized, there is a consensus that kulintang music developed from a foreign musical tradition which was borrowed and adapted to the indigenous music tradition already present in the area. It's likely the earliest gongs used among the indigenous populace had no recreational value but were simply used for making signals and sending messages.
Future The tradition of kulintang music has been waning throughout the Eastern Indonesia, and has become extinct in some places. Sets of five bronze gong-chimes and a gong making up the totobuang ensembles of Buru island in Central Maluku have also come to disuse. Kolintang sets of bossed kettle gongs were once played in Gorontalo, North Sulawesi long ago but that has all but disappeared, replaced by what locals are presently familiar with—a slab-key instrument known as a kolintang.
The extent of past kulintang tradition in the Philippines, particularly in the Northern and Central islands of Luzon and the Visayas, will never be fully known due to the harsh realities of three hundred years of Spanish colonization.Mercurio, Philip Dominguez. Expedition into ETHS 545: Music of the Southern Philippines." Manila Bulletin USA: Kababayan Ed. [South San Francisco] 13 OCT 2005, natl. ed.: 8. The fact that there are areas which were able to keep kulintang tradition alive during European colonization has caused some observers to aptly term this music “the music of resistance.”
In 1968, at the University of the Philippines, eminent ethnomusicologist Professor José Maceda ushered in a new interest in kulintang music with the kulintang Master, Aga Mayo Butocan. The latter devised a notation system and wrote Palabunibunyan, a collection of kulintang music pieces from Maguindanao—which made its study more accessible. Further, she emphasized the improvisational aspect of performing on the kulintang. This enhanced its popularity among students from all over the country.
Today, the existence of kulintang music is threatened by the influence of globalization, and the introduction of Western and foreign ideals into the region. Younger generations would rather listen to American music, or bike in the streets with other children than spend time practicing and imitating on the traditional instruments of their parents.
Philippine kulintang music has had a revival of sorts due to the work of Philippine-born, U.S.-educated musicians/ethnomusicologists Master Danongan "Danny" Kalanduyan and Usopay Cadar, as well as their predecessor Professor José Maceda. Through the work of Professor Robert Garfias, both Cadar and Kalanduyan began teaching and performing traditional kulintang music in the United States during the late 20th century; quite unexpectedly, the music became a bridge between contemporary Filipino American culture and ancient Philippine tribal traditions.