Indigenous Music - Philippine Culture

There is also the popular nose flute, which produces soft and soothing sounds heard clearly in
quiet late afternoons. The northern tribes call this kalleleng (Bondotc and Kankanai), tongali (Ifugao and
Kalinga) and baliing (Isneg). In the Central Philippines, it is known as lantuy among the Cuyunin, babarek
among the Tagbanua and plawta among the Mangyan.
In addition, some aerophones are composed of several bamboo tubes of different lengths, like
the Kalinga saggeypo and the diwdiw-as, a panpipe common to Igorots. The diwdiw-as is made of five or
more slender bamboo tubes tied together. The upper ends of the tubes are open and into these a performer
blows without his lips touching the instrument. On the other hand, the six saggeypo tubes are left untied and
may be played by a group of people. The simultaneous blowing of the pipes results in harp-like sounds.
The Maguindanao, meanwhile, have the suling or ring flute, so called because the blowing
end is encircled with a rattan ring to create mouthpiece. The Tausog have a six hole single-reed sahunay,
with its characteristic cone-shaped pandan-leaf bell.
Chordophones also bound in many parts of
the Archipelago. These include the bamboo zithers, the
Spanish guitars, the bamboo violins and the lutes.
The zither is a stringed instrument made from
a single bamboo section, around three to four inches in
diameter, with a node at each end. Serving as strings,
however, are raised narrow strips of the outer skin fibers of
the bamboo itself, with the ends still attached to the body of
the instrument. Small wedges are placed beneath the strings
to produce different tensions – and thus varying pitches – as
the player plucks the strings.
Variations of the zither can be found all over
the country, like the Ilongot kolesing or the Ibaloi kalshang, the Negrito pas-ing and Ifugao patting; in the
central Philippines, the Tagbanua play the pa’gang, while the Mangyan have the kudlung. The southern
zither is called tawgaw (Bagobo).
Two-stringed lutes knows as the kudyapi among the Bukidnon, hegalong among the T’boli or
the kadlong or kudlong in Central Mindanao are characterized by a boat shape or an elongated oval
between 40 to 45 inches long, and have tightening rods made of wood and frets of beeswax and two-wire
strings tuned in unison – one serving ad drone, the
other providing the melody.
These long “guitars” or boat lutes are
carved in soft wood usually to represent a mythical
two-headed animal, the naga (serpent) or crocodile,
or perhaps the modified head, body and tail of the
sarimanok, a cockerel-like bird. The kudyapi is alos
known as a “speaking instrument” because it figures
prominently in courtship. It is also used as an
accompaniment for dances.
Examples of chordophones using bows
are the three-stringed gitgit of the Tagbanua, the
spike fiddle called duwagey of the Bilaan and the
biola of the Tausog, which is similar to the European
violin used to accompany songs.
Perhaps the greatest number of indigenous musical instruments belong to the idiophone
group. In particular, some of these idiophones are the jew’s harp, suspended beams, bamboo buzzer,
percussion sticks and gongs.
The jew’s harp is a very thin slit of bamboo or brass with a narrow vibrating tongue in the middle longitudinal
section. Placed between the lips of the player, its tongue is made to vibrate by striking the projecting end of
the instrument with the thumb or by pulling a string attached to it. The mouth of the player acts as the
resonator, and as the shape of the mouth cavity changes, the pitch and quality of the sound varies. This
enables the player to communicate message with his instrument. For this reason, the jew’s harp is a favorite
of lovers and is played by both men and women. It is thus considered a “speaking intrument”.