Beauty
in the Music
ZAPIN
JOGET
As with other traditional forms of Malay music, the musical instruments used in the performance of Zapin include the hand drum (Rebana), the viola, the accordion. One addition unique to Zapin is the use of the gambus, an Arab-style lute, thus showing Zapin's Arab origins (Malaysian Folk Music, n.d.).
Other than a percussive instrument namely a Rebana (a frame drum) that functions as its rhythmic accompaniment, some of the key instruments in an ensemble would consist of a large knobbed gong as colotomic (punctuating) markers, and a melodic instrument such as a flute, viola or accordion (Soultari, 2018).
ASLI
It is performed in slow duple or quadruple meter and accompanied by a flute, viola, hand-drum, gong, guitar and piano-accordion (Malaysian Folk Music, n.d.).
INANG
Inang dance is accompanied by musical instruments such as Rebana, viola and Gendang, alongside the gong (Malaysian Folk Music, n.d.).
SCROLL DOWN to find out more about some of the most commonly used musical instruments in Malay dance:
VIOLA
The modern viola, a bowed box-lute chordophone, is the alto member of the violin family of string instruments that was developed in Western Europe (Grinnell College, n.d.).
Appearance: The resonator of the viola is a curvaceous, somewhat figure-8 shaped wooden box consisting of arched top (‘belly’) and bottom plates glued to a narrow side band (‘ribs’).
REBANA
The Rebana is a single-head frame membranophone from the coastal region or the islands of Riau province, east central Sumatra, in the Indonesian archipelago. Such drums are part of the widespread Muslim Melayu culture of this area (Grinnell College, n.d.).
Appearance: The shallow shell is made from a hardwood and is conical--i.e., the skin covered opening is of a noticeably wider diameter than the bottom, uncovered opening. Indirect lacing is used to attach the mammal skin to the shell. The membrane is first stretched over and attached to a rattan ring.
ACCORDION
The accordion is a free-reed aerophone of Europe, invented in the 19th century but today found integrated into musical practices around the world (Grinnell College, n.d.).
Appearance: The common form of the accordion consists of a bellows and two reed cases (a treble and a bass case) with keyboards (the three sections which have been separated, the treble casing, with a piano-like keyboard to the right, the bass casing with buttons to the left, and the bellows in the center).
GONG
The Suwukan Gong is a metal gong idiophone of the Javanese people of Java, Indonesia. It is a phrase-marking instrument that is part of a Javanese iron gamelan (Grinnell College, n.d.).
Appearance: Constructed from three interlocking pieces of sheet iron, one circular and the other two elongated fan-shaped strips. The strips are connected end-to-end with rivets to form the gong's truncated conical side/rim (bau), which is attached to the edge of the circular face by folding to create an integral vessel.
SULING
The Suling is an end-blown edge aerophone of the Javanese people of Indonesia. It is the only aerophone found in the Javanese gamelan, but is also played solo throughout Java for personal entertainment (Grinnell College, n.d.).
Appearance: A cylindrical bamboo endblown flute with a cylindrical bore, open at the bottom and closed at the top (blowing end) by a natural node (ros).
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References
Stockgiu. (n.d.). Music instrument accordion cartoon vector image. VectorStock.
https://www.vectorstock.com/royalty-free-vector/music-instrument-accordion-cartoon-vector-23768975
JuliarS. (n.d.). Gong cartoon icon vector image. VectorStock.
https://www.vectorstock.com/royalty-free-vector/gong-cartoon-icon-vector-7527975
Grinnell College. (n.d.). Rebana. Omeka S.
https://omeka-s.grinnell.edu/s/MusicalInstruments/item/932
Grinnell College. (n.d.). Viola. Omeka S.
https://omeka-s.grinnell.edu/s/MusicalInstruments/item/655
Grinnell College. (n.d.). Accordion. Omeka S.
https://omeka-s.grinnell.edu/s/MusicalInstruments/item/2384
Grinnell College. (n.d.). Gong suwukan. Omeka S.
https://omeka-s.grinnell.edu/s/MusicalInstruments/item/1213
Grinnell College. (n.d.). Suling. Omeka S.