Angklung

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Angklung with eight pitches

Angklung is a musical instrument made out of two bamboo tubes attached to a bamboo frame. The tubes are carved so that they have a resonant pitch when struck. The two tubes are tuned to octaves. The base of the frame is held with one hand while the other hand shakes the instrument rapidly from side to side. This causes a rapidly repeating note to sound. Thus each of three or more angklung performers in an ensemble will play just one note and together complete melodies are produced. Angklung is popular throughout Southeast Asia, but originated from Indonesia (use and play by Sundanese people since the ancient times).

1 History
2 Out side Indonesia
3 Further reading
4 External links

[edit] History

Angklung got more international attention when Daeng Soetigna, from Bandung - West Java, expanded the angklung notations not only to play traditional pélog or sléndro scales, but also diatonic scale in 1938. Since then, angklung is often played together with other western music instruments in an orchestra. One of the first well-known performances of angklung in an orchestra was during the Bandung Conference in 1955. A few years later, Udjo Ngalagena, a student of Daeng Soetigna, opened his "Saung Angklung" (House of Angklung) in 1966 as centre of its development.

In Bali, Indonesia, an ensemble of angklung is called gamelan angklung (anklung). The instruments are tuned to a 5-tone slendro scale, though actually most ensembles use a four-tone mode of the five-tone scale (an exception would be five-tone angklung from the north of Bali, as researched by Ruby Ornstein in the 1960s.) While the ensemble gets its name from the bamboo shakers, these days most compositions for Gamelan Angklung do not use them. An ensemble of mostly bronze metallophones is used instead.

In Hindu period and Padjajaran kingdom era, Sundanese people used the angklung to sign the time for prayer. Later, Padjajaran kingdom use this instrument as corps music in Bubat War (Perang Bubat).

Angklung functioned as building the peoples community spirit. It was still used by the Sundanese until the colonial era (Dutch East Indies, Dutch East India Company or V.O.C) . Because of that Dutch East Indies era (colonial times), the Dutch East Indies government tried to forbid people playing the angklung instrument.

Because it was forbidden to play angkung during this time, the popularity of the instrument decreased and it came to be played only by children in this era. (Kompas, 9 November 2006, page 14, column 7)

[edit] Out side Indonesia

In the early 20th century, the angklung was adopted in Thailand; the Thai angklung are typically tuned in the Thai tuning system of seven equidistant steps per octave, and each angklung has three bamboo tubes tuned in three separate octaves, rather than two, as is typical in Indonesia.

[edit] Further reading

Balinese Music (1991) by Michael Tenzer, Periplus / University of Washington Press .
Can You Shake It? The Angklung of Southeast Asia by Prof. Kuo-Huang Han, School of Music, Northern Illinois University