7

Music
Quarter 3 – Module 2
Analyzing the Musical Elements
of Some Mindanao Vocal and
Instrumental Music
 I. Vocal Music

1. Chant - a lyrical rendition of different improvised text.

Yakans do his/her chanting through solo and counter or group

singing.
His/her three famous everyday style chants are the :
a. Lugu - Chants that they use in reading solo and counter his/
her Qu’ran and other books they use in their Islam
region.
b. Kalangan - songs that they use for serenading his/her loved ones.
c. Sa-il / Lunsey - an important chant to be sung by the wife-to-be during
the ceremony that talks about married life.

Maranaos have an extensive vocal repertoire such as:

a. Dikker - sacred songs highlighted by quotations from the Qu’ran.

b. Bayok - semi-generic term for a lyrical rendition of different improvised
text.

2. Lullaby - a chant-style or chant formula use in rocking a baby to sleep.

a. Ya-ya - it is a song of the Yakans to put the baby to sleep, sung in a

relax/slow manner, soft and soothing while rocking the baby.
b. Bayok - is also a Maranao term for lullaby.

Aside from music for rituals and other social functions, Lumads
have very rich folk songs that they use in their everyday lives. Here are some
examples of Chavacano, T’boli, and Tiruray Folk Songs.

The instruments of the Lumads are all originally hand-made. Some

are made of bamboo-carved, cut, sliced, made into smaller sticks; then drums
are made of woods and animal skins
 .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-x1YQ46PCI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0l1A4YiYiM

II. Instrumental Music

Classification of Instrumental Music

Aerophone – is a musical instrument which produces sound primarily by causing

a body of air to vibrate without the use of strings or membranes and without the
vibration of the instrument itself adding considerably to the sound.

Chordophone - a musical instrument which make sound by way of vibrating the

string or strings stretched between two points.

Idiophone - any musical instrument which creates sound primarily by way of the
instrument’s vibrating, without the use of strings or membrane. Most of the
percussive instrument which are not drums are idiophones.

Membranophone - a musical instrument which produces sound primarily by way of

vibrating stretched membrane or animal skin. It is one of the four main divisions of
instruments in the original Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument
classification.

A. Solo Instruments - single instrument

 • Sahunay - is a bamboo flute, leaving six holes for the
fingers and trumpet made of coconut leaf. It is about
50 cm long and 3 cm in diameter. This is a bamboo flute
of the Tausug in Sulu.

• Suling - also called ring flute, is the smallest bamboo

flute in Maguindanao

• Palendag - A lip valley that is very common in

Maguindanao, considered as the toughest of all bamboo
flutes to use because of the way one must shape one’s lip
against its tip to make a sound. The construction of the
mouth piece is such that the lower end is cut is make for the
blowing edge.
 • Kulintang - is a term with various meanings, all
related to the melody- playing gong row. Technically, the
term kulintang is the Maguindanao word for eight gong
kettles which are laid horizontally upon a rack creating an
entire kulintang set called apasangan. It is played by
striking the gongs with two pieces of wood, about 12 inches
long while the player squats on the floor.
The said instrument is popular in Sulu.

• Gabang - is similar to a xylophone. It is made of

wooden box with one end wider than the other, and with
an open top. It is played by striking the wooden bars with
a wooden hammer or mallet.

• Agung - A set of two wide rimmed bossed- hanging gongs,

( thicker than gandingan ) which played as part of the
Kulintang Ensembles. It is usually played while standing
beside the instrument, holding the upper edge of its flange.
The mallets, called balu, are made from short sticks about
half a foot in length and padded with soft but tough material such
as rubber at one end.

• Gandingan - a set of four narrow-rimmed and

suspended gongs. They hang in pairs with the knobs of
the lower pitched gongs facing each other. The player usually a
woman who stands between the two pair of gongs. Her body
touches slightly the gong in the middle to prevent from
swinging and uses two padded mallets.

• Babandil - is a single narrow-rimmed Philippine gong

used primarily as the timekeeper of the Maguindanao
kulintang ensemble. It is struck with thin bamboo sticks to
produce a metallic sound.

• Kagul - A Maguindanao scraper/slit drum with a

jagged edge on one side, played with two beaters, one
scraping the edge and the other one making a beat.
 • Dabakan - a goblet-shaped drum of the Maguindanao and
Maranao, which has a single head covered with goat,
lizard or snakeskin. It is struck with two thin bamboo
sticks about 18 inches in length.

• Dadabuan - an hour glass shaped-drum made of wood;

the membrane is made of carabao skin. Decorated
with carvings and painted. The drum is part of the
kulintang ensemble.

• Gandang - is a two headed cylindrical drum of the Tausug,

Samal, Badjao, Maranao and Maguindanao. Called as
kendang in other Southeast Asian countries. It is one
of the primary instruments used in the Gamelan
ensembles in Java, Bali and Terengganu.

• Kudyapi/Kutyapi - a two- stringed instrument with very

elaborate design. It is about 1 ½ meter long and made
of wood. It has a stick to support in its lower end.

• Kudlung - a two stringed lute made of wood, one string

for the melody and one string for the drone. The body
of the instrument is carved with geometric patterns.
The neck and the head are adorned with horse hair; the
tail has two (originally three) pieces of carabao skin; the
strap is adorned with bead work. Dimensions; Length
: 98 cm. Width: 8.5 cm, Height: 5.5 cm.

• Saluroy - a bamboo polychordal tube zither of

Bagobo. It is called as Kolitong in Cordillera region.

• Aduwag-ay - one- stringed fiddle instrument of Bilaans

also called Kugot (Agusan-Manobo) and Duwagey
(T’boli)
 B. Ensemble - small groups of instrument played simultaneously.

1. Palabunibunyan - Maguindanao ensemble consisted of

five instruments, the kulintang, agung, gandingan,
dabakan and babandil.

2. Kulintang ensemble - refers to the instrumental ensemble of gongs

and
drums or a solo melody instrument consisting of a minimum of
five to eight bronze and brass gongs laid out in a single row (or
more
depending on the culture or region).

3. Tagunggo- Yakan ensemble made up of brass kwintangan, gabang, set of

3 agung and bamboo slit drum called