Popular regional musical instruments in West Java
Regional musical instruments in West Java have their own characteristics compared to musical instruments from other regions. Nowadays, perhaps we are more familiar with modern musical instruments, such as guitar, piano, violin and so on. But before the advent of these different modern musical instruments, there were alreadytraditional musical instruments.
More and more traditional cultures are being abandoned, including regional musical instruments. However, there are still many younger generations participating in the preservation of traditional instruments from Western Java, such as angkhlong and flute. Both instruments are often performed as traditional musical instruments.
In fact, there are many other regional musical instruments to be proud of and preserved so that our children and grandchildren can get to know theinstrumentlater. That is whywe will reviewthemostpopular traditional musical instrumentsfrom West Java through the article below.
Layers made of copper
This musical instrument from western Java has existed since the 9th century AD and still survives to this day. While sailing, Middle Eastern merchants brought multitudes to Indonesia. This copper musical instrument has 3 strings or strings as a sound producer.
With the passage of time, there has been a change in the basic material for the preparation of cavalry that was originally made of copper and now there are many plumbings made of wood with a shape similar to an arch. The way to play it is to smooth the strings, just like when you play a modern instrument, that is, a violin.
Flute musical instrument made of bamboo
Next isthe most popular musical instrument in Western Java, called flute. This musical instrumentis made of bamboo or wood and is played by inflating the available holes. In addition to the inflatable holes, there are also holes for adjusting the tone so that the number of holes varies, ranging from 4 to 8.
The number of holes is adjusted according to the needs of the song to be played. Most of the West Java flutes have 4 holes according to the Sundanese songs that are played frequently. The existence of the flute is very important as a musical instrument because it is able to give melodies to the singing of songs so that very thick traditional sounds are heard.
Unique Karinding
A typical musical instrument in West Javathat is no less popular is karinding. This unique instrument must be placedon the lips to play. You can then tap the bat to derive sound resonance from the friction of the handle and fingertips tapping theinstrument.
Bamboo is often used as a grinding agent, although there is also grinding from the palm tree separations. Typically, karinding from palm trees is used for men, while bamboo karingan is used for women. In the past, crinding was used not only as a musical instrument, but also as a midge in the rice fields.
Klong musical instruments
Most people cannot distinguish a klong from anothertraditional musical instrument in West Java, namely angkhlong because it looks the same at first glance. Kalong is made of awi wulung bamboo or black bamboo and there is also a khlong made of another type of bamboo, bamboo ater.
This instrument is played according to the type of calung, be it calung jinjing or rantay calung. The kalong is carried with only the right hand, while the left hand is supposed to hold the klong. Kalong Rantai was playing with both hands hitting him. The way the player sits must be with crossed legs to facilitate the movement of hands.
Angkhlong multi-tonal and double-pitched
Although you are not Western Java, surely you are already familiar with this traditional instrument as it is often presented as oneof the popular traditional musical instrumentsfrom Western Java. This toolmade of bamboo is also known as multitonal or double sound.
How to play it also seems easy, that is, by shaking the instrument. The effect of the bamboo body becomes a source for the production of sounds with different shades, according to the hangklong used. Since the total vibration of the musical instrument is capable of producing sound, hangklong is classified as an idiophone instrument.
Trawangsa is similar to Rabab
In appearance, Taruangsa may have similarities with Rabab, but the difference is that the number of Trawangsa strings is only two parts. Unlike rebab which has three strings so you can already distinguish between two musical instruments west of Java more easily and quickly.
Although you have two strings, you can only play one string by sliding on it. Meanwhile, the other strings are played by plucking a finger using the index finger of the left hand. Tarawangsa is often played with other musical instruments, such as Jentreng to produce such beautiful notes or melodies.
Traditional musical instruments, lotte
Another interesting West Javanese folk instrument is the harp. In Sundany Tambang, the presence of the lute as an accompaniment instrument is very important. This is related to both roles of the harp, namely the harp of the mother and the harp of the child when they accompany the traditional Sundanese music, so it is important to know the harp.
The master harp is tasked with setting the tempo, starting the music and the harp usually used has 18-20 strings. Unlike the child’s lira which serves as an accompaniment to high-frequency music. The number of strings there is smaller, which is 15 parts compared to the number of strings of the master lyre.
Aroma Traditional Musical Instruments
Another musical instrument from West Javathat we need to learn is the Aromabe. For some people, they may not yet know the name of this traditional musical instrument, especially for people outside of West Java. Aroma belongs to the ensemble group or to the combination of several musical instruments at once.
This musical instrument is made of high-quality bamboo, for example black bamboo (wlong), bamboo rope or awi temen bamboo. Although it is a combination of several musical instruments, in the end the arumba becomes a musical and a separate type of music that we know from some traditional songs in West Java.
Zhenlong as a basic sound creator
Another musical instrument in West Javathat should not be missed is the junglelung. Zhenanglong serves as a song frame or basic sound maker, so its role is very important in playing traditional Western Javanese music. However, many of us are not familiar withthismusical instrumentfromthe West Java region.
A special bat is used to hit the jungle to produce a sound or sound. The bitter used in this musical instrument is made of a special material for producing the right sound. Usually, these bats have cushioning to make them softer, be it from wool or knitted thread.
Bamboo leather selamphong
Finally, we will get to know a traditional tool called celempung made of bamboo leather. The sound is produced by taking advantage of the resonance on the segments of the bamboo stick. That is why it is not easy to make thistraditional musical instrumentbecause each rod must have a different shape and size of internodes.
Celempung has two strings with different functions, namely strings for flug sounds and strings for slendro sounds, so they can be used for a longer siteran. In addition to the salampang, siter is also often used in the siteran gamelan tool as a property that has been preserved to this day.
There are still many traditional musical instruments that you can find from West Java with their uniqueness. Most of the traditional musical instruments are made of nature, be it wood or bamboo and therefore the traditional impression on display is very evident. Therefore, do not stop to continue to get acquaintedwith the typical musical instruments of West Java.