Kolintang History
Terinz Young
Many
people think that the Kolintang originated with wooden bars when originally,
the Kolintang was composed of a row of, small and large, horizontally-laid
gongs. Later on in history, a blind musician by the name of Nelwan
Katuuk reinvented the
instrument. So, it now consists of a row of wooden bars instead of gongs. The
main difference between the two is that the gongs hold notes for a long period
of time, whereas the notes played on a wooden Kolintang run out immediately.
The
Kolintang is played by striking the numbers of the planks with two wooden mallets. There are four types of instruments (six if you count Alto one and two), and they are: Bass, Contra, Tenor,
Alto, and Melody. When playing the Kolintang, the Bass and Contra would always be positioned in the back and Tenors and Altos one and two will be positioned in the
center, while Melodies will always stand in front. Every instrument serves a
different purpose and I will explain them in the following paragraphs.
Melody- It has a role to play/lead
a melody, and it can be compared with the melody guitars,
violin, xylophone, or vibraphone. Melody players generally
use two or three sticks, one stick play a part one voice, while the other sticks are used to play part two or part three voices, similar
to duet or trio singer. If players are using two melody
instruments, they can play the same note simultaneously to make more powerful
sounds, thus it would be able to
match the Kolintang accompaniment sound. The second alternative is that it could be played by striking the same tone
with a but a different octave. The third alternative is that one of melody instruments play a melody song, and
the other plays a melody improvisation. Because the characteristics
of the Kolintangs resonance tone are
a bit
short, playing a longer
note
(legato), consists of thrilling the mallets. (roll).
Alto- Alto Kolintang Instrument consists of 3 kinds: Alto I,
Alto II and Alto III. All three instruments are only
distinguishable from its tone spacing (scale range), but has the same function as a high-voiced accompaniment treble
sound. Alto I and Alto II can complement the Tenor instrument to play Guitar
accompaniment function. The combination of 3 Tenor sticks with 3 Alto sticks
can be equated with 6 string Guitar strings. Alto II can represent the Banjo musical instrument, some professional kolintang players
, can use 2 pairs of sticks in his right and left hand, to equate with 4 banjo
strings . Alto III represents the function of the Ukulele musical instrument. Alto III produces a
high-voiced tone. Both Alto and Tenor although only consisting of 1 box resonator
with one line bar array, can also play the melody of the song, it just depends on the player's habits.
Tenor- The tenor Kolintang instrument consists of Tenor I
and Tenor II. Tenor I and Tenor II, have only a slight difference in tone spacing
(scale range), but have the same functionality as a low-voiced accompaniment
treble sound. For players who are familiar with the guitar musical instruments,
they might prefer to use Tenor II because the lowest tone is ‘E,’ which is equal
to the lowest tone of guitar strings. Some players do not even need to see the
notations listed in Kolintang bars, because they are already familiar with bar tone
position arrangements.
Contra- Contra Kolintang can play a variety of functions;
it just depends on the song and the player’s skill. The functions are as
follows: playing bass and treble, in analogy as a pianist, in which a piano
player’s right hand is playing the song, and his left hand is accompaniment. The
bass tones are played by the left hand Contra player and the treble is played with
a pair of sticks by the right hand Contra player. It will be more agile when
players play using two sticks, while the treble function is represented by
Tenor/Alto players.
Bass- Last but not least, the Bass Kolintang instrument
consists of BASS I and BASS II. Through long period of trial and error, many
people wasted a lot of wood for making bars and assembling and disassembling the
resonator box, over and over until finally they obtained the Bass Kolintang
formula that produced a good quality sound. Bass Kolintang is one of the best
low pitched acoustic percussion instruments in the world. To play Bass
Kolintang is just like playing a Bass musical instrument in general, such as
Bass Guitar or String bass. To cover sound vacancy due to the long range
distance of the low pitched Bass Kolintang with other Kolintang instruments,
often Kolintang Bass players hit two notes simultaneously with spacing that is one
octave in range tone. There is also a Bass Kolintang player that experimented
with muting the sound by pressing its bar. The thing to consider is the actual placement
of the Bass II instrument, which sometimes must be adjusted to the conditions
of the room in order to produce excellent sound.
It turns out that there is so much more to such a simple
instrument! In, Ms. Hoddinot’s class, I have learned a great deal of
information on the subject of “Kolintangs.” I am pretty sure I’ve not yet learned
everything about them, but I look forward to expanding my knowledge of the instrument
in the future.
