PERFORMING ARTS Gongs have a central profusion or knot, hence the term bossed gongs.

They are three of

types: first sets of graduated gongs laid in a row called the kulintang; second larger, deep-rimmed
1. MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS gongs with sides that are turned in called agung, and third gongs with narrower rims and less
The Philippines has a unique history on musical instruments dated back from pre-colonial prominent bosses called gandingan. These gongs may be played alone but are often combined
period. The early Filipinos played different musical instruments with distinctive purpose like for with other instruments to form various types of ensembles in southern Philippines.
courtship, marriage and good harvest. Bamboo idiophones abound in the Philippines-xylophones, drums, quillshaped tubes,
Present day musicological studies, following the Hornbostel - Sachs classification, divide stamping tubes, scrapers, buzzers, and clappers.
instruments into the following categories: idiophones, aerophones, chordophones, In southern Philippines, the bamboo xylophones like gabbang, also Yakan, Sama, Tausug,
membranophones and electrophones. and Palawan are found. Xylophone consists of bamboo keys of graduated lengths mounted on a
trapezoidal box. The number of keys usually ranging from 3 to 22 but varies among the different
Idiophones ethnic groups. among the Kalinga In northern Luzon, individual xylophone-like blades called
Idiophones are classified as Instruments that produce sound from the substance of the patatag are struck with bamboo sticks.
instrument itself (wood or metal). They are subdivided into those that are struck, scraped,
plucked, shaken, or rubbed. There are metal and wooden (principally bamboo) idiophones in the
Philippines

Idiophone Categories
1. Percussion idiophones are hit with sticks, beaters, or clappers (bells, steel drums).
2. Shaken idiophones are shaken (maracas, eggs, jingle bells). The Bukidnon bantula is a bamboo slit drum which is fashioned out of a bamboo tube
3. Concussion idiophones are played by clashing two of them together (castanets, claves, spoons). closed at both ends with anode with a slit cut out of the tube. Its main use is to announce
4. Friction idiophones are made to vibrate by rubbing them (as when you make a wine glass ring important events and this is found among different groups of people,
by rubbing its rim).
5. Scraped idiophones are played by scraping a stick across a set of notches or corrugations on the
instrument (guiro, washboard).
6. Stamping idiophones are stamped on the ground, floor, or hard surface. (Tap shoes are in this
category.) it is a stamped idiophone,If the main sound is coming from the surface that is being The Maranao tagutok and the Maguindanao kagul are struck quill-shaped bamboo tubes
stamped on,. with notches etched on the tube, are found only in southern Philippines such as. In this
7. Plucked idiophones have a thin tongue of metal or bamboo that vibrates when plucked (jew's instrument, the player scrapes the notches with a bamboo stick.
harp, mbira or thumb piano).

Metal idiophone has two categories: flat gongs and bossed gongs. Most of the flat gongs
made of bronze, brass, or iron, are found principally in the north among the Isneg, Tingguian,
Kalinga, Bontok, Ibaloi, Kankanai, Gaddang, Ifugao, and Ilonggot. They are commonly referred to
as Gangsa. The gongs vary in size. These are struck with wooden sticks, padded wooden sticks, or
slapped with the palm of the hand. Gong in Cordillera highlanders is an integral part of peace Bamboo buzzers are widespread among the Cordillera highlanders,. These are made from
pact gatherings, marriages, prestige ceremonies, feasts, or rituals. a length of bamboo closed with a node at the bottom, with its top half shaped so that two
tongues face each other. On top half is struck against the palm of the hand. These are known by
different names such as balingbing, pew-pew, pakkung, bilbil, bungkaka by the various groups.
 surrounding frame. The player play this instrument by placing the free end of the instrument with
the hand or by pulling a string attached to the blade. These instruments have different names
among the various ethnic groups. In the south, it is commonly term is kubing, in the north ulibaw.

Bamboo clapper, hanger, fashioned from a tubular section of bamboo, split from one end
to approximately half of the tube is common among the Ifugao. To make it more flexible when
the halves are made to flap against each other, each half of the split portion is shaped to make it
narrower in the middle. A Hanunuo kalutang is consists of a pair of sticks cut from forest trees.
This is a wooden idiophone that include sticks, suspended logs, and log drums. It is struck against
Aerophones
each other and played while hiking through forest and mountain trails.
Flutes, pan-pipes, and reed pipes are among the Philippine bamboo aerophones. The flutes are
the most widespread and numerous which are mostly end-blown with the air stream directed
into the open end of the tube.

Aerophone Categories
1. In whistles, the air is blown at a sharp edge in the instrument (as in recorders as well as police
The instrument of Ifugao pattung is a percussion yoke bar made from a tapered piece of whistles).
wood and struck with a stick. This is used in ceremonies for the sick, at rites which entail the 2. In blowhole instruments, the air is blown across the sharp edge at the blowhole. When the
offering of sacrificial pigs, or at death rituals. instrument is tube-shaped, the blowhole can be in the end ("end-blown", as in panpipes), or in
the side of the instrument ("sideblown", as in a fife).
3. In reed instruments, the vibration of a reed or reeds begins the air vibration. In single reed like
saxophone, for example and double reed like oboe instruments, the one or two reeds are part of
the mouthpiece. In bagpipes and in free-reed instruments such as harmonica and accordion, the
single or double reeds are mounted somewhere inside the instrument
4. and there can be many of them - sometimes a different reed for every pitch.
In southern Philippines suspended logs are widespread where they are known by
5. In cup mouthpiece instruments, the player buzzes the lips against the mouthpiece, causing a
different ethnic names. Maguindanao luntang is consists of several logs with varying lengths hung
sympathetic vibration in the air inside the instrument. (bugle, conch shell).
in order from longest to shortest. One performer will struck the pointed playing ends of each log
6. The pipes of an organ have a sharp edge like a whistle, but the pipes are filled with air from
creating a melody against which another performer beats drone rhythm on one of the logs.
something other than a mouth or nose, usually a bellows of some sort.
7. Free aerophones (bull-roarers, toy spinning tops), cause vibrations in the air around them
rather than inside them.

In northern and southern Philippines, the lip valley notch flute, so called because of its
mouthpiece which is obliquely cut and curved at a slant to follow the contour of the player’s lips.
The Bagobo and Bilaan have similar drums. These are known by different names among the different linguistic groups, such as the paldong in
the south and the palendag in the north. These are instruments of leisure and used for
serenading, courting, or merely to pass the time away.

In the Philippines, harps are principally made from bamboo and some are made of metal.
This is a type of mouth resonated instrument consisting of a flexible tongue fixed at one end to a
 Diwas, diwdiwas, or dew-dew are rarely used today. These are bamboo panpipes. It consist of a
number of bamboo pipes (5-8) strung together.

Another type of end-blown flute is a nose flute. This is found mostly in northern Philippines
where the Kalinga call it tongali, the Bontok kaleleng, and the Ifugao ungiung. This is also found
sporadically in some areas of the south among the Hanunuo (lantuy), the Batak (lantoy), and the
Bukidnon (bulaktob). In Palawan, the Cuyunin is a gigantic nose flutes with tubes much larger in
diameter than those found in Luzon. Flauta (Ilonggo, Sebuano, Bicol); plawta (Manobo) and palawta (Hanunuo, Waray) are the most
Philippine transverse flutes that are adaptations or imitation of European versions.

Suling in southern Philippines is less common flute and a ring type. The whistle type is called
thumpong (Subanun); and the reed is called saunay (Tausug).

Some blown instruments are made from shell or carabao horn. They are used for calling people
or sending messages over wide distances. The shell trumpets include the budyong, lungga, taburi.
The saggeypo (Kalinga) and the sagay-op(Bontok) are stopped pipes found in northern The Carabao horns are the tambuli (Tagalog) and kogao (Ifugao).
Philippines. This bamboo pipe is closed on one end by a node with the open end held against the
lower lip of the player as he blows directly across the top. This pipe can be played individually by In modern days these instruments are also aerophones.
one person or in ensembles of three or more.

Chordophones
These are bamboo or wood stringed instruments that may be struck, plucked, or bowed. They instrument with slight variations, is found where they are known by such names as tambi,
included zithers, lutes, and bowed strings. bamban,tabengbeng, kudling, tabobo, thambabok, takumbo, and patigunggung.

Chordophone Categories
1. In zithers, the strings are stretched across, over, or inside a resonator, or between two
resonators. The resonator can be a hollow tube, a gourd, a board, a hollow box, or even a pit in
the ground. Some have fingerboards with or without frets; some have a keyboard with a complex
mechanism; many are simply a multitude of strings strung from one end of the resonator to the
other. The strings can be struck (as in a piano) or plucked (harpsichord).
2. In lutes, the strings stretch across the resonator and up a neck. They may be plucked (guitar, The lutes are found only in the south, in Mindanao and Palawan. These instruments are of the
banjo) or bowed (violin, fiddle) long neck variety, with two stings that run from the neck to the base of the resonating chamber.
3. In lyres, the strings leave the resonator at right angles to an edge and run to a cross bar that is One sting plays a drone, the other a melody. The location and number of frets vary between
held away from the resonator (as in the classical Greek lyre that is so often used as a symbol of groups, though all the lutes are fretted.
music).
4. In harps (like the orchestral harp), the strings leave the resonator at a slant (smaller than a right
angle) up to a neck connected to the resonator.
5. In a musical bow, the string or strings are stretched from one end of a wooden bow to the
other. Some have resonators, but many don't. They can be plucked or bowed (with a second,
smaller bow).

The Philippine zithers have resonating bodies that are made from bamboo tubes or half tubes The Maranao and Maguindanao kudyapi frets are glued to the body of the resonating chamber,
with strings that run parallel to the length of the tube. In northern Luzon, Mindanao, and Palawan while the frets of the Bilaan fuglung, the Mansaka and Mandaya kudlong and the Palawan
tube zithers are found. They have two types: polychordal zithers with several strings that run kudyapi are located on the neck of the instrument.
around the tube, and parallel stringed zithers which have two strings on one side of the tube.
In Mindanao, one stringed bowed lutes (fiddles) of the long neck variety are found. These
The Polychordal tube zithers found in the Cordilleras, Mindanao and Palawan have strings that intrumentss have a sounding box made from a coconut half shell covered with a leaf, or a piece of
are etched out of the bamboo body, remaining attached at both ends. Small wooden frets are bark or animal skin.
inserted beneath the string near the ends. The number of strings varies from 5 to 8 or 9 and
occasionally even 11. Other names by which this zither is called are: kolitong, kollessing, kulibet, The string is make of abaca fibers, horse hair, and more recently, wire. It is called duwagey by the
saluray, sigitan, takul, tangke, togo, and pagang. Manobo and Bilaan.

The parallel stringed tube zithers, two bamboo strands, about 5 cm. apart, are etched out to the
A favorite string ensemble called cumparsa emerged in the later period of the Spanish regime,.
tube to serve as strings. At mid-point of the tube, below the strings, a small sound hole is bored
This was an adaptation of similar instrumental groups in Mexico (murza or murga) and Spain
and covered by a small bamboo plate clipped to the strings. When played, the strings are struck
(estudiantina). In the early years of the American regime, the cumparsa was superceded by the
by a bamboo stick or plucked. In northern Luzon, Mindoro, Mindanao, and Palawan the
rondalla.
The rondalla ensemble consists of plucked string instruments like bandurria, the laud, the Sulibao and kimbal of the Bontok and Ibaloi people are longitudinal slightly barrel shaped
octavina, the six stringed gitara and the bajo de unas or bass guitar. hollowed out logs with deer skin heads on one end. Taller drum (ca. 80 cm) is called the kimbal;
the shorter (ca. 75 cm) is called the sulibaw. Drum head is small measuring about 6 cm. in
diameter. These are played with palms of two hands. These drums are combined with gongs and
other instruments to form different types of ensembles.
Ifugao libbit, ludag is a conical drum with a deer or goat skin head. This is
played with a gong during harvest time under the rice granary.

Banduria is pear shaped, with a rounded back, a round sound hole and a fretted neck. This serves
as the melody instrument of the ensemble. Octavina and bandurria are tuned an octave below Dabakan is a large goblet shaped drum used by the
the laud. These instruments furnish the inner harmonies and contrapuntal elaboration to the Maranao and Maguindanao in their kulintang
melody. The guitar’s main function is to supply the arpeggiated or chordal underpinnings of the ensembles.
ensemble while the bajo de unas is tuned like the contra-bass.

Membranophones
The single and double headed drums are found throughout the Philippines. These are variously
shaped–conical, cylindrical, goblet shaped, barrel shaped. The animal skins (snake, deer, or goat)
is used as head/heads of the drum. These may be beaten with sticks or by the palm portion of
bare hands. The drums are seldom used alone except to announce tidings over long distances.
They are usually played with other instruments, particularly gongs, to form different kinds of
ensembles. Electrophones
These are the newest category of instruments. They have only been around since 20th century.
Membranophone Categories They produce an electronic sound. There are two main families of electrophones: the electronic
1. Tubular drums are divided into cylindrical, conical, barrel, long, waisted (hourglass-shaped), instruments and the amplified acoustical instruments.
goblet (with a stem at the base), and footed (with feet around the edge of the bottom).
2. Kettledrums or vessel drums have rounded bottoms. In the frame drums, the membrane is
stretched over a frame, usually making a wide, shallow instrument. (Tambourines are in this
category.)
3. Friction drums come in a variety of shapes. Instead of beating on the membrane, the player
runs a stick through a hole in the membrane.
Theater-
6 elements of theater:
1. Performance
2. Audience
3. Director
4. Performance space
5. Text
6. Music

theater
Absurd- exaggerates events and situations to emphasize a point. The character are often made
stereotypes.