Suling
Encyclopedia
A suling or Seruling is an Indonesia
n bamboo
ring flute
. It is used in gamelan
ensembles.
Depending on the regional genre, a suling can be tuned into different scales. Sulings can be found in the following regions:
(Schizostachyum blumei, Nees), a long tube bamboo with a very thin surface. The head of suling, near a small hole, is circled with a thin band made of rattan
or rotan to produce air vibration.
The fingering position changes the wavelength of sound resonance inside the suling's body. Depending on the distance of nearest hole to the suling's head, different note
s can be produced. The airflow speed also can modify the tone's frequency. A note with twice frequency can be produced mostly by blowing the air into suling's head's hole with twice speed.
The following picture shows the fingering for a six-holed Sundanese suling.
And below is the example of 'more realistic' view of finger positioning for the pelog degung scale.
The Suling can be many sizes
of the Maguindanao
n and the only one classified as a ring-flute (the other two bamboo flutes of the Maguindanao
n, the tumpong
and the palendag
are both lip-valley flutes). Air is passed through the suling via a blowing hole found at the bottom of the instrument and pitch is controlled via five finger holes on the top and one finger hole located on the bottom. Traditionally only the palendag
was commonly played but because of the difficult nature of playing the palendag
, both the tumpong
and the suling have come to replace the palendag
as the Maguindanao
n’s most common aerophones.
Also called suling by the Tausug, Yakan
, B'laan
, and Tiruray. Other names for the suling include the lantey (Ata
), kinsi (Bukidnon
), dagoyong (Higanon) and a babarak (Palawan
)
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
n bamboo
Bamboo
Bamboo is a group of perennial evergreens in the true grass family Poaceae, subfamily Bambusoideae, tribe Bambuseae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family....
ring flute
Flute
The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
. It is used in gamelan
Gamelan
A gamelan is a musical ensemble from Indonesia, typically from the islands of Bali or Java, featuring a variety of instruments such as metallophones, xylophones, drums and gongs; bamboo flutes, bowed and plucked strings. Vocalists may also be included....
ensembles.
Depending on the regional genre, a suling can be tuned into different scales. Sulings can be found in the following regions:
- Sunda (West Java)West JavaWest Java , with a population of over 43 million, is the most populous and most densely populated province of Indonesia. Located on the island of Java, it is slightly smaller in area than densely populated Taiwan, but with nearly double the population...
, Indonesia - Java (Central Java)Central JavaCentral Java is a province of Indonesia. The administrative capital is Semarang. It is one of six provinces on the island of Java.This province is the province of high Human Development in Indonesia and its Points Development Index countries is equivalent to Lebanon. The province of Central Java...
, Indonesia - BaliBaliBali is an Indonesian island located in the westernmost end of the Lesser Sunda Islands, lying between Java to the west and Lombok to the east...
, Indonesia - MindanaoMindanaoMindanao is the second largest and easternmost island in the Philippines. It is also the name of one of the three island groups in the country, which consists of the island of Mindanao and smaller surrounding islands. The other two are Luzon and the Visayas. The island of Mindanao is called The...
, Philippines - Sulu, Philippines
Suling parts
Sulings are made mainly of 'tamiang' bambooBamboo
Bamboo is a group of perennial evergreens in the true grass family Poaceae, subfamily Bambusoideae, tribe Bambuseae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family....
(Schizostachyum blumei, Nees), a long tube bamboo with a very thin surface. The head of suling, near a small hole, is circled with a thin band made of rattan
Rattan
Rattan is the name for the roughly 600 species of palms in the tribe Calameae, native to tropical regions of Africa, Asia and Australasia.- Structure :...
or rotan to produce air vibration.
Playing a suling
There are two factors that affect a fine suling's tone:- Fingering position.
- Speed of the airflow blown by the mouth.
The fingering position changes the wavelength of sound resonance inside the suling's body. Depending on the distance of nearest hole to the suling's head, different note
Note
In music, the term note has two primary meanings:#A sign used in musical notation to represent the relative duration and pitch of a sound;#A pitched sound itself....
s can be produced. The airflow speed also can modify the tone's frequency. A note with twice frequency can be produced mostly by blowing the air into suling's head's hole with twice speed.
Special effects
- Slur, is dynamically changing note from one tone position to another position without stopping the airflow. For example, changing from 5 to 4, 4 to 5, 2 to 1 etc.
- Puruluk, (Sundanese term) is an effect produced by a-repeatedly-fast opening-and-closing of suling's hole by one or more fingers. The produced sound is similar to voice of a pigeon. The easiest puruluk can be produced by opening and closing mid-finger as shown by the following picture:
- In Sundanese technique, there are other known effects such as wiwiw, keleter, lelol, gebos, petit, jengkat, and betrik.
Sundanese suling
In the Sundanese region, a suling is used as- one of the main instruments in kacapi sulingKacapi sulingKacapi suling is a form of Sundanese music from West Java. It is essentially tembang Sunda minus vocals, and also at interludes between songs at a typical Tembang Sunda performance. The higher pitched kacapi rincik, the lower pitched kacapi indung and the suling flute are the instruments used for...
- accompanying instrument in Gamelan DegungGamelan degungGamelan Degung is a Sundanese musical ensemble that uses a subset of modified gamelan instruments with a particular mode of pelog scale.- Instruments :The instrumentation of gamelan degung is quite flexible. It may include:...
, Tembang SundaTembang SundaTembang sunda, also called seni mamaos cianjuran is a style of classical vocal music that originated in the Sunda Kingdom of highland west Java. Unlike Sundanese gamelan music, tembang sunda was developed in the court of the regent Kabupaten Cianjur during the Dutch colonial period...
Tuning
Sulings can have either 4 holes or 6 holes. The 6-holed Sundanese suling can play at least three different scales.- Pelog DegungPelogPelog is one of the two essential scales of gamelan music native to Bali and Java, in Indonesia. The other scale commonly used is called slendro. Pelog has seven notes, but many gamelan ensembles only have keys for five of the pitches...
: da mi na ti la da [1 2 3 4 5 1],
nearly corresponds to do si sol fa mi do [1' 7 5 4 3 1] in the Western diatonic scale. - Madenda or Sorog: da mi na ti la da [1 2 3 4 5 1],
nearly similar to fa mi do si la fa [4’ 3’ 1’ 7 6 4] in the Western diatonic scale. - SalendroSlendroSlendro is a pentatonic scale, one of the two most common scales used in Indonesian gamelan music, the other being pélog.-Tuning:...
: da mi na ti la da [1 2 3 4 5 1],
nearly similar to re do la sol fa re [2’ 1’ 6 5 4 2] in the Western diatonic scale. - Mandalungan: a rarely used scale
The following picture shows the fingering for a six-holed Sundanese suling.
And below is the example of 'more realistic' view of finger positioning for the pelog degung scale.
Famous Sundanese suling players
- Endang Sukandar, 1996 2nd Winner of International Festival of Wind Instruments in Seoul, South Korea
- Burhan Sukarma
- Uking Sukri
- Bang Saat(Additional player of Dewa Budjana, He cames from kalimantan) He also called as "saat"
The Suling can be many sizes
Maguindanaon suling
The Maguindanaon suling is the smallest bamboo fluteFlute
The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
of the Maguindanao
Maguindanao
Maguindanao is a province of the Philippines located in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao . Its capital is Shariff Aguak. It borders Lanao del Sur to the north, Cotabato to the east, and Sultan Kudarat to the south....
n and the only one classified as a ring-flute (the other two bamboo flutes of the Maguindanao
Maguindanao
Maguindanao is a province of the Philippines located in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao . Its capital is Shariff Aguak. It borders Lanao del Sur to the north, Cotabato to the east, and Sultan Kudarat to the south....
n, the tumpong
Tumpong
The tumpong is a type of Philippine bamboo flute used by the Maguindanaon, half the size of the largest bamboo flute, the palendag. A lip-valley flute like the palendag, the tumpong makes a sound when players blow through İNCİ GELDİ a bamboo reed placed on top of the instrument and the air stream...
and the palendag
Palendag
The palendag, also called Pulalu , Palandag , Pulala and Lumundeg is a type of Philippine bamboo flute, the largest one used by the Maguindanaon, a smaller type of this instrument is called the Hulakteb ....
are both lip-valley flutes). Air is passed through the suling via a blowing hole found at the bottom of the instrument and pitch is controlled via five finger holes on the top and one finger hole located on the bottom. Traditionally only the palendag
Palendag
The palendag, also called Pulalu , Palandag , Pulala and Lumundeg is a type of Philippine bamboo flute, the largest one used by the Maguindanaon, a smaller type of this instrument is called the Hulakteb ....
was commonly played but because of the difficult nature of playing the palendag
Palendag
The palendag, also called Pulalu , Palandag , Pulala and Lumundeg is a type of Philippine bamboo flute, the largest one used by the Maguindanaon, a smaller type of this instrument is called the Hulakteb ....
, both the tumpong
Tumpong
The tumpong is a type of Philippine bamboo flute used by the Maguindanaon, half the size of the largest bamboo flute, the palendag. A lip-valley flute like the palendag, the tumpong makes a sound when players blow through İNCİ GELDİ a bamboo reed placed on top of the instrument and the air stream...
and the suling have come to replace the palendag
Palendag
The palendag, also called Pulalu , Palandag , Pulala and Lumundeg is a type of Philippine bamboo flute, the largest one used by the Maguindanaon, a smaller type of this instrument is called the Hulakteb ....
as the Maguindanao
Maguindanao
Maguindanao is a province of the Philippines located in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao . Its capital is Shariff Aguak. It borders Lanao del Sur to the north, Cotabato to the east, and Sultan Kudarat to the south....
n’s most common aerophones.
Also called suling by the Tausug, Yakan
Yakan
The Yakan people are among the major indigenous tribes in Mindanao. Having a significant number of followers of Islam, it is considered as one of the 13 Moro groups in the Philippines. There are also a good number of Christians in this tribe as a result of the conversion of the line of Datu Kalun -...
, B'laan
B'laan
The Blaan are one of the indigenous peoples of Southern Mindanao in The Philippines. Their name could have derived from "bla" meaning "opponent" and the suffix "an" meaning "people"...
, and Tiruray. Other names for the suling include the lantey (Ata
ATA
ATA or Ata may refer to:* Ata , people with the first name or family name-Education:* Ashcroft Technology Academy, Wandsworth, London, England* Advanced Technologies Academy, a high school in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA...
), kinsi (Bukidnon
Bukidnon
Bukidnon is a landlocked province of the Philippines located in the Northern Mindanao region. Its capital is Malaybalay City. The province borders, clockwise starting from the north, Misamis Oriental, Agusan del Sur, Davao del Norte, Cotabato, Lanao del Sur, and Lanao del Norte.Bukidnon is...
), dagoyong (Higanon) and a babarak (Palawan
Palawan
Palawan is an island province of the Philippines located in the MIMAROPA region or Region 4. Its capital is Puerto Princesa City, and it is the largest province in the country in terms of total area of jurisdiction. The islands of Palawan stretch from Mindoro in the northeast to Borneo in the...
)