SULING
Vertical flute
a) Etimology
Suling is an blown flute made of a special bamboo having a long and narrow tube. It is held vertically. In west Java, there are two kinds of suling; the suling tembang has six fingerholes and the suling degung has four fingerholes.
b) Construction
The Suling is made from a single inter node of a bamboo known as tamiang. One node closes the top of the tube while the other node and any undesired length of internode is cut off leaving the bottom of the tube open. The top node has a small notch cut into it on the back of the instrument. This notch leads to a small trapezoidal opening in the bamboo immediately below the node.
This trapezoidal opening is beveled on the inside of the tube at its lower and narrower width forming as shape edge. The area around the node is slightly shaved off providing a depression around which is tied a thin bamboo ring (sumber). The sumber partially covers the notch thereby forming a small duct. This small duct, in combination with th trapezoidal shape of the aperture, directs the player’s breath to the sharp beveled edge causing the vibrations to be set in motion through the pipe (laras) to produce the sound.
The sumber is made fro a long, narrow strip of bamboo cut out lengthwise from the inside of the bamboo tube. This strip is soaked in water to soften it so it can be tied in a knot around the blowhole.
There are three typee of suling. Suling tembang and suling kawih each have six holes while suling degung has four holes. The six-hole instruments are made by first cutting out and shaping the blowhole.
The pipe can then blown and cut off from the bottom until the desired pitch for the entire pipe is reached. The top finger hole is the cut approximately in the center of the bamboo length. The lower half is divide in to ten equal points. Taking the center hole as the first point, holes are further made at the second, third, fifth, sixth and seventh points resulting in two groups of three holes each. The middle hole in each group is larger than the others.
c) Range
a) suling tembang C3 – C5
b) suling kawish D3 - A5
c) suling degung B3 – F# 5
Both the suling tembang and the suling kawih must be blown lightly (known as tiupan ringan) in the lowest register (3 / na) to (1 /da) ; in the middle register of the instrument (5 /la) to 1 / da ), the regular blowing technique used is called tiupan sedang; and in the highest register ( 5/la) to 1 / da), the strong blowing technique is called tiupan kuat. The highest tone ( I / da), however, is an overtune.
In playing technique the suling degung, vocal tones such as the tones bungur (3-) sorog (5+), are used passingly by sliding the fingers over the holes or by partially covering the botton of the tube itself when all the hall are closed. The this technique is called leotan.
d) Use and Function
Suling can be played alone or in ensemble. Suling is usually played alone by the shepherd in the fields or hills since he has leisure time.
Suling are most commonly used in pieces in the pelog and degung scales as opposed to the pieces in salendro and madenda in which the rebab is used. Suling tembang is used together with kacapi to accompany tembang singing and to play the instrumental pieces of this style. Suling kawih is also used with kacapi to accompany kawih singing and instrumental pieces in that style. The suling degung is used in the gamelan degung ( Sundanese gamelan consisting of gong, jenglong (kenong), bonang, saron kendang and suling).
Besides the above-mentioned three types of suling, there are three other types which are used in solo usually by young boys who work in the fields or who tend cattle. There are the suling madenda with either four or five holes, the suling salendro with four holes, and the suling tembang with two holes. The latter is mainly used among the Badui.
Distribution
Flutes of the same name can be found through insular Southeast Asia. The same type of instrument can be found in Central and East Java, Sumatera, Bali, Sulawesi and southern Philippines while a different instrument with the same name ( an end-blown oblique flute without a blowing edge) can be found in Bali and Sumatera.
b) Construction
The Suling is made from a single inter node of a bamboo known as tamiang. One node closes the top of the tube while the other node and any undesired length of internode is cut off leaving the bottom of the tube open. The top node has a small notch cut into it on the back of the instrument. This notch leads to a small trapezoidal opening in the bamboo immediately below the node.
This trapezoidal opening is beveled on the inside of the tube at its lower and narrower width forming as shape edge. The area around the node is slightly shaved off providing a depression around which is tied a thin bamboo ring (sumber). The sumber partially covers the notch thereby forming a small duct. This small duct, in combination with th trapezoidal shape of the aperture, directs the player’s breath to the sharp beveled edge causing the vibrations to be set in motion through the pipe (laras) to produce the sound.
The sumber is made fro a long, narrow strip of bamboo cut out lengthwise from the inside of the bamboo tube. This strip is soaked in water to soften it so it can be tied in a knot around the blowhole.
There are three typee of suling. Suling tembang and suling kawih each have six holes while suling degung has four holes. The six-hole instruments are made by first cutting out and shaping the blowhole.
The pipe can then blown and cut off from the bottom until the desired pitch for the entire pipe is reached. The top finger hole is the cut approximately in the center of the bamboo length. The lower half is divide in to ten equal points. Taking the center hole as the first point, holes are further made at the second, third, fifth, sixth and seventh points resulting in two groups of three holes each. The middle hole in each group is larger than the others.
c) Range
a) suling tembang C3 – C5
b) suling kawish D3 - A5
c) suling degung B3 – F# 5
Both the suling tembang and the suling kawih must be blown lightly (known as tiupan ringan) in the lowest register (3 / na) to (1 /da) ; in the middle register of the instrument (5 /la) to 1 / da ), the regular blowing technique used is called tiupan sedang; and in the highest register ( 5/la) to 1 / da), the strong blowing technique is called tiupan kuat. The highest tone ( I / da), however, is an overtune.
In playing technique the suling degung, vocal tones such as the tones bungur (3-) sorog (5+), are used passingly by sliding the fingers over the holes or by partially covering the botton of the tube itself when all the hall are closed. The this technique is called leotan.
d) Use and Function
Suling can be played alone or in ensemble. Suling is usually played alone by the shepherd in the fields or hills since he has leisure time.
Suling are most commonly used in pieces in the pelog and degung scales as opposed to the pieces in salendro and madenda in which the rebab is used. Suling tembang is used together with kacapi to accompany tembang singing and to play the instrumental pieces of this style. Suling kawih is also used with kacapi to accompany kawih singing and instrumental pieces in that style. The suling degung is used in the gamelan degung ( Sundanese gamelan consisting of gong, jenglong (kenong), bonang, saron kendang and suling).
Besides the above-mentioned three types of suling, there are three other types which are used in solo usually by young boys who work in the fields or who tend cattle. There are the suling madenda with either four or five holes, the suling salendro with four holes, and the suling tembang with two holes. The latter is mainly used among the Badui.
Distribution
Flutes of the same name can be found through insular Southeast Asia. The same type of instrument can be found in Central and East Java, Sumatera, Bali, Sulawesi and southern Philippines while a different instrument with the same name ( an end-blown oblique flute without a blowing edge) can be found in Bali and Sumatera.
e) Laras ( Tone scale)
The tone scale is an important aspect to understand when we speaking about music. Tone scales of different nations have certain national traits which, although difficult to describe, are clearly felt to represent the general character of people. In west Java, we use three kinds of tone scales, all of which are pentatonic scales.
1) Laras Pelog
The pelog scale consist of a group of three tones divided by equal interval, and a group of two tones. Between the groups are long intervals.
2) Laras salendro
The five tones in the salendro octave have equal intervals in relation to each other. Therefore, it is theoretically possible to use every key of the instrument as the tonic in order to get scales at different tonality.
3) Laras madenda
The laras madenda sounds very close to the minor scale. Madenda means melancholy.
g) Assignment, notation and ornamentation
The da-mi-na-ti-la-da solfa system is used to memorize pieces easily, particularly in the schools. It refers to the five basic tones of each surupan in descending order. Thus, the absolute pitches of and intervals between da-mi-na-ti-la-da vary according to each surupan. When notating pieces, numerals one through five corresponding to da-mi-na-ti-la are used. This numeral are read as the numeral themselves. In writing the cipher notation of piece, the scale (laras) and the surupan are always indicated below the title of the piece. The pitches of the sol-fa syllable numeral are also (da) and its corresponding tone name are always shown; the madenda scale always indicates the tone nae of 4 (ti), whereas the degung scale indicates the tone name of 2 (mi).
The laras madenda sounds very close to the minor scale. Madenda means melancholy.
g) Assignment, notation and ornamentation
The da-mi-na-ti-la-da solfa system is used to memorize pieces easily, particularly in the schools. It refers to the five basic tones of each surupan in descending order. Thus, the absolute pitches of and intervals between da-mi-na-ti-la-da vary according to each surupan. When notating pieces, numerals one through five corresponding to da-mi-na-ti-la are used. This numeral are read as the numeral themselves. In writing the cipher notation of piece, the scale (laras) and the surupan are always indicated below the title of the piece. The pitches of the sol-fa syllable numeral are also (da) and its corresponding tone name are always shown; the madenda scale always indicates the tone nae of 4 (ti), whereas the degung scale indicates the tone name of 2 (mi).
Note that in the cipher notation system of Sunda, the numeral 1 indicates the highest pitch of any register while the numeral 5 indicates the lowest. This is opposite that of the notation system of central java where larger numerals indicates higher pitches. The placement of dots is also opposite in the two system. In Sunda, the dot below the numerals ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) indicates the high register; a numeral without a dot ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) indicates
the middle register; and a dot above the numeral ( 1 2 3 ) indicates the low register. In Central Java, meanwhile, a dot above the numeral indicates the high register and a dot below indicates the low register.
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