Contextual Associations

The angklung is a sliding tube-rattle idiophone of Indonesia. This set of angklung hails from the central part of the island of Java, Indonesia, and was intended for use in schools primarily to teach and perform Western style (diatonic scales with harmony) nationalistic patriotic songs.  The angklung, however, has deep pre-national-era cultural roots on many Indonesian islands (according to Kunst, Java, Madura, Bali, South Sumatra, Central and South Sulawesi, and Southwest Kalimantan), and with the Javanese and Sundanese peoples of the island of Java in particular. There it is found in a variety of primarily rural musical traditions associated with the agricultural cycle and with trance-dance traditions. In the Sundanese cultural area of West Java there is a strong association between this instrument and the rice goddess Nyi Pohaci Sanghyang Sri (‘Dewi Sri’ for short). In times past, before the introduction of pesticides and chemical fertilizers, Sundanese farming villages would enact rituals involving the playing of angklung to entice Dewi Sri to their fields to ensure a good harvest. In Central and East Java, angklung are even today found in small ensembles used by itinerant hobby-horse trance-dance troupes (kuda képang, jathilan, etc.).

Description

Each instrument in the set consists of three tubular bamboo elements held in relationship to one another by a framework made from bamboo slats and rattan rods and laces (see first detail photo). Two of the bamboo tubes are sonorous and are situated vertically. They are closed at their bottom end by a natural node and have half or more of their wall cut away from the top end to more than half its total length (see second detail photo). With this cut the maker controls the tuning of the instrument. The longer tube on any one rattle is tuned to a particular pitch, the shorter tube to an octave above. The third tube, which is non-sonorous, is situated horizontally on the instrument, is open at both ends, and has a row of two narrow rectangular slits cut along its length (see third detail photo). Two short and narrow wall extensions below the node at the base of each vertical tube fit loosely into the slits on the wall of the horizontal tube and are free to strike against the ends of the slits when the instrument is shaken. It is the energy released through this striking that sets the tuned tubes into vibration.

Player - Instrument Interface and Sound Production

A player typically performs a single angklung, holding the top of one of the end vertical frame rods with the left hand and holding the other end frame rod just above the horizontal tube with the right hand. While keeping his or her left hand stationary, the player rapidly shakes the right hand. Playing the angklung involves the hocket principle--one, rattle per performer, with each performer having to sound their angklung at the appropriate time in the melodic/harmonic cycle of the piece. The 37 individual instruments in the set of angklung pictured here are tuned approximately to the Western chromatic scale and span the range of three octaves. They are arranged on a two-tier rack in the fashion of a piano keyboard--‘white key’ notes C4 to C7 hanging from the lower crossbar, ‘black key’ notes in groups of 3's and 2's from C-sharp4 to A-sharp6 from the higher one. Conceivably, a single player could perform the set as arranged on the rack using both hands to shake the individual angklung. Kartomi mentions such a practice with diatonic sets, but there is no mention in the literature of such a practice with chromatically-tuned sets. It is more likely the arrangement seen here is for orderly storage, allowing a group of players to select a subset of instruments needed to perform a given piece. 

Origins/History/Evolution

Little information was found about where inside or outside of the Indonesian archipelago the angklung originated or how it came to be so widely dispersed. The angklung's close association with rice cultivation and its attendant rituals in West Java suggests it has been present in Sundanese life for a long time, but its origins and history simply were not documented for posterity.

Bibliographic Citations

Harnish, David. 1998. "Bali." In The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music v. 4. Southeast Asia. ed. Terry E. Miller and Sean Williams. New York: Garland Publishing, pp. 729-761.

Kartomi, Margaret. 1984. "Angklung," NGDMI v.1: 60.

Kunst, Jaap. 1973. Music in Java. 3^rd ed. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.

Miller, Terry and Sean Williams. 1998. "The Impact of Modernization on Traditional Musics." In The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music v. 4. Southeast Asia. ed. Terry E. Miller and Sean Williams. New York: Garland Publishing, pp. 113-143.

Sutton, R. Anderson. 1998. "Java." In The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music v. 4. Southeast Asia. ed. Terry E. Miller and Sean Williams. New York: Garland Publishing, pp. 631-685.

Williams, Sean. 1998. "Sunda." In The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music v. 4. Southeast Asia. ed. Terry E. Miller and Sean Williams. New York: Garland Publishing, pp. 699-725.