Traditional Philippine Kulintang Music
And Lou Harrison
By Christian Lozano
Demographics of the Philippines
 Has a population of 97,976,603 (July 2009 est.)
 Land Mass of 298,170 sq. km.
 Ethnicities of the Philippines include: Tagalog 28.1%,
Cebuano 13.1%, Ilocano 9%, Bisaya/Binisaya 7.6%,
Hiligaynon Ilonggo 7.5%, Bikol 6%, Waray 3.4%, other
25.3%
 The two official languages are Filipino (based on
Tagalog) and English. There are also eight other
dialects.
 The two main religions are Roman Catholic 80.9% and
Islamic 5% . With an Other 14.1%.
The Philippines
 The Philippines archipelago
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is made up of 7,107 islands.
The islands are categorized
into three main geographical
divisions: Luzon, Visayas,
and Mindanao.
The capital is Manila.
Became a Spanish colony in
the 16th Century. Was ceded
to the US in 1898 after the
Spanish American War.
Independence on July 4th
1946.
Kulintang of the Southern
Philippines
 Kulintang is a modern term for an ancient instrumental form of
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music composed on a row of small, horizontally-laid gongs that
function melodically, accompanied by larger, suspended gongs and
drums.
Based on the traditions of the Maranao and Maguindanao people.
Evolved from a simple native signaling tradition.
A kulintang is a set of metal gong kettles which are laid horizontally
upon a rack.
It is played by striking the bosses of the gong with two wooden beaters.
Kulintang ensembles usually consist of five to six instruments.
One of the three major gong ensembles alongside the Gamelan in
Indonesia and the Piphat in Thailand.
Tuning is based off the Pelog and Slendro scales of Java because their
was great variation between each set of instruments due the differences
in make size and shape.
The Scales and Rhythmic Mode
Pelog
Slendro
 Pelog has seven notes, but
 Slendro is a pentatonic scale that
many gamelan ensembles
only have keys for five of the
pitches. Even in ensembles
that have all seven notes,
many pieces only use a subset
of five notes.
divides an octave into 5 fairly
equal parts.
 Rhythmic Mode is defined as a
musical unit that binds together the
entire five instrument ensemble.
 By adding together the various
rhythms of each instrument, one
could create music and by changing
one of the rhythms, one could create
different music. This is the basis of the
rhythmic mode.
Kulintang Music
 Like the other two, Kulintang music is primarily orchestral with
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several rhythmic parts orderly stacked one upon another.
However, Kulintang music differs in many aspects from gamelan
music, primarily in the way the latter constructs melodies within
a framework of skeletal tones and prescribed time interval of
entry for each instruments.
The framework of Kulintang music is more flexible and time
intervals are nonexistent, allowing for such things as
improvisations to be more prevalent.
The main purpose for Kulintang music in the community is to
function as social entertainment at a nonprofessional, folk level.
The Kulintang player functions not only as the one carrying the
melody, but also as the conductor of the entire ensemble. He
controls the tempo of the song.
The Instruments
Dabakan
Kulintang
Agung
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Daujjju
iL4
Babendil
Gandingan
Lou Harrison
 Born on May 14, 1917 and died on February 2, 2003.
 Was an American Composer
 Born in Portland, Oregon. Graduated Burlingame High School in Burlingame,
California. Then moved to San Francisco.
 There he was exposed to different types of music such as Cantonese opera,
Native American, Spanish, jazz, and Indonesian music which greatly
influenced him.
 Harrison took Henry Cowell's "Music of the Peoples of the World" course, and
also studied counterpoint and composition with him.
 Later went to UCLA and took lessons from Arnold Schoenberg which led to an
interest in Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique.
 Most of his pieces were percussive works using unconventional materials.
 1943, moved to New York to work as a music critic for the Herald Tribune where
he met Charles Ives. Harrison conducted the premiere of Ives Symphony No.3.
 Ives wins the Pulitzer Prize for Music for the piece and gave half the money to
Harrison.
 He began to follow composer Collin McPhee who did research on Indonesian
Music.
 Harrison is particularly noted for incorporating elements of the music of nonWestern cultures into his work, with a number of pieces written for Javanese
style Gamelan instruments.
Concerto in Slendro
 Composed in 1961.
 Score was written for a violin, two tack pianos, a
celesta, and percussion.
 Influenced by Gamalan instruments, he created
percussion instruments made out of tin cans and
metal wash tubs to resemble them.
 Other compositions do use a few Gamalan
instruments.
 Imitates the use of the slendro scale in Kulintang and
Gamalan music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwfBKvFW968
The Comparison
Similarities
Differences
 Concerto in Slendro tries to
 Time signature in the
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imitate the slendro scale.
The instruments are created to
imitate the Kulintang/Gamalan
gongs.
Same number of instruments are
used to resemble a Kulintang
ensemble.
Relatively they are at a moderate
tempo.
The Kulintang is used to carry
the melody like the Violin does
in Concerto.
Instruments are created with the
materials available to them.
Kulintang is non-existent so
it is mostly improvised.
 Not actual Kulintang
instruments are used in
Concerto.
 Kulintang is used as the lead
instrument while the Violin
leads in Concerto.
Works Cited
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippines
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kulintang
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lou_Harrison
http://www.classical.net/music/recs/reviews/n/nwr80643a.php
http://gmvfeel.egloos.com/932901
http://www.ucsc.edu/oncampus/currents/97-04-21/harrison.photo.htm
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/rp.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manila
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celesta
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DaujjjuiL4
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_5DWyU5zqZY/SiW6FfuHhtI/AAAAAAAAARs/vLbdfnlD7LY/s400/Chocolate_hills_bohol_P
hilippines.jpg