by Manuel Ngitit Jr.

When people hear about "Cordillera music", all they think about is the incessant beat of gongs and drums. But there's more.

Benguet, for instance, which is known for its vegetable and cutflower industry as well as its culture and practices, has music that has its own distinctive rhythm and sound owing to its brand of instruments.

Benguet musical instruments play an important role in the social relationship among its people, emphasizing rhythm rather than melody. When played in ceremonies and rituals, they follow very definite patterns -- patterns seemingly conserving and reinforcing beliefs, customs, attitudes, and values.

The basic musical instruments which are played during canao and feasts, are of course the gongs and drums, and a pair of iron bars. These instruments are generally played by elder men who are well-versed on the definite musical sequence.

The kal'sa and the pinsak are gongs made of brass or bronze. The kal'sa has a high sound while the pinsak has a lower and coarser sound. Both instruments are beaten with wooden sticks called pitog. The players of these gongs dance around with the dancers keeping time with the music.

The drums always come in pairs. The smaller one, which is the main instrument, is called solibao and the slightly bigger one is the kimbal. The solibao is elongated and is made of carved wood hallowed inside by chisel and hammer. One end is open and is tightly covered with a piece of deer or horse skin which the natives believe produces a better sound.

Generally, the kimbal is played by striking the disc with the palm and the solibao with the tips of the fingers of both hands.

The last pair of instrument is the palas or tiktik. This instrument consists of two pieces of iron which are struck together by a dancer. In the olden days, the hand spades for digging camote were used.

Some of these instruments are said to have been used for five or six generations in one of Benguet's municipalities.

Playing these musical instruments is not as easy as hearing and seeing them. There is a proper sequence in starting the music. First to give the note is the solibao, followed by the kimbal, then the pinsak. The kal'sa is the controlling piece of all the instruments. The quality of music depends on how the kal'sa is regulated.

These instruments are played continuously to come up with the desired and appropriate sounds and rhythm, and until they provide a resounding lilting melody that can almost make anyone listening feel like dancing to the rhythm of the drums. These instruments are considered sacred that they are only played during canao or other festivities.

The gong is the most common indigenous musical instrument in the Cordilleras. No festivity or important ritual is complete without the playing of the gong.

Other than the gongs, Benguet also has instruments for entertainment. From the book The Skyland of the Philippines and other sources, these include the ko'deng, kal'sheng or kam'bi'tong, ku'le'seng, and pakkung.

The ko'deng is a thin flat copper placed between the open lips. To produce the monotonous cadence, the wind is directed against the upturned middle portion that is at the same time tapped by the forefinger or thumb. It is a minute instrument that can be pocketed and played anywhere to entertain other people.

The kal'sheng or kam'bi'tong is made out of a smoothened bam boo that is cut horizontally. It is different from the ukelele or guitar in that the kal'sheng is just a straight bamboo about a foot long where wires are attached across the hollow surface. A lilting sound is produced when the wires are strummed. When the instrument has five to six strands of fine wire, a flat wood is usually used as base in place of a bamboo. At the same time, a small bar of wood is inserted on both ends to suspend the wires.

To produce a rhythm similar to that produced by the solibao and kal'sa, the wire strings are strummed with the tips of the thumb and forefinger. This produces a soft sound that only the player and those people close can hear it. The natives usually play it as entertainment before retiring in the evening or at times that they are not busy.

The nose flute is one of the bamboo instruments common in the Cordillera

Like the ko'deng, the ku'le'seng (nose flute) is a small bamboo tube with three holes across the surface. The wind is directed by the nostrils against a sharp edge as the fingers on the finger holes produce a clarinet-like melody. This may be played either with a group or when one is alone and feeling lonely.

The women folk also have an instrument called pak'kung. This is made from a piece of bamboo by cutting loose a triangle at one end. This is about three-fourths of a yard and which center is scraped horizontally to about two thirds of its length. The distance between the upper and lower sides of the scraped area is one inch. A small square hole is carved at the handle to produce sound when struck against the palm of the hand.

Women generally play this on their way to or from their kaingin or oma in order to drive away evil spirits and to give them relief from their weariness and loneliness as they traverse hills to and from their fields.

Another musical instrument for women is the pal'keng, which is similar to the pak'kung. This is played as an alternative to entertain a group of women coming home from the farm with heavy loads on their backs. It is also made of smoothened bamboo about a foot or one and a half foot long which is cut at the middle with about half a foot left uncut to serve as the handle. A stick is tapped against the surface to produce the rhythm also similar to that produced by the solibao and kal'sa.

All these bamboo instruments are made at home by the natives themselves. To make good and pleasant sounds, the bamboo should be free from cracks.

Manuel Ngitit Jr. is a music lover and a basketball aficionado. He was a seminarian before he finished his AB Political Science course at the Baguio Colleges Foundation. Apart from writing, his other passions are radio and TV hosting.

by PIA-CAR Writers Pool

Amidst the varied cultural background, beliefs, and traditions of the Cordillera people, there is one thing that is common among them: the gongs.

Made either of brass, iron, alloy of brass, or bronze, these flat, rounded metal instruments called gangsa in Benguet, Mountain Province, and Kalinga, gangha to the Ifugaos and gansa to the Tingguians of Abra, are ever present during important festivals and rituals. No festivity is complete without the gong being played.

The importance of the gangsa is further attested by Samuel Dapapa, head of the Abra Guimpong Association (AGA). "It is an inherent part of Tingguian community ceremonial affairs, from the most common (wedding ceremonies, burial rites, victories, and various rituals) to the most important -- the peace pact covenant". And this holds true for the rest of the Cordillera ethnic communities.

The gangsa ensemble is the foremost accompaniment of ethnic dances in the region. As Dapapa puts it, the unique beauty and grace of the tadek, the most popular Tingguian dance, as well as the other ethnic dances, cannot be appreciated without the staccato and rhythmic tune of the gangsa.

The gangsa come in various sizes. It is said that the kind of metal and its size determines the tonal quality of the instrument. The cadhaanan, believed to have originated from China and passed on from generation to generation, and considered family heirlooms, produce the best gong sound. But Dapapa swears that a gangsa coming from the mining community of Lepanto in Mankayan, Benguet produces the most melodious sound-tone he has ever heard from locally-made and newer gangsa.

Flat gong ensembles, like those made of bamboo, have patterns that interlock and the varying accents produce consecutive ringing tones of resultant melodies. The occasion dictates the sound and the music to be played by the gong ensemble.

According to Manuel Dulawan, an Ifugao native versed in Ifugao culture and tradition, the pagaddut and dinnuy-a are the most common types of gong music in the province.

Originating in the Kiangan area, the pagaddut is lively music usually played during weddings. It has a lead drum called tobab. The gong drummer called manbab or immuntobab drums the tobab placed on his lap with his open arms or with one open palm and a closed fist, depending on one's convenience or preference. The munhib-at or other beaters follow one after the other in rhythmic sequence while dancing.

In most festivities, the dinnuy-a is played. Like the pagaddut, it requires mambab and munhib-at, and the same actions and sequence are followed in playing. It, however, differs in rhythm and cadence. The dinnuy-a is slower-paced, thus it follows that the dance also called dinnuy-a is slower.

During a phase in the bulul ritual, a kind of gong music called liya is played, the beating and rhythm done in a manner as to invite the bulul diety who has caused illness to possess a sick person or any other person among those gathered who becomes the medium. The bulul is considered the soul of a long-departed ancestor represented by a carved wooden statue of a seated man with folded arms, the right over left hand resting on the knees. It is also considered the god of the granaries and is usually found inside rice granaries in front of the doorway.

(Left) Nowadays, the gangsa is also used during parades; (center) The beauty and grace of the tadek cannot be appreciated without the stacattoed rhythm of the gangsa; (right) The binangaan dance of the Kalingas to the tune of gangsa pattung.

The gottad or gottadan is another kind of gong music. This is the music played during merrymaking or thanksgiving after harvest. There are variations of the gottad. With two gongs, a gottadan may be played but with a third gong called kipkipol, the sound is better. The kipkipol is actually a beat made in between the one and two beats of the first two gongs. The best gottad music is produced using five gongs. A more complicated sequence of beating is employed and only an expert performer can do it. The four gongs are struck in reverse pair, the fifth providing a contrasting beat; the whole ensemble produces lovely music designed for processions.

A special kind of gottadan using four gongs is played during wakes or bogwa (exhumation rituals) when people cease to dance. Four gongs called talektek, dikdikul, kipkipol, and biya are played, producing an ensemble that is slow and haunting yet musical. The gongs are played late into the night through the early morning hours.

In Kalinga, the gangsa are played in two styles: gangsa pattung, also called gangsa palo-ok, and gangsa topayya.

In the gangsa pattung style, the players each carry a gong suspended from V-shaped bone or wooden handle held by the left hand while the right hand uses a rounded stick to strike rhythmic patterns of ringing and dampened sounds. As they play their gongs in fast tempo, they move in circular formations with a group of female dancers.

In the gangsa topayya, each player uses his bare palms to play corresponding combinations of accented, dampened, and sliding strokes. Among the Kalinga and Tingguian, the topayya ensemble usually consists of six gangsa-baba or babal referring to the largest and lowest-pitched gong, sobat or solbat, katlu (meaning third), kapat, (meaning fourth), sound identical patterns in staggered entrée. The fifth gong is the umut and anungus, the sixth gong, which is the highest-pitched gong plays a freer rhythmic pattern. In a five-gong gangsa topayya, the fourth gong is the umut while the fifth is the anungus.

The tadok or tadek is danced by a pair of male and female dancers to the music of gangsa topayya at festive gatherings particularly peace pacts (bodong) and wedding celebrations.

To the Bontoks and Kankaneys of Mountain Province, the takik is reserved for the wedding dance. There are two methods of providing accompaniment for this. One is called the tambol, in which the men with gongs sit on the ground with the gongs resting on their folded legs while the beat is struck out with the palms of their hands. The other method is for two or three men with gongs striking their gongs intermittently with the wooden end while following the foot movements of the male dancer.

In the tallibeng, a group of five to 10 gong players hit one harmonious beating, and as the players move in a circular motion, the women dance around them following whatever steps the men do.

There are many more ways of playing the gong and a lot more dances to the accompaniment of the gong enjoyed by the old and young alike.

Despite rapid changes in their environment, the Cordillerans are proud to preserve their musical heritage. They are one in holding on steadfastly to their one true instrument, the gong.