Suling

For the village in Iran, seeSuling, Iran.For the medieval English land unit, seehide (unit).

Sulingᮞᮥᮜᮤᮀ

Suling with theKacapi
Woodwind instrument
Inventor(s)	Sundanese people
Developed	Indonesia

ANative Indonesianboy, playing aSundaneseSuling instrument.

Seruling Gambuh Bali

Suling players (bottom row) depicted on the 8th-century reliefs ofBorobudurtemple inCentral Java,Indonesia

Suling, transverse bamboo flute,Papua, New Guinea.The wordsulingdescribes mostly lengthways flutes but also some transverse flutes made of bamboo.

Thesuling(Sundanese:ᮞᮥᮜᮤᮀ) is a musical instrument of theSundanese peopleinIndonesia.It is used in theDegungensemble.Bambooringflutecan also be found inSoutheast Asian,especially inBrunei,Indonesia,Malaysia,thePhilippinesandSingapore.

Construction

Sulings are made mainly of "tamiang"bamboo(Schizostachyum blumei,Nees), a long, thin-walled bamboo tube. The mouthpiece of the suling is circled with a thin band made ofrattannear a small hole.

Playing method

Sundanese suling performer, member of theGamelangroupSambaSunda

To play the suling, performers blow into a gap between the rattan band and the bamboo tube at one end of the instrument.

There are two factors that affect a fine suling's tone:

1. Fingering position.
2. 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, differentnotescan 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.

In themusic of Balithe suling is an essential instrument and it appears to be similar to other forms of Javanese suling. The way it is played, however, sets it apart from other forms of Indonesian suling. Namely, it is necessary for the performers to use the techniquecircular breathingin order to create a highly strung sense of constancy that continues even at moments of dramatic climax by the percussive gamelan instruments.

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,(Sundaneseterm) 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:

A diagram showing the technique used to play a suling.

• In Sundanese technique, there are other known effects such aswiwiw,keleter,lelol,gebos,petit,jengkat,andbetrik.

Types

Sundanese

Kacapi and suling

In the Sundanese region, a suling is used as

• one of the main instruments inkacapi suling
• accompanying instrument inGamelan Degung,Tembang Sunda

Tuning

Sulings can have either 4 holes or 6 holes. The 6-holed Sundanese suling can play at least three different scales. Some custom sulings have 7 or 8 holes as additional holes for playing extended scales such as Mandalungan, the transposed version of Degung.

• Pelog Degung: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.
• Madendaor 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. Madenda conceptually played by changing the 3rd note of Degung [1' 7 5 4 3 1] in diatonic scale to [1' 7 6 4 3 1], and move the Sundanese 1/da to the Western 4/fa position.
• Saléndro: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. Salendo tone are almost five-equally divided tones, called as Saléndro Padantara (equal interval). Unequal division of Saléndro notes called as Saléndro Bédantara (unequal interval).
• Mandalungan:a rarely used scale, similar to Degung scale, but it is actually a transposed Degung via changing the 4th tone of Madenda [4' 3' 1' 7 6 4] in Western diatonic scale to [4' 3' 1' ♭7 6 4]. Basically sounds the same as Degung, just with a different transposition. This scale needs an extra hole (usually in the back of suling) to play.

The following picture shows the fingering for a six-holedSundanese suling.

And below is the example of 'more realistic' view of finger positioning for thepelog degungscale.

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 came from kalimantan) He also called as "saat"

The Suling can be many sizes

Suling outside Indonesia

InBrunei,the suling today is played during a cultural festival and other events together with other Bruneian traditional instruments especially theGulintangan.While in East Malaysia, especially inSabahwith a wide variety ofaerophone,the instrument is played by all the interior ethnic groups in the state ofKadazan-Dusun,Murut,RungusandLun Bawang/Lundayeh.InSarawak,the suling is mostly played by men in aDayak peoplelonghouse.

It is also called as suling by theTausug,Yakan,B'laan,andTiruray.Other names for the suling include the lantey (Ata), kinsi (Bukidnon), dagoyong (Higanon)and a babarak (Palawan)

The Maguindanaon suling is the smallest bamboofluteof theMaguindanaonand the only one classified as a ring-flute (the other two bamboo flutes of theMaguindanaon,thetumpongand thepalendagare bothlip-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 thepalendagwas commonly played but because of the difficult nature of playing thepalendag,both thetumpongand the suling have come to replace thepalendagas theMaguindanaon’s most common aerophones.

See also

• Bamboo musical instruments
• Sundanese music