The Bontoc Igorot

Music

Instrumental music

The Bontoc Igorot has few musical instruments, and all are very simple. The most common is a gong, a flat metal drum about 1 foot in diameter and 2 inches deep. This drum is commonly said to be “brass,” but analyses show it to be bronze.

Two gongs submitted to the Bureau of Government Laboratories, Manila, consisted, in one case, of approximately 80 per cent copper, 15 page 190per cent tin, and 5 per cent zinc; in the other case of approximately 84 per cent copper, 15 per cent tin, 1 per cent zinc, and a trace of iron.

Early Chinese records read that tin was one of the Chinese imports into Manila in the thirteenth century. Copper was mined and wrought by the Igorot when the Spaniards came to the Philippines, and they wrote regarding it that it was then an old and established industry and art. It may possibly be that bronze was made in the Philippines before the arrival of the Spaniard, but there is no proof of such an hypothesis.

The gong to-day enters the Bontoc area in commerce generally from the north—from the Igorot or Tinguian of old Abra Province—and no one in the Provinces of Benguet or Lepanto-Bontoc seems to know its source. Throughout the Archipelago and southward in Borneo there are metal drums or “gongs” apparently of similar material but of varying styles. It is commonly claimed that those of the Moro are made on the Asiatic mainland. It is my opinion that the Bontoc gong, or gang′-sa, originates in China, though perhaps it is not now imported directly from there. It certainly does not enter the Island of Luzon at Manila, or Candon in Ilokos Sur, and, it is said, not at Vigan, also in Ilokos Sur.

In the Bontoc area there are two classes of gang′-sa; one is called ka′-los, and the other co-ong′-an. The co-ong′-an is frequently larger than the other, seems to be always of thicker metal, and has a more bell-like and usually higher-pitched tone. I measured several gang′-sa in Bontoc and Samoki, and find the co-ong′-an about 5 millimeters thick, 52 to 55 millimeters deep, and from 330 to 360 millimeters in diameter; the ka′-los is only about 2 to 3 millimeters thick. The Igorot distinguishes between the two very quickly, and prizes the co-ong′-an at about twice the value of the ka′-los. Either is worth a large price to-day in the central part of the area—or from one to two carabaos—but it is quite impossible to purchase them even at that price.

Gang′-sa music consists of two things—rhythm and crude harmony. Its rhythm is perfect, but though there is an appreciation of harmony as is seen in the recognition of, we may say, the “tenor” and “bass” tones of co-ong′-an and ka′-los, respectively, yet in the actual music the harmony is lost sight of by the American.

In Bontoc the gang′-sa is held vertically in the hand by a cord passing through two holes in the rim, and the cord usually has a human lower jaw attached to facilitate the grip. As the instrument thus hangs free in front of the player (always a man or boy) it is beaten on the outer surface with a short padded stick like a miniature bass-drum stick. There is no gang′-sa music without the accompanying dance, and there is no dance unaccompanied by music. A gang′-sa or a tin can put in the hands of an Igorot boy is always at once productive of music and dance. page 191

The rhythm of Igorot gang′-sa music is different from most primitive music I have heard either in America or Luzon. The player beats 4/4 time, with the accent on the third beat. Though there may be twenty gang′-sa in the dance circle a mile distant, yet the regular pulse and beat of the third count is always the prominent feature of the sound. The music is rapid, there being from fifty-eight to sixty full 4/4 counts per minute.

It is impossible for me to represent Igorot music, instrumental or vocal, in any adequate manner, but I may convey a somewhat clearer impression of the rhythm if I attempt to represent it mathematically. It must be kept in mind that all the gang′-sa are beaten regularly and in perfect time—there is no such thing as half notes.

The gang′-sa is struck at each italicized count, and each unitalicized count represents a rest, the accent represents the accented beat of the gang′-sa. The ka′-los is usually beaten without accent and without rest. Its beats are 1, 2, 3, 4; 1, 2, 3, 4; 1, 2, 3, 4; 1, 2, 3, 4; etc. The co-ong′-an is usually beaten with both accent and rest. It is generally as follows: 1, 2, 3′, 4; 1, 2, 3′, 4; 1, 2, 3′, 4; 1, 2, 3′, 4; etc. Sometimes, however, only the first count and again the first and second counts are struck on the individual co-ong′-an, but there is no accent unless the third is struck. Thus it is sometimes as follows: 1, 2, 3, 4; 1, 2, 3, 4; 1, 2, 3, 4; 1, 2, 3, 4; etc.; and again 1, 2, 3, 4; 1, 2, 3, 4; 1, 2, 3, 4; 1, 2, 3, 4; 1, 2, 3, 4; etc. However, the impression the hearer receives from a group of players is always of four rapid beats, the third one being distinctly accented. A considerable volume of sound is produced by the gang′-sa of the central part of the area; it may readily be heard a mile, if beaten in the open air.

In pueblos toward the western part of the area, as in Balili, Alap, and their neighbors, the instrument is played differently and the sound carries only a few rods. Sometimes the player sits in very un-Malayan manner, with legs stretched out before him, and places the gang′-sa bottom up on his lap. He beats it with the flat of both hands, producing the rhythmic pulse by a deadening or smothering of a beat. Again the gang′-sa is held in the air, usually as high as the face, and one or two soft beats, just a tinkle, of the 4/4 time are struck on the inside of the gang′-sa by a small, light stick. Now and then the player, after having thoroughly acquired the rhythm, clutches the instrument under his arm for a half minute while he continues his dance in perfect time and rhythm.

The lover's “jews'-harp,” made both of bamboo and of brass, is found throughout the Bontoc area. It is played near to and in the olag wherein the sweetheart of the young man is at the time. The instrument, called in Bontoc “ab-a′-fü,” is apparently primitive Malayan, and is found widespread in the south seas and Pacific Ocean. page 192

The brass instrument, the only kind I ever saw in use except as a semitoy in the hands of small boys, is from 2 to 3 inches in length, and has a tongue, attached at one end, cut from the middle of the narrow strip of metal. (The Igorot make the ab-a′-fü of metal cartridges.) A cord is tied to the instrument at the end at which the tongue is attached, and this the player jerks to vibrate the tongue. The instrument is held at the mouth, is lightly clasped between the lips, and, as the tongue vibrates, the player breathes a low, soft tune through the instrument. One must needs get within 2 or 3 feet of the player to catch the music, but I must say after hearing three or four men play by the half hour, that they produce tunes the theme of which seems to me to bespeak a genuine musical taste.

I have seen a few crude bamboo flutes in the hands of young men, but none were able to play them. I believe they are of Ilokano introduction.

A long wooden drum, hollow and cannon-shaped, and often 3 feet and more long and about 8 inches in diameter, is common in Benguet, and is found in Lepanto, but is not found or known in Bontoc. A skin stretched over the large end of the drum is beaten with the flat of the hands to accompany the music of the metal drums or gang′-sa, also played with the flat of the hands, as described, in pueblos near the western border of Bontoc area.

Vocal music

The Igorot has vocal music, but in no way can I describe it—to say nothing of writing it. I tried repeatedly to write the words of the songs, but failed even in that. The chief cause of failure is that the words must be sung—even the singers failed to repeat the songs word after word as they repeat the words of their ordinary speech. There are accents, rests, lengthened sounds, sounds suddenly cut short—in fact, all sorts of vocal gymnastics that clearly defeated any effort to “talk” the songs. I believe many of the songs are wordless; they are mere vocalizations—the “tra la la” of modern vocal music; they may be the first efforts to sing.

I was told repeatedly that there are four classes of songs, and only four. The mang-ay-u-wĕng′, the laborer's song, is sung in the field and trail. The mang-ay-yĕng′ is said to be the class of songs rendered at all ceremonies, though I believe the doleful funeral songs are of another class. The mang-ay-lu′-kay and the tĭng-ao′ I know nothing of except in name.

Most of the songs seem serious. I never heard a mother or other person singing to a babe. However, boys and young men, friends with locked arms or with arms over shoulders, often sing happy songs as they walk along together. They often sing in “parts,” and the music page 193produced by a tenor and a bass voice as they sing their parts in rhythm, and with very apparent appreciation of harmony, is fascinating and often very pleasing.