general musical division exists between the urban and rural areas of Southeast Asia. Urban centres comprise the islands of Java and Bali and places in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar, where big ensembles of gong families play for court and state ceremonies. Rural areas include other islands and remote places, where smaller ensembles and solo instruments play a simpler music for village feasts, curing ceremonies, and daily activities. In cities and towns influenced by Hindu epics such as the Ramayana and Mahabharata, shadow and masked plays and dances utilizing music play important communal roles, while in less urbanized areas, in lieu of musical plays, chants and songs in spirit worship and rituals are sung in exclusive surroundings—a ritual procession on the headwaters of Borneo, a drinking ceremony in the jungles of Palawan, a feast in the uplands of Luzon.
The relation of music to dance and theatre
In the Thai masked play, or khon, dancers, chorus, soloists, and orchestra are all coordinated. The musicians know the movements of classical dance and coordinate musical phrases with dance patterns, turns, and movements. In the shadow play, or nang sbek, the dancer, who manipulates a leather puppet, must keep his foot movements in time with vocal recitations. During pauses in which the gong ensemble plays an interlude, the dancer must change steps accordingly. In general, when there is solo singing, the instrumental ensemble remains silent or plays only a few instruments in contrast to interludes of acrobatic shows or scenes of fighting, when the full orchestra clangs on all the instruments. In Balinese dancing, body movements, paces, and directions are dependent on drum strokes and signals from a wood block (keprak) and cymbals (cengceng). The dancers generally rehearse with the musicians to know exactly when choreographic changes take place.
Instrumental music
Although gong orchestras consisting of gongs, metallophones, and xylophones bind Southeast Asia into one musical cultural group, the types of ensembles and sounds they form may be classified into four areas. Java and Bali make up one unit because of their predominant use of bronze instruments in orchestras that make one homogeneous sound. Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia form another subdivision, with families of musical instruments producing heterogeneous sounds: the bronze group makes slowly decaying sounds, wooden xylophones play short sounds, and a reed blows a penetrating melody accompanied by a fourth group of cymbals, drums, and another gong. Burmese orchestras differ from the Indonesian and Thai groups by the unique use of a row of tuned drums (sometimes called a drum circle), with sounds consisting of sharp attacks and quick-vanishing waves. The fourth area, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines, uses several types of suspended and horizontally laid gongs. These gongs produce various combinations of sounds. In Nias, an island west of Sumatra, one group of three heavy suspended gongs plays three rhythms of homogeneous sounds. Suspended gongs with a wide rim and a high knob (or boss) are played alone, with another gong or with a drum on the Philippine islands of Mindanao and Palawan and the Indonesian island of Kalimantan (Borneo). Gongs laid in a row, called kulintang, are melody instruments accompanied by a percussion group. The most developed melodies are found in Mindanao, and the area of distribution extends to Borneo, Sumatra, and Celebes, in Indonesia. The sets of tuned gongs found throughout Southeast Asia are also called gong chimes, gong kettles, and gongs in a row.
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general musical division exists between the urban and rural areas of Southeast Asia. Urban centres comprise the islands of Java and Bali and places in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar, where big ensembles of gong families play for court and state ceremonies. Rural areas include other islands and remote places, where smaller ensembles and solo instruments play a simpler music for village feasts, curing ceremonies, and daily activities. In cities and towns influenced by Hindu epics such as the Ramayana and Mahabharata, shadow and masked plays and dances utilizing music play important communal roles, while in less urbanized areas, in lieu of musical plays, chants and songs in spirit worship and rituals are sung in exclusive surroundings—a ritual procession on the headwaters of Borneo, a drinking ceremony in the jungles of Palawan, a feast in the uplands of Luzon.
The relation of music to dance and theatre
In the Thai masked play, or khon, dancers, chorus, soloists, and orchestra are all coordinated. The musicians know the movements of classical dance and coordinate musical phrases with dance patterns, turns, and movements. In the shadow play, or nang sbek, the dancer, who manipulates a leather puppet, must keep his foot movements in time with vocal recitations. During pauses in which the gong ensemble plays an interlude, the dancer must change steps accordingly. In general, when there is solo singing, the instrumental ensemble remains silent or plays only a few instruments in contrast to interludes of acrobatic shows or scenes of fighting, when the full orchestra clangs on all the instruments. In Balinese dancing, body movements, paces, and directions are dependent on drum strokes and signals from a wood block (keprak) and cymbals (cengceng). The dancers generally rehearse with the musicians to know exactly when choreographic changes take place.
Instrumental music
Although gong orchestras consisting of gongs, metallophones, and xylophones bind Southeast Asia into one musical cultural group, the types of ensembles and sounds they form may be classified into four areas. Java and Bali make up one unit because of their predominant use of bronze instruments in orchestras that make one homogeneous sound. Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia form another subdivision, with families of musical instruments producing heterogeneous sounds: the bronze group makes slowly decaying sounds, wooden xylophones play short sounds, and a reed blows a penetrating melody accompanied by a fourth group of cymbals, drums, and another gong. Burmese orchestras differ from the Indonesian and Thai groups by the unique use of a row of tuned drums (sometimes called a drum circle), with sounds consisting of sharp attacks and quick-vanishing waves. The fourth area, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines, uses several types of suspended and horizontally laid gongs. These gongs produce various combinations of sounds. In Nias, an island west of Sumatra, one group of three heavy suspended gongs plays three rhythms of homogeneous sounds. Suspended gongs with a wide rim and a high knob (or boss) are played alone, with another gong or with a drum on the Philippine islands of Mindanao and Palawan and the Indonesian island of Kalimantan (Borneo). Gongs laid in a row, called kulintang, are melody instruments accompanied by a percussion group. The most developed melodies are found in Mindanao, and the area of distribution extends to Borneo, Sumatra, and Celebes, in Indonesia. The sets of tuned gongs found throughout Southeast Asia are also called gong chimes, gong kettles, and gongs in a row.