Posted on 06/27/2021 1:29:04 AM PDT by nickcarraway
From jazz to Mozart, young Indonesian breathes new life into centuries-old stringed instrument (ni) Kongahyan 01 Jakarta-based traditional musician Seto Noviantoro showcasing the two-string bowed instrument kongahyan. (Photo: Nivell Rayda) Nivell Byline - smiling By Nivell Rayda @NivellCNA 27 Jun 2021 06:01AM (Updated: 27 Jun 2021 07:36AM)
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JAKARTA: With great precision and agility, Seto Noviantoro’s fingers glided across the strings of an Indonesian musical instrument, while his right arm moved the bow back and forth.
Despite its distinctive sound, not many people know the name of this two-string bowed fiddle, even in Jakarta where the instrument originated centuries ago. Those who know how to play the instrument are even rarer.
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Noviantoro, 23, has been showcasing his kongahyan skills for the past five years on Instagram and YouTube, creating his own renditions of anything from contemporary pop songs to jazz improvisations and Mozart’s Turkish March.
The musician has also been updating traditional Betawi songs, rearranging them with modern beats and using both the kongahyan and contemporary instruments like keyboards and electric bass to perform them.
“People think of traditional instruments as something old fashioned and irrelevant with today’s time. I want to use social media to reintroduce kongahyan to the masses, so people are aware that the Betawi (community) has an instrument called kongahyan,” Noviantoro told CNA.
(Excerpt) Read more at channelnewsasia.com ...
The silly hat helps.
A Pork Pie hat would be cooler.
Do people ever take the time to ask themselves what it is about the frequency and resonance of a sound that attracts people the world over to ‘music?’ My observation is that music has its own language (frequency) and pleasant sounds communicate (resonate) with the soul of man. It’s sympathetic resonance at work feeding the soul.
+1
Cool, just goes to show what can be done with even something simple with practice. Just for kicks I just made a Washtub Bass and about ready to mount a pickup on it so that I can run it through an amp with effects. I want to test using a bow on it and see what I get.
A “Tub Cello”. lol
Report back! I’d love to hear about it!
You are absolutely correct. There are medical studies that show music actually has a healing capacity.
Sure, certain sounds in nature, such as children laughing, a brook babbling, birds singins have “pleasant” connotations associated.
I think of the nightingale song in the “Pines of Rome,” or Wagner’s Forest Bird.
Other sounds, such as thunderclaps, animal roars, democrats, ... are more foreboding.
Beethoven, Berlioz, Tschykowsky, used such sounds in their compositions.
I sure will... I looked and looked for this to be done already and cannot find a thing in this direction. So a Tub Cello just might be a first. I can’t wait for the opportunity to have both the “sustain” of the bow and the pitch “bending” of that one string. Should be able to produce some very cool stuff. :)
There’s a guy on youtube who made a “3-string shovel.” Only way I can describe it! If you don’t mind youtube, check it out. Some folks are doing amazing music with ukeleles, too!
Have you ever listened to the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain?
Fabulous!
https://www.youtube.com/user/UkuleleOrchestra
Oh I have seen it! That is JJ, Justin Johnson. I have met him during one of his performances. He is bad ass with cajon, blues, and Southern Rock.
I should have guessed that if wanted to electrify a tub cello, you’d know all about the guy with the shovel! I love what people can do to turn a tool or appliance into a musical instrument!
The cool thing about it is the “sustain”. Like violin, or wind instrument you can sustain a note pitch until you run out of air or until you have to return pull the bow. On the glass harmonica it sustains as long as you have your fingers on it. Now this particular detail is important. Because even on a plucked guitar you have to use electronics to do that. Analog is better if you can pull it off.
And that is the thought behind this Tub Cello. With a bow I will have the sustain. And with one string being tensioned at will I can seamlessly “bend” from one note to the next and beyond to the next and beyond to the next. As I sustain with the bow. No string changes or fretting needed.
I can see it being a great lead instrument if designed and pitched correctly...
They did the theme to The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly with ukeles?!? Too cool!
I am a percussionist since the age of four, once made a living at it. I have produced ten different unique sounds from a plastic five gallon bucket. And another ten from a 2.5 gallon bucket. Put the two together and you have a full set.
Funky sounds from unusual places is a fetish for me. When I was in the garbage business I used to take a pair of sticks and play on garbage trucks. It is incredible how many different unique sounds you can get from everyday things around you. lol
But I also play a little string and keyboard. So I “dabble” in about anything strange and unusual. I absolutely love “out of the box” stuff that makes music! And like this original post, I like anyone who repurposes instruments to play scores and covers for out of the box music the instrument is not traditionally designed for.
Check out this young gal... Cool stuff... lol :)
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