Maimo Kumolintang Universal Harmony

By Petrus Kaseke and Markus S

People often say they can't play music because they have difficulty playing notes or chords.

But with kolintang, people can play music instantly, so with kolintang everyone can play music.

Because kolintang players are only asked to:

1. Can count in a simple repeat

2. Know the direction left, right, up, and down (tones and chords with directions are more accessible to follow than a letter or number notation, even animals know to follow directions).

3. Can clap (moves rhythmically according to the tempo).

These three easy conditions become the same as the conditions for learning to dance. Moreover, kolintang can also be understood without using an instrument but only with finger movements.

The basic teachings of Kolintang are taken from the Minahasa culture, a balance of motion.

• Language: English
• Publisher: markus
• Release date: Nov 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215680865

Petrus Kaseke

Petrus Kaseke Pendidikan akhir, Teknik Mesin (tidak tamat), Universitas Gajah Mada Yogyakarta. Perintis dan pelestari Kolintang di Pulau Jawa. Perajin Kolintang untuk komersial sejak tahun 1965 sampai saat ini. Pelatih dan pemimpin paduan suara Kolintang Angklung dan membawa grupnya touring keliling dunia. Singapura 1970, Australia 1971, Amerika Serikat 1972, Eropa 1973. Pengajar musik di Sekolah Alkitab Gereja Pantekosta di Indonesia. Markus Soegiarto Pendidikan akhir, S1 Teknik Sipil, Universitas Trisakti Jakarta. Pemain Kolintang, Indonesia National Orchestra (INO) di bawah pimpinan Franki Raden. Pemain Kolintang, Sanggar Angklung Kolintang Zaini Gara. Pemain perkusi, anggota Percussive Arts Society (pas.org), USA. Pelatih Perkusi, anggota South East Asian Directors of Music (seadom.org), Thailand. Pelatih Kolintang, anggota Ikatan Pelatih Musik Kolintang Jakarta (IPMKJ). Pelatih Kolintang, anggota Ikatan Pelatih Kolintang Indonesia (IPKOLINDO). Pengurus Pusat Bidang Pendidikan dan Pelatihan, Persatuan Insan Kolintang Nasional (Pinkan) Indonesia di bawah Ketua Umum Ibu Penny Marsetio.

Book preview

MAIMO KUMOLINTANG

PETRUS KASEKE  MARKUS S.

FOREWORD

The essence of diatonic kolintang music is the arrangement of tones and chord sequences, or in other words, the Science of Harmony. But many people are afraid to learn the science of harmony. Its rules and prohibitions make the head dizzy.

Maimo Kumolintang is a different approach to harmony: not by making readers/students dizzy about theory. But starting from the practical side: how can we be oriented to bars that seem to be the same? Switching from one chord to another can be efficient, for example, by shifting fingers first instead of hand switching. For this reason, Mr Petrus Kaseke and his staff have developed many codes we can memorize. Seem to be the result of decades of kolintang ensemble training in the field.

But what about the science of harmony? Will it become unnecessary? – In fact, we all have a feeling about chord changes because our ears already know where chords should change, which chords match, and which ones don't. It's just that this natural talent needs to be refined. This lesson has been provided in the book's appendix, where some arrangements with selected chord sequences are just practice.

Kolintang ensembles in Indonesia are practically always used to accompany western songs with major and minor scales. Therefore, it is interesting that the pentatonic accompaniment is also discussed on the following pages. Furthermore, it is also interesting that in Chapter VII, the author mentions philosophy, e.g. kolintang energy, symbol number 3 in Minahasa culture. Finally, it has even addressed the relationship of kolintang accompaniment with the Rubik's cube puzzle and even applied it to the human body (breathing, tongue movement).

Thus, the book Maimo Kumolintang is not only a book for learning to play kolintang but becomes a handbook on Minahasa culture, including its history and philosophy. Moreover, a person wrote this book with a heart for kolintang music. Therefore, this book deserves to be called a standard kolintang music book.

Karl-Edmund Prier SJ

Table of Contents

FOREWORD

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I

TONG TING TANG

A. Kolintang Introduction

B. The Great Vibration

C. Become Wise

D. Repeat Counting

CHAPTER II

KAKIKAKAK

A. Direction and Movement

B. Tempo

C. Kolintang Bat

D. Use Imagination

CHAPTER III

PLAYING MELODY

A. Target Setting

B. Kolintang Tone Arrangement

C. Kolintang Fingerings

D. Tonal Journey

CHAPTER IV

THREE-NOTE CHORD

A. Selatiga Interval Between two-note

B. Three-note Harmonic Combination

C. Palm Circle

D. Conform Wind and Sun

CHAPTER V

FOUR-NOTE CHORD

A. Two Sets Chords Combination

B. Four-note Chord Track

C. Babyrousa stick grip

D. Three Dimensional Game

CHAPTER VI

KOLINTANG MUSIC ENSEMBLE

A. Starting From One Bar

B. Sitou Timou Tumou Tou

C. Te Manis Code

D. Playing Kolintang Music Ensemble

CHAPTER VII

MAIMO KUMOLINTANG

A. World Center Instrument

B. Kolintang Energy

C. Universal Harmony

D. Maimo Kumolintang

EPILOGUE

APPENDIX

REFERENCES

AUTHORS

COMMENT

INTRODUCTION

Kolintang is an Indonesian cultural heritage originating from Minahasa, North Sulawesi. Kolintang is a traditional instrument adapted to Western culture, so its teaching follows the rules of Western music. Maimo Kumolintang is an invitation to do tongtingtang. More details move balance, following the footsteps of our ancestors to be in harmony with the universe.

Minahasa, from the word Minaesa, is a country whose name contains numbers. Numbers have an essential role in Minahasa culture, including kolintang. By redesigning the diatonic scale to follow Minahasa's favourite numbers with the Sierpinski Fractal triangle pattern, music can be explained using science. Whose distances between tones can be calculated by simple math. Sensitivity to tone is no longer the main requirement, so it is easier to understand, even for people who are not in the music field. For example, learning kolintang music in visual mode replaces auditory tone detection with positioned hand movements. The distance can be measured using the fingers in the palm. A visually measured approach will be a solution for people who have difficulty distinguishing notes or chords.

Maimo Kumolintang is not limited to musical harmony but also involves a balance of motion, timing, targeting accuracy, and generating imagination and creativity. A drastically changed world situation known as the era of disruption or great disturbance that leaves the roots uprooted, following in the ancestors' footsteps, can control life.

This book uses a holistic approach to following the 'roots' to maximize the full human capabilities.

CHAPTER I

TONG TING TANG

A. 

Kolintang Introduction

Morphologically, the Kolintang consists of a resonator box or trough with multiple wooden sound-making bars arranged at the top.

Figure I.1 Kolintang with 25 bars.

Figure I.2 Parts of kolintang.

BASED ON THEIR FUNCTION, Kolintang instruments can be classified into three different categories:

Accompaniment Kolintang provides harmonizing tones for the melody or chords. The accompaniment Kolintang, as in figure I.1, is the most varied and widely found. The bar's size and the resonator box's dimensions vary.

Bass Kolintang produces and occupies the lower register and grounds the rhythm. Bass Kolintang has wide bars, which makes the resonator box larger. Because of the size constraints, its resonator box is divided into two sides.

Figure I.3 Bass kolintang.

Melody kolintang plays singular (or double) notes that comprise the central theme or the song's melody. Melody Kolintang has more bars than the accompaniment Kolintang. Lining it up in a single chromatic row will make the resonator box too long. Hence the bars are placed in two separate resonator boxes in a staggered arrangement, as shown in the picture below.

Figure I. 4 Changes from standard arrangement to melody arrangement

AS A MUSICAL INSTRUMENT, Kolintang exists between traditional and modern culture. It comes from a traditional background but has developed to feature a diatonic scale often used in popular music.

All types of standard Kolintang instruments have the same characteristics. The tone bars are arranged in chromatic scale gradation that goes back into its tonic after every 12 notes. Based on the general arrangement of kolintang, this book will use standard 25 bars of Kolintang (2 chromatic octaves) as the reference for its lessons.

B. 

The Great Vibration

The word ‘Kolintang’ is an onomatopoeia. This word that mimics the sounds of the source it describes and is derived from the three types of sounds the Kolintang makes, Tong Ting Tang.

These sounds represent the different ranges of notes, with the sound Tong representing the low notes, Ting representing the high notes, and Tang representing the middle notes. When Kolintang is played, the music produced results from a dynamic movement going back and forth between low and high notes,