Bamboo ring flute of Indonesia, Malaysia and the southern Philippines. There are various types and sizes. The end-blown variety as it is commonly found is made from a bamboo tube, open at the bottom and closed with a node at the top. A small wedge-shaped hole is cut in the node, together with a small opening just below it, and this is partly covered by a narrow bamboo or rattan ring which guides the player’s breath along the slit between the hole and the ring (see Flute, figs.1h and 3g). In Central and East Java the tube is about 45 to 52 cm long and about 1·5 cm in diameter; the suling sléndro has four fingerholes, the suling pélog, five. In West Java the tube is about 53 cm long and about 2 cm wide. The instrument is played either alone or in ensembles, in which case it is often known by the name of the ensemble in question. The suling degung of the Sundanese areas of West Java, used in the gamelan degung, is about 30 cm long and has one large and three small fingerholes. The suling réyog, used in the ensemble to accompany comic réyog shows, is fairly short and thick and has three fingerholes.
In Bali the suling is about 25 to 30 cm long and 20 to 25 mm wide. It is used in orchestras such as the gamelan arja, genggong ensemble and gamelan pejogedan. The larger suling gambuh is about 87 cm long and 40 mm wide, has six fingerholes and can produce a range of about 2·5 octaves. It is held obliquely and a circular breathing technique is used. Several of the flutes are played together in the gambuh ensemble.
In the Toraja area of Sulawesi a transverse suling is used in the bas-suling ensemble, and it is included also in the pompang ensemble in Ambon, Maluku. In the Buginese and Makassar areas of South Sulawesi a suling with six fingerholes and a water-buffalo horn ring stop is usually included in an ensemble with kacapi (plucked lute) and gendang (double-headed drum) to accompany dancing. A similar end-blown flute (suling lembang) is found in the Sa’dan Toraja area of South Sulawesi; usually two or four are played together by male musicians using circular breathing to accompany a female singer performing ma’marakka music.
In the Angkola and Mandailing areas of North Sumatra the transverse suling is about 35 cm long and 25 mm wide, with six fingerholes.
Twin ring flutes called suling rapi are found in the Mamasa and Rantepao areas of South Sulawesi, connected parallel to each other by means of wound rattan. One flute has five fingerholes and the other none, serving as a high-pitched drone.
In Malaysia, various kinds of bamboo flutes are known by such names as suling and seruling and in east Malaysia, as selengut and sangui. As in Indonesia, some are end-blown, others side-blown, some are blown with the mouth and others with the nose. They are played for entertainment and are frequently associated with magic power. Flutes of the Orang Asli in central Malaysia are called suling or sangui; the use of nose breath in a ceremonial context attaches especially powerful magical significance.
The suling is found among several peoples of the southern Philippines: the Magindanao, Tiruray, Manobo, Bukidnon and Tausug.
J. Kunst: De toonkunst van Java (The Hague, 1934; Eng. trans., rev. 2/1949, enlarged 3/1973 by E.L. Heins)
C. McPhee: Music in Bali (New Haven, CT, 1966/R)
M.J. Kartomi: ‘His Skyward Path the Rainbow is: Funeral Music of the Sa’dan Toraja in South Sulawesi’, Hemisphere, xxv (1981), 303–9
P. Matusky: ‘An Introduction to the Major Instruments and Forms of Traditional Malay Music’, AsM, xvi/2 (1985), 142–6
B. Brinner: ‘Freedom and Formulaity in the suling Playing of Bapak Tarnopangrawit’, AsM, xxiv/2 (1993), 1–38
MARGARET J. KARTOMI