The Music of the Kenyah

The Music of the Kenyah

Much of the following material is extracted from Chapters 3 and 4 of my doctoral thesis [1]. Other primary sources of reference are listed under a seperate page (‘References’)

Kenyah Recreational Songs

The Kenyah have a wide repertoire of songs in various categories., e.g. belian burak (rice-wine songs), belian tekena, (story songs) , belian kayau (headhunting songs), belian bali dayung (spirit-medium songs), belian pesalau anak (songs to entertain children) and belian dado’ (long-dance songs).

However, my research has centered chiefly on the recreational songs, as these are the most applicable to music education and choral performances. Many of these songs would fall into the category referred to as belian dado’, by the Lepo’ Tau, badi  by the Sambop, tiang to the residents of Uma Baka’, lan-i  to some subgroups in Sarawak, londe among the Leppo Ma’ut in Kalimantan, kendau kancet to other Kalimantan groups.

In a Kenyah longhouse, belian dado’ are sung while performing the tu’ut dado’, a simple line-dance in which participants proceed counter-clockwise along the longhouse veranda. This dance is an informal one and consists basically of a step and brush punctuated with stamps at the end of certain phrases. There are, also specific movements and variations which have evolved to accompany many of the songs e.g. the boat-rowing movements in Nombor satu, nombor dua.

Structure of belian dado’ : Belian dado’ are strophic in nature, consisting of several verses, alternating with set choruses. In many songs, the verses are variable. They are usually taken from a pool of commonly known rhyme units, or ipet:

Alem ini telu tiang pemong jaiee Tonight, my friends we gather together

Pemong jaiee tawai We gather together, 

Pemong jaiee tawai uyan And recall the old days

                Often, the chorus is performed in two or three-part harmony, as in Lan-e version 2, widely sung in the Baram (Transcription 1, below) with participants randomly joining in any of the parts. The words lan-e, or nelan-e (derived from the word ‘lan’ which means ‘true’), and tiang or tuyang (meaning ‘friends’) recur constantly in many of the songs .

 Differences from other categories of songs : The musical structure of belian dado’ differs from older Kenyah repertoire such as belian tekena in a number of ways. Firstly, belian dado’ are regular metrically, with some flexibility in the beat, whereas the older songs generally display free rhythm. Secondly, they are made up of a fixed number of phrases and have a strophic structure. Thirdly, they are predominantly in the anhemitonic pentatonic scale, in contrast to the mostly hemitonic older repertoire. Fourthly, the kerahang (chorus) of belian dado’ is melodic, generally following the contour of the melody at intervals of thirds, fourths, fifths or sixths whereas in the older repertoire, the chorus is sung on a monotone.

Belian Menat Kanjet (Songs of Invitation to Dance)

During a typical gathering, after an hour or so of belian dado’, datun julud and perhaps a few belian burak, the solo dances begin. To encourage a dancer to perform, a song of invitation is often sung in honour of a dancer whilst bringing the accouterments of dance, the kirep (fan of feathers) headdress, or besunong (war cloak) to him or to her. A popular song in this context, Miling mubai, sums up the sentiment. Miling mubai (literally ‘pivot turn’ refers to the central movement in a solo dance, a slow, controlled turn. Each successive verse refers to a different part of the costume, to be sung as each item is brought to the chosen dancer.

Songs Associated with Instrumental Tunes

Sape, jatung utang and lutong tunes are often associated with songs. One example, Det Diet Tapong Kitan, is described below (Det diet, vocables imiating the sound of pucking, refers to a whole repertoire of long-dance tunes played by sape and jatung utang ensemble).

Lyrics                                                              Translation

Det diet tapong ulat kitan Det diet, hat woven from bear-cat fur.

Instrumental Music

Kenyah musical instruments include sape (a boat-shaped lute), jatung utang (a xylophone) lutong buluq (bamboo zither), lutong kayu (wooden board zither), keringut (nose-flute), kedire’ (mouth-organ), jatung (long single-headed barrel drum), gongs and gong-chimes. However, nowadays, gongs are mostly kept as heirlooms and use in ceremonial occasions, not used for musical performance. The two instruments most commonly played at present are the sape and jatung utang.

Sape/Sambe : The most widely known Kenyah instrument is the sape (sambe in Lepo’ Tau, probably the original term). ‘Sambe’ , meaning ‘to brush lightly with the fingers’ in Lepo’ Tau, is an apt description of the plucking technique so often used by sape-players to produce the characteristic ornamentation (an effect between that of an acciaccatura and an appoggiatura).

The sape is a short-necked, plucked boat-lute carved from a single block of wood. Originally two-stringed, the norm is now 3–4 strings. In the past, strings were made from the fibers of the iman, a sugar palm, now replaced by a variety of materials including bicycle brake wire, nylon fishing lines and guitar strings. At the head of the instrument, the strings are attached to tuning pegs. Positioned beneath the strings are a series of frets (Lepo’ Tau term: nden) made of rattan, palm-wood or bamboo, glued to the surface with udep (a type of beeswax). The first or lowest string serves as the melody string, while the other strings are employed as rudimentary harmony, generally perfect fifths and fourths. 

The contemporary sape evolved from the sambe asal/sambe bali dayong. Anyie Ajang (2005:1-9) describes how this earlier form of the instrument was used by the Kenyah and Kayan in the Apo Kayan to accompany the bali dayong dance, part of a healing ritual. The late Lian Langgang of Long Moh was one of the few remaining exponents of the sambe asal.

An interesting feature of the piece transcribed in the above excerpt is the employment of a percussive mode, ‘knocking’ the body of the sape with the knuckles on the second beat of every alternate measure, to which the patung piping correspondingly ‘responded’ with sudden jerky movements.

The Contemporary Sape : Contemporary sape music may be performed solo, in duet ( the accompanying player often plays an ostinato chordal figure) or in ensemble with other instruments, particularly jatung utang and harmonica. Its main public function is to accompany dance.

Dance music repertoire clearly distinguishes between the three main categories of dance: datun julud (long-dance), kanjet laki (men’s solo dance) and kanjet leto (women’s solo dance).  Datun julud tunes are anhemitonic pentatonic and increasingly played by an ensemble rather than sape alone. Melodies for kanjet leto such as Ilun Jebut are basically hemitonic pentatonic (d r f s t), with d r m confined to the highest register. The following sambe leto (a sape tune for kanjet leto) transcription is taken from the repertoire taught to me by Anyie Ajang.

Sape melodies for kanjet laki, such as Suling Apoi and Gut Garut and are a mixture of anhemitonic pentatonic (d r m s l) and a combination of both anhemitonic and hemitonic scales appearing in different registers. They tend to have a more robust character than the women’s dance tunes. Gut garut, a classic piece for kanjet laki, is the preferred accompaniment for male solo dance in both Long Moh and Long Mekaba. The following transcription is based on Edmund Ngau’s rendition of Gut garut in Long Moh, February 2009. The duet features a common arrangement in which one sape plays the main melody, while the other plays an ostinato based on d and s.

The jatung utang is a wooden xylophone with 9-13 keys, made of bars of light wood, strung together with rope and suspended on top of a rectangular shaped trough. The player uses a pair of wooden beaters to hit the keys which are tuned to the anhemitonic pentatonic scale (d r m s l). A common tone set for 9 keys is, for example, s, l, d r m s l d’ r’. It is often played in ensemble with sape, a second jatung utang, harmonica, and an assortment of other instruments such as transverse flutes, guitars, water-filled bottles, lutong kayu,

A partial transcription of Kasa Jok’s rendition of Det Diet on the jatung utang in ensemble in Long Mekaba is given below. The innovative musician, finding himself without a partner (jatung utang is often played in duet), used a forked ‘double-stick’ in his left hand to play ostinato chords, and his right hand to play the melody, rendered at an an impressive speed  of  160 crotchets a minute.