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• 1 media/image_Minangkabau flutes2.JPG 2021-01-18T01:33:02+00:00 Minangkabau Musical Genres 54 List of Minangkabau Genres image_header 2021-04-26T12:56:09+00:00

  'The Minangkabau have one of the richest traditions of performing arts to be found in Indonesia." (Yampolsky & Hanefi, 1994: 4)

  There is a rich array of musical genres and styles found throughout the Minangkabau homeland, both in the darek and the rantau. There are those genres that are indigenous and those that have been imported from elsewhere and made local. Many of the indigenous genres are deeply place-based, that is they are tied to specific places from the most localized (found in only one nagari) to those found in broader regions, such as the darek. There are only a few indigenous genres that are found throughout the homeland, such as talempong, but the expression of them is deeply localized. For talempong, this means different instruments, tuning, instrumental roles and names, repertoire, and even gender affiliations from place to place (see chapter 2 in Fraser 2015). There is no single vocal tradition found throughout the homeland, but rather a range of regional variants that use some kind of flute or fiddle for accompaniment.    
  
  Saluang, as discussed in this site, is one of those genres that has strong place-based affiliations--to the darek in general but also to specific places through repertoire choices. It has spread far beyond the borders, eclipsing and replacing some of the more localized flute traditions while absorbing and integrating some of the localized repertoire into the saluang mainstream. Because so many localized Minangkabau genres are absorbed into the saluang repertoire, they are laid out here. 

  Indigenous Minangkabau Genres

  In the Minangkabau vocabulary there is no singular word for “music.” Rather, sounds are divided into two broad categories: dendang (literally “song”) and buni-bunian (literally “sounds” but refers here to instrumental music). Most of the genres classified as dendang involve instrumental accompaniment, usually just a solo flute or fiddle of some kind. The genres are often named for that instrument. Below we lay out some of those genres. 

  Dendang 

  There are a rich array of indigenous Minangkabau vocal genres involving oral literary traditions. There are two primary forms of text employed in these genres: those that are based on pantun (a verse from found throughout the Malay region) and those that use kaba (a kind of epic story telling tradition). Most of these genres use some form of instrumental accompaniment, often some kind of flute or fiddle.  

  Genres from the Darek

  Some of these genres are widespread and found throughout the whole of the darek, like saluang and rebab darek (the pins provided on the google map were chosen for central locality). Others are more localized, like saluang sirompak and sijobang, found in the areas surrounding the pin provided on the map.  
  

  Genres from the Rantau

  
  
   

  Buni-Bunian
  
  
  
  Other Local Genres

  Modernist, Cosmopolitan Genres