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