Republic of Indonesia are, administratively, a territorial unit. However, musicologically, it can be divided
into 4 areas:
1). Southern
Areas: Sunda, Jawa and Bali.
2). Malay Family: Sumatra, closer to Malaysia Peninsular
2). Malay Family: Sumatra, closer to Malaysia Peninsular
3). Northern
Areas: Kalimantan, Sulawesi, closer to South East Asia and East Asia Family
4). East Areas: Papua Areas, closer to Oceania Family
Dayak Music
Dayak is in the Northern
Area and among the ethnic groups in Indonesia that has a family of culture,
especially in music, that is very close to the music in East Asia and Southeast Asia. For
example, the Kedire instruments (mouth organ) have similarities with the music
instruments sheng (Chinese), Sho (Japan), Khaen (Laos), Engkreruai (Sarawak /
North Borneo), Saenghwang (Korea) and Sompotan (Sabah / North Borneo) (Taylor
1988:52). The musical scales have similarities with the scales commonly used in
the East Asian regions, which is called as the pentatonic anhemitonic scales
(Malm1967:24).
Translater Rosye Salz
