Played only by male members of the Baduy tribe, this angklung is used only for events related to religious rituals and paddy.

Badeng is a musical performance that features the angklung as the main instrument. Its main function is to spread Islam.

A war dance, this music-dance performance has existed since the 17th century and traces its origins to Desa Bungko, Kecamatan Kapetakan, Kabupaten Cirebon. This form features the angklung and was collectively created after the death of Sunan Gunung Jati, one of the nine saints of Islam revered in Indonesia.

First created in 1975 in Cipurut Town, Arjasari, Bandung for events related to religious rituals and paddy. Today, however, it is purely for entertainment.

Dogdog lojor is an art form from the Bantul tribe, located around Halimun mountain (on the border of Jakarta, Bogor and Lebak) which features the angklung. This performance is presented annually after the harvest period and is performed by the local community at the town centre.

Tracing its beginning to Tasikmalaya and Ciamis in West Java, angklung badud is a kind of folk theatre involving dance and masked clowns. A dynamic and upbeat performance, it became known in the 1880s. It was initially performed to accompany the ritual of transferring grains into the mills. Subsequently, it also accompanied the rituals of male circumcision where the newly circumcised male rode the Kuda Renggong around the village. At times, angklung badud accompanied the martial arts form, debus, which put performers into a trance and made them invincible to feats such as chewing glass, eating sharp nails and getting stabbed. 

This is a disappearing art form.

In 1938, musician Daeng Soetigna, revered as the Father of Modern Angklung, redesigned the angklung from the pentatonic to the diatonic scale. Named angklung padaeng, this meant that western classical and pop music can now be played on the angklung. This led to a revival and increased popularity of the angklung amongst Indonesians as well as the Dutch, who were the colonial power at that time. The popularity of the angklung remained till this day, continuing to also play a part in community and diplomatic relations as the ensemble form of playing espouses values of teamwork, discipline, creativity, and harmony.

Photo credit: Daeng Soetigna in 1971 © Collectie Wereldmuseum (v/h Tropenmuseum), part of the National Museum of World Cultures, CC BY-SA 3.0

Music educator, instructor and conductor, Faridah Jamal, known as the “Angklung Queen of Singapore”, first learnt music in 1974 when she was in her primary school band. Her primary instrument was the flute and then the violin. Her first encounter with the angklung was in 1980 when she joined Raffles Girls’ School (RGS) Angklung Orchestra as a student. In remembering her first memory of the angklung, she shared that, “I was in the secondary school band when I first saw the RGS Angklung Orchestra during their practice; and that struck the sweetest, most unforgettable chord in me: that I must learn this instrument— because it spoke of nature with all its beauty; because of my Indonesian roots and that my own father was a singer of keroncong and langgam music”.

She first started her career in music education in 1983 as a part-time angklung instructor. Since 1993, she has been all in. Faridah recognised Alex Abisheganaden, who was RGS Angklung Orchestra’s instructor and conductor, as her first angklung teacher. After him, came Cikgu Bahri Rajib. To her, the angklung is not merely a tool for teaching and learning music but it is also the best conduit for personal and team development.

Faridah receives great joy and sense of achievement from being able to compose angklung music for her ensembles. To her, it gave her much-needed control and freedom as a researcher, musician, educator, and conductor and justifiably, over the span of her career, her work has resulted in her ensembles winning awards. Recently, she established an adult ensemble called Angklung Empire where she brought together former students, friends, fellow educators, and other angklung music enthusiasts to teach the instrument, perform as well as to develop their own interest in the music form.  

Someday, she hopes to build her own angklung arts academy but for now, she continues leading schools in winning awards for Singapore Youth Festival. 

The first time Dzul Rabull ever held an angklung was in 1980. His father had enrolled 10-year-old Dzul into an angklung class at Telok Blangah Community Centre. The class, which eventually turned into a club, was run by Cikgu Anis. Armed with angklung foundations and his classical piano training, Dzul Rabull continued learning the angklung on his own. In 1994, he produced his debut instrumental album, Rasuk, which was heavily influenced by the angklung and gamelan. This became his musical signature that marked the rest of his compositions.

Dzul started his career as a musician before eventually taking on roles as a composer and arranger. In 2005, he started teaching music in schools and privately. To him, although the angklung is easy to learn, it can be challenging when played by an ensemble. It goes beyond learning music but within it, lessons on discipline, teamwork and perseverance are embedded. To him, the sound of the bamboo instrument brings him back to nature and till today, he keeps going back to the angklung as his source of inspiration.

Over the span of his career, Dzul has produced four other albums Ghaib, Karma, Mahaguru, and Sakti. After the success of his five albums, he continued his work doing music for traditional and contemporary dance ensembles and theatre groups in Singapore. He has also contributed as a songwriter and arranger on albums with various artists in Singapore. He dreams of having an angklung ensemble in Singapore on par with Orkestra Muzik Singapura and Singapore Symphony Orchestra.

Mohamed Khamis Selamat picked up his first musical instrument as early as 1974 when he was a member of his school display band where he was also their band major. He was a brass player and later, moved on to master the trumpet, cornet and trombone. At the same time, he joined the ethnic cultural troupe at Kallang Community Centre. As part of the ensemble, he played the kompang for various community events and continued to make an impact for the next 13 years as their Malay Cultural Activist. During those years, he participated in the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and a cultural exchange program in Shiga, Japan. He was a People's Association Mass display trainer for five years.

For most of his career, the late Mohamed Khamis Selamat was a music director. He composed and arranged music as well as taught and nurtured the next generation of musicians. He was always looking for ways to spark interest in the traditional arts amongst the young. Those who are close and dear to him shared how he was ahead of his time—innovating new styles and sound through new musical interpretations as well as with his own new compositions. He lived by the adage—if we as Malays don’t safeguard and promote our heritage, who will?

His love for ethnic music soon led him to establish the very first school gamelan ensemble in Ahmad Ibrahim Primary School in 1997 and a year later, his first angklung ensemble at Siglap Secondary School. In 1998, Khamis started an angklung ensemble and named it Siglap Nusantara Orchestra. The name was aspirational for the kind of music and ensemble he envisioned. Two years later, it grew to include the kulintang ensemble and later the gamelan ensemble. It was then the only orchestra that used traditional gamelan and angklung tuned to the international chromatic music scale of western instruments. This allowed the fusion of western instruments and percussion in the orchestra, making it a truly Singaporean orchestra with an international perspective.

It is believed that he picked up the angklung on his visits to Indonesia, although no one could really tell for sure as he was primarily a self-taught musician who could easily pick up new instruments. Between 2001 and 2004, he was a resident participant in the Yogyakarta International Gamelan Festival. He also participated in Surabaya Kulintang Festival in 2003 and in 2009 and has brought Nusantara Orchestra to Kaliurang, Yogyakarta to participate in the International Art Festival.

The late maestro envisioned the coming together of the larger angklung and gamelan fraternity in Singapore schools. In this endeavour, he partnered with the Ministry of Education and various schools such as Siglap Secondary School, Macpherson Primary School, Yishun Primary School, and Paya Lebar Methodists Girls’ School to organise master classes, concerts and other public activities for angklung and kulintang to showcase students’ talents. During one of these combined schools angklung performances on 5 June 2013 held at The Republic Cultural Centre, Khamis set the record for conducting the largest angklung ensemble in Singapore with 384 participants.

In his last two decades, Khamis remained the only instructor in the angklung and gamelan fraternity who has earned the greatest number of awards to his credit at the Singapore Youth Festival—12 Gold with Honours, 31 Gold, 15 Silver, two Bronze, 15 Distinction, and 21 Accomplishment Awards. Despite these accolades, what people remember most about him is his strength of character and his spirit of charity.

In 2000, Khamis suffered a stroke which caused one-sided paralysis. Despite this Khamis never let his physical disability hamper his dream. In fact, he became even more fervent in achieving his dreams. In 2009, he established Djoko Mangkrengg Performing Arts Ensemble to provide space for his students to continue learning the angklung and the gamelan. This self-funded interest group is equipped with the full array of instruments, and he taught ex-students and anyone who wanted to learn the angklung and gamelan for free. Finally, in 2016, he founded Alunan Enterprise that is dedicated to music education and performance.

He was independent, uncomplaining and constantly reminded everyone around him that nothing was impossible, and the best is yet to be. He conducted from a wheelchair with only his left arm even through his recovery and rehabilitation period and stood steadfast even in most trying times.

He passed on in 2016, leaving many students and musicians who continue to cherish him till today.

1. UNESCO: Indonesian Angklung
2. Kesenian Angklung Bungko Cirebon
3. The Indonesian Angklung: From Village Ritual to Soft Power Diplomacy 
4. Singapore Infopedia: Angklung
5. ‘Godfather’ Pak meets Singapore children (1959, August 20). The Singapore Free Press, p. 5. Retrieved from NewspaperSG. 
6. ‘Bamboo music man’ back in Singapore to see godchildren. (1960, May 7). The Straits Times, p. 9. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.