The
dabakan is a single-headed
PhilippineThe Philippines officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is a country in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. It comprises 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean....
drumThe drum is a member of the percussion group of music instruments, technically classified as a membranophone.. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with parts of a player's body, or with some sort of...
, primarily used as a supportive instrument in the
kulintang ensembleKulintang is a modern term for an ancient instrumental form of music composed on a row of small, horizontally-laid gongs that function melodically, accompanied by larger, suspended gongs and drums...
. Among the five main kulintang instruments, it is the only
non-gongA gong is an East and South East Asian musical instrument that takes the form of a flat metal disc which is hit with a mallet.Gongs are broadly of three types. Suspended gongs are more or less flat, circular discs of metal suspended vertically by means of a cord passed through holes near to the top...
element of the
MaguindanaoThe Maguindanao are part of the wider Moro ethnic group, who constitute the sixth largest Filipino ethnic group. Their name means “people of the plains”.-Pre-Spanish:...
ensemble.
Description
The dabakan is frequently described as either hour-glass, conical, tubular, or
gobletThe goblet drum is a goblet shaped hand drum used mostly in Arabic, Assyrian, Persian, Balkan, Greek, Armenian, Azeri and Turkish music. Its thin, responsive drumhead and resonance help it produce a distinctively crisp sound...
in shape Normally, the dabakan is found having a length of more than two feet and a diameter of more than a foot about the widest part of the shell. The shell is carved from wood either out of the trunk of a coconut tree or the wood of a
jackfruit treeThe jackfruit is a species of tree in the mulberry family , which is native to parts of South and Southeast Asia. It is called Panasa in Sanskrit, Katahal in Hindi, Pala in Tamil and Chakka in Malayalam language. It is well suited to tropical lowlands...
which is then hollowed out throughout its body and stem. The
drumheadA drumhead is a membrane stretched over one or both of the open ends of a drum. The drumhead is struck with sticks, mallets, or hands so that it vibrates and the sound resonates through the drum.-History:...
that is stretched over the shell is made out of either
goatskinGoatskin may refer to:* Goatskin , the skin of a goat or the leather made from it* Goatskin , a container for wine...
,
carabao skinThe carabao or Bubalus bubalis carabanesis is a domesticated subspecies of the water buffalo found in the Philippines, Guam, and various parts of Southeast Asia...
,
deer rawhideRawhide is a hide or animal skin that has not been exposed to tanning. It is much lighter in color than leather made by traditional vegetable tanning....
, or
snakeSnakes are elongate legless carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears. Like all squamates, snakes are ectothermic amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales...
/
lizardLizards are a very large and widespread group of squamate reptiles, with nearly 5,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica as well as most oceanic island chains...
skin, with the last considered by many dabakan practitioners as the best material to use. The drumhead is then fastened to the shell first via small metal wire and then using two hoops of
rattanRattan , is the name for the roughly 600 species of palms in the tribe Calameae, native to tropical regions of Africa, Asia and Australasia. Most rattans differ from other palms in having slender stems, 2–5 cm diameter, with long internodes between the leaves; also, they are not trees but are...
very tightly to allow the rattan sticks to bounce cleanly. Artists, especially the
MaranaoMaranao is the term used for the people of Lanao, a predominantly Muslim region in the Philippine island of Mindanao. They are famous for their artwork, sophisticated weaving, wood and metal craft, and their epic literature...
, would then carve the outside of the shell with elaborate and decorative okkil patterns.
Technique
The dabakan is normally played while standing with the player holding two sticks made either out of rattan or bamboo but the player could be sitting or kneeling instead. The rattan strips are held parallel to the surface of the drumhead and are then pivoted between the thumb and forefinger using the wrist to activate them to strike the drumhead’s surface along the entire length of its diameter. The sounds produced are normally quick and muted and thanks to the flexibility of the strips, one could employ dampening,
rollA drum roll is a technique the percussionist employs to produce a sustained sound on a percussion instrument. Rolls are used by composers to sustain the sound and create other effects, the most common of which is using a roll to build anticipation.- Snare drum roll :The most common snare drum roll...
, or open stroke patterns upon its surface.
Thanks to the exposure of many artists to western culture, new styles of playing have emerged among the newer generation of players. These include playing rhythmic patterns for the dabakan not on the surface of the drumhead but on the sides of the shell and even at the edges of the drum’s mouth. These exhibition-style pieces are used to shift focus away from the melody instrument, the kulintang, and onto the other supportive instruments such as the dabakan.
Uses
The main use for the dabakan in
MaguindanaoThe Maguindanao are part of the wider Moro ethnic group, who constitute the sixth largest Filipino ethnic group. Their name means “people of the plains”.-Pre-Spanish:...
and
MaranaoMaranao is the term used for the people of Lanao, a predominantly Muslim region in the Philippine island of Mindanao. They are famous for their artwork, sophisticated weaving, wood and metal craft, and their epic literature...
society is as a supportive instrument in the
kulintang ensembleKulintang is a modern term for an ancient instrumental form of music composed on a row of small, horizontally-laid gongs that function melodically, accompanied by larger, suspended gongs and drums...
, keeping the tempo of the ensemble in check like the
babendilThe babendil is a single, narrow-rimmed Philippine gongused primary as the “timekeeper” of the Maguindanao kulintang ensemble.-Description:...
. On most rhythmic modes, such as sinulog and duyog , the dabakan enters after babandil but in tidto, where the babendil is absent, the dabakan always starts the piece. The Maguindanao and the Maranao usually position the dabakan to the right of the kulintang player, near the end of its frame, during a traditional performance.
The dabakan could be used in other types of playing other than the ensemble. The dabakan could be used as the accompaniment for the
kutiyapiThe kutiyapi, is a Philippine two-stringed, fretted boat-lute. It is the only stringed instrument among the Maguindanao people, and one of several among other groups such as the Maranao and Manobo. It is four to six feet long with nine frets made of hardened beeswax...
, a type of Philippine
boat-luteLute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes....
. The dabakan plays a major role in a type of playing known as Kasorondayong. In the Maranao version, which is in recognition of their prince hero, Prince Bantogen, two dbakan players face one another, standing behind their dabakans, striking them with two slender bamboo sticks while playing an interlocking rhythm.
Traditionally, the dabakan is considered a masculine instrument by the Maranao and a feminine instrument by the Maguindanao but as a sign of the times, one could see both men and women handling the dabakan. In wooden kulintang ensembles, the takemba, a bamboo zither of the Manobo, is usually substituted for the dabakan part.
During older times, the bigger, longer double-headed dabakan, known as a dadabooan, would be hung horizontally in the mosque (See
KendangKendang is a double-headed drum and one of the primary instruments used in the Gamelan ensembles of Java and Bali as well as various Kulintang ensembles in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines...
, for smaller version of this drum). An
imamAn imam is an Islamic leadership position, often the leader of a mosque and the community. Similar to spiritual leaders, the imam is the one who leads the prayer during Islamic gatherings. More often, the community turns to the mosque imam if they have an Islamic question...
(spiritual leader) would hit the drum repeatedly announcing the beginning of prayer time throughout the outerlying areas. As a sign of the times, the dabakan in Mindanao have now been replaced by more modern equipment such as a
speakerphoneA speakerphone is a telephone with a microphone and loudspeaker provided separately from those in the handset. This device allows multiple persons to participate in a conversation...
but the practice still continues in places like
SulawesiSulawesi is one of the four larger Sunda Islands of Indonesia and is situated between Borneo and the Maluku Islands.- Etymology :...
, where a mesigit, equivalent to the dabakan, would be used for the same purpose.
Origin
The origin of the name “dabakan,” is said to have been borrowed and adapted from the
Middle EastThe Middle East is a region that spans southwestern Asia, southeastern Europe, and northeastern Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East...
. Dabakan is derived from the word, dbak meaning to “hit, strike, or beat,” meaning that the dabakan is something upon which you hit. Scholars also suggest that another clue is that the dabakan may have been an adaptation and enlargement of a pan-Arabic
goblet drumThe goblet drum is a goblet shaped hand drum used mostly in Arabic, Assyrian, Persian, Balkan, Greek, Armenian, Azeri and Turkish music. Its thin, responsive drumhead and resonance help it produce a distinctively crisp sound...
, the dombak/tombak.
Other Derivative Names
Also called a dbakan, debakan (
MaguindanaoMaguindanao is a province of the Philippines located in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao . Its capital is Shariff Aguak. It borders Lanao del Sur to the north, Cotabato to the east, and Sultan Kudarat to the south.-Geography:...
), dadabuan, dadaboon (
MaranaoMaranao is the term used for the people of Lanao, a predominantly Muslim region in the Philippine island of Mindanao. They are famous for their artwork, sophisticated weaving, wood and metal craft, and their epic literature...
), libbit (
TausugThe Tausūg or Suluk people are an ethnic group of Sulu, the Island country of Southeast Asia, and Malaysia. The term Tausūg was derived from two words tau and sūg meaning "people of the current", referring to their homelands in the Sulu Archipelago...
), tibubu (
PosoPoso is the main ort and transportation hub for the northeastern coast of Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. Its geographical location is .Poso is one of ten regencies in Central Sulawesi Province, located exactly in the middle of the province on the shore of the gulf of Tomini, right in the central part...
) and a tiwal (Kulawi and
MinahasaThe Minahasa are an ethnic group located in the North Sulawesi province of Indonesia...
).