Karatong Festival of Leyte - Featuring Bamboo Musical Instruments - Musika ng Kawayan

Karatong Festival Street Performers. Karatong Festival showcases Leyte town’s historic gallantry, culture. The Karatong Festival is an annual revelry with karatong at the center of the celebration. Karatong is a Waray term for bamboo percussion. The ancient people of Dulag used bamboos to warn the people of invaders such as pirates and tribesmen.The Dulag Karatong Festival strictly uses musical instruments made from bamboo. Sounding like a base guitar, big sized bamboos are hit by rubber slippers. The festival uses “karatong” to depict local stories using movement, dance and visual arts. The karatong is a tuba gathering implement made of bamboo. However, by hitting the bamboo with a stick, it produces different sounds. Featured bamboo musical instruments (kawayan) / Musikang gawa sa kawayan. Musikang galing sa kawayan. Musical instruments na gawa sa kawayan. karatong (slit drums), katatoktok (Lyre), hagubhob (open tube drum), pagakpak (clappers), bamboo marimba, angklung (tuned bamboo shaker).

#PantugtogKawayan #BambooMusicalinstruments

Bamboo musical instruments

Bamboo is used to make slit drums. Traditional Philippine banda kawayan (bamboo bands) use a variety of bamboo musical instruments, including the marimba, angklung, panpipes and bumbong, as well as bamboo versions of western instruments, such as clarinets, saxophones, and tubas.

Musika ng Kawayan: Yaman ng Bayan, A Virtual Concert

The "Musika ng Kawayan, Yaman ng Bayan" virtual concert is a showcase of Filipino talents, highlighting the use of local bamboo musical instruments (BMIs).

The event aims to promote the versatility of bamboo as an excellent and sustainable material for musical instruments, and feature the various BMIs used across the country.

The concert is organized under the "Bamboo Musical Instruments Innovation R&D Program" of the DOST-FPRDI, in partnership with UP Diliman, PNU, and DOST-PCIERRD.

Featured Bamboo Musical Instruments:

Among many others, the musical instruments which was featured in this concert include the bungkaka which creates a buzzing sound, the guitar-like kollitong, the nose flute tongali, the koratong bamboo tubes, percussion instruments such as tambi, patatag, marimba, and tongatong, as well as banduria, ukelele, and an organ all made of bamboo.