Kolintang Typical Minahasa Musical Instrument, North Sulawesi

Helloindonesia.id – Listening to Kolintang musical instruments is common among Minahasa people. Even this musical instrument has been recognized for its beauty in foreign countries. This musical instrument is one of the traditional musical instruments typical of the Minahasa community, North Sulawesi. At first glance, Kolintang is similar to the xylophone from Java. However, these two musical instruments have differences, namely from the tone and how to play them, which are slightly different.

In the Minahasa community, this tool used to be a means of traditional ritual ceremonies related to the worship of ancestral spirits. Over time, kolintang musical instruments are used as an accompaniment to dances, songs or musical performances.

This musical instrument is made of special wood which is arranged and played by hitting it with a mallet. Usually the mallets are three in number and numbered, number one is in the left hand while numbers two and three are in the right hand. When hit by a kolintang musical instrument, of course, it will make a fairly long sound.

When hit, it emits high and low notes. Based on the sound produced, it is divided into several sounds. The neat arrangement of these rather light and dense enough woods brings out a beautiful tone.

In general, the wood used is egg wood, wnuang wood, airport wood and kakinik wood. Then the wood is dried before being processed into small slats. Then the wood is reduced to produce the desired tone.

The name Kolintang itself comes from the source of the resulting musical instrument. Tong which has a low-pitched meaning, high-pitched ting, while tang has a middle-pitched meaning. And the term kolintang emerged, because the Minahasa people used to invite to play kolintang by saying “let’s have a ting ting tang” or in the Minahasa language “maimo kumolintang”. From this habit, the term kolintang was formed and became the name of a typical musical instrument of North Sulawesi.