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Southeast Asia


The rebab is a two-stringed bowed lute used in a number of Indonesian gamelan ensembles, including Central Javanese and Sundanese gamelan degung, as well as in Minangkabau music of Sumatra. It occurs more rarely in Balinese gamelan. The body was traditionally made from coconut shell, though today, wooden variants are more common in Central Java and Sunda. A fine skin is stretched over the cavity, and a removable wooden bridge supports the strings. In Central Javanese gamelan music, the rebab is one of the panerusan instruments, playing a more elaborate form of the shared melody, and is responsible for some of the audible cues which tell other members of the group what to play (or sing), especially in leading the group into the higher pitched ngelik section of gendhing. Two brass strings are tuned approximately a fifth apart, and the bow - traditionally of horsehair, but today more commonly of nylon - is tied loosely with the proper tension controlled by the player's fingers.

In Central Javanese music, the rebab does not have to conform exactly to the scale of the other gamelan instruments and can be played in relatively free time, finishing its phrases after the beat of the gong ageng (the big gong that marks the start/end of cycles, see: colotomy). The rebab also frequently plays the buka (introduction) when it is part of the ensemble.

In the eastern Malaysian states of Kelantan and Terengganu, the rebab is used in a healing ritual called "Main Puteri". The musician-healer is sometimes taken to a hospital to assist in cases where doctors are unable to heal ailing patients.