Sumazau is a generic term for a genre of music and dance of the Kadazan of Penampang District, Sabah. Traditionally, the sumazau was a sacred dance accompanied by distinctive gong music that was performed as part of religious ceremonies such as monogit, and those associated with rice farming, weddings, and various other obligatory rituals. The sumazau musical ensemble played using six hanging gongs, and a drum is called sompogogungan. When the sompogogungan plays the sumazau beat in ritual contexts, its sound is said to bridge the human and the spirit worlds. The dance itself, the sumazau, functions symbolically to cleanse and cure illness; the dancers embody the spiritual while simultaneously offering rice and rice wine to the spirits. Social change and development have made these traditional sacred practices less important in modern-day society. Nevertheless, sumazau continues to serve as a powerful identity symbol for the Kadazan. sumazau accompanied by the sompogogungan continues to be performed at village weddings and on other celebratory occasions, including special church events. Through staged performances featuring segments of the rituals choreographed for various secular events at district and state levels, Sumazau has become an iconic "living Kadazan heritage". sumazau music with its distinctive rhythm has also influenced popular music and contemporary Kadazan Dusun songs. Based on qualitative research among the Kadazan of Penampang, this paper discusses how sumazau music and
Musical instruments are objects of material culture and, as sound producers used to create music, are also part of the intangible cultural heritage of communities. Some instruments are local inventions, while others have been diffused into indigenous cultures through outside contacts. During the process of diffusion, instruments may undergo structural transformations due to the use of local materials. Terms used for the parts of the diffused instrument and also the music played may also change over time in accordance with local aesthetics and contexts. The focus of this article is the diffusion and transformation of the nibung palmwood or bamboo keyed gabbang xylophone of the Sama' Bajau and Suluk communities along the east coast of Sabah, the east Malaysian state on northern Borneo, into the wooden gabang of the indigenous Makiang people of the Upper Kinabatangan River. The gabbang originated from Bajau and Suluk (Taosug) cultures in the southern Philippines. The discussion here compares and contrasts the structure, nomenclature and performance technique of the Makiang gabang with the gabbang to identify the physical transformation that the instrument has undergone. It also examines the gabang repertoire and discusses a musical example to show how this transformed xylophone has been utlised to produce music according to Makiang contexts and practices. This illustrates how ideas and objects can cross cultural borders to eventually develop into traditions in the receiving culture.
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