The hegelung is a wooden two-stringed lute played by the Tboli, an animist ethnolinguistic group of southern Mindanao in the Philippines.
The instrument is tall and slender, with nine frets. One string is used as a drone, and the other for melodic ornamentation. The performer playing the hegelung usually plays while dancing or with body movements and sometimes accompanies the instrument with singing.[1]
Tboli believed that they could learn to play the hegelung if they rubbed their fingers with an insect called a meglung and the leaves of the meglung vine because the names rhymed. They thought that rhyming names could help them acquire the skill to play the instrument.[2]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Miller, Terry E. (April 1998). "Islamic Communities of the Southern Philippines". Garland Encyclopedia of World Music. 4 (Islamic Communities of the Southern Philippines): 905. Retrieved 19 September 2014.
- ^ Veredigno Atienza (October 2007). Towards the Development of Social Capital. Lulu.com. p. 71. ISBN 978-0-615-16030-6.
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