Musical instruments “Culture of bronze drums and gongs” in Southeast Asia

Abstract

An academic article was written to present a mutual cultural history in Southeast Asia. Bronze drums and gongs are a distinctive music culture, one of the cultures in the Southeast Asia region. Bronze is a copper alloy with tin as the main ingredient, burned at a temperature of about 1,200 degrees Celsius, sometimes with other elements as an ingredient. Bronze was a metal that was so important in ancient times that archaeologists called some eras in the past "The Bronze Age"
Folk music in Southeast Asia varies with different ethnicities and cultures. But some characteristics have been macro and relay since the prehistoric era, namely, musical instruments made of wood and bamboo; musical instruments made of metal. Bronze drums and gongs are metal musical instruments; that can be found generally in the Southeast Asia region. Musical instruments made of metal or bronze in this era are imitations of the previous bamboo cultural musical instruments. The resonant of metal in those days was the grandest, most sacred, and most marvelous new sound of its time. Therefore, musical instruments made of metal had a very high social status in those days. The role and importance of bronze drums and gongs used in the same traditional conception of the Southeast Asian people: bronze drums and gongs were created for use in sacred rituals of worshiping spirits until they became a consecrated musical instrument.