The musical instruments of peninsular Malaysia can be
classified into four categories. Aerofons are
wind instruments. Cordofons are
stringed instruments which are either plucked or bowed. Idiofons
are percussive instruments which are struck or shaken. Membranofons,
the largest group, are the drums and get their name from the skin or membrane
which is stretched over the instrument to produce its sound when struck.
This
site illustrates the various instruments, describes their construction, and
allows you to hear the sounds of the instruments. Also included here are
photographs of Balinese gongmakers at
work, a pronunciation guide for pronouncing the names of the instruments
in Bahasa Malay, and full
bandwidth ".WAV" files of
the instrument sounds for you to download. Finally, an illustrated
explanation of the process used in recording
the instruments and a short bibliography on
Malaysian traditional music are included.
