REYNOLD BELAT ANAK CHAWAU (50220220166)
SAPE THE SOUND OF BORNEO prepared for: Dr Kamaruzzaman
INTRODUCTION
SAPE is the instrument consist of 4 or 6 strings that will produce a magical sound of Borneo. it is made of soft wood's such as kayu meranti, adau, nangka and kulai. The sape of the body look like the sampan where the the back of the sape is hollowed out and the function for this is as a resonator.
HISTORY
Sape means 'scratching' in Kenyah dialect. Sape is a traditional instrument that have been used by many of Orang Ulu in Sarawak that lives in the longhouse near to the river in Borneo and Kalimantan. Sape orinated from the Sarawak and east Kalimantan, Indonesia.
Legend has it, the stories of the sape came through a dream of a farmer who fell asleep in the hut of his paddy field after returning from seeking help of a shaman to cure his sick wife. In his dream, the farmer was asked to look for adau wood, from the tree that the hill myna birds used to perch. The shape of sape appeared in his dream and whenever the sape was played, he dreamt the spirit would come and cure his wife's sickness.
TYPE OF SAPE
THE SAPE BALI
This sape usually used by the shaman (Bali Dayong) to cure sickness. The shaman will sits on the floor and then stand up while still playing to drive away the evil spirits from the place.
THE SAPE KANJET
This sape is twice the size of the Sape Bali. This sape usually used to accompany dances and also this were firstly produced when the British came to Sarawak. This sape is still active played at the modern concert in Malaysia and with the touch of electrical pickups, sound is more beautiful and louder during the concert and live performance.
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HOW IT PLAYED
The strings are played by using the thumb and also some people using guitar pick to play the strings. the low string usually is used to play the melody and the rest of the upper is used as the bass or drone strings, where it is played by open strings. The strings is fixed across the body and there is a bridge is put on the low part of the body to support the tuning and sounding stability
SAPE TUNING This is the standard tuning for the sape: 1st string: C 2nd string: C 3rd string: A 4th string: F
'note that the tuning starts from the lower string'
CONCLUSION On conclusion, the sape is a simple and versatile type of musical instrument. One of the strings produce the melody and the rest will accompany the string that produce the bass and the drone of the strings. Sape is a music that has been a music tradition to not only the Sarawakians, but also the whole Malaysia. This sape is the tradition that we need to keep it alive as it will not be bought to dead by time. Hence, we need to always remember and lives with our country masterpiece. because in the future, the youngs cannot teach tradition if we dont teach them. thank you !