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Thekutiyapi, orkudyapi, is aPhilippine two-stringed, fretted boat-lute. It is four to six feet long with ninefrets made of hardenedbeeswax. The instrument is carved out of solid soft wood such as that from thejackfruit tree.
Common to allkudyapi instruments, a constantdrone is played with one string while the other, an octave above the drone, plays the melody with akabit or rattan pluck (commonly made from plastic nowadays). This feature, which is also common to other relatedSoutheast Asian "boat lutes", also known as "crocodile lutes", are native to the region.
It is the only stringed instrument among thePalawano people, and one of several among other groups such as theMaranao andManobo.[citation needed]
In various Philippine languages, the instrument is also called:kutyapi,kutiapi (Maguindanaon),kotyapi (Maranao),kotapi (Subanon),fegereng (Tiruray),faglong,fuglung (B'laan),[1]kudyapi (Bukidnon andTagbanwa),hegelong (T’boli),kuglong,kadlong,kudlong orkudlung (Manobo,Mansaka,Mandaya,Bagobo and CentralMindanao),[2][3][4] andkusyapi (Palawan).[5]
For the Palawano, it is possible to arrange the beeswax frets into different patterns resulting in two different scales for the instrument. These are thebinalig, a higher pitched scale similar to thepelog and accompanying style used to imitate that of thekulintang, and thedinaladay, a lower pentatonic scale used for teaching pieces of an abstract mature.
Indinaladay, several tiers of difficulty revolve around main compositions:Patentek,Patundug,Banutun andMinudel;Patentek being the most straightforward,Minudel being the most-challenging.
Binalig scale pieces include several archaic compositions now not played on thekulintang, and of these piecesMalapankuno (cock crowing) andMapalendad are included.
Any piece witha kinukulintangan affixed to its name is one that imitates the style of the kulintang instrument, of which theSinulog a kinukulintangan; a piece that embellishes the main melody of the kulintang'sSinulog a kangungudan, is the most popular.
The Kutiyapi may or may not be accompanied by one of several types of flutes; thepalendag,suling,insi ortumpong. Singing is usually reserved for courtship purposes.
Among the Maranao, pieces played by usingbagu andandung scales (equivalents of thebinalig anddinaladay scales used by the Maguindanao), and in contrast to Maguindanao pieces, the kutiyapi is also used as an accompanying instrument tobayoka or epic chants. Examples of olderandung pieces includeKangganatan andMamayog Akun.
The Kudyapi (kotyapi) has also been as one of the instruments in several older light ensembles, including that of thekasayao-sa-singkil/kasingkil ensemble, the original musical accompaniment to thesingkil dance (now rarely used in favour of conventionalkulintang ensembles). This ensemble pairs the kotyapi with a jaw harp (kubing),suling, a pair of small double-headed drums known asgandangan (a drum now rarely used among the Maranao in favor of the single-headeddadabuan) and a singlekulintang, in accompaniment to the bamboo poles used in the dance.
Another archaic ensemble where the kotyapi was included was theKapanirong, or courtship ensemble, in which the kotyapi was used with akubing, smallinsi flute, a two-stringed bamboo zitherserongagandi, and a brass-traytintik.
Among both the Maguindanao and Maranao, a much more recent informal styles are also used.Dayunday is a performed in front of an audience using an improvisational vocal style based on bothsangel sa wata (traditional lullaby) andbayok (epic chant sung ina cappella) genres, played in eitherbinalig ordinaladay scales, that is used during weddings, election campaigns, religious celebrations such asEid or other large gatherings. Thedayunday generally sets well known musicians from both genders against each other in verbal jest and competition.
With the advent of globalization, the importance of the kutiyapi has waned as artists have taken up theguitar instead, as it is louder.[6]
Among theT'Boli,Manobo and otherLumad groups, the instrument (known ashegelung,kudyapi orfedlung) is tuned to a major pentatonic scale. Among groups like theBagobo, thekutiyapi (kudlung) is also used as a bowed instrument and is generally played to accompany improvised songs.
A characteristic difference between MindanaonMorokutiyapi and the non-Islamized Lumad equivalents is the style and set up of vocal accompaniment. Among the Lumad groups, thekudyapi player and vocalist are separate performers, and vocalists use a free-flowing method of singing on top of the rhythm of the instrument, whereas among the Maguindanao and Maranao, there are set rhythms are phrases connected with the melody of the kutiyapi, with the player doubling as the vocalist (bayoka), if need be.
Thekudyapi has been found among groups such as the Bisayans whose prevalence just like thekubing and other musical instruments are or were found in other parts of the Philippines.[7]
The kudyapi was a kind of small lute carved out of a single piece of wood with a belly of a half a coconut shell added for resonance, with two or three wire strings plucked with a quill plectrum, and three or four frets, often of metal. The body was calledsungar-sungar orburbuwaya; the neck,burubunkun; the strings,dulos; the fretboard,pidya; and the tuning pegs,birik-birik. The scroll was calledapil-apil orsayong, the same as the hornlike protrusions at the ends of the ridgepole of a house. The kudyapi was only played by men, mainly to accompany their own love songs. The female equivalent was the korlong , a kind of zither made of a single node of bamboo with strings cut from the skin of the bamboo itself, each raised and tuned on two little bridges, and played with both hands like a harp. A variant form had a row of thinner canes with a string cut from each one. – William Henry Scott[8]
While kutyapi was already a forgotten instrument amongTagalogs, with traces only remaining in folk songs likeSa Libis ng Nayon, a stringed instrument was historically used by Tagalogs as mentioned in theJesuit friarPedro Chirino'sRelacion de las Islas Filipinas (1604) which is calledkutyapi. Unlike its southern counterparts, the Tagalog kutyapi was a four-stringed instrument. According to Chirino:[9]
They [the Tagalogs] are punctiliously courteous and affectionate in social intercourse and are fond of writing to one another with the utmost propriety and most delicate refinement. Consequently they are much given to serenading. And although their guitar, which they callcutyapi, is not very ingenious, nor the music very refined, it is quite pleasing, and especially to them. They play it with so much skill and ardor that they make its four wire strings speak. It is a generally accepted fact over there that by merely playing them, without saying a word, they can express and understand whatever they please, which is something that cannot be said of any other nation. The Bisayans are more artless...
Subsequent records by Spanish friarsDiego de Bobadilla, S.J. (1590–1648), andFrancisco Colin, S.J., who were both in the Philippines during the first half of 17th century, echoed the same thing in their writings when describing the instrument and its use by Tagalogs, but unlike the first two, Colin only mentioned the instrument having "two or more strings", not explicitly four. The instrument's spelling has varied among the different dictionaries and records made by Spaniards, with Chirino originally using the termculyapi, de Bobadilla'scutiape, and finally in theVocabulario de la Lengua Tagala where it is variably written ascoryapi andcodyapi.Pedro de San Buenaventura'sVocabulario compared the instrument to both viola and guitar.Francisco de San Antonio who came toPila, Laguna, in 1624 also equatedkutyapi torabel, writing "Rabel de los naturales (rabel of the natives)".[9]
It is not known precisely when the instrument lost its place in Tagalog culture, as most dictionaries until the 20th century still have entries ofcoryapi/codyapi.
Similar instruments played throughout the region include theSape ofSarawak , Sundatang ofSabah, and the Crocodile lutes of Mainland Southeast Asia. Although they share a similar name, theKacapi ofSundanese is a zither, and not a lute.
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