Andaya, Barbara Watson
(2011)
Distant Drums And Thunderous Cannon:
Sounding Authority In Traditional Malay
Society.
International Journal of Asia Pacific Studies (IJAPS), 7 (2).
pp. 17-33.
ISSN ISSN: 1823-6243
Abstract
Pre-modern Malay society was intensely oral and aural, and the texts that are
now read were always intended for group recitation and performance. Studies of
auditory history in other societies have emphasised that in the past, sounds were
experienced differently from the way they are heard today. At the very basic level,
thunder—the voice of the heavens—established the benchmark and the basis for
comparison for awe-inspiring sounds that humans could attempt to replicate,
notably in the beating of drums and the firing of cannon. Together with the noseflute, the drum is the oldest and most indigenous Malay instrument, and the drums
that were included in royal regalia were accorded personalities of their own.
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