Basic Relationship Formulation of the Sundatang Physical Characteristics

Transcription

1 Basic Relationship ormulation of the Sundatang Physical Characteristics Ronald Yusri Batahong * & Jedol Dayou Department of Science and Mathematics, Institut Pendidikan Guru Kampus Keningau, Locked Bag, Keningau, Sabah, MALAYSIA. Energy, Vibration and Sound Research Group (e-vibs), aculty of Science and Natural Resources, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Jalan UMS, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, MALAYSIA. *Corresponding author. ronald@ipks.edu.my; Tel: ; ax: Received: 0 March 06 Revised: March 06 Accepted: 7 April 06 In press: 8 May 06 Online: 0 June 06 Keyords: Traditional musical instrument; Sundatang; Physical dimension; Physical characteristics; ret A b s t r a c t Sundatang is one of the traditional musical instruments hich ere made based from natural resources in the land of Sabah. The instrument hich belongs to the Kadazan, Dusun and Rungus communities ought to be conserved and upgraded to make it popular and ell-accepted among the ne generation in this state and generally throughout the orld. The purpose of this study as to formulate the basic relationship of the physical characteristics of sundatang. To achieve this, several important dimensions ere measured from four units of sundatangs. The measured physical characteristics ere scrutinized, analyzed and compared to obtain general physical characteristics of sundatang. our basic relationship equations of the physical characteristics ere formulated hich are related to the length of sundatang, distance of frets, height of frets and idth of sundatang. The formulated equations can be used to calculate the intended physical dimensions in the making process of sundatang. It is also very important to the advancement of construction technique study of sundatang in future. Transactions on Science and Technology 06 Introduction Sabah is the second largest state in Malaysia hich richly blessed ith natural diversity and unique heritages. One of the heritage products hich based on flora and fauna resources in this state is sundatang. The sundatang is a traditional musical instrument among the Kadazan, Dusun and Rungus communities in Sabah (Alman, 96; Lie, 96; rame, 975; 976; Pugh-Kitingan, 987; 99; 00; 004). This instrument has the basic shape of guitars ith to metal strings as shon in igure (anatomy of sundatang) and igure (photo of sundatangs). The body of sundatang as made of vitex or acacia ood, and its frets ere made of metal and fixed on the top plate and neck of sundatang using bee ax. The vitex and acacia oods and bee ax are idely available in Sabah secondary forest. Noadays, sundatang is likely to disappear among the people in Sabah, overridden by popularity of the modern musical instruments such as guitar, violin, piano and etc. This instrument ought to be conserved and upgraded to make it popular and ell-accepted among the ne generation in this state and generally throughout the orld. Since in the ne millennium, researches on traditional musical instruments in Sabah, Malaysia ere started to focus on the scientific studies as reported by Ong and Dayou (009), Wong et al. (0a) and Wong et al. (0b) for sompoton, Ismail et al. (006) for kompang, Batahong and Dayou (00a; 00b), Batahong et al. (00) and Batahong and Dayou (00) for kulintangan, and Batahong & Dayou, 06. Transactions on Science and Technology. (-), 68-76

2 Batahong & Dayou, 06. Transactions on Science and Technology. (-), Batahong, et al. (04a; 04b) and Batahong and Dayou (06) for sundatang musical instrument. Study of the vibrational properties of sundatang soundboard in clamped edge and free edge as reported by Batahong et al. (04a), making technique by Batahong et al. (04b), and effect of frets to the instrument sound frequency by Batahong and Dayou (06). Thus, as an additional research on sundatang, the goal of this study as to formulate the basic relationship of the physical characteristics of sundatang. To achieve this goal, physical dimensions of sundatang ere investigated. Top plate Tail Bridge Soundhole ret String Tuning peg Head Back plate Neck Ribs Air cavity (inside the box) igure. Anatomy of sundatang A B C D igure. Photo of sundatang A, B, C and D. As explained by Batahong et al. (04b), the traditional sundatang as made ithout using modern equipments and ritten reference of dimensions standard. The formation of sundatang is affected by the maker s instinct, past experience and imitation at ready-made sundatang. Hence, different sets of sundatangs sho variety of features. Hoever, there are some patterns observed in its physical characteristics. This study as conducted to discover these patterns and reveal that the traditional making technique also able to produce musical instruments ith its on standard. The formulated equations are very important as a tool to the advancement making technique study of sundatang in future. The equations can be used to calculate the important dimensions of sundatang.

3 Batahong & Dayou, 06. Transactions on Science and Technology. (-), Materials and methods Study of physical properties as conducted on four units of sundatangs hich ere made by Mr. Boginda Mokilin, a ell-knon sundatang maker and player from Kampong Tinangol, Kudat, Sabah as shon in igure. The sundatangs ere labeled as sundatang A (acacia ood) and B (acacia ood) and C (vitex ood) and D (vitex ood). In this study, thirty four important physical dimensions of the sundatang body ere measured (igure ) and analyzed. l H l N l B l body SB l B l t L d s (a) ront vie t ribs R (b) Back vie l bs d bs (c) Back plate h H h string (d) Head igure : Measured dimensions of different part of the sundatang. Results and discussion The results sho that tenty four of the physical dimensions are very close to each other ith SD is in the range of 0 cm to cm, and another ten physical dimensions is in the range of cm to 4.65 cm. The ten physical dimensions consists of the total length, L, length of body, l body, length of tail, l t, distance of sound holes and bridge, l SB, length of neck, l, length of head, N l H, distance of bridge and fret, l B, idth,, idth, and idth, as shon in Table. The total length, L and idth, of the sundatang are having a greater SD, this is may be because of these dimensions are depend to the original length and idth of the ooden block as a main material of construction.

4 Batahong & Dayou, 06. Transactions on Science and Technology. (-), Table. Measured physical dimensions of the sundatang A, B, C and D. No. Dimensions A ( 0.cm) Set of sundatang B ( 0.cm) C ( 0.cm) D ( 0.cm) Average Standard Deviation Total length, L length of body, l body length of bridge, B length of tail, l t distance of sound hole and bridge, l SB distance beteen to sound holes, d s length of neck, N length of head, H distance from st to nd fret, 0 distance from nd to rd fret, distance from rd to 4th fret, distance from 4 th to 5 th fret, distance from 5 th to 6 th fret, distance from st to 6 th fret, distance of bridge and fret, l B height of ribs, h R length of tuning peg, l TPeg idth of neck, n height of neck, h n height of bridge, h B height of st fret, h height of nd fret, h height of rd fret, h height of 4 th fret, h height of 5 th fret, h , height of 6 th fret, h height of head, h H height of string, h string idth, idth, idth, diameter of back plate sound hole, d bs thickness of ribs, r ribs thickness of back plate, t bp

5 Length of sundatang Batahong & Dayou, 06. Transactions on Science and Technology. (-), By referring to the measurement values of the length of tail, l t, length of body, l body, length of neck, ln and length of head, l H the sundatang, t of the four units of sundatangs in Table. Obtained that the total length of can be ritten in a mathematical expressions as L l l l l. () body N H Ratio of the length of tail, length of body, length of neck and length of head to the total length of each unit of sundatang ere calculated as shon in Table. It shos that the ratio values for each of the sundatang are closer to each other. In the other ord, the sundatangs have an approximately ratio of the length of tail, length of body, length of neck and length of head to the total length. If average of the ratio values is calculated as ritten in sixth column in Table, average relationship of the length of tail, length of body, length of neck and length of head to the total length of the sundatangs, separately, can be expressed mathematically as l t 0. 04L, () l body 0. 4L, () l N 0. 5L (4) and l H 0. 8L, (5) respectively. These equations can be used to determine length of tail, body, neck and head of sundatang from the available total length, L in the early stage of sundatang construction hich is forming the basic shape of sundatang. Table. Ratio of length of tail, body and neck to the total length of sundatang. Ratio Sundatang A B C D average Length of tail to total length, l t L Length of body to total length, l body L Length of neck to total length, l N L Length of head to total length, l H L Distance of frets rom the ro 9 th to th in Table is ritten the values of the distance beteen every to nearest frets, hereas, in ro 4 th in the table is ritten the distance of the st fret to the 6 th fret of the four units of sundatangs. Sum of the distance from the st fret to nd fret, fret to 4 th fret,, 4 th fret to 5 th fret, l 4 4 and 5 th fret to 6 th fret, l st fret to the 6 th fret,. Mathematically, this summation can be expressed as , nd fret to rd fret,, rd is equal to the distance from the l l l l l l. (6)

6 Batahong & Dayou, 06. Transactions on Science and Technology. (-), In order to obtain the ratio relationship beteen the distance of every to nearest frets ith the distance of the st fret and 6 th fret, first, their ratio values and average ratio values ere calculated as ritten in Table, and using the average ratio values, the relationship can be expressed as l 0. l 0. 0 l l , (7), (8), (9), (0) and l () These equations can be used to determine the distance beteen frets in the frets installation process of sundatang. It also allos a linearly modification to the distance of frets if needed. Table. Ratio of the distance beteen to nearest frets and distance from the first fret to the sixth fret. Sundatang Ratio A B C D average Total.00 Height of frets Measurement values of the height of frets for the four units of sundatangs are shon in the ro st to 6 th in the Table. rom the table, if the height of fret versus fret number is plotted for every sundatangs as shon in igure 4, equations belo are obtained. Sundatang A: h 0.n () Sundatang B: h 0.045n. 86 () Sundatang C: h 0.7n. 8 (4) Sundatang D: h 0.4n. 66 (5) The equations explain that the height of fret decreased hen the number of fret increased. On the other hand, height difference beteen to nearest frets as analyzed and shon in Table 4. rom the table, the average difference beteen to nearest frets is 0. cm. It means that, the height of fret decreased 0. cm hen the fret number is increased of. This finding is very important as a reference in the making of the frets of sundatang.

7 Width of sundatang Batahong & Dayou, 06. Transactions on Science and Technology. (-), The idths of sundatang ere measured at three positions as labeled in igure. Width, is near the tail, idth, is at the centre of body of sundatang and idth, is at the end of body of sundatang. As ritten in Table, it shos that every sundatang has different idths values. According to the sundatang maker, the idths of sundatang, especially the idth depends on the original idth of the ooden block as a material of construction. Ratio of the / and / for the all sundatangs used in this study as calculated as shon in Table 5. And, ratio of the / as calculated as ritten in Table 6. rom the Table 5, it as found that only three of the sundatangs (A, B and D) have a closer ratio value of the / and /. Hoever, it as also found that the all four units of sundatangs have a closer value of the / as shon in Table 6. Hence, it can be concluded that values of / for the all four units of sundatangs are almost equal, means the idth, and idth, of sundatang are fix value, hereas, the idth, can be changed. igure 4. Graph of the height of frets of the four units of sundatang. Table 4. Height difference of frets. Height difference Sundatang (cm) Average A B C D difference st and nd frets nd and rd frets rd and 4 th frets th and 5 th frets th and 7 th frets

8 Batahong & Dayou, 06. Transactions on Science and Technology. (-), Table 5. Ratio of idth of sundatang Sundatang (cm) Ratio A B C D Ratio Table 6. Ratio of. Sundatang (cm) A B C D Conclusion The basics relationship beteen physical dimensions of sundatang has been investigated. It as found that basically the four units of sundatangs used in this investigation ere different in measurement parameters, especially the total length and idths of the instruments body, except to parameters hich are the diameter of sound hole at the back plate and the thickness of back plate, hich ere equal. Even though the sundatangs vary in most of the physical dimensions, sound from this instrument still can be tuned to their similar musical pitches. This can be achieved through the distance beteen frets here the ratio beteen the to nearest frets is quite closed in all sets of sundatangs. In addition, it as found that although all dimensions might be varied beteen sundatang, the ratio beteen the idth of the bottom and the upper part of the sundatang's sound boards should be made constant. The formulated equation of the total length, distance of frets, height of frets and idth ratio is seen to be very important in the construction of sundatang, especially for the ne sundatang maker. References [] Alman, J. H. (96). If You Can t Sing, You Can Beat a Gong. Sabah Society Journal,, 9-4. [] Batahong, R. Y. & Dayou, J. (00a). Mathematical model for predicting the frequency of sound from kulintangan [in Malay]. Proceedings of the Eleventh National Symposium on Mathematical Science. -4 December 00, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. [] Batahong, R. Y. & Dayou, J. (00b). Visualizing the Vibrational Modes of The Kulintangan. Presented at National Postgraduate Seminar. 8-9 Mac 00, UMS, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. [4] Batahong, R. Y., Ong C. W. & Dayou, J. (00). Accuracy, precision and sensitivity of sound frequency measurement using Matlab softare [In Malay]. Technical Report, LT/SST-UMS/00/0. UMS. [5] Batahong, R.Y. & Dayou, J. (00). The Making of Kulintangan Musical Instrument in Kudat, Sabah [in Malay]. Borneo Research Council Seventh Biennial International Conference. 5-8 July 00, UMS, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. [6] Batahong, R. Y., Dayou, J., Wang, S. & Lee, J. (04a). Vibrational Properties of sundatang soundboard. Archives of Acoustics, 9(), [7] Batahong, R. Y., Dayou, J. & Romut, J. (04b). Traditional Construction Technique of Sundatang. th International Borneo Research Council Conference. 5-7 August 04, UMS, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. [8] Batahong, R. Y. & Dayou, J. (06). Effect of rets to the Sound requency of Sundatang. Jurnal Teknologi, 78(), 7-4.

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