Directivity of the half-dome bundengan musical instrument

Abstract

Bundengan is a traditional musical instrument from Indonesia that has a half-dome structure. It is fitted with clipped strings and long, thin bamboo bars that generate metal-like and drum-like sounds, respectively. In the past, a bundengan would be played for the personal pleasure of its player. Driven by the needs of conservation, nowadays, its use is steered towards stage performance for a larger audience. In this work, we investigate the directivity of the bundengan as one of the important aspects to consider when setting the musical instrument on stage. We measured the sound of plucked strings from four bundengans, made by traditional and contemporary craftsmen. The sound was recorded at a radius of 1 m from the centerline of the base of the instruments and at a height of 0.5 m from the floor, covering a circular angle of 360 deg. The bundengans generally produce comparable directivity patterns. Still, a number of differences are observed, possibly due to the small variations in the size of the domes and the placements of the strings inside the domes. These directivity plots provide the possibility to assess how suitable the bundengan actually is for stage performance. [Work supported by the National Geographic Society.]