Seite - 30 - in Mobile Culture Studies - The Journal, Band 3/2017

30 Mobile Culture Studies. The Journal 3 2o17 Birgit Abels | Musical Atmospheres and Sea-Nomadic Movement Among the Sama Dilaut The track captures a brief excerpt of the sonic environment that characterizes Semporna’s shore- line from early morning until sunset during the Regatta Lepa. The instruments on this recor- ding include the traditional kulintangan ensemble (often referred to simply as tagunggu’), which typically consists of the tambul drum, the agung (hanging gongs), and the kulintangan, a row- gong instrument that gave the ensemble its name (see fig. 1). Tagunggu’ players within each ensemble are usually members of the same family, and boats carry complete ensembles that are playing independently of the other ensembles within hearing range. In sound example 1, several basic musical parameters suggest movement:9 (1) Rhythm. Like all tagunggu’ repertoires (Fernando 2002, 24), all tagunggu’ ensembles documented on this recording are playing in duple meter, with resultant rhythmic patterns of mostly four or eight beats. As can be heard on the recording, the gong instruments within an ensemble produce an interlocking rhythmic pattern. If Fernando notes that in Sama Dilaut tagunggu’, “pieces appear to generate a sonic atmosphere of high tension or dance” (Fernando 2002, 25), then this already indicates the presence of suggestions of movement in the perfor- mance: Tagunggu’ invites entrainment. With several ensembles playing within hearing range of each other, the interlocking rhythmic structure becomes even more complex, as several rhyth- mic layers interact across ensembles. Adding to the suggestions of movement inherent in the rhythmic texture of individual pieces, further rhythmic motion emerges from in between the in itself interlocking structures of the individual ensembles, but also from in-between all instru- mental parts that can be heard from any given position within earshot. When you’re partaking in the Regatta Lepa the way most participants do – on a moving boat, or strolling along the shoreline – your own physical movement continually changes your listening position, vis-à-vis the various sound sources, which are also moving. As orientation in space depends, to a significant degree, on the psycho-acoustic perception of the environment, this results in a profound sense of spatial disorientation experienced as a dynamic tension affect- ing the felt body. Entrainment pulls you into the sonic space, but the continuous re-positioning of sound sources keeps distorting your aural orientation within that space. The resultant felt- bodily sensation is one of being seized and pulled through space – along unpredictable trajec- tories. (2) Melody. Generally speaking, melodies are movements through tonal space, which, in itself, suggests movement. If most of the Semporna Sama Dilaut’s tagunggu’ repertoire shares fundamental structural similarities (Fernando 2002, 24) and is based on repetitive phrase struc- tures, as the recording confirms, then this has two primary implications for melodic sugges- tions of movement. Both can be observed on the recording. First, the individual parts of an ensemble resemble their counterparts recognizably across the boats. But since the ensembles are not playing in coordination with each other, i.e. the musicians are neither starting at the same time nor sharing the same tempo, similar melodic motifs reach the listeners’ ears time- delayed and/or from changing sound sources that are moving around them. This may even have a displacing effect, as it makes the sonic space a continuously morphing one, e.g., a new boat entering the listener’s hearing range, playing bits of repertoire that are structurally similar to the boats already within hearing range. Naturally, the boat and the sound of its tagunggu’ 9 In consideration of the interdisciplinary readership of this journal, I limit analytical jargon to a minimum in this article. For a more technical analysis of musical suggestions of movement, see Abels forthcoming.