Seri Dawai Indonesia, Jungga "Gitar Sumba"

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Jungga -- Guitar of the island of Sumba

By Theduardo Prasetyo

We continue our journey of discovering Indonesia's traditional string instruments in our series "Strings of Indonesia". In this article, we will discuss about a rather rarely heard instrument from the island of Sumba.

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Island of Sumba has borders with the Island Sumbawa in the northwest, Flores in northeast, Timor in the east, and Australia in the south. Since 1866, the island was colonised by the Netherlands and later became part of Indonesia. From the cultural exchange with foreign cultures, the island of Sumba developed an interesting musical tradition that is still much alive today.

At a glance, this instrument looks like a weirdly shaped steel strings guitar. Jungga is a traditional instrument from the Island of Sumba. The sound of plucked strings accompanying songs in BahasaKambera (traditional language of Sumba) sounds enticing and at the same time foreign to our ears. These songs tell us about daily life in Sumba, advices on love, and other themes about life. 

There are two kinds of jungga : the two-stringed jungga and four-stringed jungga. The instrument is played by plucking the strings like one would play on guitar. Some named the instrument "gitar kampung" (rural guitar) to contrast the standard six strings guitar which is played on the island for pop and religious songs.

Two-stringed jungga is considered older than its four-stringed relative and doesn't have its shape from the guitar. The two-stringed jungga has a shape of a boat-like lute which is similar to another string instrument from South Sulawesi. Similar like kecapi or sape, jungga has elevated frets. The instrument has one string which functions as a drone string (pedal tone) and a higher-pitched string for the melody. 

This instrument is used in important events, such as weddings and parties, for narrative speeches, and songs, which themes deal a lot with love, sadness, and comical jokes. Its relative, four-stringed jungga, is also used for weddings and parties, but as written in the recordings of Folkways : Music of Indonesia, the instrument is rarely heard being played for people of upper class social group.

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