Why the ancient musical essence is still retained in Dusun Tindal's instrumental music within its modern community?

摘要

This paper examines Dusun Tindal’s instrumental music practice within the context of ududmodernity of the society in Tenghilan, a town that is located on northwest Sabah. The study looks into ududthe deriving modish musical styles and forms in the root of the ancient traditions especially in the ududaspects of musical natures, music compositions, musical functions and philosophies. Dusun ududTindal belongs to the largest ethnic group of Kadazandusun in Sabah and is widely exposed to rapid ududtechnological modernization and subsequent interactions within a multi-cultural society and new ududcontexts of performance in the cosmopolitan cities. ududSince 1990s, the Dusun Tindals in Tenghilan have begun to lose most of their old musical ududculture. Contemporary musical groups are developed such as the Bamboo Orchestra, which becomes ududtrendy and popular among their youngsters. The contemporary musical ensemble is a newly ududdeveloped tradition combining a mixture of traditional and western musical instruments and styles. ududDue to the new mind-sets and tastes of their young people, as well as to open up opportunities to ududventure into the exotic blooms of globalized musical festivals and tourism, their music is manifold ududand endeavouring in captive of the hearts of the global audience. ududHowever, the people still keep hold of some of their old traditions realizing the integral role ududthey play in their life and society. The people are also aware of the power of these primeval cultural ududconstituents that have attracted a colossal number of audiences and guaranteed the consumable sales ududof their performance tickets and CDs. This study attempts to disclose the grounds and rationales ududbehind the persistence of the Dusun Tindals in upholding their ancient musical essence until today.