The T'boli have a variety of musical instrument, including the tinonggong, a deerskin drum; the tinonggong, 15 cm 40 cm diameter gongs exclusively played by the men; the klintang, a set of eight gongs played by men and women on festive occasion; the dwegey, a T'boli violin fashioned from a 50cm long bamboo attached to a coconut shell at one end; the sloli, a bamboo flute, the kumbing jew's harp; the few, a small horn made from a short section of rice stalk, around which a strip of palm leaf is wound in the form of a slender cone; the sludoy, a bamboo zither that consists of a section of bamboo with silver excised lengthwise from, and at regular intervals, around its exteriors; and the hegelung, a long, slender and spindle-shaped two string guitar.
One of the
hegelung's strings is for the melody while the other called the
drone, has a monotonous, t
race-including sound. Strummed with a
small, sharpened bamboo silver, the hegelong's strings are made
of abaca. The frets of the hegelung consists of small pieces of
bamboo held upright with beeswax, and thus can be adjusted at
will
Through the hegelong, the T'boli convey ideas, emotions, and feelings. One good example of the instrument's versatility is found an "Ye Daddang," a tale of woman hacked to death by a jealous husband, where the strings are made to unitate the argument of husband and wife. It ends with a planned lamentation of the wife name "Ye Daddang, Ye Daddang, Ye Daddang." Other examples are the otom klelet which imitates the antics of the klelet or woodpecker and the utom s'mokule tek sotu'w, which portrays a man hoeing the field.
The T'boli hade a wide repertoire of songs for all occasions; joyous, sad, or momentous, like weddings; or ordinary, like fishing in the lakes. Aside from songs, which have fixed lyrics and melodies, the T'boli also improve their own songs by using traditional melodic patterns at the end of the phrase or a sentence.
The T'boli also have pieces meant for solo instrumental rendition. One such piece about a horse fight is interpreted though drums, with the latter simulating the thundering of horses hooves.
T'boli dances may act out relationships between suitors and beloved or between bride or groom. In the courtship dance, a boy pursues a girl who taunts him with in unfurled kayab or turban, which she hold by the ends and sways side-to-side, following a musical beat. On other hand, a woman may tell of her affections for a man through the kadal mit mata: though various flirting exhibition gestures the woman expresses what she otherwise cannot say.
At wedding feasts, the dancer called tau soyow is traditionally performed by two males engaging in mock combat, and dreesed as a warrior, representing the party of the bride, and another dressed as a woman, representing the party of the groom. the warrior struts around and rattles his shield, while the woman sashays back and forth. The dancers go about provoking and tauting each other, getting near, but never really touching, then retreating. With hilarious steps, the dancers wriggle is the ground provocatively, yelping and screeching at each other. another war dance performed in a man's life cycle is the kadal temulon lobo. The dancer is narrative as the performer's movements tell how he has killed his adversary, who may have been his rival for a girl's affection.
At rest or when
nursing a bruised of heart, a woman play the hegelung and moves
around almost aimlessly. This dance, called kadal be hegelung,
which also involves the hegelung but includes the klutang as
well. The latter is performed in the farm to celebrate a good
harvest.
Other dances of T'boli imitate animals. In the kadal iwas, any number of dances, following a relentless beat, mimic a brunch of monkeys removing nits and lice from each other. A variation of this dance mimics a monkey who sits on an anthill by mistakes and is allacked by angry ants all over his body (Orosa Goquinco 1980:143). It may also feature boys or men attired in banana leaves as monkey romping around and performing simian antics to the delight or the audience. The kadal blilah or bird dance, represents the blilah, a mythical bird which, according to T'boli tradition, has the colors of all other birds. Here the female dancers make continuous hopping steps to the sound of gongs and drums, leaning to the left and to the right as they insert their hands into the ends or the malong hanging around their neck, and make undulating movements, simulating the wings of a bird in flight. another bird dance is kadal tabaw, performed during planting and harvesting, and which simulates the flight and hops of the bird tabaw.
Two ritual dances are the kadal bulung done to exorcise evil spirits that harbor illness and bad luck; and the kadal tahu, described as the true dance of T'boli. The second dancer is accompanied by drums, which is believed to hold a spirit. to release the spirit, the female dancer touches the drum with her ankle or right foot as she sways to its rhythm. The dance continues until the performer signals her fatigue by throwing the lewek (a piece of cloth) to the drum. this ends the dance.
