Kulintang music of the Philippines is an ancient form of music currently practiced in the Sulu Archipelago, in parts of Mindanao Island and Palawan Island, and also in Maharlika Village, Taguig, Metro Manila.  The music is played by diverse cultural groups, both within the Philippines and throughout Southeast Asia, and it is known by different names in many languages.  Kulintang is the name of the music in the Maguindanaon language of central Mindanao in the Southern Philippines, and the kulintang instrument names used in this article are Maguindanaon names.

 

In the Philippines, kulintang music is usually found in communities who identify themselves as either IP (“indigenous peoples”) or as Moro or Bangsamoro (groups which had international trade agreements in place prior to the arrival of Spanish missionaries).  In general, kulintang-playing cultures were able to successfully resist the adoption of European music and culture, and instead retained the traditional music of their ancestors.

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After the scholar and explorer Antonio Pigafetta arrived in the Visayan Islands with Magellan in 1521, he wrote about a kind of kulintang music that was played to initially welcome the travelers when they came ashore to meet with a local leader.  Originally derived from vocal music, the earliest forms of kulintang music were played on resonant wooden instruments.  And then, about 800 years ago, bronze gongs arrived in the Philippine archipelago through maritime Southeast Asian trade.