Music of Sulawesi
Summary
Sulawesi contains several musical worlds within one island and its surrounding archipelagos. Southern string-song traditions, Kajang flute music, Toraja and central highland choruses, Minahasan harvest singing and northern gong ensembles differ in sound and social purpose. A broad regional account therefore needs to keep locality and community visible, even when recordings circulate under the common name Sulawesi.[1][2]
Contemporary activity is equally varied. Makassar supports local-language pop, independent bands and festivals connected to national touring networks. Dangdut competitions link southern performers and audiences to national television, while Manado’s church institutions organize choral and instrumental events. These activities coexist with community traditions rather than replacing them in a single sequence from old to new.[3][4][5][6][7]
Contemporary and trending
The organizer’s programme for Rock in Celebes and Iklim Fest on 1–2 November 2025 placed Makassar’s Fort Rotterdam within a broad concert circuit. Its announced artists included Efek Rumah Kaca, Navicula, Tony Q Rastafara, Reality Club and Majelis Lidah Berduri, alongside exhibitions, films, discussions and heritage presentations. The programme illustrates a city venue connecting different contemporary styles and visiting performers.[5]
Television provides another connection. Makassar was one of the cities used for D’Academy 7 auditions in 2025. Selfi Yamma, whose career was propelled by television competition, subsequently judged the Sidoarjo audition and encouraged entrants to develop distinctive performing identities. Recruitment across several cities turns local singing careers into a national process.[6]
In the north, the provincial Catholic Pesparani programme announced for Manado on 17–21 November 2025 included choirs, psalm singing and kolintang. Its combination of vocal and instrumental categories shows the place of music in organized religious education and public gathering. It also demonstrates that church music and a locally associated instrument can share the same institutional stage.[7]
History
Borrowing and adaptation have long been important. Smithsonian’s southern Sulawesi recordings document regional musicians working with violins and zithers as well as local two-stringed lutes and gambus-type instruments. Their use in family celebrations and mixed entertainment shows how instruments with different histories can become part of local expressive practice.[1]
Buton’s kabanti offers a different relationship between transmission and change. The tradition includes both oral exchange and written compositions. Sung verse at social occasions can involve spontaneous responses between performers and listeners, while manuscript-based compositions developed within courtly and religious settings. The distinction is important: a written literary heritage does not make its performance merely a reading of a fixed text.[8]
Broadcasting also helped reshape regional music. Fendy Parengkuan’s biography of Nelwan Katuuk describes the kolintang musician’s appearances on Japanese-operated radio in Manado during the occupation. His ensemble’s repertoire included regional-language, Indonesian and Japanese songs. The account connects an identifiable musician and medium to kolintang’s widening public, rather than attributing every development to anonymous tradition.[9]
Recognition continues through other institutions. In 2024, kolintang entered UNESCO’s Representative List within a multinational element also covering West African balafon traditions. The inscription concerns related cultural practices and safeguarding; it does not establish a direct historical migration of the instrument between those regions.[10]
Genres
The southern string repertoire includes small ensembles and accompanied singing, heard in such recordings as the Bugis Kacapi Ensemble’s “Getti’ Lampa,” Sa’be’s “Tipalayo” and Lammu’ and La Dahung’s “Dendang Sia.” Plucked and bowed instruments provide different textures within this repertoire, whose recorded language range includes Bugis, Makassar, Mandar, Konjo and Toraja varieties.[1]
Other traditions foreground percussion, breath and collective voices. Makassar pakarena sets vigorous drumming against restrained female dance movements. Kajang basing uses paired long flutes, sometimes with two women singing, in a funerary context. Minahasan maengket combines choral singing and drums in harvest celebration, whereas Pipikoro raego’ and Toraja singing belong to distinct vocal traditions.[2]
Instrument names require care. The Minahasan kolintang is a wooden xylophone ensemble; the Mongondow kulintang documented by Smithsonian is gong music. Central Sulawesi’s Kaili kakula uses bossed metal instruments in an ensemble and remains associated with selected ceremonial occasions around Palu. Similar terminology does not make these instruments interchangeable.[10][2][11]
Gorontalo adds polopalo, a shaped bamboo instrument sounded by striking. Buton’s sung kabanti, meanwhile, gives particular weight to the relationship between words, melodic delivery and social response. These examples widen the musical picture beyond the best-known cities and southern commercial recordings.[12][8]
Artists
Ridwan Sau is an important entry point into Makassar pop songwriting. His creative process has been studied through interviews by researchers at Universitas Negeri Makassar. The available recording catalogue includes Jojama Nakke, “Apamo Anne” and a collection commemorating Anci Laricci. These works show a regional-language repertoire with its own named authors, albums and remembered predecessors.[3][13]
Selfi Yamma illustrates the relationship between local pride and national dangdut. Soppeng welcomed her publicly after her 2018 Liga Dangdut victory; by 2025 she was helping assess new television contestants. Her subsequent catalogue includes “Pelukan Nyata,” released in November 2025. The sequence links home-region recognition, national exposure and an ongoing recording career.[14][6][15]
Makassar’s Kapal Udara represents another path. Formed in 2015 by musicians who met at university, the folk band developed collectively made songs and community performances. Its 2017 EP Seru dari Hulu contains “Menyambut,” “Melaut,” “Menanam,” “Menari” and “Merantau,” framing everyday experience through accessible songs rather than through a television contest.[4]
Community ensembles deserve equal identification. Smithsonian credits Grup Tabbing Sualia under Abdul Muin Daeng Mile for pakarena, the singers of Desa Onu for raego’, and Maengket Pisok Lengkoan under Elisabeth Piri for its harvest repertoire. Such credits preserve the specific practitioners behind broad genre names.[2]
Boundary definition and research
The approved map groups North, Central, West, South and Southeast Sulawesi with Gorontalo and their associated nearby islands. These first-level administrative areas provide a practical outline, not an ethnic border or a single audience market. The project retains a provisional status for the island-wide synthesis because direct comparative contemporary evidence is limited.
The sources support specific local traditions, artists and institutions more strongly than any ranking of music across the whole region. Makassar’s concert programming cannot stand for every rural district; a Manado church event cannot describe every northern community. Equally, the regional boundaries should remain open to the national recruitment and touring connections documented here.[5][7][6]
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Music of Indonesia, Vol. 15: South Sulawesi Strings, Smithsonian Folkways.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Music of Indonesia, Vol. 18: Sulawesi: Festivals, Funerals and Work, Smithsonian Folkways.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Proses Kreativitas Ridwan Sau dalam Menciptakan Lagu Pop Makassar, Nurul Ainun Juniar Syam and Nurlina Syahrir / Variable Research Journal.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Kapal Udara — Profil Band Indie, DCDC / Kapal Udara artist profile.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Rock in Celebes 2025: Lineup Fase Kedua, Rock in Celebes.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Selfi Yamma Ajak Peserta D’Academy 7 Tingkatkan Kepercayaan Diri di Sidoarjo, Aditia Saputra / Liputan6.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Gubernur YSK Dukung Penuh Pesparani Pertama Sulut 2025, Kementerian Agama Sulawesi Utara.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Pendidikan Multikultural Berbasis Kearifan Lokal: discussion of kabanti, Kementerian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan repository.
- ↑ Nelwan Katuuk dan seni musik kolintang Minahasa, Fendy E. W. Parengkuan / Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Cultural practices and expressions linked to Balafon and Kolintang in Mali, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire and Indonesia, UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage.
- ↑ A Desctiptive Analysis on the Kakula Music Playing Patterns as Traditional Music of the Kaili Tribe of Central Sulawesi Province, Rifaldo Christein Bawiling, R. A. Dinar Sri Hartati and Luccylle Takalumang / SoCul.
- ↑ Polopalo, Indonesian cultural heritage register.
- ↑ Ridwan Sau — recordings catalogue, JOOX.
- ↑ Selfi Disambut Secara Adat Oleh Kadis Pariwisata, Pemerintah Kabupaten Soppeng.
- ↑ Pelukan Nyata — Selfi Yamma, Apple Music / Trinity Optima Production.