No Brand Sarune Bolon Folk Oboe / Shawm of the Toba Batak People of North Sumatra Indonesia 1990s - Natural Sumatran Hardwood, Ebony, Reed, Coconut and Water Buffalo Horn

This is a sarune bolon, a folk oboe / shawm (double reed woodwind instrument) of the Toba Batak people of North Sumatra. 

The sarune bolon is used in the traditional and popular music of the Toba Batak people. 

It is traditionally used in the the folk genre known as gondang sabangunan, and is also used in the outdoor style religious music of the adherents of the Parmalim faith, a syncretic religion with elements of Hinduism, Buddhism and ancestor worship. 

The Toba Batak are now almost totally Christian, but there are still practitioners of the old religion, and the music played an important role in sending prayers to the spirit world and communication with the recently dead and ancient ancestors.

Today, this instrument can be heard in popular Batak music as well as in burial and reburial rituals, funerals, trance possession rituals and wedding celebrations in the Lake Toba region of North Sumatra.

This instrument has 5 finger holes and a thumbhole and traditionally plays a rather unique pentatonic scale that to some degree replicates melodies consisting of the first 5 tones of a diatonic major scale. Many other notes can be made by cross fingering and breathe manipulation. This instrument is traditionally played using circular breathing in order to produce extremely long melodic phrases. 

This instrument was made by my teacher, chief ethnographic informant and old friend, the late master musician Osner Gultom from Porsea on the shores of  Lake Toba on the island of Sumatra. 

Lake Toba is a volcanic crater lake and was the site of the last super volcano eruption in the world over 75,000 years ago. 

This sarune bolon was given to me in 2000 and was made in the 1990s. It is made of Sumatran hardwood. The pirouette is made of coconut shell and is attached with a small chain.

This instrument is in excellent condition and plays very well. 

This sarune bolon comes with 6 reeds, and has two reed pipes, one of which is made of ebony and is beautifully carved but slightly damaged at each end of the pipe. This could be fixed, but I am leaving it up to the buyer and offering it in its present condition. The other reed pipe is smaller, more functional, and made of water buffalo horn.

Its tonal center is around a low F followed by A, B, C, D, E, F.

It is designed to play in one octave only. 

The reeds should be soaked in lukewarm water for about 5 minutes before playing. 

If they swell too much, simply clamp one in the  bamboo clamp (see photo) for a minute or two and try again. 

Oboes are not easy instruments to play, so patience is always the key

This piece could well belong in a musical instrument museum, due to the quality of its build and the relative rarity of this instrument outside of Sumatra. 

This instrument is extremely difficult one for me to part with, as it is charged with lot’s of playing, lot’s of palm wine, lot’s of memories, and what can only be called spiritual power.  

It is time to pass this on, and I hope the buyer appreciates it as much as I do!

Length: 29.5” 

Bell diameter: 4”