Jack_Campin - 1-9-2013 at 03:07 PM
"Gambus" in Malaysia and Indonesia usually just means an oud. This thing is a bit different:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=189vhP5Rxwo
The body shape is elongated like a cobza, and it has the rose directly cut out of the soundboard.
Does it have a special name in Malay?
Is it thought of as specially a woman's instrument?
Can I walk into a music shop in Penang or KL and buy one?
The video sound quality doesn't do it any favours.
Alfaraby - 1-9-2013 at 03:40 PM
I don't know this instrument, but I know the song ! She's singing an Arabic (Lebanese) folk-dance song, called "Al Bint Al Shalabeyyah" (The pretty
girl).
It's amazing how Arabic words are pronounced by a Malay singer. Wasn't the music this familiar, I wouldn't have recognized the Arabic lyrics at all
Good show, though
Yours indeed
Alfaraby
Jack_Campin - 1-9-2013 at 04:51 PM
This video gives a better idea of what she can do:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fbm0R_u65Zg
I don't recognize the song, it's a bit like "Üsküdar'a gider iken" in places.
Jack_Campin - 1-29-2013 at 04:02 PM
Found a bit more. It's a "gambus melayu":
http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/files/21757/10891257253hilarian...
Chococumba - 11-25-2016 at 05:15 AM
The Gambus is just another word for oud. The Gambus is pretty much designed based on the ouds that were first introduced by the Arab traders maybe
1000 years ago possibly trading spice and livestock.
You will more likely to get a Gambus in Malaysia mainland or in Indonesia. Most people these days in Malaysia and Indonesia play normal Arabic or
Turkish ouds.