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Sometimes the player sits in very un-Malayan manner, with legs stretched out before him, and places the gang'-sa bottom up on his lap. He beats it with the flat of both hands, producing the rhythmic pulse by a deadening or smothering of a beat.
It must be kept in mind that all the gang'-sa are beaten regularly and in perfect time there is no such thing as half notes. The gang'-sa is struck at each italicized count, and each unitalicized count represents a rest, the accent represents the accented beat of the gang'-sa. The ka'-los is usually beaten without accent and without rest.
Either is worth a large price to-day in the central part of the area or from one to two carabaos but it is quite impossible to purchase them even at that price. Gang'-sa music consists of two things rhythm and crude harmony.
It is commonly claimed that those of the Moro are made on the Asiatic mainland. It is my opinion that the Bontoc gong, or gang'-sa, originates in China, though perhaps it is not now imported directly from there. It certainly does not enter the Island of Luzon at Manila, or Candon in Ilokos Sur, and, it is said, not at Vigan, also in Ilokos Sur.
The rhythm of Igorot gang'-sa music is different from most primitive music I have heard either in America or Luzon. The player beats 4/4 time, with the accent on the third beat. Though there may be twenty gang'-sa in the dance circle a mile distant, yet the regular pulse and beat of the third count is always the prominent feature of the sound.
A considerable volume of sound is produced by the gang'-sa of the central part of the area; it may readily be heard a mile, if beaten in the open air. In pueblos toward the western part of the area, as in Balili, Alap, and their neighbors, the instrument is played differently and the sound carries only a few rods.
In Bontoc the gang'-sa is held vertically in the hand by a cord passing through two holes in the rim, and the cord usually has a human lower jaw attached to facilitate the grip. There is no gang'-sa music without the accompanying dance, and there is no dance unaccompanied by music. A gang'-sa or a tin can put in the hands of an Igorot boy is always at once productive of music and dance.
In the Bontoc area there are two classes of gang'-sa; one is called ka'-los, and the other co-ong'-an. The co-ong'-an is frequently larger than the other, seems to be always of thicker metal, and has a more bell-like and usually higher-pitched tone.
Again the gang'-sa is held in the air, usually as high as the face, and one or two soft beats, just a tinkle, of the 4/4 time are struck on the inside of the gang'-sa by a small, light stick. Now and then the player, after having thoroughly acquired the rhythm, clutches the instrument under his arm for a half minute while he continues his dance in perfect time and rhythm.
The Bontoc Igorot dances in a circle, and he follows the circle contraclockwise. There is no dancing without gang'-sa music, and it is seldom that a man dances unless he plays a gang'-sa. The dance step is slower than the beats on the gang'-sa; there is one complete "step" to every full 4/4 count. At times the "step" is simply a high-stepping slow run, really a springing prance.
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