(0:03:24) The main accompanying instrument for Rotinese song is the sasandu, a plucked, bamboo tube-zither with a palm leaf resonator. Its ten or eleven strings are usually made from strands of motorcycle coupling wire, and their pitch is adjusted with individual, movable bridges and tuning pegs. The resonator is made by shaping the large fan-leaf of the lontar palm into a pleated hemisphere. Although it resembles tube-zithers found among other Austronesian peoples (for example, the Savunese ketadu haba, the Sikkanese santo, and the Malagasy valiha) the Rotinese claim the sasandu as their own invention, and revere it as the single most distinctive medium and symbol of their music culture. Composed by the performer Daniel Huan, Baku Natia is an intensely idiosyncratic song, filled with local references, in-jokes, puns and parody. Most Rotinese listeners would dismiss it out of hand because its text displays few of the poetic characteristics traditionally associated with a good Rotinese song. Each of the verses presents images of the singer's feelings of loss and regret - he is likened to a small boat lost on a troubled sea, he wonders where peace and tranquility can be found, he's out of tobacco and doesn't have enough money to buy more. Finally, it seems that his beloved is seduced by a powerful foreigner, becomes pregnant and is exiled. Notes by Christopher Basile. clip video

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