Instruments from Bali

The Indonesian instruments that belong in a home rather than on a stage come in three kinds: a drum cut from a single piece of wood with a goatskin head, a rainstick whose seeds hush over pins inside, and bamboo wind chimes that sound low and woody rather than metallic.

Drums stand 20 to 40 centimetres tall and rainsticks 20 to 60, and the longer the stick, the longer the rain lasts. The bodies are carved by hand in Cipacing in West Java, so the ornament and the grain differ every time. Bamboo chimes are at home on a covered terrace too.