Batu Matia performed by A. A. Malelak in Roti, Indonesia

<p id="eow-description" class="">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.

Batu Matia literally means "Heavy Rock", and this song performed by A. A. Malelak, is well known in many versions across Roti. It portrays mankind's Sisyphian struggle with the heavy burden of existence. The Rotinese words used to describe a rock that is both an "immovable object" and an unavoidable and ongoing fact of life.

Please see http://www.users.on.net/~renike.basil... for more information.

Notes by Christopher Basile.</p>