Rebab, spike fiddle made from eleven separate parts, with bridge, spare bridge, bow, rosin and mute. Made of orangewood with soundtable of parchment from buffalo intestine, with two long and decorative tuning pegs. Two steel strings formed of one long string, fastened at the bottom below the soundtable and returning upwards. Bow strung with horsehair.
The rebab may be played solo, or more often as part of the small gamelan ensemble at wayang golek (wooden puppet) performances, where the most important role of the rebab is to accompany the solo woman singer. Rebabs are also used in intrumental duet with the kacapi zither. A further 20th century development was Ciawian (Ciawi is a town in West Java) in which the rebab and kacapi accompany a woman singer in a chamber song repertoire. Most rebab playing is in a highly expressive style. A wooden or cloth mute (or both together) is sometimes inserted below the bridge.
