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Indonesia

PROPERTY OF OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

In this chapter, we will explore these subjects:

• The rich cultural history and religious diversity of the Indonesian islands

• The development of gamelan music in Java

• The development of gamelan gong kebyar in Bali, and how it differs from the Javanese style

• How Indonesian popular dangdut music evolved

Located in Southeast Asia (mostly) below the equator, Indonesia is the fourth most populous nation in the world, with over 270 million inhabitants who speak a total of several hundred local languages. It lies southeast of China and northwest of Australia, and it is a nation comprising over 9,000 islands (with some reports listing over 18,000!). It is as large as the United States, but rather than being all land, it is nearly all ocean (Figure 12.1). If you stretched a map of Indonesia over the United States, you would find that the farthest islands to the east coincide with Maine, and the farthest island to the west—Sumatra—would extend beyond Seattle. This basic map includes only the major islands; for our pur poses, however, you may wish to focus specially on the islands of Java—the long island to the left of the center—and Bali, the small island to the right of Java. Keep in mind, though, that there is exciting and noteworthy music on every inhabited island, and that relatively few things unite a very large and scattered population in terms of their specific interests, needs, and musical styles that they enjoy. In its location on the Pacific Rim “Ring of Fire” (in which the coasts of all the Pacific nations include volcanoes and seismic activity), Indonesia is home to seventy-six volcanoes. Its islands are rich in natural resources such as palm oil, metals, bamboo, petroleum, and rubber. They are also rich in their diversity of wildlife—from Komodo dragons and birds of paradise in the East to elephants and orangutans in the West—and that diversity has made it a focus of international PROPERTY OF OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS FIGURE 12.0 Gamelan ensemble at the sultan’s palace in Yogyakarta, Java.

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Brunei

Celebes Sea

Medan

MALAYSIA

Halmahera

SINGAPORE

Sulawesi (Celebes)

Molucca Sea

Kalimantan (Borneo)

Padang

INDONESIA

Baniarmasin

Sumatra

New Guinea

Moluccas

Java Sea

Makassar

Banda Sea

Jakarta

Flores Sea

Surabaya

Bandung

JAVA

Lesser Sunda Islands

East Timor

Indian Ocean

Arafura Sea

Sumba

Timor

FIGURE 12.1 Map of Indonesia.

attention by wildlife preservationists. Although Indonesia has large cities (its cap ital, Jakarta, has a population of over ten million people), most of it is rural. The links between traditional music and the environment—whether we are discussing the large ensembles of bronze gongs and gong-chimes called gamelan , associated with the courts, or solo bamboo flute playing—are strong across the nation. Part of our work for this chapter, then, will be to examine those connections. Centuries before Indonesia first declared its independence in 1945, all of Indonesia’s islands were governed locally. The Portuguese and Dutch colonized significant numbers of the islands in the 16th century, and even more islands and regions were brought into the new nation-state by the Indonesian government. What continues to make Indonesia such a fascinating place, however, is its many layers of cultural influence from abroad in combination with the layers of ele ments that were already in place. Indonesia’s people play thousands of genres of music, and thousands of instruments. This chapter addresses only its best-known ensembles—the gamelan —and its best-known popular music: dangdut . Religious and Colonial Influences Each element that led to the development of Indonesian music today came through a combination of factors, through the influences of both outside colonial powers and religious movements. New religions influenced the development of kingdoms rich in the performing arts. Outside colonial powers installed new political leaders who became patrons for musicians, dancers, and dramatists. PROPERTY OF OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS gamelan—an ensemble comprising gongs, gong-chimes, metallophones, and drums

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Religious and Colonial Influences

By the first century CE, Hinduism had already arrived in Indonesia through trade routes from South India. Hinduism includes many local gods, goddesses, and practices. With Hinduism came the idea of a king descended from a god, and the installation of gods in temples at which people worship and pay homage to them through the arts. Both visual and performing arts traditions developed as part of these practices. Over time, a number of Hindu kingdoms developed across the western portion of the Indonesian islands, and with each temple there were specific deities, ritual practices, and dynamic power systems at work. On the small island of Bali, for example, the members of 20,000 Hindu temples celebrate festi vals throughout the year in honor of such Hindu deities as Arjuna, Shiva, Ganesh, and others (Figure 12.2). These festivals include stunning visual arts in the form of masks, costumes, sculptures, carving, and painting; they also include sounds of human voices, bronze gongs, bamboo rattles, wooden instruments, and drums. The Hindu religion brought with it the caste system. The Indonesians who live on the islands of Java and Bali in particular exist within social strata: what we might think of as class, but actually based on historical Indian social divisions. In Bali one finds more Sanskrit-based words in the speech of the upper stratum than those, who use more local words and expressions. Perceived “insiders” tend to be the educated elite; the majority of the population tends to belong to the working classes.

FIGURE 12.2 Hindu religious procession at Pura Besakih, Bali. PROPERTY OF OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

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Buddhism came to Indonesia only a century after Hinduism; it arrived primar ily through trade from China and India. Because its arrival was nearly concurrent with Hinduism, the two religions have almost always been deeply intertwined in Indonesia. Buddhism does not feature a specific deity but focuses on ending the cycle of suffering and rebirth through the attainment of nirvana. Its stone mon uments, particularly the Borobudur temple in Central Java (the world’s largest Buddhist structure), remain as a testament to the power its adherents once held in the islands. Hindu-Buddhism was the “mainstream” religion for centuries, until it gradually began to coexist with Islam, and eventually was overshadowed by it. It is today the chosen religion of fewer than 1 percent of Indonesians, but its influences are still quite widespread. Islam first came to the coastal areas of Indonesia as the religion of traders. By the 14th century CE, it was established in a number of areas, particularly as local rulers recognized the advantage of belonging to the same religion as their busi ness partners. In many ways, Islam spread from the top down: Muslim rulers and merchants married locally, and entire populations were summarily “converted” because of the leader they followed. To this day, there is no one national way of being a Muslim. People vary in their practices from being strongly committed and devout (attending an Islamic school, reading the Qur’an—the Islamic holy book— aloud, praying five times a day and following every rule) to being quite casual about their faith. Public expressions of the Islamic faith have become quite common in the 21st century, with many people, for example, donning clothes that mimic those worn in the Middle East. With 90 percent of Indonesians claiming Islam as their belief system of choice and heritage, Islamic practices, architecture, and expressive culture are prominent, particularly in Central and Western Indonesia. Christianity—especially Catholicism—appeared in Indonesia with the ar rival of the Portuguese in the 16th century, becoming established in the region of what was called the Spice Islands (Maluku). The region of Eastern Indonesia today features 90 percent adherence to Catholicism (but which nonetheless has a foundation of animism). Protestantism is strongest on the islands of Sulawesi and Sumatra, which was established by the Dutch who colonized these islands begin ning in the 18th century. Presbyterians, Lutherans, Adventists, and other denom inations are an aspect of local culture; both Protestant and Catholic churches are in every major city.

Indonesia currently has a national policy of secularism, which means that there is no one single state religion. Note that although most of the nation’s people follow a local variant of (Sunni) Islam, it is built into the law that one can practice any of the allowable religions (Islam, Hinduism, Catholicism, Protestantism, Buddhism, and Confucianism). In such a diverse country, definitions and practices of local PROPERTY OF OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

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Religious and Colonial Influences

religions vary broadly. Besides the established religions, religious practices include localized forms of animism, including certain ritual behaviors, reverence for the natural world and for ancestors, and believing that elements of the natural world are imbued with a spiritual essence. That encompasses hundreds of variations on a basic theme. Consider that animism forms a foundational set of beliefs across the country, and that animism has deep roots. Though outsiders had been coming to Indonesia for millennia, the region expe rienced European colonialism primarily through the Portuguese and the Dutch from the 16th through the 20th centuries. The Portuguese came in search of spices, so they focused primarily on Eastern Indonesia, an area rich in nutmeg, mace, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, and other important spices (Figure 12.3). They established both trading posts and missions across the region, but their in fluence dwindled by the end of the 16th century due to Dutch competition and local resistance. In their search for both territory and natural resources the Dutch eventually controlled most of what is now known as Indonesia, beginning with the development of the Dutch East Indies Trading Company in the 16th century. The company was dissolved in the 19th century, and the Dutch officially took over the colonial administration of the archipelago. Resistance was strong in many areas, while some areas were only partly colonized. Dutch interests in Indonesia were primarily financial—rather than religious or military—and they profited

PROPERTY OF OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

FIGURE 12.3 Spices from the island of Maluku.

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handsomely from the forced cultivation of coffee, opium, rubber, tobacco, and other cash crops. The Dutch extended and shored up their military control of what was still known as the Dutch East Indies into the 20th century. As World War II spread to Asia, the Japanese took over control of the islands from the Dutch in 1943. When the Japanese lost the war, Indonesian resistance leaders declared independence. It took four more years before the United Nations officially recognized Indonesia as a sovereign nation. Indonesia as we know it today, though, is much more than the sum of every influence that has arrived on its shores. The national motto, “Bhinneka Tunggal Ika” (“Unity in Diversity” in Old Javanese), reflects both the celebration of diverse people and cultures as well as the importance of the Javanese in maintaining a particular status quo. The Javanese, being the most numerous ethnic group, maintain the strongest position

A Recipe for Indonesian Opor Ayam This stew made with chicken and coconut is easy to make, and tastes delicious. It is often served at the end of Ramadān—the Muslim fasting month—as part of the celebrations. Featuring lemongrass and galangal, which can be found in many large grocery stores in the sections that feature garlic, onions, and other savory ingredients, opor ayam (“sea soned chicken stew”) has a lovely fragrance that guests remark on when they come to visit during Lebaran, the celebration to close Ramadān. At this time, many offices shut down while employees return home to visit family, pay their respects at the graves of their loved ones, buy (and wear) new clothes, and eat rich foods. Being a good host means per sistently offering food to every guest; being a good guest means that one must politely refuse the offer at least once or twice. The host is always quite persistent, however, and the guest must always relent. 1 chopped onion, 2 minced garlic cloves, 1 tsp. of fresh minced ginger, 2 stalks of lemon grass (and some minced galangal root—look for both in an Asian food store if you have one nearby), 1 tsp. coriander, 1 tsp. cumin, 3 cans of coconut milk, 1 tsp. tamarind paste, and the juice of two limes. Chop some cilantro (coriander leaves). Green beans (washed, sliced) are optional. Using a large pan, brown the chicken in 1 tbsp. vegetable oil and set aside. Heat up another tbsp. vegetable oil and fry up the spices for a minute, then add the onion and garlic; stir for a few minutes. Add the coconut milk, tamarind paste, lemon grass stalks (tied up in knots) and the chicken pieces. Allow to simmer for about half an hour (including the optional green beans) while you put white rice on to cook. Just before you serve it, add the juice of two limes and stir. Serve over warm white rice and garnish with the cilantro. PROPERTY OF OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Ingredients: 2 pounds boneless chicken thighs, cut into pieces, 2 T vegetable oil,

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in Indonesian politics. Since its independence, Indonesia has undergone serious political upheavals and multiple natural disasters such as the earthquake and tsu nami of 2004, going through five different presidents since 1998 (after two very lengthy terms of its first two presidents), a major recession, and major forest fires that have had a devastating effect on the environment. With a legal system based on civil law and a democratically elected government, Indonesia is now a major exporter of petroleum and mineral products, and its territory includes popular tourist destinations such as the islands of Bali and Java. As it turns out, it is exactly this complicated history that led to the development of Indonesia’s elaborate gong chime musical ensemble, the gamelan . In the Javanese language, gamel means “to strike,” and gamelan means “that which is struck.” That should tell you that this musical style includes percussion! Indonesia’s gamelan ensembles are famous around the world, yet their use occurs mainly on the two islands of Java and Bali. The gamelan includes many types of musical instruments, including a rich array of percussion instruments. One of the most distinctive is the “gong-chime.” Try to imagine a set of tuned kettle-gongs arranged in a row, or in two rows next to each other (Figure 12.4). While the gong-chime is just one of many instruments in an ensemble, it does not look like any other and is an identifying instrument for gamelan. Others include keyed xylophone-type instruments (with wood, bamboo, or bronze keys—the latter is

FIGURE 12.4 Gamelan Sari Oneng in Sumedang, West Java. gamelan—bronze gong-chime ensemble PROPERTY OF OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

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called a metallophone), barrel drums, hanging gongs, and other instruments such as a bamboo flute, single kettle gongs, a zither, or a type of vertically held bowed lute, depending on the ensemble. There are many kinds of gamelan in Indonesia. Their diversity in construction, use, context, and repertoire is part of what makes studying and listening to them so interesting. Central Javanese Gamelan The three big sections of Java—an island about the size of California—are West Java, Central Java, and East Java. Each one has many different types of gamelan. Central Java, however, is the site of Java’s two main traditional court cities (Surakarta and Yogyakarta), where the members of royal families live and work, and where large ensembles of gamelan (Figure 12.5) rehearse and perform in beautiful open-air pavilions. The two court musical systems of Surakarta and Yogyakarta have been in competition with one another for a long time; each one has its enthusiasts. Indonesian music is not related to Western music systems of major and minor harmonies. While there are variations all over the island, most Javanese gamelan fall into two different tunings: sléndro and pélog . Sléndro sounds like five tones of nearly

sléndro —one of two main modes in Indonesian music pélog —one of two main modes in Indonesian music

FIGURE 12.5 Large Central Javanese gamelan at the Pura Paku Alaman, Yogyakarta. PROPERTY OF OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

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Central Javanese Gamelan

LISTENING GUIDE 12.1

“Ketawang: Puspawarna” (“Kinds of Flowers”), performed by the Pura Paku Alaman gamelan ensemble in Yogyakarta, led by K.R.T. Wasitodipuro.

This piece is in the ketawang form, and its tuning is in sléndro pathet manyura , which is the Javanese way of specifying which pitches are important in this particular piece. This piece is the most pop ular of the ketawang form, and there are many video recordings of performances of it online by both Central Javanese people and foreigners. This piece is based on a poem written by Prince Mangkunegara (1853–1881) about different kinds of flowers. The lyrics mention the flowers as

metaphors for different types of women. This exact recording was part of the “golden record” that was sent into outer space in 1977 with the Voyager 1 spaceship, which is now in interstellar space. As you listen to this recording, try to follow the form. Remember that the balungan (main melody) is slow; it takes about half a minute to move from gong to gong. Listen for the kempul—the small hanging gong—as it sounds three-fourths of the way through each cycle.

Timing

Section

0:00

Introduction to the piece, played on a bowed instrument, ending with several sharp drum strokes and the first large gong

0:07

Balungan begins

0:22

Gong

0:46

Gong

0:55 PROPERTY OF OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Male chorus begins 1:13 Gong 1:41 Gong 2:08 Gong, end of male chorus 2:37 Gong 3:04 Gong 3:15 Male chorus begins again 3:32 Gong (begins to speed up at the end of the cycle, indicating that the end is coming) 3:59 Gong (begins to slow down again early on in the cycle) 4:32 Final gong, end of male chorus 4:44 End

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equidistant degrees of separation (try playing C, E flat, F, G, B flat, and C on the piano). Pélog has a gapped scale; in other words, it doesn’t move evenly from bottom to top, but has gaps as you progress up the scale (try playing, for example, C, D, E flat, G, A flat, and C on the piano). In addition, pélog draws from seven different avail able pitches to create a variety of five-tone gapped scales. Just remember that the piano does not do justice to either tuning; you are better off to simply listen to actual gamelan pieces, if you can. In addition, there is strong variation across Indonesia; pélog in one place will sound quite different from the way it sounds in another. Both tuning systems use a numbering system with 1 at the bottom of the scale and 6 (or 7, in the case of pélog) at the top. Depending on which tones are em phasized, or are used as primary tones for the melody, the entire feel of the piece changes. This emphasis on one tone or another is called mode, and it determines the overall feel and sound of each piece. Each mode has a name, a mood, and other attributes. (Note that this is not the same as the Western definition of mode.) Even within the islands of Java and Bali, these tunings vary. Therefore, each ensemble has to be tuned specifically so that each instrument matches the others. If an in strument goes missing, one cannot simply borrow that same instrument from an other ensemble; the tuning will be different! One of the most important things to know about gamelan is that it has a struc ture, referred to as colotomic . This means the melody and structure are organized into sections of sound, which are then performed in repeating cycles. But how does it work? Think of a sentence with commas at every fourth word and a period at

colotomic—repeating cycles of melody and structure

ketawang—one type of structural framework for Javanese gamelan music

the end of the sentence. Now substitute a large hanging gong for the period, and smaller hanging gongs or kettle gongs for those commas. Once you have the basic framework of the musical “sentence,” imagine that the sentence repeats mul tiple times, in a cycle. In Figure 12.6, one such colotomic structure (the form is known as ketawang ) reveals the posi tions of different structural elements. The structure has eight beats per cycle. The big hanging gong appears at the top; its very low tone functions as the last note of the cycle . Progressing to the right in the circle, the kethuk (a small kettle gong, designated by the letter T) marks the first step into the cycle. The kempul (a medium-sized hanging gong, designated by the letter P) appears next, but in this form it is silent. Another kethuk stroke follows, then the kenong (a large kettle gong, designated by the letter N) appears half way through the cycle. To complete the cycle, we go through PROPERTY OF OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS FIGURE 12.6 Colotomic structure of the ketawang form. 7 1 T T T 6 P T N N 8 GONG 5 4 3 2

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Balinese Gamelan

another kethuk, kempul, kethuk, and kenong stroke; the final kenong coincides with the large hanging gong. Remember, this is just one of multiple types of struc tures. However, they all have colotomic structure, and they all include something similar to this type of cyclic organization. Beyond this basic ketawang structure, however, much more is happening. There is a main melody (the balungan or “skeleton”) that is played on the large metallo phone called the slenthem . It features broad, thin bronze keys suspended over res onators. The balungan is played quite slowly to allow the many other instruments to perform variations and elaborations of it. These countermelodies fill in the gaps between the notes of the balungan. Those other instruments—metallophones, xylophones, gong chimes, and so on—might perform variations such as doubling the balungan, as follows:

Slenthem:

3 2 3 2 2 1 2 1 3 2 3 2 1 6 1 6

Saron:

Notice that the numbers in bold match between the two keyed instruments. Even with this small example, you should be able to understand the principle of elaboration on the basic melody, or balungan .

Balinese Gamelan In dramatic contrast to the sound of the Javanese gamelan is the sound of Balinese gamelan gong kebyar . Balinese gamelan gong kebyar music is famous around the world for its extremely rapid tempos, its energetic playing, and the shimmering sound of its gongs. Among the many types of Balinese performing arts that one can locate in performance on any given day, the gamelan gong kebyar is the most frequently heard. The word kebyar is from the sound “BYAR!” which indicates an explosion or flaring up. It is a particularly apt onomatopoeic word, given the pow erful, driving forcefulness that propels the music. Although Bali and Java are located just a few miles apart across a narrow strait, their gamelan traditions have developed differently. Bali and Java both were once primarily Hindu-Buddhist, with a religious foundation of animism. When the Javanese power structures shifted toward Islam several hundred years ago, many Hindu-Buddhist people—particularly some members of the ruling classes—went to Bali and re-established themselves there in combination with the people already living there. Balinese Hindu-Buddhism has developed since that time into a lively, PROPERTY OF OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS balungan—melodic framework for Javanese gamelan music gamelan gong kebyar — an energetic type of Balinese gamelan

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syncretic faith that is quite public because of the vitality of its expressive arts. In Bali, to be a “good Hindu” means devoting oneself to the arts as an outward ex pression of spirituality, whether those arts feature wood or stone carving, painting, mask-making, dancing, or musicianship. Visitors from abroad are often surprised (and delighted) at the ubiquitous and readily accessible nature of the arts on Bali, particularly in contrast to the less publicly obvious performing arts on Java. But that has as much to do with the functioning of a well-oiled tourist machine touting Bali as a type of paradise as it has to do with significant—much older—differences in the artistic and religious contexts of the neighboring islands of Bali and Java. Gamelan gong kebyar is relatively new on the scene; its development, sudden popularity, and repertoire date largely from the 1920s. The Dutch takeover of Bali was completed by the 1920s, even though they had colonized other islands long before that. Because of the Dutch, many of the local rulers in Bali fell out of power in the early 20th century. Without power, they were unable to maintain the large ensembles of gamelan that had previously provided a type of sonic accompaniment to their rule. As a result, local gamelan ensembles shifted from being owned by local rulers to being owned collectively, through a type of multifaceted commu nity organization known as banjar . These banjar organizations continue to exist today as a type of community group to which each Balinese person must belong; everyone in a banjar knows each other, many of the musicians play together, and it is the responsibility of all members of a banjar to come together in times of crisis or when there is a need for a collective work project. Beginning in North Bali, kebyar quickly spread throughout the island. Kebyar became so popular, in fact, that some older ceremonial gamelan instruments were melted down and reforged as kebyar instruments with new tunings! As is the case with Javanese gamelan, the instruments are primarily made of bronze; the tunings include pelog and—for some non-kebyar ensembles—slendro (though those are fairly recent terms for the Balinese, who have had their own names for the tunings). The pelog and slendro of Balinese music, however, are not the same as those in Central Java, but they are related. In gamelan gong kebyar, there are five keys per octave in a gapped scale. One thing that sets gamelan gong kebyar apart from many other Balinese en sembles is that it is primarily secular; it isn’t tied to any one particular religious ceremony but performs in many contexts. New compositions are being created for gamelan gong kebyar all the time. In Bali’s lively and competitive atmosphere, it is the norm to use new compositions in competitions. In listening to it after hearing Central Javanese gamelan, you will easily be able to discern some important differ ences as noted above, but also some similarities.

banjar —community collective in Bali PROPERTY OF OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

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You Can Do It!

You are going to learn a very simplified version of the Balinese kecak (pronounced “keh-chak”) chant. It is used for a specific theater piece titled The R ā m ā ya ṇ a , which came to Bali from India. Part of the R ā m ā ya ṇ a story involves an epic battle between a good guy (Rama) and a bad guy (Ravana). A monkey army—symbolized by shouts of “cak!” (don’t forget to pronounce it as “chak!”)—rushes in and saves the day. This genre, also known as gamelan suara (or “voice gamelan”), is per formed at a high speed with interlocking patterns, rather like what you hear in the Balinese gamelan gong kebyar ensemble. Each of you should learn to say this eight-beat pattern:

cak!

Once you have mastered that pattern, have a second person start the same pattern off but begin on beat 2, so that the second person is one beat after the first person. Practice that for a few minutes. Now add a third person, beginning on beat 3. This is what it should sound like:

cak!

Do you see how these parts fit together? Each one is the same. If you have more people, add someone saying “pung” once on each beat to keep the tempo steady. This “pung” shouldn’t have much of a vowel, be cause it is in imitation of a small kettle gong. Add someone saying “sirrrrr” (roll those r’s!) on beat 1 and another person singing a short, high-pitched “mong!” on beat 5. Keep this going as long as you can, and then switch the parts around. This experience helps you to understand the interlock ing patterns at work in this kecak genre, but also gives you a sense of how challenging it is to do things on your own when it feels as if everything is chaotic all around you. After you have experimented with kecak, look it up online. Good luck keeping up! - PROPERTY OF OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS kecak—Balinese vocal performance with interlocking patterns cak! - cak! - - cak! -

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In Balinese as in Javanese gamelan, certain instruments create the structural foundation, while others perform something like a main melody and its variations and elaborations. In Central Javanese music, you heard the balungan or the skel etal melody, plus other instruments playing around it, decorating it with other notes, duplicating notes, and generally filling in the space between the main balun gan notes with related ones. In Balinese gamelan, the main melody is called the pokok (pronounced “pōkōk”). The pokok is played on the jegogan , a low-pitched metallophone in which the keys—played with soft mallets—are suspended over resonating chambers. Melodic elaborations are performed by players on gangsa , smaller versions of the jegogan, but with twice as many keys played with hard mal lets. In addition, a single-row gong-chime instrument called reyong —played by four players—has two important roles of providing both high-speed elaborating patterns that are based on the pokok (main melody), and a strong percussive ac companiment using different parts of the instruments and mallets. Of course— this being gamelan music—many more instruments fill in the parts (Figure 12.7). If you listen closely to any gamelan piece, each one has its own internal grid that re veals itself over time. Unlike in the gamelan music of Central Java, however, impro visation here is virtually impossible because of the ways musicians must coordinate with each other to perform such tightly arranged works on twenty-five different instruments, each one of which has a name and individual playing techniques.

FIGURE 12.7 Women’s Gamelan Gong Kebyar ensemble, Bali. pokok—melodic framework for Balinese gamelan music PROPERTY OF OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

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Balinese Gamelan

LISTENING GUIDE 12.2

“Sekar Jupun” (“Japanese Flower”), performed by the musicians of the Peliatan Dance Troupe

A relatively standard form for a kebyar piece includes primary sections separated by a brief transition section. As you listen to this particu lar recording, one of the first things you should notice is that there is a very strong difference between the slightly rounded, muted sound of the reyong (the gong-chime) and the sharper, “pingy” sound of the gangsa (metallophone with suspended keys). Now compare what you can watch—noting the reyong and gangsa parts in the videos—with the sound of the same melody played by different musicians: the musicians of the Peliatan Dance

Troupe. Peliatan, a small town near the cultural center of Ubud on the island of Bali, is famous for its visual art—carving and painting—as well as its music and dance troupe that traveled to Paris in 1931 and to England and the United States in 1952. It was, for most members of the audience, the first time they had seen any performances by Balinese people and the first they had heard of Bali. In the 21st century, the members of Peliatan’s performing arts communities travel abroad, teach foreigners, and continue their important work as musicians and dancers at home.

Timing Section 0:00

Piece begins with a short melody in unison

0:14

Reyong (gong-chime) section

0:47

Entrance of gangsa

1:00

Entrance of steady pulse, pokok (main low-pitched “melody”), and kotekan (interlocking patterns)

1:14 PROPERTY OF OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Entry of the reyong 1:30 Entry of steady pulse with clear articulation between the low- and high-pitched gongs as the reyong continues its rapid-fire patterns, alternating between loud and soft Drum leads into entry of jegogan (low-pitched metallophone) with percussive beats from the gangsa (higher-pitched metallophones played with hard mallets) 1:56 2:07 Addition of cymbals, playing with the drums 2:58 Entry of gangsa metallophones (higher pitches, hard mallets) 3:08 Gangsa incorporates silences and dampening of instruments 3:15 Entry of high-pitched gangsa kantilan (smallest) metallophone 3:37 Gangsa instruments lead into steady pulse again with reyong and very fast drumming 3:57 Gangsa performing kotekan patterns

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Timing Section 4:13

Entry of cymbals matching flurry of drumming

4:25

Ending pattern starts as everything drops to one fourth the density and the reyong regains prominence, playing softer and louder in alternation

4:50

Drumming takes over to rush toward the ending

5:11

End

Many Balinese instruments for kebyar are paired, and are gendered male and female. Those pairs divide into the ones that play on the beat and the ones that play off the beat so that they perform in interlocking patterns. You can try this yourself simply by clapping on beats 1, 3, 5, and 7, and asking a friend to clap on beats 2, 4, 6, and 8. Now speed it up so that you are clapping as fast as you possibly can! You won’t even come close to the fastest Balinese playing! Playing in interlocking patterns—which the Balinese call kotekan —makes the elaborations of the melody (pokok) line sound even faster; the overall effect is dazzling. Even the drummers play in interlocking patterns. Search online for two players (their names are I Putu Putrawan and Wayne Vitale) doing kotekan and playing “Taruna Jaya” on the gangsa instruments; you can see how the upper player (the one at the top of the screen) is playing on the onbeats ( polos ), while the one at the bottom of the screen is playing on the offbeats ( sangsih ). What makes these even more interesting is the fact that Balinese paired instru ments are tuned slightly differently from each other. In a single pair, one is tuned higher than the other. The result is an extraordinary shimmering sound ( ombak , “wave”) that comes from the interaction between two different sound waves. In order to create this effect, the tuning must be done very precisely so as to create the “wave” sound. Only then are the instruments believed to have come to life. Before going on to Listening Guide 12.2, watch Videos 12.1 and 12.2 to learn more about the gamelan in Bali. Both Balinese and Javanese gamelan are often cited as among the most refined and elite of all the Indonesian performing arts (or indeed, the only Indonesian per forming arts worth discussing). However, thousands of other beloved genres exist in Indonesia including music for wind instruments, zithers, drums, solo and group singing, or tuned rattles. All of those musical genres are well worth exploring. PROPERTY OF OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

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Dangdut Popular Music

Dangdut Popular Music Dangdut (pronounced “dahng-dūt”) was once the popular music of Indonesia’s urban poor. With lyrics celebrating the concerns of ordinary people, the genre has a distinctive sound, rhythm, and instrumentation. The name derives from the sound of two different strokes on the (Indian) tabla drum: dang and dut (though there are more drum sounds connected with the genre). In the decades since its original development in the 1970s, it has gone through a number of changes that mirror the contextual shifts of American folk and blues sounds (Weintraub 2010). From street corners to weddings and mainstream political rallies to the Indonesian equivalent of the television show The Voice , dangdut continues in popularity and engages the musical preferences of millions of Indonesians (Figure 12.8). Dangdut has its roots in the 1950s, spurred by the simultaneous growth of Malay dance band music ( orkes Melayu ), the denouncing of Western popular music by Indonesia’s President Sukarno in 1959, the welcoming of Indian musical films (with their catchy soundtracks) in the mid-1960s, and the increasing importance of Islam after the mid-1960s. It was a musical hybrid of sounds that drew from, and appealed to, Indonesians with connections both in the local and the global: Malaysia, India, Europe, China, and the Middle East. By the 1970s the genre had a name, and bands proliferated in Indonesia’s urban areas, particularly in the cap ital city of Jakarta. As Indonesia’s political system changed over time, rock music (and its trappings) became yet another influence both on the sounds and the per formers. Song lyrics referenced the conditions and concerns of the poor (i.e., not

having enough money, experiencing heartache, difficulties at home), and the genre and its per formers established an enduring musical niche. Three primary instruments are connected with dangdut: the pair of single-headed tabla drums (drawn from the soundtracks of Indian films); the flute (from the orkes Melayu ensemble); and the guitar (from both Western popular music and Asian lute sounds). As dangdut has evolved, so has its collection of “normal” instruments; it now might include a synthesizer, electric guitar and bass, mandolin, local barrel-shaped drum, and others. The diversity of instruments, together with the all-important dangdut rhythm and the Indonesia-focused lyrics, speak to the genre’s dangdut—popular dance music derived from Indian film music PROPERTY OF OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS FIGURE 12.8 Dangdut performance by Maya KDI in Surabaya, East Java.

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CHAPTER 12 Indonesia

LISTENING GUIDE 12.3

“Begadang II” (“Up All Night II”), performed by Rhoma Irama and the Soneta Group

Rhoma Irama has been the top male dangdut vocalist for decades. In “Begadang II” (“Up All Night II”), the lyrics celebrate what ordinary people (who cannot afford to dance in a nightclub or eat in a restaurant) do on a Saturday night: they hang out and stay up late with friends. The song alternates between the first verse (Part A) and the second (Part B), interspersed with a couple of instrumental solos for electric guitar and flute. A section (Part C) that functions as a bridge—in that it goes into a somewhat deeper meaning for the song lyrics— appears at 01:53. In many ways this song demonstrates some of the most important aspects of dangdut: its

instruments; its rhythmic pattern; and its content that focuses on the lives of the poor. The disparity between the income of its major performers and its primary consumers is of course well-known, even as the singer uses phrases such as “We who have no money,” thereby connecting himself to the poor. Obvious parallels may be drawn between this music and some subsets of American country music in terms of having a specific sound, lyric content that speaks for the poor and working classes, and the artists connecting themselves with their audience by sometimes referring to a lack of financial stability.

Timing Section

Lyrics

0:00

Instrumental introduction

0:22

Part A

What does it mean, Saturday night? For people who can’t afford it? Want to party, no money Finally just hanging out on the street. Up all night, let’s stay up all night Stay up all night while singing Although we don’t have any money We too can have fun. What does it mean, Saturday night? For people who can’t afford it? Want to party, no money Finally just hanging out on the street.

00:48

Part B

01:03 PROPERTY OF OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Part A 01:28 Instrumental solo on electric guitar 01:40 Flute solo 01:53 Part C For those who have money Dancing at nightclubs [For we who have no money] It’s enough to just dance here.

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Dangdut Popular Music

Timing Section

Lyrics