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Tony Prabowo: Longing to hear his music
JP/Ricky YudhistiraIndonesiaâs modern classical music scene is a quiet place for Tony Prabowo
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JP/Ricky Yudhistira
Indonesia's modern classical music scene is a quiet place for Tony Prabowo.
For the longest time, the composer only heard the music that he composed in his own head until two Dutch ensembles, Asko|Schönberg and The Haag Percussion, performed his Gandari composition just the way that he had imagined it. He burst into tears when he finally heard his music performed.
'Contemporary classical music is still foreign here despite the fact that most major composers in the West were influenced by traditional music such as gamelan,' said the 59-year-old. 'None of our musicians has a proper grasp on atonal music.'
The 264-page Gandari score that he spent 16 months composing was based on a poem of the same title written by Goenawan Mohamad. It is by far his longest and most grand composition to date.
Tony had created compositions to accompany dance operas before ' all based on Goenawan's poems or librettos, but never on such as scale as in Gandari.
The week before the first show during which performers from three different countries all rehearsed together was the most nerve-wracking week for Tony.
He had little confidence at first; since professional musicians were playing his piece he was worried that they might find it naïve, like child's play with many technical flaws.
'I'm a self-taught composer and I don't have a degree in music. On top of that, I don't play any instruments so I just write down the music that I hear playing inside my head. There is a full orchestra between my ears,' he says.
'Meanwhile, Asko is a big, big name in the contemporary music world. If my work is unacceptable, they wouldn't come here, would they? It's not like we have a lot of money to spend to bring them here.'
There was a standing ovation for Tony in the upstage orchestra pit.
Tony, who always kept his silvery hair long, has all the traits of an artistic personality. He has great passion for his work but can also be extremely objective about it. Though born a rebel, he sometimes makes conservative decisions.
Born on June 13 in Malang, East Java, he learned guitar from his father, Raden Mas Sutikno, when he was in second grade. It was his first brush with music.
In the early 1970s, he intended to enroll in the Indonesia Music School (SMIND), a vocational school for music in Yogyakarta that was the predecessor of the Indonesian Music Academy, but his parents wanted him to become an architect and admitted him to a regular school instead.
He was good at science and math so he went along with his parents' plans.
'One day the school became upset that I had grown my hair long. They wanted me to cut it and to bring my parents to school while suspending my attendance,' he recalled.
Tony eventually got his parents' consent to leave the school for SMIND where he took up violin as his major. He returned to Malang in 1976 and met students from the Indonesian Arts School (SSRI) for fine arts and performing arts. One of them was rocker Sylvia Saartje, with whom he joined a theater troupe.
In 1977 he left home for Jakarta without his parents' knowledge to study at the Jakarta Arts Education Body (LPKJ) ' now known as the Jakarta Arts Institute (IKJ) ' and found that only music composition class was available for him.
He took basic courses from musician Arjuna Hutagalung, who later became one of his closest friends, and entered the academy under the guidance of composer Slamet Abdul Sjukur.
'I learned most of the subject alone. He taught me three-voice counterpoint, which is very basic, and after that I quit.'
He formed a 23-piece ensemble in 1978 playing both classical music and 1970s rock music from artists like Frank Zappa, Herbert Joos, Henry Cow, Gentle Giant and the Mahavishnu Orchestra. The group separated in 1980 and he joined IKJ's rock band Abama that played Guruh Gipsy progressive rock music.
Tony had never really left the campus as he literally lived there, sleeping in the cello practice room from 1980 to 1985, the period in which Arjuna introduced him to the harsh harmonies of avant-garde music.
'It was a crazy period of my life. I listened to Arnold Schoenberg and Igor Stravinsky every day until I memorized the symphonies. At that time I decided to become a composer, which is what I am today.'
His decision to become a composer came at the same time that avant-garde art in Indonesia began to come into its own. Tony thus had many opportunities to experiment with interdisciplinary, collaborative projects.
He composed music to accompany dance pieces choreographed by Laksmi Notokusumo every year from 1983 to 1987 and later left for New York where he experienced the contemporary art-music scene in the US that mixed Western classical music with traditional instruments.
Tony got acquainted with composer Chou Wen-chung ' the mentor of Chinese composers Tan Dun, Guo Wenjing, Qu Xiao-song and Chen Yi ' who suggested that he 'return to his roots'.
'I was at a the crossroads at that time because I did not want to mix traditional music into my compositions. But I followed the advice.'
A meticulous artist, Tony explored the traditional Indonesian instruments and invented new ways of playing them so they could produce new varieties of sounds.
In 1993, Tony wrote music for the dance opera Panji Sepuh, which used nine rebab (bowed-zithers typically played in gamelan ensembles). In 1994, he went on a collaborative tour with Seattle-based composers Jarred Powell and Kent Deveraux together with Balinese wayang puppeteer I Made Sidia and Javanese wayang puppeteer Sri Joko Waluyo. They performed in Seattle, Minneapolis and Chicago.
The New Jakarta Ensemble was formed in July 1996 to provide music for an Indonesian dance festival. The short-lived ensemble used traditional instruments from Indonesia to Africa and played in a number of music festivals abroad. The group also recorded CDs and DVDs produced by Siam Records in New York. The ensemble separated in 2000.
Argentine-American composer Mario Davidovsky told Tony once that his compositions had a similar aesthetic to one of Schoenberg's pupils, Alban Berg, but were enriched with gamelan sounds even though none of the traditional instruments were used.
'It was a compliment by itself,' said Tony, a divorcee since 2011 after marrying a Surakarta palace dancer 21 years his junior for four years.
Now living alone, Tony said he's been longing for more friends who could catch up with his passion on modern classical music besides Yogyakarta-based composer Michael Asmoro.
The warm reception of the public towards the dance opera Gandari fueled his ambition to hold three performances in 2016.
'I want to make an extended version of Gandari, a rock orchestra of my rendition of Frank Zappa and ELP and my own concert ' in that order,' he said. 'I hope I can get support to bring Asko back for the events. I would die for that!'
