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Reviving genuine string music amid perils
New creation: Belentung Bamboo from Jatitujuh district in Majalengka, West Java, showcases a new musical instrument made of bamboo that can be played for both rhythm and melody
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span class="inline inline-center">New creation: Belentung Bamboo from Jatitujuh district in Majalengka, West Java, showcases a new musical instrument made of bamboo that can be played for both rhythm and melody.
At least 16 groups of musicians, as well as individual artists from Indonesia and other countries, took
part in Festival Dawai Nusantara (FDN), the country's stringed instrument music festival in Malang, East Java.
They boasted such instruments as the violin, kecapi (zither), East Nusa Tenggara's sasando (a stringed bamboo tube covered with palm leaves), Kalimantan's sapek (lute) and rabab sagiling bulau (bowed bamboo viola), Middle-Eastern oud (lute) and African kora (21-stringed lute) and employed them all at Taman Krida Budaya Cultural Park.
Festival founder Redy Eko Prastyo felt the need to remind young artists and the general public of the typical sound of string instruments from several parts of the archipelago that are currently almost overwhelmed by the influx of industrial music. 'This fact inspired me to balance the current musical climate with stringed instruments', he said.
This Malang artist also plans to make the event, held on June 5 to 7 this year, an annual festival but in a slightly different format. 'The next festival will have a lot more participants, plus a workshop,' Redy said.
Festival curator Koko Harsoe said that stringed music exploration offered a fairly effective forum to produce something musically sexy. 'But this sexiness concerns stringed musical quality to put it in context with today's trends or recreational novelties,' noted the guitarist from Batu, near Malang.
In his view, the novel features of stringed instruments involved not only musical tones but also the instruments' textures and their performers. He referred to Wukir Suryadi, a Malang artist creating a bamboo instrument that can be played by plucking it with a bow.
Koko also described the traditional and modest nature of this musical icon's instrument, which is widely admired by local and foreign music lovers. 'Sadly, he's unable to participate in this event because he is in Spain,' he added.
A Sapek from West and East Kalimantan was played on the first day by Ivan Thambun, also known as Thambunesia.
Although in casual wear, his identity was well expressed as his sapek rendered a series of compositions from 'Welcome to Borneo' to 'Monggo' (Please). This student of a college in Yogyakarta presented 'Monggo' as a gesture of Kalimantan-Java cultural interaction.
From the land of Borneo, Daniel Nuhan and his Tingang Tatu group displayed their rabab sagiling bulau skills. The instrument from Katingan regency, Central Kalimantan, is normally used during certain rituals. 'We're proud to maintain this traditional music though we had to learn it from village elders,' said Daniel.
A new creation, the belentung bambu, came from West Java's Jatitujuh district in the Majalengka regency. This instrument is crafted from the local bitung bamboo variety and belentung is derived from the name of a frog species living in the Jatitujuh paddy fields.
Kalis, a member of the Belentung Bamboo group, said that basically this single-string bamboo was designed for rhythmic tones mostly played by a collection of people. 'But we're trying to make further explorations to produce more melodies,' he added.
Kevin Prawiro Widjojo, 8, impressed the audience with his promising violin showmanship. Like Thambunesia, the second grader played solo while being accompanied by various pieces from the Sundanese folksong 'Manuk Dadali' and Metallica's 'The Unforgiven'.
However, a saddening atmosphere prevailed when the Dwipantara Ensemble featuring Ki Supatman were forced to play without Ki Supatman, a macapat icon, who passed away one day before the festival.
Nusa Tuak from East Nusa Tenggara was the five-member group using sasando, an instrument whose string sound was originally produced from curved palm leaves. 'After being electrically modified, the palm leaves we use just preserve the typical characteristic of sasando instead of functioning as resonators,' said the group's Ganzer Lana Sasandowis.
Back to Java, composer Joko Porong, also an accomplished gamelan player and skilled shadow puppeteer, performed his explorations and collaborations with various instruments like gamelan, rebab, zither and flute arrangements.
Middle-Eastern style music filled the air when Syech Razie Ali MD played his oud during the show. 'But I wish to change the impression that my music is only suitable to accompany breaking of the fast or Islamic ceremonies,' said the man from Malang now living in Malaysia.
He claimed that his lute music had been used at a hospital in Malaysia as a means of therapy for aged people or those suffering from a stroke. 'With this music, they become more tranquil and relaxed for their recovery,' he said.
Syech Razie also invited the other participants to collaborate in playing some compositions, including a newly created one on stage entitled 'C'. 'I asked the other musicians to improvise on the note C according to their respective instruments,' he revealed.
Vieux Aliou Cissokho, an artist from Senegal, Africa, welcomed this collaboration. 'Kora is around two centuries old and it turned out to be remarkably in harmony with the other stringed instruments from Indonesia,' said the musician who is already appearing frequently in some countries.
A cultural observer from Magelang, Central Java, Sutanto, alias Tanto Mendut, suggested the necessity of collaboration in order to demonstrate the existence of a certain culture without losing its own identity. 'If necessary we can combine our culture with hip-hop or K-Pop, because art starts from a casual action, so don't be too theoretical about it,' said the originator of the Five-Mountain Festival.
Nonetheless, the first stringed music festival in Malang, even in Indonesia, was criticized by Bambang Dwi, a musician from Salatiga, Central Java. 'As a participant and spectator, I've been less informed of the stringed instruments staged in this program,' he remarked.
He argued that such information could have been given in writing or in brief narrations on a screen beside the stage as the musicians were going to perform. This artist from the Saung Swara band had also wished to see dialogue from participants about the history or philosophy of the relevant instruments during breaks.
'I think that such education for society is important so that the festival won't just be a momentary euphoria for artists of stringed music,' Bambang concluded.
' Photos by Nedi Putra AW
