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Songwriter Gesang dies at 92
Keroncong maestro Gesang Martohartono, whose songs gained fame all the way to Japan, passed away Thursday shortly after 6 p
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eroncong maestro Gesang Martohartono, whose songs gained fame all the way to Japan, passed away Thursday shortly after 6 p.m. in Surakarta, Central Java, after being hospitalized since last week. He was 92.
Earlier rumors of his death, worsened by the speed of news, added to the family’s “shock and disappointment”. A false report of Gesang’s death was broadcasted by a news station and a news portal on Tuesday.
The senior composer of keroncong (Portuguese-influenced traditional music), best known for his classic Bengawan Solo (Solo River), was admitted to PKU Muhammdiyah Hospital on May 12 with a digestive problem. Gesang’s niece, Yuniarti, said her uncle had eventually died of asphyxiation and heart failure.
Surakarta Mayor Joko Widodo and artist Jujuk Juariyah from the Srimulat comedy troupe were among those paying last respects. The place of burial was yet to be decided.
Gesang, who could not read musical notation, composed Bengawan Solo in 1940. It became popular throughout Indonesia, Japan and other Asian countries since first being recorded, and after it was aired in the 1940s on SRV, a local radio station. It also became popular with the Japanese forces occupying Java during World War II.
When Surakarta’s regional station of Radio Republik Indonesia was established in 1950, Gesang gained his own keroncong program.
In 2003 the Indonesian Records Museum awarded him for his long career in the recording industry; in 2004, he received another for Bengawan Solo’s record of being the song most covered by other artists.
In 2009 Gesang told The Jakarta Post that “unfortunately [the river] is not as beautiful as before.”
