The festival boasts an interesting selection of traditional music, from the cheerful tunes of Minangkabau’s Talempong Aguang to a healing music ritual from Central Sulawesi.

In the old days, Minangkabau women would play music and dance before serving a feast to their guests. While cooking up an array of dishes, the women would joke around, dance and play a set of talempong (small kettle gongs) and aguang (large gong), as well as some kitchen utensils like pans, glasses and plates.

Minang Sakato, a group of musicians from Lima Puluh Kota of West Sumatra, relived the lively tunes and cheerful ambiance of Talempong Aguang on Monday evening at the 2019 Ethno Music Festival at Graha Bakti Budaya of the Taman Ismail Marzuki (TIM) arts and cultural center in Central Jakarta.

Running from Sunday until Thursday, the festival presents 24 music groups from across Indonesia and Asia, a series of music discussions and an exhibition of rare traditional musical instruments.

Among the local performances are keroncong folk music by Keroncong Irama Jakarta, the Ndundu Ndake friendship dance from Manggarai of East Nusa Tenggara and the Tindua healing music ritual from Kaili tribe in Central Sulawesi.

The festival features three international performers: a Philippine traditional music group, Mongolian string music group The HU and Malaysia’s Ong May Yi and Teo Jian Xiang, who will perform Malay music

The Ethno Music Festival was initiated by the music committee of the Jakarta Arts Council in an effort to promote Indonesia’s musical heritage.

“We wanted to create a festival to celebrate traditional music and to preserve our culture,” said music committee head Anto Hoed. “Two years ago, the music committee initiated the Traditional Music Festival, which was later developed into the Ethno Music Festival.”

Heritage: Rampak Nusantara opens the 2019 Ethno Music Festival on Sunday. Twenty-four music groups from Indonesia and Southeast Asia are set to perform throughout the five-day festival.

At the festival’s exhibition hall, visitors can get a close look at dozens of rare traditional musical instruments they may have never seen before. Among the instruments is gambus sa’an, a kind of Middle Eastern lute.

“This gambus sa’an is my family heirloom, it’s about 90 years old,” said Anusirwan, a musician and collector of musical instruments

“I found it in a broken condition stored inside a box in our house. I fixed it and now it can create beautiful sounds again. I have never found any instruments like this; very different from any gambus I have ever seen.” he said.

Old musical instruments, he said, should be preserved as they provided a way for us to understand the life of the generations before us.

The exhibition features some of Anusirwan’s treasured instruments, including a Medieval bowed stringed instrument called rebi or rebec.  

“All of these instruments are very special to me. But the most special one is a large kind of rebi. It produces a bass sound, which is very rare in any traditional instrument.”

Jakarta Arts Council acting chairman Danton Sihombing said the festival also provided a chance for traditional musicians to grow their network.   

“Through this Ethno Music Festival, it is expected for all musicians from various ethnic communities to interact and engage in dialogues on creativity,” he said.  

While the festival is free of charge, visitors are advised to book their tickets online at reg.dkj.or.id before coming to the event.

Treasures: Visitors see a number of rare traditional musical instruments displayed at the 2019 Ethno Music Festival. The exhibition features collections from Anusirwan and Endo Suanda.

— Photos by JP/Anggie Angela