Esthetics a problem in RI contemporary music world<\/p>\n
By Franki Raden<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): At the beginning of 1996 the city of Semarang,
\nCentral Java, hosted a very attractive contemporary music event,
\nsponsored by Jamu Jago, a well-known traditional herbal medicine
\nmanufacturer.<\/p>\n
It was the first time the city had organized a festival of
\ncontemporary music. The organizers invited Indonesian composers
\nDidi AGP (Jakarta), Rusdiyantoro and Soekamso (Solo), Haryo Yose
\nSuyoto (Yogyakarta) and Yusbar Djaelani (West Sumatra).<\/p>\n
Semarang, in the 19th century and early part of the 20th
\ncentury, was one of the most active cities in organizing musical
\nevents in this country. Musicians coming from Europe never
\nomitted Semarang when touring this country. In the middle of the
\n19th century, when the Dutch East Indies was immensely rich,
\nmusical activities in Semarang were comparable to those in
\ninternational cities like New York. After Indonesia gained its
\nindependence in 1945, inexplicably, musical activities in
\nSemarang dwindled drastically.<\/p>\n
Semarang is fortunate to still have a composer active in
\ncreating music and giving performances. He is Jaya Suprana, owner
\nof Jamu Jago. The May Semarang Music Forum, as the festival was
\ncalled, marked the reawakening of Semarang as a city of music.<\/p>\n
We witnessed many contemporary music festivals in other cities
\nthis year. In April, Jakarta hosted the important Jakarta Music
\nForum and in July it organized the Jakarta Percussion Music
\nFestival 1996. Also in July, Yogyakarta held the Yogyakarta
\nGamelan Festival. All three festivals were international events.
\nParticipants in the Jakarta Music Forum, organized by the Jakarta
\nArts Foundation, came from Russia (Ayuska Quartet), Switzerland
\n(Camerata Bern), Holland (David Little & Wim Koning), New Zealand
\n(Philip Dadson) and Australia (Sarah Hopkins). Indonesia was
\nrepresented by Ben Pasaribu (Medan), Marusya N. Abdullah, Didi
\nAGP and Jalu Pratidina (Jakarta), Djaduk Ferianto and Haryo Yose
\nSuyoto (Yogyakarta), Harry Roesli (Bandung) and Sunardi (Solo).
\nThe works by Philip Dadson and Djaduk Ferianto attracted much
\nattention at the festival.<\/p>\n
JakPerc 96, organized by Studio Merah Putih, presented
\nmusicians from America (Music for Homemade Instruments), Holland
\n(Resonans Quartet), Australia (Ron Reeves Trio), Korea
\n(Samulnori) and Indonesia (Harry Roesli, Inisisri). With the
\nexception of Korea, the performances were extraordinary. JakPerc
\n96 was special because it was held in the open air arena of the
\nJakarta Fairground and attended by thousands of spectators, a
\nrarity for any contemporary music event.<\/p>\n
Yogyakarta<\/p>\n
This year's Yogyakarta Gamelan Festival, organized by the
\nYogyakarta Arts Council, involved many contemporary gamelan
\ngroups and composers from America. Some hold important positions
\nin America's contemporary music world, such as Alvin Lucier and
\nPhilip Corner. The Sons of Lion gamelan group, also from America,
\nwas established in the 1970s. Barbara Benary and Daniel Goode
\nwere among its prominent figures.<\/p>\n
Apart from the Semarang Music Forum, another important local
\nfestival was Pentas Jelajah, held in Bandung. This is a unique
\nfestival that has taken place every month since September 1996.
\nThe festival promises to become a creative arena for Indonesia's
\nprogressive young musicians. Pentas Jelajah also has the
\nsponsorship of A Mild, which previously showed more of an
\ninterest in commercial music.<\/p>\n
For the past few years a number of private radio stations have
\ntaken advantage of contemporary music as an alternative for music
\nlovers. Errol Jonathan of Suara Surabaya says he is certain that
\nthere is a strong market for contemporary music. Sapto Raharjo of
\nYogyakarta's Geronimo Radio, which airs similar programs, says
\nhis audience numbers close to 5,000. Currently, with the aid of
\nthe Ford Foundation, Sapto Raharjo broadcasts traditional and
\ncontemporary music on various private radio stations in Surabaya,
\nYogyakarta, Bandung, Jakarta and Medan.<\/p>\n
Once considered hard to digest, contemporary music is proving
\nto be attractive commercially. Another indication is the many
\ncommissions now given to composers such as Tony Prabowo (for the
\nLontar Foundation), Yazeed Djamin (for the Jakarta International
\nTrade Center), Slamet A. Sjukur and Rahayu Supanggah (for the
\nDirectorate General of Culture), Elfa Secoria (for Jakarta's
\nCulture Agency), Harry Roesli (for Ancol Dreamland), Djaduk
\nFerianto (for Bentara Budaya), Trisutji Kamal (for the Gedung
\nKesenian Jakarta and the Nuansa Klasik Ensemble), Paul Gutama
\nSoegijo (for CSIS) and myself (for SCTV and the Jakarta City
\nTourism Agency).<\/p>\n
These commissions do not yet include the works especially
\ncreated for contemporary music festivals like the Semarang Music
\nForum, JakPerc 96 and Pentas Jelajah. On Nov. 30, works by
\nTrisutji Kamal were performed to raise money, along with other
\nworks commissioned by choreographers, theater and film directors.<\/p>\n
In Indonesia the staging of contemporary dance and theater,
\nmostly accompanied by original music compositions (played live),
\nconstitutes a healthy challenge for composers to create and stage
\ntheir works. Sometimes in staging dances the composers are given
\nthe opportunity to compose their works independently. One
\nattractive dance, composed by Cilai and Donny, was called
\nSpecies.<\/p>\n
This year the composers most active in creating music for
\ndance and theater in Jakarta were Cilai, Tony Prabowo and Epi
\nMartison.<\/p>\n
Lifestyle<\/p>\n
Contemporary music is becoming part of the urban lifestyle in
\nIndonesia. Performances can now be seen in private houses, cafes,
\npubs, art workshops, university auditoriums, recreation sites,
\ngalleries, concert halls, art centers, foreign cultural centers,
\npublic venues, convention centers and star-rated hotels.
\nClassical music groups in Indonesia often include in their
\nprograms works by local composers such as Nuansa Klasik (Trisutji
\nKamal), Trio Pivot (Trisutji Kamal), Aisha-Iravati Soediarso duo
\npianists (Amir Pasaribu), Linny Sugianto-Iswargia Sudarno duo
\npianists (Trisutji Kamal) and pianist Oerip S. Santoso (Amir
\nPasaribu, Mochtar Embut, Jaya Suprana).<\/p>\n
Another attractive phenomenon observed this year was the
\nemergence of a new generation of composers from Bandung, Jakarta
\nand Medan. In Bandung, in addition to DKSB led by Harry Roesli,
\nthere are STSI and IKIP. The role of Pentas Jelajah is also very
\nimportant to encourage the regeneration process of Indonesia's
\ncontemporary music composers. In Jakarta, the contemporary music
\ncompetition called Musikalisasi Puisi Remaja (The Musicalization
\nof Youth Poetry), organized by the Ministry of Education and
\nCulture for three consecutive years, has aided the regeneration
\nprocess.<\/p>\n
In Medan, this role is fulfilled by the music department of
\nNomensen University's school of arts, with Ben Pasaribu as the
\nleader. Nomensen University is currently the only university in
\nIndonesia which has a music department and a program for
\ncomposition.<\/p>\n
In one year, Medan has produced a great number of composers.
\nMedan is also active in organizing contemporary arts festivals
\nand special concerts introducing the works of young composers. It
\nis interesting to note that apart from Ben Pasaribu and the young
\ncomposers referred to, Medan now has a senior composer who in the
\n1950s played a very important role in laying the foundation for
\nthe development of contemporary Indonesian music. This composer
\nis none other than Amir Pasaribu, 81, who spent 30 years until
\nrecently in Suriname.<\/p>\n
Pasaribu was one of the composers who oriented Indonesia's
\ncontemporary music culture toward the Western music world. In the
\n1950s Pasaribu left his mark by establishing a school for
\nclassical music in Yogyakarta named SMIND (now the music
\ndepartment of Yoyakarta's Indonesian Arts Institute). He was also
\na very influential music critic in analyzing the then complicated
\nmusic problems of Indonesia.<\/p>\n
If Medan has Amir Pasaribu, Yogyakarta has Ki Wasitodipuro,
\n87, a composer from Pasaribu's generation, who also just returned
\nfrom a 20-year stay in America. Ki Wasitodipuro, known as Pak
\nTjokro, is one of the composers who oriented Indonesia's
\ncontemporary music in the 1950s toward gamelan music.<\/p>\n
Debate<\/p>\n
At the time, Ki Wasitodipuro and Amir Pasaribu were at
\nopposite poles. They were engaged in hectic debates on the music
\nculture that should serve as the foundation for the development
\nof contemporary music. The homecoming of these senior composers
\nwill benefit the local world of contemporary music.<\/p>\n
Another Indonesian composer returned recently after a stay of
\n43 years in Berlin. Paul Gutama Soegijo was a former student at
\nAmir Pasaribu's SMIND at the time of the school's establishment
\nin Yogyakarta. Gutama brought home some interesting problems for
\nthe music world after years of creating alternative music, called
\nNew Source Music.<\/p>\n
New Source Music was his music based on the culture of
\ntraditional gamelan music, exactly like the one idealized by Ki
\nWasitodipuro in the 1950s. What differentiates Gutama's position
\nfrom that of the Ki Wasitodipuro group is his background in
\nWestern academic music.<\/p>\n
Although Gutama uses an \"internal\" approach in his New Source
\nMusic or \"new gamelan music\", he has succeeded in using Western
\nmusical thinking to create fascinating new gamelan works. His
\nmusic is an ideal synthesis of gamelan music and Western
\nclassical music, and could serve as a model for the development
\nof creativity in Indonesian contemporary music.<\/p>\n
It is interesting if we look back 80 years ago when Indonesian
\ncontemporary music was proclaimed by its pioneers Ki Hadjar
\nDewantara, R.M. Soerjopoetro, Atmadarsana and R. Soehardjo. What
\nthey did then bears a resemblance to what Gutama has done, the
\ndifference being that their work was not as sophisticated. It
\ncould be said that Gutama has solved the problem of the esthetics
\nof Indonesian contemporary music based on the culture of gamelan
\nmusic.<\/p>\n
Esthetics<\/p>\n
What remains is the problem of esthetics of Indonesian
\ncontemporary music based on Western classical music as practiced
\nby the Amir Pasaribu group in the 1950s. The challenge is whether
\nthe Indonesian composers who express themselves in a Western
\nmusic idiom can inject local characteristics into their works.<\/p>\n
It is hoped that this problem will be responded to by the
\nworks of the Indonesian composers who have been involved in
\nesthetic problems for years, including Trisutji Kamal, Jaya
\nSuprana, Yazeed Djamin, Sinta Wullur, Marusya N. Abdullah, Harry
\nRoesli, Ben Pasaribu, Sapto Rahardjo, Otto Sidharta, Tony Prabowo
\nand Amir Pasaribu himself, now 82 years old.<\/p>",
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