RI's female composers lead the pack<\/p>\n
By Gus Kairupan<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Perhaps the recent presentations of compositions
\nby Trisutji Kamal and Marusya Nainggolan-Abdullah could also be
\ndescribed as a concert by Indonesia's only composers, which would
\nprobably raise the hackles of composers of the male gender. But
\nthen so little is heard of the latter, whose appearances are few
\nand far between.<\/p>\n
The focus of these scribblings is on composers who have gone
\nthrough the rigors of acquiring a thorough grounding in the art
\nof (music) composition, to be specific, western music. This is a
\nfield that has never been accorded proper attention (let alone
\nsupport) from the government, the corporate world and media
\norganizations. Appreciation among the public at large could be
\ndescribed as infinitesimal at best, and is confined mainly to
\nthose who buy tickets to such events. However, the best of
\nIndonesian classical music forms suffer the same fate. When was
\nthe last time you attended a good, authoritative concert of
\nJavanese gamelan music?<\/p>\n
This deplorable condition has fortunately not stopped
\ncomposers from composing as well as presenting their works. But
\nwith the absence of recognition, their efforts are very much one-
\nman\/one-woman affairs.<\/p>\n
The subject here is, of course, classical music, not western
\npop\/rock music for which there is no lack of attention from above
\nmentioned quarters. So the Slamet Abdul Syukurs, Otto Sidhartas
\nand Trisutji Kamals of the world are doing everything on their
\nown.<\/p>\n
Especially Trisutji Kamal, who would easily be the most
\nprolific and most active of the lot, male or female, not only in
\nIndonesia but also abroad. Over the past three years she and her
\nensemble have performed in Scandinavia, the Middle East and
\nSoutheast Asia, besides presenting her works in Indonesia.<\/p>\n
The concert on Friday, April 25 featured three of her latest
\nworks and three by Marusya Nainggolan-Abdullah, who should be
\nmore active as a composer. I suspect, though, that running the
\nmusic department of the Jakarta Arts Institute (IKJ) leaves
\nlittle time for producing.<\/p>\n
Now there's another strange thing which I've observed for more
\nthan a decade regarding the custom of IKJ of putting artists in
\ncharge of administrative affairs. Does it influence their
\ncreative capacities? Your guess is as good as mine where that is
\nconcerned, but certainly Abdullah's oeuvres performed that
\nevening hover between very impressive (Five Songs From Basho
\nHaiku) to pedestrian, even elementary (Fantasy no. 3 For Ensemble
\n& Movement).<\/p>\n
The Fantasy involved, beside the piano, violin, cello and
\npercussion, two dancers who began their routine on the two small
\nfront balconies near the stage. The work is obviously designed
\nas an audio-visual piece -- that may be where the snags were, in
\nthat there wasn't much coordination or any other indication of a
\nrelationship between sound and movement.<\/p>\n
True, the use of themes in music and dance (even all art
\nforms) is more or less outmoded these days, but that, I dare say,
\nmakes it imperative that composer and choreographer work closely
\ntogether, if only to discuss the concept of what constitutes a
\nfantasy. Dance and music appeared as two elements doing their own
\nthing, the music following a path of conventional tonality, the
\ndance performing movements largely based on modernish forms.<\/p>\n
Nothing wrong with that -- I've seen a marvelous Balanchine
\ncreation in which he used music by Bach. But there are an awful
\nlot of other aspects that must be worked out meticulously. They
\nare not directly connected with the music or movements, but are
\nindispensable nevertheless in enhancing the oeuvre - the use of
\nspace, lighting, costumes, makeup, whatever.<\/p>\n
If Marusya Abdullah's Fantasy suffered from weaknesses, the
\ndrawback of Trisutji Kamal's Reflections was that of the strength
\nof the elements, i.e. the two pianos, percussion, additional
\nvocals and poetry reading. I cannot think of any composer past or
\npresent who uses poetry reading and music as one entity, and feel
\nthat one has to give way to the other. There are enough examples
\nof poetry and music together, but in those cases it is always the
\npoem that has been set to music.<\/p>\n
In the case of Reflections, I couldn't help wondering where
\nthe message lay; the music or the poem? Declamation emerged
\nclearly only after a segment of solo percussion, but having only
\na vague idea of what preceded it, the impact was minimal. So, at
\nleast to me, poetry and music work best when the poem is set to
\nmusic, either as a duo as in Schubert's songs, voice and ensemble
\nlike Vaughn-Williams' On Wenlock Edge, or even the works for
\nvoice and orchestra by Mahler.<\/p>\n
Reflections and Fantasy were large scale ensemble works which
\ncombine different forms of the performing arts. The smaller
\nnumbers fared much better, and were in fact of considerably high
\nmerit, such as Kamal's Moods\/Suasana Hati (for cello and
\nIndonesian percussion), Suita Idul-Adha (duo piano and Indonesian
\npercussion), and Abdullah's Five Songs From Basho
\nHaiku (soprano, flute and clarinet).<\/p>\n
The concert may have displayed some shortcomings, but it was
\nalso a demonstration of the best there is in the field of
\ncomposition in Indonesia. Both Trisutji Kamal and Marusya
\nNainggolan-Abdullah are two of its most important exponents.<\/p>",
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