Songwriters summit creates new melodies<\/p>\n
By Johannes Simbolon<\/p>\n
DENPASAR, Bali (JP): On Ungasan hill, just south of here, a
\nnumber of exciting new melodies have been born at the Pacific
\nMusic Rainbow songwriters convention, which began last Thursday.<\/p>\n
Celebrated composers from the U.S., Indonesia, Hong Kong, the
\nPhilippines, Taiwan and Vietnam filled the morning air with music
\nat the Bali Cliff Resort, which is hosting the gathering.<\/p>\n
"Moonlight on the water ...," sang a group of songwriters
\nduring a rehearsal on Friday morning. Candra Darusman of
\nIndonesia was on keyboard, America's Harold Paine on guitar.
\nTheir group partners are Indonesia's Dadang S. Manaf, and Brenda
\nRussel from the U.S. The latter has written scores of songs
\nperformers like Tina Turner, Aretha Franklin, Donna Summer and
\nWhitney Houston.<\/p>\n
The songwriters, who met for the first time only a few days
\nago, already seem like longtime buddies. There is no trace of the
\n"cultural barriers" which some had feared would hamper
\ncooperation among the participants.<\/p>\n
Music, the universal language and culture, has united them in
\na matter of days, eliminating anything that might have stood
\nbetween them.<\/p>\n
"It feels so right," is a line which surfaces again and again
\nin Candra's group's newly-composed reggae song, which has no
\ntitle as yet.<\/p>\n
After working hard for two days, the composers relaxed all day
\nlong yesterday, rafting on the river and visiting the house of
\nbamboo expert Judi Garland in Ubud.<\/p>\n
The songwriters were divided into 12 groups by lot-drawing on
\nWednesday evening. Each group consists of four composers, in most
\ncases consisting of two Americans and two Indonesians.<\/p>\n
Feelings were mixed on the part of some Indonesian composers
\nduring the lot-drawing, as they found themselves paired up with
\npeople whose musical styles are very different from their own.<\/p>\n
Indonesian living legend Titiek Puspa, who has a reputation as
\na stubborn composer who resists the slightest changes to her
\nsongs, appeared rather nervous when she learned that she would be
\nworking with Klaus Meine and Rudolf Shenker of German supergroup
\nScorpion. Meanwhile, the young James F. Sundah, who was also
\nplaced in the group, looked excited about the rare opportunity.<\/p>\n
After a day of working together and completing a song, the
\nanxiety had vanished. The four dined and even went to the disco
\ntogether.<\/p>\n
"I was a bit nervous at first because his (Meine's) voice is
\nhigh-pitched, so I had to use falsetto to sing with him," said
\nTitiek. "Because they are rock group, I thought they would be
\nrowdy people. Surprisingly, they are very, very gentle. They
\nnever hesitated to ask for our comments. Very cooperative and
\ngood people," he added with an air of satisfaction.<\/p>\n
The Scorpion musicians also seemed satisfied with the song
\nthat had been produced, praising the good cooperation that had
\ngiven birth to it.<\/p>\n
"I will sing it for our next album," said Meine, the
\nScorpion's well-known vocalist, humming the first line of the
\nsong.<\/p>\n
All of the groups have completed at least one song since the
\ngathering began, but not all have given titles to their works.<\/p>\n
The group of Cathy Dennis and Dave Gibson of the U.S. and
\nIndonesia's Irianti Erningpraja and Andre Hehanussa has completed
\ntwo songs, titled You Don't Have to Say Goodbye and Love Is All
\nWe Need.<\/p>\n
The group of Gary Nicholson and Mark Hudson, both from the
\nU.S., and Indonesian Amin Ivo, called their song Till You Give It
\nAway.<\/p>\n
The larger group of Dave Koz, Victoria Show, Allan Rich, all
\nof the U.S., Tito Soemarsono of Indonesia and Joseph Hwang of
\nHong Kong called their song My Heart Keeps Calling Your Name.<\/p>\n
Allan Roy Scott, Mark Mueller, both from the U.S., and their
\nIndonesian partners Bartje van Houten and Titiek Van Houten
\nproduced a number called Touch Me There Again.<\/p>\n
Americans Gary Burr and Beth Hooker worked with their
\nIndonesian partners to create a song titled We Need A Light.<\/p>\n
All groups had their own ways of coming up with the songs.
\nSome first discussed the basic idea of the would-be melody, while
\nothers started off just playing the instruments, allowing a
\ncomposition to gradually take shape.<\/p>\n
Some groups wrote two sets of lyrics -- one in English and
\nanother in Indonesian. Others mixed English and Indonesian in
\ntheir lyrics.<\/p>\n
Cooperation had been established so well on the first day that
\nthe Indonesian composers were reluctant to change partners. As
\nscheduled, however, lots were drawn again by the organizing
\ncommittee yesterday and new groups were formed.<\/p>\n
"We'll be back to zero again in molding relationships," said
\none ruffled Indonesian composer.<\/p>\n
After each song was completed, all the composers signed a
\nlegal document stating joint-ownership in the copyright of the
\ncompositions. Under the contracts, Indonesia is given the first
\nchance to publish all the songs, a job which will be handled by
\nthe Antero Bagus publishing company.<\/p>\n
The first opportunity the public will have to hear the Pacific
\nMusic Rainbow compositions will be at the Charity Night show on
\nNov. 4 at the Jakarta Convention Center, where all the composers
\nwill perform their works.<\/p>\n
So far none of the composers have dared to predict whether
\ntheir songs will be successful.<\/p>\n
"The success of a song depends on the singer. If a song is
\nsung by the wrong singer, it will fail, however good it is," said
\nVerancio A. Saturno of the Philippines.<\/p>\n
Financed by the MEDCO oil company, the unique meeting, which
\nis modeled on the U.S.-Soviet and U.S.-Rumanian songwriters
\nmeetings in 1988 and 1994, respectively, will end tomorrow. The
\nparticipants will then fly to Jakarta to take part in the
\nInternational Song Festival in Jakarta from Nov. 1 to Nov. 2.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/songwriters-summit-creates-new-melodies-1447893297",
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