Acclaimed 'angklung' school reopens

By Kafil Yamin

BANDUNG (JP): Children handed out angklung to the audience, which mainly consisted of bemused Westerners. A music director appeared on stage and told the audience that each of the traditional bamboo instruments bore a number.

"Shake it when I give you the number by a hand signal," the director explained as he gestured the different numbers. Once the audience understood, the director began making various hand motions. Audience members responded on cue by shaking their instruments and a lovely, familiar song, Petter Pat, filled the room.

Excited audience members were in the swing of things after performing two songs. The director praised them for showing their talent as accomplished angklung players.

The director's aim was to show that playing the angklung is easy. Saung Mang Ujo, the angklung music school in Bandung, has set out the goal in "five Ms": Mudah (simple), Murah (inexpensive), Mendidik (educative), Menarik (interesting) and Masal (suitable for mass play).

The 10-minute angklung course was one of the performances featured during the reopening of Saung Mang Ujo. Students of Saung Mang Ujo thrilled German, French and Taiwan nationals in a two-and-a-half-hour show filled with Sundanese folk songs, dances, wayang (puppet) demonstrations and classical European numbers.

European guests were enthralled at hearing their favorite tunes played out on an unusual instrument. "It gave it another exotic element," said a Dutch guest.

Then maestro Ujo Ngalagena appeared. Wearing the Sundanese cap bendo and with a jutting chin, the 78-year-old guru greeted the audience in perfectly pronounced English, German, French, and Mandarin.

"I am president of the U.S.A.," he declared. "Here in Bandung we have U.S.A. -- the Ujo School of Angklung!"

He repeatedly said that he and the members of his school did not see their foreign guests as tourists, but as brothers. "So, please do not see us as a mere tourist attraction. This is a school, just like other schools."

He led the children's orchestra in performing several numbers -- classics, folk songs and popular songs. Three children, aged from two to five years, played percussion to add to the fascinating quality of the performance.

About 40 children took turns performing: dancing, singing and playing. It seemed the maestro succeeded in transforming the show into an arena of play for children.

They appeared so expressive, excited and free, and offered thrilling shows.

"I always tell them that playing music, singing and dancing is not for shows but for making themselves happy," Ujo told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of the performance.

"You asked me about my method of teaching? I have only one method: give your students love."

Ujo Ngalagena has 150 students, with 90 percent of them teenagers and children. The fledgling musicians of the "U.S.A" has performed on four continents -- America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.

With five to six months of study, the children are able to play various Sundanese traditional musical instruments and perform dances.

After one year, a young student can become an angklung and dance coach.

Some of Ujo's graduates have become composers. A striking quality of the graduates is their proficiency in foreign languages. "Maybe this is because most of our visitors are foreigners," said Mang Ujo, as he is familiarly called.

The young students are used to communicating with their foreign guests. And their elder fellows have proved themselves good ambassadors for Sundanese traditional music and dance.

Their school compound is a place not only for Sundanese music to survive, but also to develop and penetrate other cultures.

"Angklung is now one of the subjects in some Western music schools," Ujo said.

He established his music school in 1997. In one year, it has produced thousands of graduates, but too many for him to remember the exact number. Among the popular ones is Daeng Sutigna, the man who invented Angklung Padaeng, using the do-re-mi scale. Previously, angklung used the Sundanese scale da-mi-na-ti-la-da. With the innovation in 1938, the popularity of angklung grew.

Another bamboo musical instrument using the do-re-mi scale is arumba, which is struck to produce a tune. Calung, meanwhile, maintain its Sundanese scale. The instrument is played in Sundanese stage comedies.

"Every creation of culture needs innovation. Otherwise, it won't survive," Ujo said. He added that local arts can contribute considerably to global culture through constant innovation.

"We should keep creating, not consuming. That is what art is all about."

In his unique angklung school, this old man endlessly and tirelessly creates, innovates and dedicates himself to art and education.

The unrest last year forced the school to close temporarily due to a lack of visitors. With the situation returning to normal, the school has reopened with a renewed dedication to giving the world more fun through music.