Aquiring a taste for contemporary music

By Y. Bintang Prakarsa

JAKARTA (JP): Ever gone to a contemporary music concert? At Art Summit Indonesia II you had plenty of opportunities, so why didn't you go? Perhaps you went during the first Summit three years ago, but the experience rendered damage to your sensory organs and left your brain in ruin.

So you missed all this year's performances but, strangely, deep down in your heart the last experience still tickles you seductively and you are anxious to find out more.

Actually that is a good sign because you have activated the all-purpose survival mechanism of your childhood: curiosity. Yes, that single thing will ensure your survival should you ever venture back to contemporary concerts and recitals in the future. Moreover, it will help to elevate you to a true understanding of the work and leave you the equal of those bearded, long-haired connoisseurs who are present in significant numbers on all such occasions.

This mechanism has been tested successfully by the pianist Tuija Hakkila (pronounced too-ee-yuh huk-kee-luh), who, with the Petals Ensemble, performed the works of Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho at the recent Summit. She is very lucky for she is one of not many people on earth who have been able to preserve that wonderful gift of childhood. A versatile performer who plays and records music from the 18th century to the present day on both modern and early piano (the fortepiano), as a soloist or in ensemble, with orchestras or solo singers, she is "interested in most things happening inside (classical) music." Virtually all of her interest has grown out of her curiosity.

When it comes to contemporary music, the account of her first encounter is imbued with a sense of fascination and exploration typical of a teenage crush. As a 15-year-old girl, she heard Stockhausen, was astonished by the music and fell in love with it. "Ever since, I've been curious about contemporary music with its different sounds and different ways of conceiving music."

Eventually this crush developed into true love. She has gone on to collaborate and perform the works of numerous composers, and her discography (on the Finlandia Records label) includes recordings of 20th century piano music by French composers Ravel and Dutilleux and 20th century duos for cello and piano (with cellist Anssi Karttunen).

Psychologically speaking, Hakkila's case is reasonable enough, for when you are curious you prepare yourself mentally to see things differently and drop your prejudices, at least for a while. What prejudices? There is, for example, the prejudice of music as tunes or melodies. This was created by your grade teachers who taught you to sing a simple diatonic scale, or even by your piano teacher who supplied you with melodious tunes to learn. For those who grew up identifying music with tunes and melodies, this response is natural: "These people have been rattling and banging things for half an hour. Where is the tune for heaven's sake?"

Another prejudice stems from the market culture with its image of music as entertainment. For those who subscribe to the idea that music concerns only "easy listening" material which complies to your expectations, it is natural to reject music that refuses to conform to your standards and instead tells you to conform to it!

But if you have enough curiosity, sooner or later you will forget the quest for tunes or the expectation for domesticated, harmless sounds. Instead, you will become intrigued by the various instruments at the musicians' disposal, the seemingly inexhaustible ways with which they manipulate them, the sounds they produce, the virtuosity of their craft, the shocks and surprises caused by the effect of the whole performance, the images that come to your mind and the feelings they inspire. "Curiosity pushes you into having contact with music or with instruments or with certain ways of playing...." she said.

After that the whole experience floods in and "you can't help being really moved, and when you respond emotionally, that's the beginning of understanding."

At the moment the music touches sensibility, "the response is crucial: it can be rejection or integration, which for me is understanding."

In this way, "it is not rational understanding that counts, but musical intuition," she said. For Hakkila, to understand doesn't mean to be able to remember the theoretical aspects of contemporary music, but to come to terms with it imaginatively and integrate it into our normal musical experience. Sounds tempting? Well then, keep your eyes peeled for any forthcoming performances.

The writer teaches the history of Western music at the Jakarta Theological Seminary.