Composers, musicians prepare for Asian Music Week 2000

Composers, musicians prepare for Asian Music Week 2000

By Slamet A.Sjukur

In anticipation of Asian Music Week 2000, The Japan Federation
of Composers will organize two important concerts at Yokohama
Minatomirai Hall next Aug. 4 and Aug. 5, presenting 14 composers
from the Asian Composers League (ACL) and the International
Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM).

JAKARTA (JP): A change of millennium is undoubtedly more
important than the arrival of a new year. But it was clearly an
exaggeration when Ma Shui-long, the chairman of the National
Committee of ACL in Taipei, expressed a belief last year that the
coming century would be the Age of Oriental Music.

For a long time, history has relegated non-western music to
behind the scenes. The cause is of course colonialism, but it is
not the only reason. One might compare Western music and oriental
music as respectively one having an aggressive beauty and the
other a reserved one.

Only very slowly has music from the East attracted Western
composers. A figure no less than Debussy had a secret love affair
with the gamelan. It was only at L'Exposition Universelle in
1889, when Paris commemorated the 100th year of the French
revolution, that he and other European people enjoyed direct
contact with Asian arts and cultures for the first time.

Twenty years after World War II there were two other notable
events which marked more serious encounters.

An international conference, East meets West, was held in
Tokyo 1961. It was the first meeting that brought to Asia the
avant garde European music at that time. The music of Berio,
Maderna, Staockhausen and Xenakis were introduced in Japan and
consequently many Japanese and Korean composers were the first to
be influenced by that school of thought.

In 1966, Unesco sponsored a symposium and festival The Music
of Asia in Manila. The music of China, India, Indonesia, Japan,
Korea, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam were discussed by
prominent musicologists from Asia, Europe and the U.S. The
concert included European avant-garde music and many traditional
music performances from Asia.

The need to propel Asian music from behind the scene is felt
ever stronger by the region's composers.

As early as 1971, some of Asia's renowned composers -- Hsu
Tsang-houei (Taiwan), Lin Sheng-shih (Hong Kong), Lo Yi-jung
(Korea) and Yoshiro Irino (Japan) -- called the first preparatory
meeting in Taipei of what was later known as The Asian Composers
League (ACL). Two years passed before its next meeting in Hong
Kong.

ACL was established as an independent noncommercial, not for
profit, nonracial and nonpolitical organization. The objectives
of the league are to promote, preserve and develop the musical
cultures of the Asia-Pacific region, particularly in the field of
music composition. It also aims to further the interests of
composers from the region through presentation and negotiation,
and to attain recognition of their rights in national and
international laws.

The ACL runs a members program usually in one very jam packed
week, with sessions held from morning to late at night. It is not
always organized every year, however the lapse between two events
is two years at the most.

It was Japan who took the initiative to organize the first ACL
Conference-Festival in Kyoto in 1974. In following years, the
conference-festival was held in the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand
and Korea. Japan will host the festival for the third time next
year, which will be the 21st festival. The second one held in
Japan was in Sendai in 1990.

As we might expect, ACL's theme emphasizes the identity of
Asian music. The 18th ACL in Manila 1997 focused on Theories of
Music Composition from Music Ensembles in Asia. In Taipei last
year, the 19th ACL had the theme Discovery of Asian Music:
Discovering the Significance of Oriental Philosophy in Music.

It was Indonesia who first considered that it is better not to
let ourselves be engulfed in an endless East-West dichotomy. It
is time to live with a whole mind. And the theme chosen by
Indonesia is Maha-Swara which means The Deep Sound or the sound
emanating from the depths.

It is significant that Rejoicing Sounds will mark the Asian
Music Week 2000, which will coincide with the 21st ACL
Conference-Festival. In addition to providing a perfect meeting
place for composers, performers, musicologist and music lovers,
the organizer hopes that it will also act as a musical bridge
into the 21st century.

In anticipating the ACL programs, The Japan Federation of
Composers (JFC) will host next week the ACL Executive Committee
Meeting in order to discuss the Maha-Swara/the 20th ACL
Conference-Festival in Indonesia (Sept. 2 to Sept. 9) and the
21st ACL in Japan next year.

At the same time, the JFC will organize two concerts
representing ACL composers and the ISCM (International Society
for Contemporary Music).

Ten composers from Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Korea, New
Zealand Philippines, Sweden, Taiwan and Thailand will present
their music together with four composers from the host country.

Using traditional music instruments, contemporary music of the
ACL composers will be performed on Aug. 4. Some of the composers
will play the instruments themselves.

The following day, ISCM composers will present music
specifically composed For the Children of 21st Century.

Indonesia will be represented by composer Slamet A.Sjukur, the
author of this article, and member of the ACL Executive
Committee, chairman of the 20th ACL in Indonesia and chairman of
Asosiasi Komponis Indonesia (Association of Indonesian
Composers).

He will also perform his work Gelandangan (Vagabond) for a
female voice sighing 1001 pleasures and a genggong-bambu, a kind
of Jew's harp made of bamboo.

One may ask why the 21st ACL in Japan next year has attracted
more attention than the one to be held in this country next
month. Is it because Japan has the experience needed for such an
important event? The success of the triennial festival Art Summit
Indonesia in 1995 and 1998, that is, the international festival
of contemporary arts with its comprehensive one month program,
has proved our success in putting on such festivals. In addition,
more than one hundred years ago, our artists were successful at
L'Exposition Universelle in Paris because they concentrated on
their arts, not on the organization.

However, submerged in financial problems, Indonesian composers
can hardly grasp the importance of time management, although it
is the essence of all the performing arts.