Concert profits to help local classical music

By Yudha Kartohadiprodjo

JAKARTA (JP): An Evening of Women in Music, a concert featuring top women musicians, will take place on Friday night to raise money to help publish Indonesian classical music.

The charity show, held at the ASEAN Secretariat building on Jl. Sisingamangaraja in South Jakarta, features Aida Swenson's Youth Choir, violinist Sharon Eng, pianist Ary Sutedja, Grace Sudargo's Capella Amadeus String Orchestra and Trisutji Kamal Ensemble.

If you are a lover of classical music, you will be familiar with the performers, but you may nevertheless wonder about the concert's purpose.

You might ask whether Indonesian classical music does really exist.

Western classical composers are well known to many of us -- Mozart, Haydn and Chopin are all household names, but who has ever heard of an Indonesian classical composer?

"Classical music is music that has been composed according to certain standards that have been established for centuries," said Gus Kairupan, the chairman of Music Publishing Fund.

He said that these forms, such as sonata, symphony, and overture have not changed for years. The term is no longer restricted to music from the Classical era, which occurred in Europe in the middle of the 18th century.

Many Indonesian composers have composed in such forms. Amir Pasaribu, Mochtar Embut and Jaya Suprana, to name but three. Some, like Trisutji Kamal have gained recognition from fellow composers and musicians outside Indonesia.

"During my trip to Europe, many asked whether my music has been published," Trisutji said. Trisutji has been composing for the last 40 years. In her entire music career, her work has been put into print just once, by PT Gramedia in 1979.

Although classical music is timeless, time is running out for the chance to publish the work of many Indonesian composers.

"Many composers from Indonesia's revolutionary era have died. Their wives or family may not have the means or inclination to preserve the music," said Debra Yatim of Komseni, Communication for Arts Foundation, which is helping to organize the concert.

"These compositions have not been published. That is why many composers have never received any royalties and that is why their works are rarely heard," said Gus.

In the early days, aristocrats were the patrons of musicians and composers. Even though some of the patrons genuinely loved music, pieces were published largely to enhance the prestige of these wealthy patrons.

"The reason why we have not heard of Indonesian classical music is because our composers' music has not been published properly," said Gus.

Publishing entails proof reading, printing, distribution of the manuscripts and payment of royalties to the composer for public performances. Proof reading alone can take up to one month.

"The process of proof reading takes a lot of time because a publisher has to think through the sound and tone in his head, while book publishers have to deal only with words," said Gus.

The effort required presents a significant obstacle to publishing music, but raising funds to do so is also no mean feat.

During Indonesia's boom years, Trisutji and her fellow composers attempted to raise money to publish their work, but got nowhere because it is not a profitable venture for publishers. Classical music books and recordings have limited sales potential and reach out to a limited market. Once recorded, however, classical music has a much longer shelf life than pop music in record stores.

"It was a brave move by PT Gramedia, sales were really slow, but finally the books were all sold," Trisutji said recalling the issue of her only printed book of music. Many buyers were music school students who were required to have an Indonesian composer in their repertoire.

In the United States, many composers publish their own music in loose leaf form and in small print runs. Some publishers and foundations are also prepared to print anthologies of music in larger volumes.

Many Indonesian composers, including Trisutji and Addie Ms., write their own music on computers and distribute copies to their friends.

Although in itself not enough to publish music, funds raised by the concert will help to support and encourage composers who are seeking to publish their music.

"The funds will help composers prepare scripts and find seek out publishers willing to release their work," said Debra.

An Evening of Women in Music brings ASEAN Women's Month to a close.