Imperiled ethnic music breaks concert record

Pandaya, The Jakarta Post, Manado, North Sulawesi

It was a record-breaking folk music revelry at Klabat Sports Stadium.

Thousands of townsfolk flocked to the stadium last Saturday, dancing the poco-poco and humming to the thunderous bamboo music orchestra played by a colossal collaboration of 2,155 people from some 50 groups from across the province.

After a two-kilometer street parade from the provincial police headquarters to the stadium, they played 11 songs ranging from local folk to gospel and Western pop oldies.

It offered the fun-loving Manadonese a rare treat to sway to the romantic waltz and energetic poco-poco in the sunset.

The Dji Sam Soe Bamboo Music Festival, named after the cigarette maker that sponsored it, was a successful undertaking to break into the Museum of Indonesian Records (MURI), a Semarang-based museum founded by traditional herbal medicine (jamu) entrepreneur Djaya Suprana.

"It is a national and probably international record in terms of the number of people playing bamboo music in a single collaboration," Djaya said.

Musik bambu (bamboo music) that the orchestra play is indigenous to North Sulawesi.

There are no documents on the music genre but local elders estimate that it began around 1830 in outlying areas in the mountainous north of the island.

Musik bambu is a transformation of the ancient way of communication using bamboo tools as other ethnic groups, such as Javanese, also did.

Originally all instruments were bamboo. In the course of time Christian missionaries coming to the area in the 1860s introduced new instruments such as the clarinet, drum, cymbal and cello. They "modernized" the art with western touches. And there came tango, waltz and gospel tunes.

The music, which is played by between 40 and 60 people, is performed at practically all occasions, from weddings to formal ceremonies in government offices.

Until the 1970s, it had been a favorite indigenous art for shows at private parties where people sang and danced the night away to the music.

But now the older generation is singing its swan song: The bamboo music is losing out to pop culture, be it national or western. Last week's colossal festival also showed signs of a gigantic problem -- lack of regeneration. Most participants were old.

"Youngsters are ashamed to play the traditional music," said Meydi Uguy, a Manadonese elder.

The bamboo music is but one of the endangered indigenous arts. Bia, music with instruments made of sea shells that was popular among Sangir islanders from the northern tip of Sulawesi, is another.

The wooden kolintang music is also losing the battle against pop culture. Cakalele dance, a one-time sacred war dance, and Maengket dance are also sounding distress calls.

Almost all of the about 80 groups are from villages in the mountains, where traditional values are preserved.

In fact the colossal bamboo music festival aimed to reinvigorate the drive to save the endangered North Sulawesi cultural icon.

The provincial government is considering holding bamboo music festivals on an annual basis. In some districts, like Tombatu, Belang and Ratahan, bamboo music is taught as extracurricular subjects in schools.

Not only that, North Sulawesi is also doing everything to promote bamboo music nationally. In the commemoration of Indonesia's first president Sukarno's birthday in June, North Sulawesi sent a 1,500-strong bamboo music group to perform in Bung Karno Sports Stadium in Jakarta.

But commercially, the prospect is up in the air because even though the bamboo music retains, to some degree, its popularity among the older generation, it lacks financial appreciation. A night-long show costs between a mere Rp 250,000 (about US$28) and Rp 1.5 million (about US$167), depending on the band's degree of popularity. As a company consists of up to 60 musicians, the pay is not worth staying up to blow the gargantuan instruments.

"It's barely enough to buy a glass of Cap Tikus," quipped Eddy Pelealu, a member of the Community of Bamboo Music, the umbrella group of bamboo music groups throughout North Sulawesi. Cap Tikus is locally-made alcohol that many partygoers cannot go without.

Financially unrewarding indeed. This probably explains why there are no professional exponents of bamboo music. People play the music as a hobby in their spare time.

"They are mostly farmers," said Pelealu.

People in North Sulawesi are anxious that the government's promise to help preserve and promote local arts is honored.