Imperiled ethnic music breaks concert record

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.