Japanese choir to 'sing' Sjukur newest work

JAKARTA (JP): Japanese choir group The Green Echo will stage the latest work of Slamet Abdul Sjukur on Nov. 29 at the Aichi Prefectural Art Center in Nagoya, Japan.

The 120-member group will play the 15-minute work, a unique vocal piece that, without words, explores mouth sounds, including the overtone singing that is performed by the Asmat tribes and Tibetans.

"I am not interested in music ridden by words, particularly those like speeches, because the music can talks by itself," Sjukur said in a statement to The Jakarta Post.

"That's why the title of this work is MUNI (a Javanese verb meaning 'to sound')," he said.

Every member of the choir group, at certain times, will play the karunding, a traditional Madurese bamboo musical instrument that resembles a Jew's harp, and will be used by the choir to produce sounds similar to those made by thousands of insects.

Sjukur, chairman of the Indonesian Composers' Association, wrote the music for the choir at the request of Akihiro Takahashi, the groups leader, who requested the piece last year.

Sjukur was also invited by the Institute of Music in Tokyo to explain the ideas behind MUNI, and to give a workshop on his concept of "minimax music"; the principle of maximally utilizing the minimal.

"Minimax music" has been quite often discussed by, among others, the Institute of Teachers' Training in Bandung and the Staatliche Hochschule fur Music in Freiburg, Germany. For five years, the concept has been applied at Mandala kindergarten in Surabaya. It aims to improve the students' awareness of music, and to teach them to see limitations as a challenge to be overcome by continuous imagination. (sim)