Japan's middle-aged warble 'Bengawan Solo'
Japan's middle-aged warble 'Bengawan Solo'
By Maria D. Andriana
TOKYO (Antara): Yamamoto's two daughters were stunned as they
listened to their father singing. To the girls, the lyrics of the
song was as strange as the tune.
It was Bengawan Solo (River Solo), one of the most famous
keroncong traditional Javanese tunes.
"Bengawan Solo riwayatmu ini .. (The story of River Solo..),"
Yamamoto warbled while his daughters stared open-mouthed.
Yamamoto, 46, said he learned the song in junior high school.
Written by Gesang in 1940s, the song is popular among older
Japanese. Many of them also know it in the Japanese version.
Some of them draw a blank on its origins. A barbershop owner
at Senzoku, Tokyo, who was quite familiar with the Japanese
version, said he thought the original song was Chinese.
Several people aged over 50 acknowledged they can sing
Bengawan Solo in Japanese but they do not remember for sure when
they studied it and how they became acquainted with the song.
Many believe that Bengawan Solo was first popularized in Japan
by the late Toshie Matsuda, Ichiro Fujiyama and the Dark Ducks
quartet a few decades ago.
The Fujiyama version of the song relates the sights along the
banks of the river, which is a divine gift and gives fertility to
ricefields and sugarcane plantations.
During the Japanese occupation of Indonesia in World War Two
(1942-1945), Fujiyama visited Indonesia on an art mission. He was
later captured by the Allied Forces and detained.
Fujiyama's rendition of the song is very funny, especially in
the pronunciation of Indonesian. In the Japanese version, his
twists in the language are also odd and amusing.
Many famous Japanese singers have included Bengawan Solo in
their albums. It is on late legendary singer Hibari Misora's CD
recording of 49 songs from a concert at the Imperial Theater in
1979. The Nippon Columbia CD sells for 4,500 (Rp 90,000).
The Omagatoki recording company of Japan issued in 1991 an
instrumental keroncong recording Bengawan Solo -- proof of the
song's fame -- by the Senja Ayu Flute orchestra led by K.
Soemardi and recorded in the Sound City Studio in Jakarta in
October 1988.
Another recording by the same orchestra presents the melodious
voices of Indonesian singers Tuti Tri Sedya, Mira Tania, M.
Rivany, Wiwiek Sumbogo and Rita S. on the CD Kroncong Moritsko.
Once again Bengawan Solo is included.
"Bengawan Solo's melodies and lyrics are very beautiful. But I
do not remember when I heard the song for the first time," said
Hiroo Nagai, a culture lecturer at Tokyo's Nihon University.
Japan's younger generation may not know Bengawan Solo, but
other Indonesian music is popular among them. CDs and cassettes
of Javanese and Balinese gamelan, and pop songs by singers Ruth
Sahanaya, Hetty Koes Endang, Detty Kurnia, Rhoma Irama are
available at the music stores. Commercial radio stations play the
songs of Anggun C. Sasmi, who sings in French, English and
Indonesian.