Local folk songs have diverse 'borrowed' origins
Local folk songs have diverse 'borrowed' origins
By Remy Sylado
JAKARTA (JP): "Folk song" was a popular musical expression
among youngsters here in the early 1970s. It was embraced as an
alternative to compete with the pop industry segmentation used by
traders at music centers such as in Glodok, West Jakarta.
Folk songs used to be understood as only popular folk music --
both new and traditional -- adopted from the Anglo-American
world. Names like Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Donovan were idolized.
But the term "folk song" was a trend in the 1970s here, and did
not carry the same meaning as the original term or, for instance,
volkslied in German or Dutch.
In Indonesian, the term used as the literal translation of
"folk song", lagu rakyat, would actually correctly refer to lagu
daerah, songs from the regions. These would be the folk songs
whose composers may be both known or unknown and which can be
sung by seven out of 10 people at least.
But a little understanding of musical history raises doubts
about whether all our folk songs are of indigenous origin. The
diatonic scale comprising intervals of five whole steps and two
half steps became familiar here only under colonial rule.
Well-loved songs using the diatonic scale include Soleram
(from Riau province, Sumatra), Inani Keke (Minahasa, North
Sulawesi),Kole-kole (Ambon) and Bolelebo (Timor).
However, we should believe that some songs are indigenous,
particularly those based on the pelog tone (do-ti-sol-fa-me-do)
and several based on the slendro tone (do-la-sol-me-re-do).
Not all slendro songs would be original because slendro itself
is not native to Java, but has its origins in China, dating back
to the period before Christ. We can say with more confidence that
the pelog is native to Java. Both tones are used in the gamelan
orchestra.
But in the spirit of "unity in diversity", we can leave the
intricacies of history and look at folk songs, or lagu rakyat, in
eight typical groupings:
1. Children's games: Dutch musical experts, for instance
Brandtbuys, has studied songs accompanying children's games in
Java, the dolanan lare. Studies concluded most songs were in
slendro. In this grouping, children's songs can be divided into
songs sung by girls (Bing Ana, Little Girl, Madura, East Java)
those sung by boys (Tete da Tidor, Sister Has Gone to Sleep,
Minahasa) and songs sung by both sexes (Ampar-ampar Pisang,
Putting Out the Bananas, Banjar, South Kalimantan).
2. Teenagers: These are songs with most variations, and the
most popular are, of course, love songs. Most intense lyrics are
found in songs drawn from the Melayu tradition of the pantun
(verses consisting of two couplets), sung when sweethearts meet
at night. They would sing in turns, the verses being a response
to the earlier one. One example is:
From where do you come, and where are you going to,
from Japan to the port of China
If I am allowed to ask of you,
who owns the flower in yonder yard?
Courting traditions in East Indonesia, especially in Manado
and Timor, are imbued with Portuguese and Spanish influences. In
Timor, men sing while strumming the sasando instrument. In Manado
the strumming is called karambang, from the Spanish exclamation
caramba (splendid). The songs are called maka-aruyen, from the
Spanish arullo, or crooning, more or less like lullabies. The
strumming by the male, it was believed, could entrance the girl
to sneek out of her window and meet him.
3. Marriage. Tunes sung in wedding ceremonies have less
variety. In Aceh, a popular song for such purposes is Dendang
Sayang (Song of Loving), accompanied by the violin, percussions
and gongs. Such songs contain the sacred ideals of marriage;
Bersuluk from Riau, for instance, means a tune of Islamic prayers
hoping that the newlyweds will have an everlasting life together.
4. Making a living. These songs are particularly found in
traditional Melayu theaters in the Natuna Islands, Riau province.
The tune is sung when an actor takes off his hat in the middle of
a performance and goes around the audience asking for tips. One
song is called Cik Siti (Miss Siti), which goes:
Oh Miss Siti
Miss Siti of the sea
If you have more, please give some to me
Please be willing to give us some
We're coming and please don't run.
5. Nostalgia. These songs originated from natives recruited into
the Dutch army, particularly the Ambonese and Manadonese. The
songs became popular across the archipelago and included Ole Sio
(How Beautiful), Kole-kole (Small Boat) from Ambon) and Si
Patokaan (Manado).
6. Criticism. These can be traced to the colonial days in which
the songs were reactions to injustice. In the decades of the
forced crop cultivation in the 19th century, the West Javanese
tune Deungkleung Dengdek was born among coffee peasants. With a
playful-sounding warning against bothering one's coffee crops, it
implied that colonizers should stop exploiting the already
suffering motherland, symbolized by the heavy, hanging crops.
The war days in Aceh saw the birth of the song composed by
Dolkarim, Goumpeni Kaphe, (Infidel Company, the Dutch VOC trade
firm in charge of the Indies), which became a fiery war call
among the local Moslems.
7. Playful tunes. These were popular following independence in
1945, and did not last long because they were only relevant to a
certain period. One song around the 1955 general elections seems
to express the voter being simply overwhelmed by major
competitors; the communist party, the Moslem Masyumi and the
nationalist PNI and their respective symbols:
The hammer and sickle of PKI
The crescent moon of Masyumi
The mighty bull of PNI
These my choices will be.
The tune was adopted from the theme song of a popular Western
film at that time, Anna.
8. Spreading religious teachings, namely Islamic context (syiar).
This form has its roots particularly in Java. A well-known tune
is Lir ilir, which according to the court history of Java, Babad
Tanah Jawi, was written by Sunan Kalijaga, a king and preacher of
Islam of the 16th century.
The tune is sung by children at full moon; it refers to a
shepard boy told to climb up a starfruit tree. But in the
tradition of the syiar containing both explicit and implicit
meanings, the verses really refer to the growth of Islam in Java,
the core of which is Islam's five obligations, symbolized by the
five angles of the starfruit. Even though the "tree" is hard to
climb, one must keep on trying to embrace the religion.
The above notes show us that our folk songs are tied to
specific ethnicities, each of them culturally rich in their own
right. Such richness has posed the difficulty of defining the
songs as traditional, folk songs, lagu rakyat, and songs of the
regions, lagu daerah.
From a sociological point of view, folk songs have been
associated with the struggle for freedom, or those with a
political context. On the other hand, songs of the regions refer
to a more etnomusicological term.
So neither quite fit in to the term "folk song", referring to
the influence of Anglo-American songs in the culture of the young
of the 1970s here.
Such confusion, cross-cultural influences without proper
documentation and notorious lack of awareness of copyrights, led
to the many hijackings of foreign songs which were eventually
claimed to be Indonesian.
A national blunder occurred when the government honored the
late composer Ismail Marzuki for a number of his well-loved songs
here such as the farewell melody, sung to the tune of Auld Lang
Syne and the Sundanese Panon Hideung (Black Eyes). The government
has never retracted the award.
Apparently, no one then was aware of the origins of the
farewell song, composed by the poet Robert Burns from a
traditional Scottish melody, with a 1799 copyright held by
Preston & Son.
The Black Eyes song in Sundanese originated from Dark Eyes,
the Russian song introduced here by Russian musicians who helped
set up the Music Academy in Yogyakarta. Its arrangement was by
Harry Horlick and Gregory Stone, and its 1926 copyright is on
behalf of Carl Fischer Inc.
The continued confusion regarding other songs has indeed
characterized both folk songs and regional songs, most of which
has not led to much fuss.
Who cares that a Minahasa song, Inani Keke, is similar to
Timor's Bolelebo, both originating from a Portuguese hymn, Haja
Luz? The song is even similar to the song commemorating our
heroine for women's rights, Ibu Kartini, by W.R. Supratman.
History has also revealed that Sing Sing So, widely accepted
as a Batak song, was first sung among a small tribe in mainland
China 200 years ago.