Mother, daughter join force in praise of classical music

Mehru Jaffer, Contributor, Jakarta

Pranawengrum Katamsi, 59, has been making music for over half a century and always seems ready to burst into yet another song.

Pulling out decade old photographs, Pranawengrum is happy to display a black and white picture that shows her dancing as a child at the palace in Yogyakarta.

Even at that tender age she listened constantly to the radio and learned to sing Indonesian art songs. Among the different kinds of music, Pranawengrum was attracted most to seriosa songs (the Indonesian term for the vocal music that has its roots in western classical songs).

Unlike the keroncong (a kind of Indonesian music with a particular harmonic flavor) style based on traditional music and hiburan or popular music, Pranawengrum expresses a special liking for the music of such composers as Mochtar Embud, Iskandar and Ismail Marzuki. These are Indonesian musicians who were greatly inspired by western classical music and wrote songs in Bahasa Indonesia based on tunes from the West.

"All the music that I sang was always for my own pleasure. I never danced or sang to make a career out of it," Pranawengrum told The Jakarta Post at her south Jakarta residence where she continues to give music lessons to hordes of youngsters.

And whenever there is an opportunity to perform, Pranawengrum seldom turns it down.

She lost her father early in her childhood and her mother was too busy bringing up five children to notice her daughter's special talents. It was her teachers at the Catholic school who discovered how musical she was and insisted that she study music formally.

Her constant companion was Pramono, her youngest brother, who continues to play the trombone.

Marriage to Amoroso Katamsi, well-known actor and medical doctor, only enhanced her life in the world of show biz and eventually all three of her children grew up to be practicing musicians.

Ratna Arumasari, the eldest child, is a pianist, son Toddy is a rock musician and younger daughter Aning Katamsi Asmoro, 32, has already earned a reputation as one of the country's sweetest sounding sopranos.

Recalling her earliest memories, Aning says that many of her waking hours were spent listening to her mother sing, mostly numbers from Maria Callas concerts.

"But there was never any pressure on me to become a singer," adds Aning, who also admits that like her mother she sings purely for pleasure. She does not recall her music lessons ever being a chore. There were always other children of her age in the house who came to learn music from her mother and she was only too happy to join the crowd.

She does not recall ever being forced to learn music.

Today neither mother nor daughter claim to use music to play a greater role in society. Both talk of the deep satisfaction that singing provides their souls, and give that as the only reason they love music.

Aning has appeared in about four performances with her mother and describes those moments as very special. Expressing herself in song along with her mother is like going back to the source of her voice.

Asked to comment on what she thinks of Aning's renditions, Pranawengrum promptly said that, for one thing, it was far better than her own singing.

"I admired her voice even when she was very young and I am glad that she continues to sing," says Pranawengrum of Aning.

After learning from her mother, Aning enrolled at the Jakarta Music Education Foundation (YPM) in her early teens. For the next decade her teacher was Catherina W. Leimena and she also took lessons from American vocal instructors Lee Alison Sibley, Ruth Drucker and Andrea Ehrenreich.

While at the YPM, she learned to play the piano as well from Susiana Adhitjan and Iravati M. Sudiarso. Today she herself gives vocal music and piano lessons at the YPM.

According to Aning, she is happy to be part of the thriving western classical music scene here. Take the world of Sherina, which is completely different from that of Pranawengrum when she was 11 years old.

Sherina has today earned the status of a pop star and also has opportunities galore to perform in evergreen ballets like The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky, the great classical music composer.

Pranawengrum agrees that there has been a vast change in the attitude of people here towards western classical music. And it is a change for the better. For example, the opportunity to develop individual talents professionally was very limited before.

"Today the sky is the limit with more and more people going abroad to study western classical music," says Aning, who is expecting her second child any day.

Her daughter Varizka is four years old and it will soon be time for her to take piano lessons from Aunt Ratna.

But Aning has a feeling that the much more feisty Varizka may not be as easily tempted to learn from her as Aning was to learn from her own mother.