No Batak wedding is complete without a band
No Batak wedding is complete without a band
JAKARTA (JP): The Batak people in Jakarta, especially the Toba
Bataks, often highlight their wedding parties with traditional
music commonly known as uning-uningan.
At least five people make up an uning-uningan group. All their
instruments are made of wood: flutes, the marimba-like garantung,
the taganing, a small drum covered with leather at each end, and
kulintang, which is a percussion instrument.
In Jakarta there are at least 18 uning-uningan groups which
regularly perform at Batak weddings and New Year's parties. Each
group may perform as often as twice or three times a week.
Turman Sinaga, the music coordinator for the Martha Ulos
Group, said his group sometimes performed as often as 20 times a
month. The owner of the group, Martha Sirait, includes a
traditional Batak music performance in the Batak wedding package
he offers.
On average, a Batak music group can earn between Rp 500,000
and Rp 700,000 for one performance. So each member of the group
may take home between Rp 100,000 and Rp 150,000 each time the
group performs.
As the members of these Batak traditional music groups can
make a handsome living, about 70 percent of them make playing
this music their sole source of income. The other 30 percent of
them may have side jobs such as working as bus conductors or
selling cigarettes at bus stations.
"When we have to perform at a party, we will leave behind our
other jobs and concentrate on playing traditional Batak music.
Where there is a wedding party, there we can find our fortune,"
said Ramses Simbolon, a member of the Sabangunan group of Bekasi.
When these groups perform at a wedding party, these musicians
don attractive costumes and leave behind their dirty and rumpled
work clothes. Generally they wear black trousers and black long-
sleeved shirts. They will also wear hats made of ulos, a uniquely
Batak woven cloth. The will also wear a piece of ulos as a shawl,
which is worn across their chests and flows to the ground.
Batak musicians who join uning-uningan groups, such as Arlen
Naibaho, Jona Sinaga, Erwin Samosir, Ongir Nainggolan and Saut
Gultom, generally say they inherited their passion for this music
from previous generations.
Take Eslon Simarmata, 25. His grandfather and his father were
members of an uning-uningan group, so he feels called upon to do
likewise.
Usually, uning-uningan groups play more or less the same
pieces. The most popular works are generally those written by the
late Tilhang Gultom. Gultom, who died in the 1970s, wrote
hundreds of Batak songs, the most popular of which include Butet,
Sinanggal Tulo and Doge Doge.
A Batak feast is complete only if the melodious sounds of
flutes and drums and the incessant beat of the percussion fill
the air to accompany hundreds of guests merrily participating in
the tortor, a Batak dance. (Tuti Gintini)