Songwriters summit creates new melodies

Songwriters summit creates new melodies

By Johannes Simbolon

DENPASAR, Bali (JP): On Ungasan hill, just south of here, a
number of exciting new melodies have been born at the Pacific
Music Rainbow songwriters convention, which began last Thursday.

Celebrated composers from the U.S., Indonesia, Hong Kong, the
Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam filled the morning air with music
at the Bali Cliff Resort, which is hosting the gathering.

"Moonlight on the water ...," sang a group of songwriters
during a rehearsal on Friday morning. Candra Darusman of
Indonesia was on keyboard, America's Harold Paine on guitar.
Their group partners are Indonesia's Dadang S. Manaf, and Brenda
Russel from the U.S. The latter has written scores of songs
performers like Tina Turner, Aretha Franklin, Donna Summer and
Whitney Houston.

The songwriters, who met for the first time only a few days
ago, already seem like longtime buddies. There is no trace of the
"cultural barriers" which some had feared would hamper
cooperation among the participants.

Music, the universal language and culture, has united them in
a matter of days, eliminating anything that might have stood
between them.

"It feels so right," is a line which surfaces again and again
in Candra's group's newly-composed reggae song, which has no
title as yet.

After working hard for two days, the composers relaxed all day
long yesterday, rafting on the river and visiting the house of
bamboo expert Judi Garland in Ubud.

The songwriters were divided into 12 groups by lot-drawing on
Wednesday evening. Each group consists of four composers, in most
cases consisting of two Americans and two Indonesians.

Feelings were mixed on the part of some Indonesian composers
during the lot-drawing, as they found themselves paired up with
people whose musical styles are very different from their own.

Indonesian living legend Titiek Puspa, who has a reputation as
a stubborn composer who resists the slightest changes to her
songs, appeared rather nervous when she learned that she would be
working with Klaus Meine and Rudolf Shenker of German supergroup
Scorpion. Meanwhile, the young James F. Sundah, who was also
placed in the group, looked excited about the rare opportunity.

After a day of working together and completing a song, the
anxiety had vanished. The four dined and even went to the disco
together.

"I was a bit nervous at first because his (Meine's) voice is
high-pitched, so I had to use falsetto to sing with him," said
Titiek. "Because they are rock group, I thought they would be
rowdy people. Surprisingly, they are very, very gentle. They
never hesitated to ask for our comments. Very cooperative and
good people," he added with an air of satisfaction.

The Scorpion musicians also seemed satisfied with the song
that had been produced, praising the good cooperation that had
given birth to it.

"I will sing it for our next album," said Meine, the
Scorpion's well-known vocalist, humming the first line of the
song.

All of the groups have completed at least one song since the
gathering began, but not all have given titles to their works.

The group of Cathy Dennis and Dave Gibson of the U.S. and
Indonesia's Irianti Erningpraja and Andre Hehanussa has completed
two songs, titled You Don't Have to Say Goodbye and Love Is All
We Need.

The group of Gary Nicholson and Mark Hudson, both from the
U.S., and Indonesian Amin Ivo, called their song Till You Give It
Away.

The larger group of Dave Koz, Victoria Show, Allan Rich, all
of the U.S., Tito Soemarsono of Indonesia and Joseph Hwang of
Hong Kong called their song My Heart Keeps Calling Your Name.

Allan Roy Scott, Mark Mueller, both from the U.S., and their
Indonesian partners Bartje van Houten and Titiek Van Houten
produced a number called Touch Me There Again.

Americans Gary Burr and Beth Hooker worked with their
Indonesian partners to create a song titled We Need A Light.

All groups had their own ways of coming up with the songs.
Some first discussed the basic idea of the would-be melody, while
others started off just playing the instruments, allowing a
composition to gradually take shape.

Some groups wrote two sets of lyrics -- one in English and
another in Indonesian. Others mixed English and Indonesian in
their lyrics.

Cooperation had been established so well on the first day that
the Indonesian composers were reluctant to change partners. As
scheduled, however, lots were drawn again by the organizing
committee yesterday and new groups were formed.

"We'll be back to zero again in molding relationships," said
one ruffled Indonesian composer.

After each song was completed, all the composers signed a
legal document stating joint-ownership in the copyright of the
compositions. Under the contracts, Indonesia is given the first
chance to publish all the songs, a job which will be handled by
the Antero Bagus publishing company.

The first opportunity the public will have to hear the Pacific
Music Rainbow compositions will be at the Charity Night show on
Nov. 4 at the Jakarta Convention Center, where all the composers
will perform their works.

So far none of the composers have dared to predict whether
their songs will be successful.

"The success of a song depends on the singer. If a song is
sung by the wrong singer, it will fail, however good it is," said
Verancio A. Saturno of the Philippines.

Financed by the MEDCO oil company, the unique meeting, which
is modeled on the U.S.-Soviet and U.S.-Rumanian songwriters
meetings in 1988 and 1994, respectively, will end tomorrow. The
participants will then fly to Jakarta to take part in the
International Song Festival in Jakarta from Nov. 1 to Nov. 2.