Street singers bring back memory of Batak composer

By Johannes Simbolon

JAKARTA (JP): The street musicians, billing themselves as Rio Band, picked up their old instruments, took in their audience of restaurant patrons and began strumming their favorite songs.

Tondongta is the name of the restaurant, located in the Senayan eatery complex, and is a popular hangout both for the Batak of North Sumatra and lovers of Batak cuisine.

One song reveals the high hopes of the Batak for their offspring, while another is dedicated to the memory of the band's drummer who took his own life.

The former, Annkonki Do Hasangapan Di Au (My Child is my Happiness), is band leader Rikky Dekky Manik's favorite: "I may not be able to go to parties/Like my friends who are well to do/Mind not, as long as my kids are secure/For they are most precious to me/I work hard every day and night/They must get the highest schooling/And for this I'll do my best."

Rikky says the song, composed decades ago by Batak's legendary folk song composer Nahum Situmorang, shows the importance of education in Batak culture.

Sio Mama, a folk song from Ambon, has a special meaning to the band. It used to be played by their former drummer, Jemmi "Tambunan", an Ambonese who was given a Batak family name by the band's sponsor Rio Tambunan.

Jemmi, a father of five, recently took his own life by hanging himself after his wife abandoned him.

"We miss Jemmi. He was a good person," Manik recalled.

The band plays from noon to 3 p.m. daily to entertain the restaurant's clients. Apart from Batak tunes, they also sing a few Western pop songs and popular folk songs from other parts of the country.

Manik said it was difficult to make a living on music, but most of the band players are high school graduates who have tried in vain to earn a living outside music.

Composer

Manik said the band felt indebted to a number of people who had supported them, including Rio, who donated the band's instruments and the restaurant owner, who allowed them to sing there. But most of all, they felt indebted to the late Nahum because most of the songs they sung were composed by him.

Their gratitude is fitting. Nahum is considered the greatest of all Batak folk song writers.

He wrote at least 140 songs which have won the hearts of most of his fellow Batak people, and are singing musts for all musical groups of his native land.

Music critic Remy Sylado, in his Ensiklopedia Musik Indonesia (Indonesian Music Encyclopedia), says: "Since Nahum wrote a lot of songs which are accepted as folk songs, there is a saying 'Batak songs are Nahum's songs'."

Some people even go further to say that had Nahum never been born or had never written songs, Batak people would never have become stereotyped as singers.

Born in Sipirok, North Sumatra, on Feb. 14, 1904, Nahum was deemed to have musical talent at a very young age.

Yet, he wanted to become a teacher and in 1929, after studying in Dutch schools in Java, he established himself at a school in the North Sumatra town of Sibolga.

In 1928, he won second place in a contest to compose the country's national anthem. Unfortunately the title was never documented.

Nahum intensively wrote songs while his profession changed from teaching to restaurateur to jeweler to car salesman.

Nahum's compositions have nice melodies and strong lyrics with themes reflecting his wonder over nature, romance, parental love and war and death.

Most of his songs also have a modern style which has enabled them to weather time. He wrote rhumba songs like Ketabo (Let's Go), calypso songs like Pulo Samosir (Samosir Island), slow rock like Endengkon di Radio Bege (Listen to my Songs on the Radio), and blues like Tumagoh Nama Mate (I'd Better Die).

One of his songs which is still a hit in Jakarta pubs is Situmorang, in which he praises himself as a great musician, and Lisoi (Cheer), which tells about a drunkard.

Nahum remained a bachelor throughout his life and died at 61 due to illness in Medan, where he was buried.

Nahum may have been a big success as a musician, but as his own song sung by the Rio Band implies, he was considered a most unfortunate man in his native community since he was childless.

Batak culture places high emphasis for people to have children to remember them after death. In the past, a man who died childless was buried in an unknown place by the embarrassed family. Such a death is called mate punu, a total death.

But although Nahum had no biological children, the fact is no Batak man was more immortal than him.

Generations of people continue to sing his songs -- which remain the "children" of his heart and mind today and maybe for eternity.