Tony Prabowo's music strikes a chord at home and abroad
By Carla Bianpoen
JAKARTA (JP): When the curtain fell and a resounding applause for Tony Prabowo's composition filled the Alice Tully Hall in the New York Lincoln Center early this year, Tony himself was nowhere to be found. It is true he had taken great pains to get there to hear his composition played by musicians of the New Julliard Ensemble. But to go up on stage and be applauded was too much.
Besides feeling an urgent need for a glass of beer to cool his nerves, Tony humbly felt he had not yet reached the level of great names in what is called contemporary or new music. But his friends who were in the concert hall could not help but feel a sense of might and pride. "You can't imagine our feeling at hearing music composed by an Indonesian, performed to perfection by American musicians," reveals Restu Imansari who taught the American performers how to pronounce the Indonesian lyrics. "I really think our language is very well-suited to opera," she adds with much enthusiasm.
Before the end of this year, Tony Prabowo's music will once again grace the prestigious Alice Tully Hall. Will he avoid visibility again, or will he let himself be persuaded to approach the stage? Time will tell. For now, he is immersed in the tones and the timbres he wants to produce. "It will be different from my previous works," he reveals. It is not his first work for orchestra, but it will be the first of this kind. How different his new compositions for Five Pieces for Orchestra are will remain a secret until the performance day at the Lincoln Center, Dec. 9.
New directions
Tony Prabowo's music is known as "new music", the sounds of which vary between native traditional and foreign. Some experts would call it experimental, but Tony gets all heated up at such naming. "My music has nothing to do with experimental, I am using pre-existing techniques," he contended. That said, he calmed down to say what he does is give it another twist, or another combination, a new direction, so to say.
Don't ask me what difference this makes. Atonality and 12-tone techniques are like abracadabra. Listening to Tony's music is like looking at an abstract painting for the first time. And as with abstract paintings, the more you get into it, the more it touches you and the deeper you feel its depth.
In his studio located in a friend's house in the Kemang area, South Jakarta, a variety of percussion instruments reveal the borderless nature of his preference. "In fact, I have no special preference," said Tony. All he does is lay open himself to any sound and noise occurring anywhere on this planet. While appreciation of new music is always controversial, there is an increasing number of people who find such music a source of great imagery, treading on grounds which lead to alien countries and the beyond. Drums, woodblocks, temple blocks, bells, flutes, bowls, maracas and other instruments from a variety of cultures all over the world speak of his musical visions for global unity.
The remarkable feature of Tony's compositions from a layperson's perspective is perhaps that anyone listening properly will experience a sense of affinity, of being associated in one or the other way. Whether it is a reminiscence of gypsy music, religious chants, African drums, Javanese gamelan, Chinese bowls, or a touch of the primitive or native, his compositions contain a world of various emotions as it is felt and expressed by different cultures. Experiencing a multiple of cultures at the same time. Perhaps it is this that sets Tony Prabowo apart from other composers of new music.
There is a growing demand for his music. Many commissioning parties from many parts of the world have great interest in his works, and they include those from the U.S., Europe and Japan.
On Oct. 11 Tony heads for New York. A workshop for an Indonesian-American collaborative opera is in the offing. His team includes journalist and poet Goenawan Mohamad, singer and ethnomusicologist Nyak Ina Raseuki (Ubiet), and choreographer Gusmiati Suid. His counterpart will be American composer and conductor Jarred Powell plus team. The idea is to work on a piece that combines eastern myth and western ratio. Another event will be the launching of the Lontar publication Illuminations, the Writing Traditions of Indonesia, which is supported by the Ford Foundation and was launched in Jakarta earlier this year. Tony's music will be part of the event which will also be attended by Ford Foundation's Susan Berresford.
Roots
Tony Prabowo's fascination with music started quite early in life. A guitar his father bought for himself roused Tony's curiosity. His father's warning not to touch it was completely counterproductive for a boy of eight years, and young Tony became even more curious. The strings of the guitar eventually led his musical interest to the violin. "Twice a week I went to the music school of Mr. Tino Kerdeijk in Surabaya," said Tony, who at that time lived in Malang, about an hour's drive away from the school.
Meanwhile his growing interest in music substantially reduced his interest in the teachings of a secondary school. He quit when he was only halfway through this education, to the profound dismay of his parents who belonged to the educated nobility. "They wanted me to be a doctor," he said. After two years of violin studies at the Indonesian Music School in Yogyakarta, he entered his formal studies in music under the guidance of acclaimed composer Slamet Abdul Sjukur.
Still in his early 20s, Tony began composing music for works done by renowned dancers and choreographers. He set up a small group which played at Jakarta's Hyatt Aryaduta and other hotels. Initially, he was drawn toward the West, but working with Laksmi Simandjuntak sent him to the very center of his being. Today, for Tony there is no east nor west, nor any borders to music.
Destiny
Traveling along the path of his destiny, Tony worked with choreographer Sardono W. Kusumo, poet W.S. Rendra, and Goenawan Mohamad for performances in Indonesia and abroad. His compositions were part of such successful productions as Rendra's The Ritual of Solomon's Children, which was performed at the New York International Festival of the Arts in 1988, Sardono's Mahabuta in Switzerland and Dongeng dari Dirah (Tales of Dirah) in Japan, as well as Goenawan Mohamad's lyrics for Pembakaran Sita (Sita's Incineration), Panji Sepuh, and Dongeng Sebelum Tidur (Bedtime Tales), performed in Indonesia, Australia and South Korea. Other international involvement includes the International Composers Workshop at the Gaudeamus Foundation in Amsterdam. He also composed music for a play performed at the Theater of the New City in New York after its premiere at the Jakarta Art Center. The play was titled Blurred Vision and directed by Karen Williams and Tom Andrews. His music has also found appreciation in film and documentary productions.
Among Tony's major innovations is the establishment of a group consisting of young traditional percussionists from West Sumatra. Each group member has a background of formal music training. The group performed Music for Voice and Percussions recently at the Regent Hotel at a reception held by The Jakarta Post for American Publishers.
"I did not make any written notation for the percussionists, every direction and instruction was done orally," said Tony.
He only made notations for Ubiet, the vocal part which was added to the original production made for Linda Hoemar's choreography Lalu?!
While he often looks nervous, at times he has an air of being surprisingly relaxed. Don't be fooled, for in fact he is at work. Teguh Ostenrik shared an experience when Tony was supposed to be writing the music for his installation at the Jakarta Art Center, titled Homo Sapiens Bertopeng (Masked Homo Sapiens).
"We were all working at a high level of stress," said Teguh, "but Tony seemed relaxed, playing with the birds in my garden, looking at the fish, and touching leaves in the garden. He frustrated us all."
However, Teguh did not say a word, nor did he show any anxiety. He just waited, and not in vain. Tony's composition for his installation was superb.
At 40, Tony Prabowo is on his way up. Experts in the field of new music consider him to have great potential. While growing international appreciation may bring about a total change in a person, Tony is fortunately an exception. Free of any pretense, his sincerity and low-key demeanor are some of his many strong points.