Tony Prabowo's music strikes a chord at home and abroad

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.