Traditional music 'kothekan lesung' awaits recognation

Traditional music 'kothekan lesung' awaits recognation

Taufikur Rohman, Contributor, Surakarta, Central Java

Old women, armed with pestles in their hands, stand in front of a
traditional wooden mortar. They are busy, as if pounding rice
grains. They are not: They are playing music.

The music, known locally as kothekan lesung, is named after
the main appliances used to produce the music -- a wooden lesung
(mortar) and the way the wooden alu (pestle) creates the distinct
sound, kothekan, when pounded on the mortar.

The sounds coming out of the repeated and various movements
create unique music, which is no less exotic than that of modern
musical instruments. Sometimes, it is weak and slow, but at other
times, strong, with a rapid beat.

"The music's roots originated from a past tradition among
Javanese communities that used lesung and alu to pound rice.
Later, the tradition developed into musical performance," said
Hari Mulyanto, who hosted the performance at Bonoroto, Plesungan
village in Karanganyar regency, Central Java, that night.

Even in the past, according to Hari, who is also a lecturer at
the Surakarta-based Indonesian Arts Institute (STSI), kothekan
lesung became an inseparable part of many Javanese traditional
rituals, especially among agrarian communities, including wedding
parties and circumcision ceremonies.

People, he said, also used to repeatedly strike mortars
together in a particular way with pestles when there was an
eclipse of the moon in the hope that Bathara Kala, the god that
was believed to have swallowed the moon and caused the eclipse,
would hurriedly release it.

However, along with the development of technology, mortars and
pestles were eventually left behind. Farmers no longer used them
to pound rice and preferred to use rice mills instead. Soon, the
familiar sounds of kothekan lesung were eventually replaced with
the noise of rice-milling machines.

"Harvest time is now the same as any other. The familiar sound
of kothekan can no longer be heard these days,"
said Hari.

Soon, it is feared the traditional music might vanish without
trace, said Hari, who, with the help of his wife, Sri "Ting-Tong"
Setyaningsih, started to repopularize the music.

In their efforts, they reintroduced kothekan lesung, not only
as musical performance that is pleasant to listen to but also
enjoyable to watch. The couple also offers it as an artistic
performance package to a number of major hotels in Surakarta, in
a bid to gain a wider audience.

Thanks to their work, a kothekan lesung orchestra has now been
asked to perform at a number of arts festival opening ceremonies.
Their show, for instance, was held at the Srawung Seni Sedekah
Bumi ritual with Padepokan Lemah Putih in Surakarta at the end of
last year.

Apart from performing in rituals or festivals, Hari also took
the group to perform at a number of campuses. "The level of the
audience's appreciation was quite encouraging," Hari said.

Basically, Lesung is a wooden mortar made from a complete log
with a carved hole to pound rice grains in the center. Different
ways of pounding the mortar will produce different sounds.

"If you want to create a bass-like sound, you have to use big
pestles to pound the lower edge of the mortar. But if you want to
produce a clear sound that is not too loud, you pound the upper
part of the mortar with smaller pestles," Hari explained.

In their effort to revitalize traditional music, the couple
also trained previously musically illiterate women into skilled
kothekan lesung musicians who could play various kinds of music,
from Javanese pop songs to modern rock.

"Basically, you can play any music with this instrument," said
Hari.

He said the group needed at least six players to perform. In
the performance, one of the musicians would produce gedhog, or a
sound resembling that of a gong, while two performed dhundhung
(drum-like sounds). Each of the other three musicians produced
ngarang (slow-tempo sounds), ngerep (rapid-tempo sounds) and
thinthil (specific sound using a small pestle).

Kothekan lesung, according to Hari, basically had a strong
rhythm, expressing the hard, day-to-day life of the marginalized
community of Plesungan.

"Initially, the community was an isolated one. Although
geographically it was close to Surakarta, most of its people did
not know where the Surakarta Palace was," Hari said.

Certainly, Plesungan people were not the first to play such
traditional music, although there has yet to be clear information
about when exactly the music first appeared.

Historian from Surakarta-based Sebelas Maret State University
(UNS) Sudharmono said that kothekan lesung had been in existence
since Hindu times and was considered a symbol of fertility.

Unfortunately, a tradition that once became an inseparable
part of an Indonesian community's daily life is no longer
popular, and soon, it might vanish, leaving no trace.