- 1 Masyarakat Seni Pertunjukan Indonesia (Performing Arts Society of Indonesia), in Bandung, West Ja (...)
- 2 Thanks to Anne-Florence Borneuf and Philip Yampolsky himself, who answered my untiring questions (...)
1With the collaboration of the Ford Foundation and MSPI1, Philip Yampolsky has achieved a monumental masterpiece: an anthology of the traditional music of Indonesia at the end of the 20th century.2 Field recordings were carried out between 1990 and 1997 in twenty-two provinces, and twenty compact discs were published in ten years. With over two hundred million people living in almost twenty major islands and speaking some three hundred languages, it was a mammoth undertaking. Since Jaap Kunst, no one had dared paint such a musical landscape of the archipelago. Working with several Indonesian teams, Yampolsky, whose love story with this music dates back to the 1970s, recorded, selected, and described – not only for us but also for the Indonesian people (as the booklets are also printed in Indonesian) – a great variety of musical genres, of an aesthetic intensity never heard before, and with a documentation of a quality never found before.
- 3 Java and Bali, only seven percent of Indonesia’s land mass, are home to two-thirds of the nation’ (...)
2First, and this point is made quite clear, Yampolsky wanted to correct an imbalance, to “decentralize” music. In terms of musical traditions, Java and Bali have long overshadowed the rest of Indonesia, to the extent that, in music and book shops, people believe Bali and Java to be countries of their own.3 The series thus attempts to achieve a better regional balance by increasing the presence of little-known musical forms of music still performed in the archipelago, and by excluding some of the best-known forms, e.g., the exquisite chamber music of West Java (tembang Sunda and kecapi suling) or the great gamelan traditions of Central Java and Bali (see Swietlik 1997).
- 4 The series as a whole is almost unobtainable in France: music shops may display two or three volu (...)
3Second, the series aims at tendering a “repre-sentative rather than comprehensive” coverage of Indonesian music – that is, to represent the whole geographic range of the country. But doing so extensively is an impossible task. Yampolsky knows it, and he stresses that this series is but an introduction, “initial forays into unchartered territory.” Many musical forms were excluded, such as oral epic and music for dance or theater, all forms in which the main focus is not the sound proper. The set of CDs, however, offers an excellent “representative” survey of Indonesia’s musical traditions. Despite the ethnomusicologist’s humility, the size and quality of the investigation are so great that this work can be considered an all-time discographic summit. No other series presents the musical diversity of such a huge country with such documentary precision, such aesthetic concern, and such detailed field data. For economic reasons, unfortunately, the series is not presented in a box, which would have conferred added value to this impressive work.4
- 5 The words in italic are excerpted from an interview with Yampolsky in Jakarta (May 8, 2000).
4Who is the audience? Rather than the specialist, these recordings target the amateur, the open-minded non-specialist listener.5 Apart from illustrating Indonesian musical diversity, the series selected music that leaves a lasting mark, at every level, primarily at the aesthetic level, while pleasing the ear. Scholars wanting to learn more about Indonesian music will be satisfied, too, with, for example, the strange “Balkanic” singing from East Flores, described by Kunst (1942) but never heard before: We now have wonderful sound examples of diphonic singing.
5The assumed goal is to represent Indonesia as a whole, and Yampolsky at first stuck to the nation’s geographical divisions – the already well-known largest islands: Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, the Lesser Sunda Islands (Sumbawa, Sumba, Timor), Maluku, and Irian Jaya – in order to, as he said, give a picture not of a cultural unit but of a political unit. Each disc, thus, is devoted to a single region, except two that show mixed samples from different places (vols. 14 and 20). Overall, Java (vols. 1, 2, 3, and 5) and Sumatra (vols. 6, 7, 11, and 12) are granted twice as much time as islands of Eastern Indonesia – Flores (vols. 8 and 9), Sulawesi (vols. 15 and 18), Kalimantan (vols. 13 and 17), Maluku (vol. 19), Irian Jaya (vol. 10), and the southeastern islands (vol. 16). In the late volumes, new subgroupings were introduced, by grouping music not only by regions but also by instrument or by context (vols. 13, 15, 17, 18, and 20), or by cultural criteria (vol. 11, devoted to Melayu music).
6Each disc has internal unity of varying types: geographic unity (vols. 4, 16, and 19) ; musical unity, based on either a musical form (vols 1, 2, 6, and 14) or an instrument (vols. 13, 15, 17, and 20) ; ethnic unity (vols. 3 and 6, even if their titles do not mention it) ; social unity (vols. 17 and 18) ; cultural unity (vol. 11) ; or ecological unity (vol. 7). While some discs focus on the music of a single island (vols. 8, 9, 12, 13, 15, 17, and 18), others explore those from an island group belonging to a same geographic area but not necessarily from the same cultural area (vols 4, 16, and 19). Such variation in organizational principles can be valuable, and so the series does not suffer from any obdurate categories, system, or labeling, and the music is not cast and flattened in a matrix. For instance, we find a mix of music from Sumbawa, Sumba, and Timor, three islands geographically close but culturally very different (vol. 16). This leads the listener to envision the musical and religious diversity of this area, Muslim in its western part and Christian in its eastern part.
7To the beginner trying to get the whole picture, however, this variation may be confusing. With such a variety of repertoires, it is difficult to perceive any order. As Yampolsky explains, the purpose is not to build musical monographs, but to review the amazing variety of musical idioms, and propose an overview of that variety, rather than a musical map of Indonesia. Averse to hasty generalizations, Yampolsky prefers detailed observations and lets the listener himself think, compare, and link.
- 6 For example, the distribution of kolintang gong chime, from Borneo and Sumatra to Java and Bali, (...)
8The most accomplished discs are indebted to the comparatist approach. Those discs grouping music not only by places but also by instruments or contexts (vols. 13, 15, 17, 18, and 20) reach a musical and ethnological unity. Through music, they reflect broad local entities independent of borders based on language or religion, thus showing how musical aesthetics do not necessarily depend on linguistic criteria.6
9In his tireless exploration, Yampolsky, as a questioning esthete, selected various repertoires, many of them unknown: sung narratives performed by one or two singers, accompanied or not by one or two instruments (vols. 3, 6, 15, and 19); lyric singing, “verses not part of religious or shamanistic observance, and without extended narrative” (vols. 3, 15, 16, and 20); private music for emotional release or the entertainment of oneself or others close by (vols. 7, 8, and 19) ; group singing in unison or octaves (vols. 4, 12, 19, 16, and 18), polyphony in two parts (vols. 8, 9, 17, and 18), melody with drone (vols. 8, 9, and 18), in three parts (vol. 8), in counterpoint (vols. 9 and 18), heterophonic singing (vols. 10, 17, and 19), antiphonal singing (vols. 16 and 18); gong chime ensembles (vols. 7, 8, 12, 17, 18, and 19), gamelan and wayang music (vols. 5 and 14), music from the Melayu culture (vols. 7, 11, and 13), music for entertainment with a professional female dancer-singer (ronggeng, joged, gandrung, vols. 1, 3, 5, 7, and 11), music for shamanism, magic, and healing (vols. 7 and 17); Muslim music, whether devotional or secular (vols. 11, 12, 13, 15, and 18), Chinese music (vol. 3), or a European music complex with hybrid genres, such as kroncong and dangdut (vol. 2), hybrid brass bands (vols. 3 and 5), guitars (vol. 20), and church singing in Flores (vols. 8 and 9) or Irian Jaya (vol. 10).
- 7 Some pieces were recorded during rituals: healing rituals in Mentawai (vol. 7) and Kalimantan (vo (...)
10Through those samples, Yampolsky seeks to reveal music in its entirety, in the best possible way, both technically and aesthetically. All recordings (except one or two) were made in the field, but their unusual brightness is due to the editor’s choice to stifle contextual sounds (crowd noise, conversations, animals, motorcycles).7 The musicologist’s choice here overrides the ethnologist’s, and most of us will enjoy this clearness.
11Moreover, by placing artistic unity above exhaustiveness, Yampolsky honored musical time, avoiding the “potpourri,” whose many different samples are no sooner heard than forgotten, as such samples, though valuable as documentation, cannot help the listener enter musical aesthetics. Each album offers only three or four genres, often long pieces (more than ten minutes) showing various styles, so as to build homogenous and well balanced discs. One volume even offers one single style (gandrung Banyuwangi), with one full night of music condensed into a one-hour disc, a long sequence played by a same band (vol. 1). Conversely, the disc on Maluku (vol. 19), showing very disparate music, has no internal unity.
12In every disc, Yampolsky’s fine, melancholic, and interiorized musical sensitivity can be felt. Most of the pieces, of a touching beauty, offer an elegant, bare gravity, with a deep aesthetic intensity – especially in the discs on Flores (vols. 8 and 9), Sulawesi (vols. 15 and 18), and the southeastern islands (vol. 16), as well as with the Javanese singer-dancer in vol. 1 and the Kalimantan strings in vol. 13.
13“I try to give people a start on the music, not produce the last word,” Yampolsky wrote. Booklets of twenty-five to thirty-two pages in English, detailed, well conceived, carefully written, and thoroughly referenced, tender a musicological problématique in which the collector involves himself with humility. With much analytical insight, they offer new definitions, precise and meticulously chosen musicological terminology, relevant speculations, proposed but never imposed. Beside deep and clear historical and social information, high-level, though always easily intelligible, musicological analyses are given.
14The writer’s honesty leads him to share his doubts, never submitting his statements as if the last word on the subject, and to justify his choices. Moreover, he describes the recording contexts – which is quite new in a disc booklet – and we can picture him, going around with his 150-kg gear in search of traditional music performers, evading government agencies’ “collaboration.” We can gauge his tenacity in locating original music, his perseverance (e.g., his visit to Buru Island in Maluku or his stay with the Uma of the central highlands of Sulawesi), and also and mainly his graciousness with the musicians recorded. Aware of the difficult field and recording conditions, the listener will find certain fragile pieces moving.
- 8 <www.si.edu/folkways/Indonesia/indonesia.htm>
15Due to lack of space, no musical transcription was included in the booklets, nor was any transliteration or translation of sung texts. Some such texts, transcribed and sometimes translated and referenced, can be found on the website of the Smithsonian/Folkways,8 a practice completely new to our discipline.
16The series improved with time, both in layout (cover) and contents (booklet). In the first discs, the track index on the cover gives both the genres and titles in the vernacular, which is very confusing. Later, names of places (“Wayang Sasak from Lombok”) or ethnic groups (“Music of the Karo,” vol. 4) appear. From vol. 7 on, short musicological descriptions are attached to the titles, with indication of instrumental formations (e.g., “xylophone and gong-row music of the Petalangan”) or social context (e.g., “ritual and dance music”). Then, from vol. 8 on, each track is better described by musicological criteria (“men’s chorus,” “men’s chorus with drums,” “gongs and drums,” “mixed duets”).
17Why is Western Indonesia still much better represented than Eastern Indonesia? While Yampolsky clearly intended to reconsider, through this work, the regional representation of Indonesia, in fine, the series produces a new kind of imbalance, with some regions quite underrepresented, like Irian Jaya (Papua) or Timor. Very few good, well documented, recordings exist for Irian, e.g., Artur Simon’s excellent work. Although the extreme variety of its linguistic groups – Papuan, as opposed to Austronesian – suggests a wealth of musical traditions, Irian is only illustrated by the small island of Biak (vol. 10), and yet it is said that its songs have nothing to do with Irian and that its music reflects Western influences. No doubt, only the lack of time and, perhaps, travel permits accounts for this shortcoming. Moreover, certain Austronesian instruments are lacking in the series, such as the famous tube zither brought by Austronesian speakers to Malagasy, or the bamboo fork described by Kunst.
- 9 In some cases, explanations are available, e.g., Yampolsky justifies his choice of splitting Mela (...)
- 10 Vol. 6 (Night Music of West Sumatra) could well have been called “Night Music of the Minangkabau (...)
18In the organization of the volumes, a lack of coherence is regrettable: After three albums on Java, vol. 4 is on Sumatra, vol. 5 returns to Java, and vol. 6 to Sumatra; and vols. 11 and 12 are again devoted to Sumatra. A general introduction to the whole series, explaining the organizational rationale, would have been most welcome.9 Certain disc titles, despite their literary style (vols. 1, 6, and 7), lack clarity.10 Finally, the visual aspect of the series is disappointing. Cover photographs fail to relay the grace and charm of musical gestures. Moreover, except in three volumes, they are not referenced.
- 11 For a full and accurate definition, see the website (Note 8).
19For regional ethnomusicology, this is an invaluable document to explore traditional Austronesian music, as well as those influenced by Islam, Christianity, or the modern West. A variety of instruments are well described, using the proper terminology. Musicological analyses leave nothing aside: scales, modes, melodic and harmonic structures, musical category, prosody, organology, styles, rhythms, meters, polyphonic textures. They also clarify confusing notions, such as the difference between gamelan and gong chime.11 As a whole, the project itself stresses the need for a comparative musicology of Indonesia, a task Yampolsky should achieve in a synthetic opus, complete with a glossary and index, and an appropriate mapping of musical idioms.
- 12 See Yampolsky (1995) and his introduction to the Indonesian edition.
20Moreover, the series’ political involvement should benefit the Indonesian people. Through its musical selection, it is a manifesto for authenticity. The artists and genres recorded, meeting local rather than outside aesthetic standards, have remained somehow beyond reach of the sweeping movement of national adulteration of the last decades, which, “through pressure from government officials, the recording industry, television, educators, religious figures,” urged artists to “improve their music in accordance with various outside criteria of what is respectable or entertaining.”12 In addition, local ethnomusicologists participated in the fieldwork – and Yampolsky never forgot to pay homage to them.
21Finally, the series’ attempt at representing Indonesia “fairly” is meant to lead to an improved mutual recognition of the country’s peoples. By grouping music by regions, cultural and religious diversity within the region is taken stock of. For example, vol. 4 offers, on an equal footing, music from two linguistic groups of North Sumatra: little-known vocal music from Nias Island and widely acclaimed Toba and Karo Batak instrumental music. According to Yampolsky, this should lead the Batak to recognize and appreciate their neighbors’ musical identity. In due course, this should help “to stimulate a dialogue among the different regions, islands, ethnic and religious groups, cultures, and economic strata of Indonesian society,” and “to increase respect, both inside and outside Indonesia, for the richness and diversity of Indonesia’s music and thus, ultimately, for the cultures and peoples that have created that music.” If they want to live together in harmony within the existing political unit called Indonesia, he says in substantia, Indonesians must acknowledge and respect ethnic and cultural differences; political unity with musical borders, that is what you have. Indonesia is not homogeneous, accept it and celebrate it. This message may come at the right time, in the context of the current Indonesian crisis.
- 13 As early as 1982, Yampolsky opened in Medan (North Sumatra) one of the first ethnomusicological s (...)
22Ten volumes of the Indonesian edition have already appeared. Who will benefit from this work in today’s Indonesia? The open-minded listener of the urban middle classes, says Yampolsky. That it reaches students in ethnomusicology classes – which do not really exist yet – is the wish Yampolsky shares with Endo Suanda, who is trying to develop ethnomusicology at school.13 A powerful optimism pervades the series: Traditions will stay alive and resist transformations and modernization.
23Are there any musical entities showing through the archipelago’s geographic, historical, and linguistic complexity, which could help in its musical mapping? Yampolsky implicitly raises the question, and his series provides many hints. So far, four major entities can be distinguished:
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- 14 The boat lute, now found everywhere, may be of Indian origin, as it is usually called by a name d (...)
Among cultures where Austronesian features are still strong (e.g., interior highlands), choral singing dominates (South and Central Sulawesi or the Lesser Sunda Islands), and music is often performed by sets of tuned things – bamboo tubes, wooden keys, rocks, xylophones, gong rows, and drums (Kalimantan, Sumatra, Sulawesi, Eastern Indonesia) – or consists of private singing or solo playing of a soft instrument (tube zither, flutes, Jew’s harp, mouth organ, boat lute).14
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Music from Indianized cultures (Java, Bali, parts of Sumatra, and south Borneo) feature gamelan music, different performing arts as wayang, puppet theater, and masked dance (topeng), accompanied by gamelan, macapat poetry, and maybe the ronggeng dance, as Yampolsky suggests. He calls this entity the “gamelan/wayang complex.”
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- 15 The Arab origin of the spike fiddle is plausible for the diffusion of the term rebab but not nece (...)
In coastal regions, long touched by trade, Muslim musical idioms dominate: devotional singing with male or female chorus, accompanied or not by frame drums; solo singing accompanied by the gambus (from Yemen Arabic qanbuz) or ud lute, or by a biola (violin) probably introduced by the Portuguese; double-reed oboe sarunai (from Arabic surnai) and rebab spike fiddle.15 Whereas in western Indonesia this seems strongly “Melayu” (Sumatra, coastal Borneo, Java’s north coast), it is much less so in Eastern Indonesia (Sulawesi, Lesser Sunda Islands), where it takes a local color.
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A Christian and Western musical complex is found locally, which sometimes interacts with musical indigenous strata.
24This series will surely contribute to a reconstruction of the great musical puzzle of Indonesia, pieces of which are provided in this aesthetic and documentary treasure, which should absolutely be procured in its entirety.
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