The University of Pittsburgh
Department of Music
The Voice of Sunda
Guest Artists:
Euis Komariah
Burhan Sukarma
Gangan Garmana
and theUniversity Gamelan
Andrew Weintraub, Director
Bellefield Hall Auditorium
April 13 and 14, 2004
8pm
Gamelan
The recent tsunami and loss of life in Aceh, as well as earthquakes and other human tragedies, has brought attention to the modern island nation of Indonesia. But many people do not know that Indonesia consists of about 16,000 islands, the fourth largest population in the world, hundreds of ethnic groups, and nearly as many languages spoken. The cultural and musical diversity of this modern island community is staggering.
Students at the University of Pittsburgh have the opportunity to learn about Indonesian music by participating in the University Gamelan (Music 0690). Gamelan refers to a set of predominantly percussion instruments including tuned gongs, metal-keyed instruments, and drums (as well as bowed lute and voice). Established in 1995, the gamelan performance program at Pitt has introduced hundreds of students to new ways of conceptualizing, practicing, performing, and composing music.
The ensemble plays the music of the Sundanese people, an ethnic group that inhabits roughly the western third of the island of Java. The approximately 30 million Sundanese make up the second largest ethnic group in Indonesia. While the majority of the population lives in rural or semi-rural settings, large cities have become increasingly central to the creation of new artistic genres, including those represented this evening.
Students in the gamelan program are encouraged to use Sundanese processes of learning as much as possible; oral transmission of musical parts is preferred over written notation and working together as an ensemble is more important than developing individual talent. Students are also encouraged to play more than one instrument and to learn the relationships among them. Therefore, in our concerts, the musicians move from one position to another in order to put into practice what they have learned.
The University Gamelan Artists-in-Residence Program, created by Andrew Weintraub in 2002, is supported by a consortium of universities in the U.S. During the past five years, nine prominent musicians, dancers, and theatre artists from Indonesia have been invited to the university to teach, present workshops and lecture-demonstrations, and perform in large-scale gamelan concerts for the university community, as well as the Pittsburgh community at large. This program offers American students a rare opportunity to study music, dance, and theater with some of Indonesia’s finest artists. During their six-week residency, this year’s artists-in-residence, Euis Komariah and Gangan Garmana, have taught and performed at the following ten universities and concert venues:
Bates College (Lewiston, Maine): March 9-17
University of Georgia (Athens, Georgia): March 18-22
Western Front Music (Vancouver, BC): March 22-24
Ashland University (Ashland, Ohio): March 29-30
Kenyon College (Gambier, Ohio): April 1-4
University of Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania): March 25-28; April 5-14
Indonesian Embassy, Washington, D.C.: April 8
UC Santa Cruz (Santa Cruz, California): April 16
UC Berkeley (Berkeley, California): April 18
UC Davis (Davis, California): April 17-22
The University of Pittsburgh owns two gamelan sets. The first set, which arrived from central Java in October, 1995, is named “Kyai Tirta Rukmi,” or “Venerable Rivers of Gold.” This gamelan is tuned to laras salendro (a five-tone tuning system made up of approximately equidistant intervals). The second set of instruments, which arrived from west Java in March, 2005, is named “Ligar Pasundan” (“Fragrance of Pasundan”). This gamelan is tuned to laras degung (a five-tone tuning system made up of large and small intervals). Both will be performed this evening.
Program
I. Gamelan Degung
1. Jipang Lontang
2. Catrik
3. Gelatik Mangut
4. Bima Mobos — Kembang Bungur — Rembeuy Bandung
5. Palsiun — Kukupu — Kalangkang
6. Jalir jangji
Gamelan degung was created for local Sundanese regents (bupati) of West Java during the early 20th century. These regents administered the Dutch cultivation system (Cultuurstelsel) for the province of West Java. Regents promoted the performing arts for the entertainment of their families and other aristocrats of the Dutch colonial state. In its classic pre-independence form, gamelan degung is entirely instrumental and features the melodic improvisations of the suling. Modern post-independence compositions emphasize the vocal part, sung exclusively by female singers. Song texts center around male-female relationships and the beauty of the natural environment.
II. Tembang Sunda (pelog)
1. Cimplung (instrumental)
2. Papatet — Mupu Kembang — Pangapungan — Jalan Satapak
3. Jemplang Panganten — Jemplang Pamirig — Salabintana
4. Tunggul Kawung — Liwung Jaya — Kamelang
Tembang Sunda is a genre of Sundanese vocal music accompanied by a core ensemble of two kacapi-s (zithers) and a suling (bamboo flute). Tembang means “song” or “poem.” The music and poetry of tembang Sunda are closely connected to the Priangan (literally “the abode of the gods”), the highland plateau that traverses the central and southern parts of West Java. The natural beauty of Priangan, a lush agricultural region surrounded by mountains and volcanoes, is reflected in many songs of tembang Sunda.
Tembang Sunda originated in the mid-19th century in the regency of Cianjur. It is believed that R.A. Koesoemaningrat, the regent of Cianjur (1834-63), ordered poets to compose new songs based on the songs of an epic storytelling genre (pantun Sunda) in which a solo storyteller recounts the glory of past kingdoms and the exploits of heroic figures. In the stories of pantun Sunda, legendary figures possessed knowledge of magical formulae which they used to perform supernatural feats. “Pangapungan” (“Flying”) is used in epic narrative recitation to depict a character flying, surveying events from the sky. Songs of this type are sung in a free rhythmic declamatory style.
During the 1950s, fixed-meter songs, called panambih (literally “addition”), were added to the repertoire.In this type of song, singers borrow pitches and entire melodic passages from other tuning systems to enhance the emotional tension that charactizes tembang Sunda (“Kamelang”).
In a typical evening of tembang Sunda, three tuning systems are employed: pelog, sorog, and salendro. Each tuning system has its own repertory of songs and, to some extent, its own mood. An evening of tembang Sunda always begins in pelog (in descending order, approximately f, e, c, bb, a).
Intermission
III. Gamelan Salendro
1. Bubuka
2. Leang-leang
3. Kembang Ligar
4. Kulu-kulu Barang
5. Kebo Jiro
Songs accompanied by gamelan salendro, called kawih (song), are sung in performances of puppet theater (wayang) and listening music (kliningan). Each instrument in the ensemble plays one of four primary musical functions or roles, which contribute to the rich polyphonic layering or strata of sound. The “structural melody,” usually played on the metal-keyed instruments, is the basic underlying melodic foundation for each piece. “Elaboration,” played on the gambang (xylophone), and bonang (small kettle gongs on a rack), refers to melodic variation and ornamentation based on the structural melody. “Punctuation,” played on the large and small hanging gongs and kenong (large kettle gongs on a rack), refers to the temporal marking of important points in the rhythmic cycle. Finally, the “time-keeping” function is realized by the drummer, who signals the beginning and ending of pieces, directs tempo changes, and controls the dynamics of the music.
IV. Tembang Sunda (Sorog Tuning System)
1. Sekar Manis
2. Kapati-pati — Eros — Kulu-kulu Bem — Kulu-kulu Gancang
3. Udan Mas — Udan Iris — Jangji Asih
4. Cinta Waas — Ceurik Rahwana — Senggot Kaleran
Tembang Sunda is best suited to intimate gatherings of fellow artists, friends, and aficionados. Most of these gatherings take place in the evening and sometimes last until early the next morning. These occasions provide the opportunity to express one’s feelings in song away from the din of everyday life. Tembang Sunda may also be played in conjunction with hajat, ceremonial feasts to celebrate a wedding, circumcision, or other life-cycle event. At a certain point in a performance of tembang Sunda, the ensemble shifts to a different tuning called sorog. The kacapi players tune their instruments to the sorog tuning by tightening one of the strings in each octave, raising each pitch approximately a major second (approximately f, e, d, bb, a). Songs in the sorog tuning system are thought to express a heightened emotional quality and these songs are best sung around midnight. For example, the song “Ceurik Rahwana” (“Rahwana Weeps”) reflects the sadness the evil demon king Rahwana feels after being rejected by the princess Sita (Sinta) in the epic tale of the Ramayana. Featured Artists Euis Komariah, one of Indonesia's leading recording artists, has received critical acclaim as a vocalist in several Sundanese music genres ranging from popular to classical. Her specialty is the highly ornamented and technically virtuosic vocal style of tembang Sunda, as heard in this evening’s program. She is also a star singer in the gamelan salendro and degung music scenes in Bandung, west Java. Unlike other female vocalists of her generation, Euis Komariah also plays and performs musical instruments, which is typically the domain of male musicians. She is the main artist on over 50 recordings, including some that are readily available in the US (for example, Pan Records' "Gamelan Degung, Classical Music of Sunda, West Java," Ace Records' "The Sound of Sunda," and Globe Style's "Jaipongan Java"). In a career spanning over forty years, Euis Komariah has performed throughout the world. Burhan Sukarma was born and raised in the town of Karawang in west Java. He played a variety of musical instruments during his student years. After moving to the regional capital, Bandung, in the late 1960's, he began to study the suling. Since that time he has become a master musician on the suling and other instruments of the gamelan degung ensemble, and has appeared on many traditional and contemporary suling recordings produced in West Java. From 1972-1986 he was the principal suling musician at the national radio station in Bandung. He has performed in France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Canada, and the United States. In the United States he has taught at the University of Washington, San Jose State University, UC Santa Cruz, and UC Berkeley, while continuously directing his own group Pusaka Sunda. Gangan Garmana is the leading kacapi player of his generation. As a young boy, he studied kacapi technique and repertoire with the legendary kacapi master Uking Sukri in Bandung, West Java. As he came of age in the 1990s, Gangan sought out other teachers throughout West Java. He created a unique personal style characterized by rapid flourishes, rhythmically complex patterns, and a crisp, clean tone. Gangan received first place in the kacapi category of the annual West Java tembang Sunda competition in 1994. In 2006, he placed fifth in the vocal category of the same competition. He has over 30 recordings to his credit, including a self-produced album dedicated to victims of the Aceh tsunami in Indonesia that claimed thousands of lives. Gangan has performed with touring groups in Europe, Australia, and throughout Asia. This is his debut performance in the United States. Andrew Weintraub is a scholar, teacher, and performer of Sundanese music of Indonesia. He holds degrees in music from UC Santa Cruz (B.A.), University of Hawaii (M.A.), and UC Berkeley (Ph.D.). As a practitioner of Indonesian gamelan and martial arts, he has performed in the U.S., Canada, Asia, and Europe. Weintraub joined the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh in Fall 1997. He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in ethnomusicology and popular music. His most recent book is titled Power Plays: The Wayang Golek Puppet Theater of West Java (University of Ohio Press, 2004): <http://www.ohioswallow.com/bookinfo.php?book_id=089680240X>
The University of Pittsburgh Gamelan Musicians
Megan Andrews, Eric Belcastro, Kim Frost, Stephen Gbolonyo, Ike Puspa Dewi Harijanto, Nikolaus Hartman, Taichi Nakatani, William Noone, Rachel Phillippi, Matthew Shepherd, and Margarita Shulkina.
Please visit our websites:
http://www.pitt.edu/~anwein/gamelan
http://www.ucis.pitt.edu/INPAC/faculty_weintraub.htm
Acknowledgments
University of Pittsburgh Department of Music, Indo-Pacific Council, Asian Studies Program, College of Arts and Sciences, Pitt Arts, Annabelle Clippinger, Dorothy Shallenberger, and Phil Thompson.
This concert is dedicated to the memory of our teachers
Tati Saleh
Ade Suandi
Ade Kosasih Sunarya