Part III: Island Southeast Asia

1. Part III: Island Southeast Asia

2. Island Southeast Asia: an Introduction

3. The archipelago • chapters: Indonesia, the Philippines, Borneo • nations: Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, the Philippines • physical and cultural geography

4. Musical instruments depend on available materials • Bronze • Wood • bamboo

5. Musical styles bear similarities across the region • layers of parts in stratification • interlocking patterns • composite rhythms and melodies • vocal music crosses many genres

6. Questions for Discussion • Why are the chapters divided by geography, not by nation? • What do natural resources have to do with music production? • Can one talk about the separate islands as being part of a unified culture group?

7. Indonesia: Sumatra

8. Introduction to island diversity • independence from the Dutch in 1945 • at least 13,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Bali, and others • prevalence of gong-chime ensembles

9. Sumatran cultural history • bronze kettledrums • Buddhist and Hindu temples and kingdoms • entry of Islam in the 13th century • European conquest in the 16th century

10. Sumatran regional music: special region of Aceh • Muslim devotional arts • rapa’i frame drum • daboih: religious acts of chanting and self-mortification • seudati: choral singing with body percussion

11. Sumatran regional music: North Sumatra province • animist stratum (songs, xylophones, tilempong) • Muslim stratum (devotional songs, rebana frame drum, gambus lute) • Portuguese-Malay stratum (secular songs and Western instruments)

12. Sumatran regional music: West Sumatra province • Minangkabau highlands (talempong and saluang; randai theater) • coastal areas (localized talempong, 3-stringed fiddles, long tales) • Mentawai islands (slit drums and other percussion, ritual songs)

13. Sumatran regional music: Riau province • animist beliefs, ritual songs, sempelong flute • bronze bells, gambang xylophone ensembles, celempong ensembles • storytelling, improvised poetry, long songs • erotic dancing

14. Sumatran regional music: Jambi province • pre-Islamic genres (healing ceremonies, self defense, courting music) • post-Portuguese music (orkes Melayu, kelintang gong music) • nomadic people play portable instruments

15. Sumatran regional music: Bengkulu province • famous for megalithic monuments and large national park • many ceremonial dances around a wooden pole • vocal genre dendang

16. Sumatran regional music: South Sumatra province • pre-Hindu-Buddhist traditions still exist (songs, flutes) • bronze gong-and-drum ensembles represent Hindu-Buddhist stratum • orkes Melayu and orkes gambus represent the Muslim stratum

17. Sumatran regional music: Lampung province • huge impact of Javanese in-migration • music for Jew’s harp, flute, and songs belong to ancient Abung culture • pre-Muslim bronze ensembles

18. Questions for Discussion • What do most of these regions have in common? • How do the different layers of influence interact with each other? • What aspects of Sumatran music are animist?

19. Indonesia: Java

20. Javanese introduction • dense population contrasts with expansive rice fields and volcanoes • distinctions between Central and East Java, Cirebon, and Sunda

21. Central and East Javanese history • Hindu-Javanese period: Majapahit • Islamic period: Mataram • European period: Dutch East-India Company

22. Central Javanese cultural geography • court traditions of Surakarta and Yogyakarta in Central Java • distinctions between alus (refined, subtle) and gagah (strong, robust) • East Java as a culturally distinct area

23. Central Javanese gamelan instruments • gongs • metallophones • stringed instruments • percussion • singers

24. Central Javanese non-gamelan instruments • gamelan klenèngan (soft-playing instruments) • calung (bamboo xylophone ensemble) • gandrung (violins, drums, gong, triangle) • angklung (multioctave bambook xylophone, metallphones, flute/oboe) • hobby-horse trance dance, small percussion ensembles

25. The relationship between Central Javanese music, dance, and theater • singer-dancer traditions • acting dances • puppet theater (wayang kulit)

26. Central Javanese tuning systems, scales, and modes • laras (scale, tuning) • sléndro and pélog • pathet (tonal hierarchy, range, intervallic structure)

27. Central Javanese repertoires and formal structures • gendhing (gamelan pieces with cyclic structures) • balungan (skeletal melody and basis for improvisation) • different aspects of formal organization

28. Central Javanese vocal music • tembang (sung poetry) • pathetan (mood songs, sung by dhalang puppeteers)

29. Central Javanese performance practice • irama (subdivisions of the basic pulse) • relationship between the balungan and the garapan (rendering of balungan) • role of the drummer

30. Central Javanese music and the mass media • Radio • recording industry • television

31. Central Javanese performers and composers • traditional ideas of performance • separation by gender • traditional and modern concepts of composition

32. New Central Javanese developments in music • new compositions in the post-Independence era • popular music • experimental composition

33. Cirebon • the cultural boundary between the Central Javanese and the Sundanese • influences on (and from) Javanese and Sundanese arts • division of Cirebon into kingdoms: Kasepuhan, Kanoman, Kacirebonan and Kaprabonan courts • contexts of musical performance (ritual, weddings, circumcisions, theater)

34. Cirebonese music and Islam • musical instruments (frame drums, double-headed drums) • transformation of Hindu arts (wayang, gamelan) • growing Islamization of the region

35. Cirebonese musical systems • gamelan prawa (sléndro tuning) • gamelan pélog (pélog tuning) • cyclic pieces • genjring frame drum ensemble • ketuk tilu kettle gong ensemble

36. New developments in Cirebonese music • Western-style bands • Sundanese influences • incorporation of diatonic melodies

37. Sundanese cultural geography • layers of cultural influence • Hindu-Buddhism and the kingdom of Pajajaran • Islam and the kingdom of Mataram

38. Structures of Sundanese music • organization in cycles • tuning: pélog, sorog, saléndro

39. Sundanese gamelan genres • gamelan saléndro (gamelan for dance, puppetry, and entertainment) • gamelan degung (aristocratic gamelan) • ketuk tilu and jaipongan dance

40. Sundanese bamboo genres • angklung (tuned bamboo rattles) • calung (beaten bamboo tubes)

41. Sundanese zither-based genres • pantun (epic narrative) • tembang Sunda (aristocratic sung poetry) • kacapi-suling (instrumental zither and flute music)

42. Sundanese music and musicians • contexts for performance • joining in (kaul) • ambivalence toward music specialists

43. Questions for Discussion • What are the differences between Javanese and Sundanese music? • What is the relationship between the Javanese balungan and garapan? • What is the relationship between music and dance in Java?

44. Indonesia: Bali

45. Balinese overview • importance of the arts • use of gamelan ensembles • change and renewal in traditional music

46. Balinese cultural history • Javanese influence and establishment in Bali • changes in court ensembles • shift from the court to the villages

47. Balinese music theory • form and structure (stratified polyphony, interlocking parts, cyclic structure) • modes and systems of tuning (pélog and sléndro vs. patutan and saih) • linkage of tuning system with particular ensembles

48. Balinese musical contexts • organization of musicians into sekaha • ritual contexts for performance (temples, festivals) • embodiment of ritual elements: thought; sound, word, voice; action

49. Music in Balinese cosmology • worldview based on threes and tripartite divisions • similarity of musical organization to cosmological organization • interrelationship of music with other cultural systems

50. Balinese musical instruments • idiophones • membranophones • aerophones • chordophones