III. Ananda Sukarlan and His Music

1. The Biography of Ananda Sukarlan Being the first Indonesian to be listed in “International Who’s Who in Music” and “2000 Outstanding Musicians of the 20th Century”, it is undeniable that Ananda Sukarlan is internationally acclaimed.167He has recorded the complete piano works of David del Puerto, Santiago Lanchares and Toru Takemitsu.168 He has also recorded numerous works by Jesús Rueda, Per Nørgaard, Peter Sculthorpe, Gareth Farr, John McLeod, Amir Pasaribu, Trisutji Kamal, and his own.169 His works include music for ballet, orchestral works, chamber music and solo instruments, choral and theatre works, Tembang Puitik, and many more.170 .............................................................................................................................................. Ananda Sukarlan is a composer who utilizes Western elements (forms, techniques, ideas, etc.) into his compositions, and is partly educated overseas (partly because he spent his youth in his home country, Indonesia). The same goes for other Indonesian notable composers, such as Amir Pasaribu, Trisutji Kamal, Paul Goetama Soegijo, Trisutji Kamal, and the others, as most of them have partly gained their musical education abroad. Due to this fact, Henoch Kristianto in his thesis “An Eastern Infusion: Indonesian and Western Elements in Ananda Sukarlan’s Rapsodia Nusantara 1-5”, (Master Thesis of Sydney Conservatory of Music, 2012) divided Ananda Sukarlan’s biography into two sections: his life during living in Indonesia, and his life after his residence in Europe.171 Taking the same approach as that of Kristianto, as scholarships regarding Sukarlan and his works are very limited, the sources of information about Sukarlan’s life and his music come mostly from my interview with the composer, Kristianto’s writing, Sukarlan’s personal blog172, along with some printed and online articles. .............................................................................................................................................. (1) Sukarlan’s Early Years in Indonesia .............................................................................................................................................. Born in Jakarta, 10 June 1968, Sukarlan is the last child of seven siblings. His father, Mr. Sukarlan, was a lieutenant colonel, while his mother, Ms. Poppy Kumudastuti, was an English teacher at a university. Both of his parents came from modest families, and they raised their seven children in a strict way. Residing in the center of Jakarta, his family was not a particularly musical family. However his parents enjoyed watching Wayang Orang (a Javanese theatre performed by men) and listening to gamelan.173 Since Sukarlan was little, he had already much interest in music. He liked to make sounds on a worn upright piano in his house left by a former Dutch family who had returned to the Netherlands. The Dutch family also gave over some vinyl recordings of Western classical composers, such as Mozart, Beethoven, and Rachmaninoff, which had resulted on Sukarlan’s encounter with Western classical music. He started his music lessons at the age of five from his older sister, Martani Widjajanti, who has learned the piano for several years at a music school.174 Sukarlan was taught piano pieces by Beyer, Duvernoy, Burgmueller, also Sonatines by Clementi and Kuhlau. At the age of nine, he started to enroll at Yayasan Pendidikan Musik (YPM)175, but was claimed untalented and somehow expelled. He then had piano lessons privately with Laura Susanti Himawan and Rudy Laban. .............................................................................................................................................. Sukarlan convinced himself that he wanted a musical career since his teenage years, but his parents disapproved as they thought music as a career was not promising. During that time, having music as a career was unimaginable for Indonesians. Even in the present time, a lot of Indonesian musicians think of their profession “musicians” as part-time jobs or mere hobbies, while having other full time profession.176 Only some of them become full time musicians, in which many of them are either really outstanding or overseas graduates. Moreover, Sukarlan’s parents could not afford him to study in Europe, so that he struggled to seek for the scholarships by himself. 177 .............................................................................................................................................. In 1985, the young talented Sukarlan performed in a piano solo recital at Taman Ismail Marzuki, where the head of Petrof Piano178 distribution in Indonesia and Minister of Education Dr. Fuad Hassan also attended.179 Astounded by his performance, Sukarlan was granted a summer course scholarship from Petrof Piano for around four months to study with Walter Hautzig180 at University of Hartford in Connecticut.181 In 1986, He was then sent by his parents to Kenya to stay with his uncle, who was an Indonesian ambassador there, and had visited a number of African countries, such as Egypt, Nigeria, Algeria, and many more. His uncle escorted him to visit the embassies there, for his family hoped that he would attain interest in a diplomatic career. Nevertheless, his parents’ aim was unsuccessful as his goal to be a musician did not fade away. .............................................................................................................................................. Sukarlan came back to Indonesia six months later, and was then invited by Dr. Fuad Hassan to perform at Yayasan Adam Malik, a museum located in Jakarta which used to be the third Indonesian vice president’s residence.182 Their relationships culminated in a surprising outcome. Dr. Fuad Hassan was the person who had assisted and penned a recommendation letter for Sukarlan when applying for the Dutch government scholarship.183 Sukarlan passed the tests and was given the chance to pursue his piano studies at Koninklijk Conservatorium Den Haag (The Royal Conservatory of the Hague), the oldest conservatory in the Netherlands.184 Sukarlan was so grateful to Dr. Fuad Hassan, that later he even composed a piano solo piece dedicated to him, Etude no. 3 “This Boy’s Had a Dream”, who had made his dreams come true.185 .............................................................................................................................................. (2) Life in Europe .............................................................................................................................................. Under the scholarship of the Dutch government, Sukarlan began his life in Europe in 1987. At Koninklijk Conservatorium Den Haag, he studied with Naum Grubert186, Ellen Corver and Geoffrey Douglas Madge successively. 187 It was all well-ordered until his third year of studies, when his scholarship was cancelled due to intergovernmental problems.188 Sukarlan needed to survive on his own that he started to perform in bars and clubs to earn living and finance his education.189 Realizing that winning competitions would get better rewards, he borrowed money from his friends in order to join a number of competitions held in Europe.190 In an article written by Bruce Emond in the Jakarta Post, Sukarlan even rode a train without paying from Amsterdam to Bordeaux in order to participate in the Blanquefort piano competition, where he kept going and hiding himself in the toilet every time he saw the officer.191 Nevertheless, he managed to buy a ticket on his way back, for he won the first prize.192 A winner of the Eduard Flipse Award in the 1988 Netherlands National Music Competition in Amsterdam, Sukarlan has won first prizes at the “Nadia Boulanger” –Concours International d’Orleans in France, the “Xavier Monsalvatge” –Concurso de Musica del Siglo XX Xavier Montsalvatge in Spain, the Blanquefort piano competition in Bordeaux, and the third prize of the Gourdeamus Competition of Contemporary Music in Rotterdam, during the period of 1993-1994.193 He graduated with summa cum laude in 1993, and after winning numerous competitions, he was able to continue to the post graduate studies by his own finance, and successfully graduated in 1995.194 Still joining the competitions, in the same year, he won the City of Ferrol Piano Competition in Spain, the Sweelinck-Postbank in Amsterdam, and the Fundacion Guerrero Competition in Madrid.195 Moreover, in 1996 he won the Vienna Modern Masters Performers Recording Award.196 .............................................................................................................................................. (3) Music as a Profession .............................................................................................................................................. After graduation, Sukarlan decided to stay in Europe in order to maintain his career as both a composer and a performing artist.197 In 1994, he married Raquel Gomez –a Spanish whom he met while concertizing in Spain, and resided in the Netherlands for four years.198 During his stay in the Netherlands, he has collaborated with many Spanish musicians and felt their passion in music, so that he decided to move to Spain.199 Currently residing with her wife and her daughter in Santander of Cantabria region situated on the north coast of Spain, he has worked with many local composers in Spain. Together with Jesús Rueda200, they founded Música Presente, a Spanish association for musicians and composers.201 In Europe, Sukarlan was an active performer of more than fifty concerts per year.202 He has performed many new contemporary compositions, in which one of them was Eduardo Soutullo’s “That scream called silence –piano concerto” which won the second prize of XXVI Queen Sofia Prize in 2009.203 In his performances, he consistently introduced his identity as an Indonesian by including compositions written by Indonesian composers, such as Amir Pasaribu and Trisutji Kamal –which he has also recorded –in his programs.204 Astonished at Sukarlan’s musicality and his ethnical elements, a number of composers dedicated their works to him. Santiago Lanchares composed “Anandamania” –a piano solo piece, Jesús Rueda composed “Sonata Kecak”, whereas David del Puerto dedicated “Symphony No.2, Nusantara” to him.205 .............................................................................................................................................. In 2000, Sukarlan was invited to perform with Orquestra Sinfonica Portuguesa (the Portuguese National Symphony Orchestra) in Portugal in an event that marked the re-establishment of diplomatic ties between Indonesia and Portugal. In the same year, he was invited to perform for the fourth president of Indonesia, Abdurrahman Wahid, at Istana Merdeka (the president’s official residence), and was also invited to perform in front of Queen Sofia of Spain in Madrid.206 He was awarded “Musician of the month” from Radio Nacional de Espana (Spanish national radio), and was featured on the magazine cover of Radio Clasica in 2005. 207 In 10 November 2013, he invited a number of Indonesian students currently studying in Europe conservatories, and performed compositions by Santiago Lanchares, Jesús Rueda, David del Puerto, and his compositions in Conservatorio Profesional de Musica Amaniel in Madrid.208 He is the recipient of Diaspora Award 2013 for Cultural Understanding category from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia.209 .............................................................................................................................................. Apart from music performances, Sukarlan is currently one of the contributing composers at Fundacion Musica Abierta (The Open Music Foundation, established in 2009 in Spain, to promote musical involvements for people with impairments), and has published works for the disabilities.210 He has been involving in many contributing acts for years in Spain, as well as in Indonesia. In 2001, Sukarlan set up Cipta Award national piano competition, which was renamed “Ananda Sukarlan Award” in 2008, to trigger music enthusiasm among young Indonesian pianists.211 Almost similar to it, although it was not Sukarlan’s initiative, a vocal competition “Kompetisi Tembang Puitik Ananda Sukarlan (Ananda Sukarlan’s Tembang Puitik competition)” with him as one of the juries, has also been held biennially since 2011. “The Jakarta New-year concert”, has been produced annually until today in order to introduce both Western classical music and his music to Jakarta citizens. In 2002, he founded Konservatorium Musik Jakarta (the Jakarta Conservatory of Music) along with some notable musicians, in order to improve classical music education in Indonesia. He is also one of the founders of Yayasan Musik Sastra Indonesia (Indonesian Classical foundation), a non-profit organization that provides music scholarships to underprivileged students.212 The program called “Charm (Children in Harmony)” has sponsored around a hundred students to learn instruments for free in 2013.213 They were taught basic instruments skills and Western classical music, along with Sukarlan’s compositions which blended Indonesian folk tunes and Western elements. .............................................................................................................................................. Sukarlan also acts as a conductor. Currently he is a conductor of Ananda Sukarlan Orchestra –a full orchestra developed from Ananda Sukarlan Chamber Orchestra, and has premiered his latest orchestral piece, "ERSTWHILE - A Communion of Time" in 2013.214 Holding a permanent resident of Spain, he returns to Indonesia twice a year. .............................................................................................................................................. 2. What is “Musik Sastra”? .............................................................................................................................................. Sukarlan had polyphony classes in the conservatory, but found them not challenging, as he could compose many fugues in a short period of time. He was even asked by the teacher if he had learned composing before from other teachers, but actually he had not –it just came out naturally in Sukarlan’s mind. Possessing an IQ of more than 150 and was just a few points to join MENSA –an international high IQ society, composing academically is effortless for him.215 Sukarlan claimed that he did not like the idea of music as a too academic subject. Often in his classes of composing (which he occasionally gives during his stay in Indonesia), the students would bring books such as “basic theory of composition” or books regarding composition techniques, but he will ask them to discard all those books. He prefers compositions from composers without a “too” academic background, such as Sir Michael Tippett –who devoted himself in composing and earned a little secondary income from radio talks216, and Toru Takemitsu –an autodidact composer who employed visual arts, such as “ma (distance)” in his music.217 Sukarlan was offered composing classes for free by Sir Michael Tippett, and took his classes three to four times.218 Even though only once, he has also met Toru Takemitsu and talked about composing.219 He has also collaborated with numerous composers, such as David del Puerto, Santiago Lanchares, and Theo Loevendie, and discussed about composing while Sukarlan performed their works. Also an admirer of Benjamin Britten, Shostakovich, Stravinsky, and Gustav Mahler, he added, “Composition is a freedom of expression. If it is limited, why do you have to compose?” .............................................................................................................................................. Sukarlan did not concur with the avant-garde music. He asserted that to compose avant-garde music could just use the brain, but to compose “real music” could not.220 Adding that the commonly conceptual avant-garde music was not sufficient and should be appended with the depth of “real music”, Sukarlan developed his own way to keep his Indonesian artistic identity in his compositions.221 Sukarlan’s first composition was a string quartet in 1991. It was influenced by the strings quartets by Alexander Borodin –a Russian romantic composer –which he enjoyed listening. He composed many more compositions in 1990s, but unfortunately disposed most of those written prior to 1998, as he found them too imitative, not original, and too avant-garde.222 Being a composer who prefers composing in a quiet place than being surrounded by instruments, Sukarlan’s music is much influenced by visual arts, especially Spanish arts by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973).223 He was inspired by the creative process of Picasso in his painting, Demoiselles d’Avignon (The Young Ladies of Avignon, created in 1907), which represented solid objects as fragments, and composed “Jokpiniana no. 1”, “Jokpiniana no. 2”, “Rapsodia Nusantara (lit. Rhapsodies of Indonesian archipelago)”, and many more.224 He employs Picasso’s Cubism in a number of his songs, which are particularly apparent in “Rapsodia Nusantara” 225, by mixing and distorting two elements (tunes, folk songs) into a different unique new element (tune).226 Being an admirer of the tunes of music boxes since he was little, he employs and distorts some of them in many of his piano works. .............................................................................................................................................. As an internationally acclaimed concert pianist, works for piano were numerously composed, and he has employed various themes in each of them. In his piano work for four pianos, “Vivaldi’s Winter of Discontent”, Sukarlan embedded the rhythm found in Michael Jackson’s renowned song “Thriller” into Vivaldi’s “Winter” (from the notable composition “Four Seasons”), and created a contemporary yet lyrical hybridized sound.227 He composed this piece to describe winter in the global warming era, which was different from that in Vivaldi’s era. His “Rapsodia Nusantara (Nusantara rhapsodies)” were groundbreaking, for eventually Indonesia possessed its own rhapsodies. He blended two different folk tunes and created a new melodic line, in which according to Kristianto, the method was presumably comparable to the thematic transformation technique used in Hungarian Rhapsodies written by Liszt.228 Sukarlan also wrote piano pieces for young learners, and compiled them into “Alicia’s Piano Book” with three volumes published up to 2013. He dedicated this to his daughter, Alicia, to assist her in her piano learning, and also to spread the fun of piano playing to other young piano students.229 His collaboration with his manager, Chendra Panatan, who is also a prominent Indonesian dance choreographer, has produced various works for ballet.230 Those works for ballet are “Bibirku Bersujud di Bibirmu (My lips kneel on your lips)” and “Vega and Altair”.231 Sukarlan’s compositions which have featured Panatan’s choreographies are “You Had me Hello”, “The Humiliation of Drupadi”, “Schumann’s Psychosis”, and many more. Panatan is also in charge of some choreographies and movements at Sukarlan’s operas. .............................................................................................................................................. Sukarlan wrote a total of four operas up to year 2013. He proposed the idea to produce “pocket operas” or chamber operas, which can be transported and toured easily. It is due to the fact that they were practical and did not squander enormous amount of money.232 Under the commission of Indonesia Opera Society233, Sukarlan composed his first opera “Satria” in 2008, based on Seno Gumira Ajidarma’s script “Mengapa Kau Culik Anak Kami? (Why did you kidnap our son?)”.234 The script was based on a true story where Ibu (mother) and Bapak (father) engaged in a dialogue regarding his kidnapped son, Satria, during the dictatorship of Indonesian second president, Soeharto.235 The opera was designed for a soprano and a baritone, a string quartet, a woodwind trio, a keyboard, a percussion, and three dancers (choreographed by Chendra Panatan), with the total length of seventy minutes.236 The following year, also commissioned by Indonesia Opera Society, Sukarlan wrote an opera based on a monologue by Seno Gumira Ajidarma, “Ibu, yang anaknya diculik itu (Mother, whose son was kidnapped)” as a sequel of the first opera. This opera was composed just for one singer (a soprano), accompanied by piano, flute, and percussion. The total length of the opera was forty minutes –which was longer than Poulenc’s opera for one female singer “La Voix Humaine (The Human Voice)”.237 It was premiered by the soprano Aning Katamsi, in June 2009.238 In this opera, Sukarlan employed rap rhythms found in Michael Jackson’s notorious song “Smooth Criminal”, inspired by Sir Michael Tippett’s last opera entitled “New Year” which also utilized rap music.239 .............................................................................................................................................. His third opera “Laki-laki Sejati (a real man)” was sketched for a soprano and a mezzosoprano, accompanied by one piano, with the duration of thirty minutes. Premiered in 2011, the comedy opera was based on a short story by Putu Wijaya240, describing a conversation between a mother and a teenage daughter about how a real man should be.241 Again inspired by Tippett’s “New Year”, Sukarlan employed rap music rhythmic techniques in his fourth opera “Mendadak Kaya (Suddenly Rich)”, based on a short story written by Putu Wijaya.242 Premiered in January 2012, Sukarlan also put some elements influenced by Stravinsky, Ligeti, and Philip Glass, a mix of Lydian and Mixolydian modes, also a virtuosic section in the piano part. 243 .............................................................................................................................................. In this world of hybridized music, Ananda Sukarlan is a composer who does not employ ethnic instruments in his music. He includes ethnic elements in his works, such as the pentatonic scales, but never uses the real ethnic instruments. He merely employs Western instruments, vocal, chorus, and dance (choreographed by Chendra Panatan). Also, he does not distort strings on the piano to produce special sound effects. He produces sounds only by using the appropriate way of playing the instruments. Sukarlan prefers his music not to be called musik klasik (classical music), which is usually used for Western classical music. He also states that the term “serious music” is not appropriate for his music, as this term tends to exclude other kinds of music which are serious. Also, he opposes to use the term “Western concert music” because there are a number of composers (musicians as well) who are not Western today, Toru Takemitsu for instance. Instead, he proposes his music to be named “musik sastra”. Sukarlan proposes the term “musik sastra” for it is written down in the notes.244 He juxtaposes the term “musik etnik (ethnic music)” with“musik sastra” that they are different: ethnic music is not written in scores, whereas “musik sastra” is. In English, “musik sastra” literally means “literature music”. The word “sastra (literature)” usually refers to works linked to “words”. However it is intriguing that Sukarlan refers this term not only to name his works which are related to words, but also for his other compositions.245 His compositions which do not contain words, such as instrumental works, are also regarded as “musik sastra”. .............................................................................................................................................. Sukarlan always focuses on the way to elaborate his messages and perception through every work he composes. In his Tembang Puitik (which this study focuses on), he concentrates on the intrinsic values of the poems and depict them picturesquely. In his instrumental works, such as his “Vivaldi’s Winter of Discontent” for four pianos, he tries to deliver his message: he modifies the melody line of Vivaldi’s renowned “Winter” and combines it with contemporary rhythms, to describe the different “Winter” from that of Vivaldi’s in today’s global warming era. His solo piano works “Rapsodia Nusantara (Nusantara rhapsodies)” which combine two Indonesian folk tunes are his expression of showing his love and pride to Indonesia, as well as his nature to be Indonesian. .............................................................................................................................................. The “sastra” that Sukarlan refers to is presumably his emphasis on the importance of the meaning and messages in his music. He prioritizes the intrinsic values of his perception than the music itself. Moreover, he often composes new things as an appreciation to the “literature” he respects, such as the poems, other composers’ works, and folk tunes. .............................................................................................................................................. 3. Ananda Sukarlan’s Tembang Puitik .............................................................................................................................................. “I realized that the piano is not my favorite instrument when I was in my thirties. My favorite instrument is the human voice. It’s very expressive, very versatile, very personal. If you play two pianos from the same producer, they sound practically the same but you can’t get two people singing exactly the same.” –Ananda Sukarlan.246 .............................................................................................................................................. Sukarlan wrote his first Indonesian art song entitled “Kama” for soprano and piano in 2005. He has composed art songs before, just they were not written in Indonesian, but English and Spanish.247 He was inspired by the poem “Kama” written by Ilham Malayu (1954-2012), who was a drug addict and had to spend fifteen years in a prison in Bangkok for carrying drugs, but then became a counselor in a rehabilitation center after his release.248 Ilham Malayu wrote poems during imprisonment, and “Kama” was his poem, also the name of his son, whom he was longing to meet. Sukarlan found his poems very powerful, and were deeply touched by his expressions about loss, loneliness, desperation, hope, and sadness in them. He then created a cycle of songs “Ilham di Penjara (Ilham in the prison, or Inspiration in the prison –“Ilham” in Indonesian means inspiration)” which consists of “Kama”, “Setelah Penjara (After Prison)”, and “Spider’s Ballad”.249 Here, Sukarlan for the first time pondered on the accents used in bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian language), which were apparently different from English or Spanish, and its relevant phrase, structure, and sound. His first song “Kama” utilizes a pentatonic scale of Bb-BDb- F-Gb, which is a pelog scale in B, which makes it sound like a set of gamelan.250 .............................................................................................................................................. He asserted that he had already had many “leitmotifs” in his mind during 1990s. In his song, “Dalam Doaku (in my prayer)” inspired by Sapardi Djoko Damono’s poem251, he uses a set of notes (he calls them “leitmotif”) of D, A, and B flat. According to Sukarlan, he chose the consonant interval of perfect 5th (D-A) to express love –which created the most beautiful and happiest moment in life. Whereas the dissonant interval of minor 2nd (A-B flat) meant that love could sometimes be ardous (he mentioned “Romeo and Juliet” as an example).252 This “leitmotif” can be seen in his other songs, such as “Ketika Kau Entah di Mana (When you are somewhere)” and his piano piece “Falling in Love”. He employed this in most of his compositions which have the theme of love. The other “leitmotifs” that he had in mind are “rain” (a favorite theme of Sapardi Djoko Damono), “sunset”, and many more. Sukarlan asserted that most of his harmony also came from those set of notes he had already established. Below are the excerpts of “Ketika Kau Entah di Mana” and “Dalam Doaku”, both of them utilized the “leitmotif” of D-A-B flat. .............................................................................................................................................. In a cycle of four songs for baritone and piano based on Goenawan Mohamad’s poems “Gemuruhnya Malam (lit. a rumbling night)”253, Sukarlan created repetitive notes, which established hypnotizing effects.254 One of Mohamad’s poems entitled “Perjalanan Malam (Journey of the Night)” was inspired by Goethe’s poem “Der Erlkönig (lit. the alder king) ” –a poem that has attracted a number of composers, in which the notable one was Franz Schubert.255 In translating the poem into music, Sukarlan studied Schubert’s song.256 He incorporated his original repetitive notes to produce a new take on a classical sound. .............................................................................................................................................. Sukarlan composes Tembang Puitik with a variety of approaches. He wrote his first song for tenor voice “Dalam Sakit (inside the pain)” –poem written by Sapardi Djoko Damono –with high notes, in order to express his deep feeling towards AIDS victims. He even wrote down in his score, which is also called “Ananda’s Aids song”, that it should not be transposed to another kind of voice257, in order to maintain the tension and atmosphere of the song. .............................................................................................................................................. In his score Tembang Puitik Volume 3, Sukarlan did many experimental works. He composed two “retweeting” songs, entitled “Retweeting @aanmansyur” and “Retweeting @jlmejia (in Spanish)” to “retweet” the poets M. Aan Mansyur and Jose Luis Mejia on Twitter.258 He also challenged himself in writing songs based on very short poems, such as “Dalam Diam (lit. in silence)” –a poem by Nanang Suryadi, which was only ten bars long. Three of the poets mentioned above posted their poems into their blogs or Twitter accounts. .............................................................................................................................................. He has published a total of three volumes of Tembang Puitik in 2013. Tembang Puitik volume 1 (published in 2007) consists of twenty five songs based on poems by Sapardi Djoko Damono, Ilham Malayu, Goenawan Mohamad, Joko Pinurbo, and Chendra Panatan. Whereas Tembang Puitik volume 2 (published in 2010), which is the most voluminous among all, consists of thirty eight songs based on the poems of Walt Whitman, Sapardi Djoko Damono, Eka Budianta, W.S. Rendra, Hasan Aspahani, Abang Edwin S.A., Chendra Panatan, Medy Loekito, Nirwan Dewanto, Ook Nugroho, S.Yoga, and M. Aan Mansyur. Tembang Puitik volume 3 (published in 2012, but actually the works were mostly composed in 2010) consists of thirty four songs based on the poems by Sapardi Djoko Damono, Walt Whitman, Robert Browning, Henry Longfellow, Joko Pinurbo, Medy Loekito, Sitok Srengenge, M. Aan Mansyur, Jose Luis Mejia, and many more. Sukarlan does not particularly strain to write Tembang Puitik only in Indonesian. He composes music based on poems which can give him inspirations, whatever the languages are. Moreover, many of his pieces were dedicated to his fellow musicians or friends, as their performances or relationships can give inspiration to him.259 .............................................................................................................................................. He recorded his twenty four Tembang Puitik with Bernadeta Astari (a soprano) and Joseph Kristianto (a baritone), and compiled them into a CD entitled “Tembang Puitik (Vocal Works) of Ananda Sukarlan” which was released in 2008. The works recorded are “Dalam Doaku (in my prayer)” by Sapardi Djoko Damono, “I Sit and Look Out” by Walt Whitman, “Tidurlah Intan (lit. please sleep, diamond)” by Chendra Panatan, also other songs inspired by W.S. Rendra, Goenawan Mohamad, Hasan Aspahani, Nirwan Dewanto, Eka Budianta, and Ook Nugroho.260 .............................................................................................................................................. His publications of scores and CD succeed in bringing classical vocal into popularity. Nine hundred copies of his first volume of Tembang Puitik were sold in four months’ time, which was quite a number of sales for a classical music score in Indonesia.261 Kompetisi Tembang Puitik Ananda Sukarlan (TPAS, Ananda Sukarlan’s Tembang Puitik Competition), commissioned by Amadeus Performing Arts, an organizer in Surabaya, was held for the first time in 2011. It has two big categories, which are professional and non-professional categories.262The second TPAS was held in September 2013, and would be held biennially.263