Preface to my Thesis for the Master of Music Degree

Ananda Sukarlan’s Tembang Puitik: A Study on the Poetic Songs of an Indonesian Composer .............................................................................................................................................. 京都市立芸術大学大学院音楽研究科 音楽学専攻スンダリ・オリビア・エベリン .............................................................................................................................................. Graduate School of Music, Kyoto City University of the Arts 2014 .............................................................................................................................................. Western music dissemination in Indonesia can be traced back to the sixteenth century. The arrival of the Europeans has influenced on many aspects of Indonesian society, including music. The improvement of the education systems in the early twentieth century has resulted on the existence of the first generation composers, and has marked the commencement of modern music development in the archipelago. Ananda Sukarlan is an Indonesian composer who has composed numerous works. He proposes his music to be described as “Musik Sastra (literature music)”. This study concentrates on elaborating the definition of his proposal by elucidating his musicianship in his vocal compositions, Tembang Puitik (poetic songs). Tembang Puitik is the genre of art songs mostly inspired by Indonesian poetry. Sukarlan composed his first Tembang Puitik entitled “Kama” in 2005. This study focuses on the cycle “Senyap Dalam Derai (Silence in Noise)” written by Sukarlan. The study also explains his delicate techniques in depicting poems, such as his use of particular intervals, establishments of motives, and changes of time signatures and tempo markings. The aesthetic qualities in his music are also described in this study. I came to know about Ananda Sukarlan from my piano tutor, Ms. Elly Loka. She showed me Sukarlan’s picture printed on a monthly music magazine, telling me that he would have a piano recital in my hometown, Medan. I could not attend his piano recital, but I remember, Ms. Elly told me that Sukarlan was a brilliant pianist. From then on, I heard nothing about Ananda anymore until I came to Japan. .............................................................................................................................................. As a Japanese government national scholarship recipient, I came to Tokyo to study Japanese language, popular piano, and then classical piano performance. An Indonesian as a classical piano undergraduate student, I was often told to play or sing some traditional Indonesian folk songs. I realized that unintentionally I was a representative of my own country in front of the Japanese people and the foreigners living in Japan. I started to think and seek for my own identity. Being an Indonesian, honestly I am so ashamed that I know only little things about Indonesian music. Practicing piano was enjoyable for me, but it did consume a lot of my time. I even thought that “I am studying about music, but I know nothing about music other than western classical music.” Then I decided to change my field. I want to devote myself to study much deeper about the music of my country, by enrolling in the graduate musicology course. At first, I did not have a certain research theme in my mind, just wanted to explore more about Indonesian music. .............................................................................................................................................. So I tried to study a lot of genres of Indonesian music. Gamelan is a very popular music genre which is worldwide known, but I tried to do the opposite, a research about more contemporary and popular genres, such as kroncong1 and dangdut. However, I noticed then that there were already detailed researches (Andrew N. Weintraub for his continuous research about Dangdut, and Judith Becker for her pioneering research about Kroncong). I also tried to study the Islamic music, and I went for a fieldwork on August 2012 in my hometown, Medan, and interviewed a Moslem female vocalist, Ms. Nur Asiah Djamil during the last week fasting period of Ramadan. The interview was interesting, and I thought I could continue the research about Indonesian Islamic music. Nevertheless, a week after, when I was still in Medan, by chance I saw Ananda Sukarlan being interviewed on one of Indonesian leading TV channels, Metro TV. He performed his virtuoso piano rhapsody based on Indonesian folk music, “Rapsodia Nusantara I”, and talked about his idea of making music. I was stunned, first for the quality of the piece he composed, second for his way of thinking, and third for my lack of knowledge that I did not know he was a composer. I started to search for his music on the internet, and found quite a number of his works posted on YouTube. I found his works for modern dance, piano, opera, chorus, art songs, and many more. Among all of them, I realized that his art songs were called Tembang Puitik (poetic songs), which were based on Indonesian poems. They sounded peculiar for me at first, but they reminded me of something very nostalgic deep inside of my heart. I was astonished, amused, and touched, so that I decided to do research about Sukarlan’s Tembang Puitik right after, and ended up in writing a thesis about it. .............................................................................................................................................. This master thesis will not finish without the help of a number of people. First of all, I would like to thank the composer himself to make time for an interview despite his hectic schedule, also for answering my endless questions via emails. I would also like to thank the pianist –also one of the pioneers in writing thesis regarding Ananda Sukarlan’s music, Henoch Ronald Kristianto, for humbly sending me his precious copy of master thesis that helped me a lot with the research. I am also very grateful to Aning Katamsi, Bernadeta Astari, Joseph Kristianto, for answering my lists of questions, and Chendra Panatan for kindly arranging the appointment with the composer and giving the most recent updates about the composer’s concerts and works published. .............................................................................................................................................. I would like to express my great appreciation to my caring professor, Ayako Tatsumura, for her valuable opinions and care during these two years. My studies in Kyoto City University of the Arts would have not happened without scholarships from Sato Yo International Scholarship Foundation, and I would express my deep appreciation for them. I would also like to thank my seniors and fellow friends: Natsuki Teruya and Takuya Watari –for their passionate care and providing place for me to stay for days during my visit to the Kansai-kan of the National Diet Library, Nao Takeuchi –for giving his helpful opinion, Priska Setiawan –for checking my English errors, Sachiko Hiyama –for her kindest assistance ever, Kanan chan –for her detailed editing, Miki chan, Poya, and other friends that I can’t express one by one. .............................................................................................................................................. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my parents –for always watching me from far away in Indonesia, my elder sister and brother in law, and their lovely baby An Qi –who have video called me from Singapore whenever I felt down, and Melisa –for rushing to the libraries in Singapore after work to find the references I needed. .............................................................................................................................................. Last but not least, I would like to thank my fiancé, Willy William, for helping me in image and general editing, finding reference books in Indonesia, also for his everlasting love and support. .............................................................................................................................................. Note on Language : .............................................................................................................................................. The Italic words are Indonesian or other languages than English. Tembang Puitik that I refer in this research can be either singular or plural. To prevent misunderstanding and for the convenience of stating family names of people featured on this study, the very last part of the names will be regarded as the family names. This issue is due to the fact that many Indonesians do not possess family names.