EMUS 2772 CD 1:

Oceania, Indonesia and Mainland Southeast Asia

 

OCEANIA: Australian aborigines

 

1. Malkari dance - Cape York Peninsula, Queensland

A dance that imitates the work of a stockman (aboriginal cowboy). Sung by Oglolo cattle hand Jack Johnson Nyungu who accompanies himself by tapping two axe handles together. He is joined by two women from the Mungkan tribe who beat the ground in a steady pulse with long rolls of tea tree bark wrapped tightly in pieces of cloth. They are accompanying a group of male dancers miming the roping and branding of cattle. As each dancer takes a turn at the movements, the other dancers are clapping hands, stamping feet and making vocal sounds.

 

2. Ceremonial chant - Cape York Peninsula, Queensland

A secret, sacred song of the Pascoe River bora (initiation cult) sung by 60 year old George Morton accompanying himself with his own drum. The singer was born a Kandyu but married a Wutati woman who was the daughter of one of the great Wutati bora singers who handed down the entire repertory of bora songs to him. This song tells of a turtle that used a medicinal vine as a poison to catch fish in a rock pool at low tide.

 

3.     Women’s wungka song - Cape York Peninsula, Queensland

Sung by 70 year old Annie Fruit who is accompanied by her friend, 60 year old Margaret Temple, on a tobacco tin. These two women have been singing wungka songs since they were young. The meaning of this song is no longer understood.

 

4.     Didjeridu solo and vocal imitation - Elcho Island, Central North Australia

The oldest indigenous instrument to Australia and one of the oldest instruments in the world is the natural long trumpet called didjeridu. This solo is played by 22 year old Wiriyi, regarded as one of the best players on Elcho Island. His father was also a didjeridu player. Following his solo he does a vocal solo which imitates the sound of the instrument.

 

5.     Djadbangari dance song: Shelatan (“Eastwind”) - Central North Australia

Song sung by 26 year old Buwaijigu, regarded as a good songman and dancer, accompanied by Wiriyi on didjeridu.

 

6. Aboriginal pop music: Yothu Yindi - “Back to Culture”

Yothu Yindi is Australia’s best-known aboriginal pop music group. The group sings about social injustice and aboriginal land rights as well as the wish for harmony and reconciliation between black and white. The band itself symbolizes this with its mix of Aboriginal and white musicians. Their repertoire includes both new songs written by the group and traditional aboriginal songs. This song combines native language with English and didjeridu with rock instrumentation.

 

OCEANIA: music of the Tahitian choir

 

7. “Morotiri Nei”

Performed by the Tahitian choir, a group from the South Pacific island of Rapa Iti. This music reflects the blending of ancient traditional songs with Western church singing brought by missionaries.  This song tends toward the more traditional side. It is believed to be the oldest song on the island of Rapa. Note the unusual dropping of pitch at the ends of phrases.

 

8. “Himene Tatou”

Himene songs fuse ancient music with 19th century hymns which gives this tune the sound of church music. This is a Western hymn with ancient Tahitian lyrics of unknown meaning.

 

OCEANIA: Papua New Guinea (music of Mt. Bosavi)

 

9. Koluba songs while making sago

Ulahi, a female singer, sings in a style called koluba while making sago, the staple starch of the Kaluli scraped from palm trees. Her co-workers, members of her family, join in. Her first song is about her older brother who has gone off to live in a distant place. Her second song concerns her daughter who married a man from another place and went away to live. This selection and those that follow from Mt. Bosavi are meant to be demonstrations of the Kaluli musical aesthetic of dulugu ganalan, or “lift-up-over-sounding.”

 

10. Koluba songs while cutting down trees

Men singing fragments of koluba songs interspersed between whooping sounds coordinated to their work of cutting down trees provides another example of “lift-up-over-sounding.”

 

11. Songs: gisaro, koluba and heyalo

The first song heard here is the end of a gisaro song that tells of a butcherbird that finds itself alone in familiar places and calls for its brothers and sisters. The bird is revealed to be a human spirit, trying to find his way through lands he has left behind, searching for his gardens, his sago places, and his pigs who live there without him. The naming of lands and waters in the text takes the listener on a journey through these places, and thus to the feelings associated with the deceased whose places they were. As place names are the “emotional heart” of Kaluli songs, she then starts to sing a new song in koluba style for the Western listening audience who will hear these recordings and uses the place names of America and Australia in her words. Her third song is in the heyalo style and concerns a hungry cicada who experiences emptiness, loneliness and loss.

 

12. Ceremonial drumming (ilib kuwo)

Recorded in 1982, this ceremonial drumming has ceased in Bosavi since 1985. The four drummers here dance with their drums through the central corridor of a house about 60 feet long. Recorded from the center of the house, the listener can hear the movements of the drummers from one end to the other. The multiple layers of “lift-up-over-sounding” are the dancing feet on the bark floor, the sounds of the drums, and the crayfish claw rattles on each dancer’s belt.

 

13. Koluba song ceremony

Following the drumming of the previous selection comes the koluba ceremony that is performed by 12 dancers in similar costumes as the drummers. For each song a pair of dancers rise, face each other, then dance up and down in place while singing the same text and melody in a “lift-up-over-sounding” echo. At this particular ceremony 90 songs were sung between dusk and dawn. The song included here was one of the most powerful as it moved one listener, a man named Hasele, to tears of grief. He responds with his own crying upon hearing this song and is so overwhelmed with grief that he grabs a resin torch and burns the shoulder of one of the singers who composed this piece. This ritualized burning is considered a just repayment for the pain Hasele was made to feel by the song.

INDONESIA: Javanese gamelan

 

14. Bubaran Kembang Pacar, pelog pathet nem

Central Javanese gamelan music in “loud-playing” style, performed by musicians affiliated with the royal palace in Yogyakarta. Featuring the louder instruments of the gamelan ensemble, this piece uses a 16-beat gong cycle and the seven-tone tuning system called pelog. “Pathet nem” refers to the specific musical mode in which this piece is played and indicates the kind of melodic formula or contour used.

 

15. Ladrang Wilujeng, pelog pathet barang

Central Javanese gamelan music in “soft-playing” style, performed by musicians of Ngudya Wirama gamelan group, Yogyakarta, under the direction of Ki Suhardi. This is another piece in the pelog seven-tone system but features the softer instruments of the gamelan ensemble and uses a 32-beat gong cycle. The title word, wilujeng, translates literally as “safe” or “secure” as this piece is often performed at the beginning of rituals to ensure the safety of the community and the perpetuation of the ritual itself.

 

16. Playon Lasem, slendro pathet nem

Central Javanese gamelan music for shadow puppetry performed by gamelan group of Ki Suparman (rendition 1). This selection and the following selection demonstrate the flexibility of gamelan music when it is used to accompany a performance of shadow puppet theater as the puppeteer signals the orchestra to play appropriate to the mood of the drama.

 

17. Playon Lasem, slendro pathet nem

Central Javanese gamelan music for shadow puppetry performed by gamelan group of Ki Suparman (rendition 2). Note different interpretation from rendition 1.

 

INDONESIA: Balinese gamelan

 

18. Tabuh Gari, gamelan semar pegulingan

This type of gamelan ensemble, performed by village musicians from Pliatan, Bali, is one of about two dozen different types in Bali. This kind of gamelan orchestra was once played in the Balinese courts until their decline in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Since the decline of the courts, gamelan music in Bali has become the property and practice of village musicians. In this and the following selections from Bali, you can hear two musical elements that distinguish Balinese gamelan from Javanese gamelan: 1) the extremely rapid hocketing or interlocking playing technique (kotekan);  2) the “shimmering” effect created by pairs of instruments slightly “out-of-tune” with each other.

 

19. Gamelan Gong Suling - Palawakia

This type of gamelan features a core of six to eight end-blown flutes called suling. These flutes replicate the parts usually played by metal instruments in other ensembles. In addition to the flutes there are a pair of drums (kendang), cymbals (ceng-ceng), and small gongs used for punctuation that are common to most gamelan ensembles. This particular group is unusually large with 13 flutes playing over four registers. This piece is in the kebyar (explosion) style that can be identified by the abrupt shifts in tempo and strong accents.

 

 

20. Gamelan Jegog - Jayan Tangis

This ensemble comes from the far western region of Bali where bamboo grows to gigantic proportions. Although in recent times bamboo instruments may be accompanied by metal instruments, this ensemble favors only the pure bamboo sound.

 

21. Kecak

Kecak is a form of gamelan suara or “voice orchestra.” Most of the voices chant the word “chak” in the complex interlocking rhythmic patterns (kotekan) found in other gamelan styles. There is also a melodic leader, a beat-keeper, a chorus leader and a narrator telling the story while dancers enact the parts of the story. The story is from the great Hindu epic the Ramayana. This episode here begins with the abduction of Sita in the Dandaka forest, and then relates how Rama and Laksamana are aided in defeating Rahwana, her abductor, by the monkey army led by Sugriwa and Hanoman.

 

INDONESIA: popular music

 

22. Kroncong music – Langgam Di Bawah Sinar Bulan Purnama (By the light of the full moon)

Kroncong is the first Indonesian popular music. Believed to derive from the music brought by the crews of Portuguese ships in the 16th century, it had developed by the late 19th century into an urban folk music and, with the introduction of radio broadcasting in the 20th century, into popular commercial music. This kroncong band features Hawaiian guitar, melody guitar, European flute, ukulele, banjo, cello and bass.

 

23. Begadang II

Popular dangdut music performed by Rhoma Irama and his Soneta group. A well-known established star in Indonesia, Rhoma began in the underground music movement in the 1960s when Western rock was banned in Indonesia. Becoming disenchanted with Western rock, Rhoma set out to create a popular music that would sound Indonesian. He was influenced by Indian film music in this regard. Rhoma has had a successful career singing songs about love and partying, but has also performed songs expressing his ideas about his country and his religion, Islam, for which he proselytizes. Some of his songs about freedom of speech and human rights have been banned by the government and he has since become involved in politics. This song from 1978 established Rhoma as a star and bears the same title as a hit film for which it served as the theme song. Typical of his songs addressed to lower class youth, this song’s lyrics are about dancing and partying all night in spite of having little money. Even with its Western harmonic basis, this tune is clearly “Eastern” with its highly ornamented singing and flute playing.

 

24. Indonesia Maharddhika (“Indonesia is Free”)

Performed by the pop berat (“heavy pop”) group Guruh Gipsy, under the direction of Guruh Sukarnoputra. In contrast to the working-class background and orientation of Rhoma Irama, the leader of this group is of the elite. Guruh Sukarnoputra is the youngest living son of the founder of the Republic of Indonesia, President Sukarno. Considered by critics to be elitist propaganda, this extended 16 minute work incorporates traditional Indonesian elements with Western popular music and is particularly influenced by progressive rock of the 1970s. There are three excerpts heard here: The first excerpt is in old Javanese poetic language, not recognizable by the general population. The second excerpt is an instrumental using Balinese gamelan with electric guitars and synthesizers. The third excerpt is in modern Indonesian language and is an expression of hope and harmony for the future of Indonesia (i.e., the future of the present regime).

 

 

 

MAINLAND SOUTHEAST ASIA: Malaysia (dream songs of the Temiar)

 

25. Perah spirit song

Dreams play an important part of music making among the Temiar people of Malaysia. Songs come from “spirit guides” who appear to people during their dreams. After the dreamer has learned a complete song from a spirit guide, in waking life he or she teaches the song to others in the community. Such dream songs form the basis for singing, healing and trance dancing ceremonies. Although women are considered less likely to have dream encounters with the spirits, this female singer, Uda Tengah, has received several songs from the male spirit of the perah fruit tree. This song was received by her just two days before the recording was made and was influenced by the presence of the ethnomusicologist Marina Roseman. In her dream, the spirit appeared and asked that he have both Uda and Roseman as his wives, and that this song would bring them together. Note the bamboo tube sound that alternates between low and high tones, representing male and female.

 

26. Healing ceremony

When a medium sings the song he has received in a dream, the medium becomes imbued with the long-range vision and knowledge of the spirit who gave that song. Thus empowered, the medium becomes a healer. For Temiar people, illnesses come from animated spirits of the landscape; to counteract these illness agents, they call upon those animated spirits with whom they have entered into benevolent relationships, as spirit guides. When a medium sings, his voice and vision are that of a spirit guide who can see and extract illness agents from a patient’s body, or find and return a patient’s wandering soul. In this healing ceremony, two mediums work as a team accompanied by a chorus of community members. The mediums can be heard singing their spirit songs and “working” on the patient by blowing, sucking on the patient’s body to try to draw the illness out. They also try to frighten the illness out by shouting and clapping hands.

 

MAINLAND SOUTHEAST ASIA: Thailand

 

27. Pi-phat ensemble - Sounds of the Surf Overture

The pi-phat ensemble is a percussion-based ensemble found in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia with origins in the royal courts of Mainland Southeast Asia. In Thailand the tradition is kept alive today in several colleges of the arts supported by the government. This recording features musicians of the Bangkok College of Dramatic Arts Fine Arts Department performing a composition by former King Rama VII (reigned 1925-1935). The composition is a good example of programmatic music, describing the sounds of the waves on the beach. Following the opening phrase played on the oboe, the melodic instruments divide into two groups to represent the rolling sound of the waves. The xylophones play leading phrases that are answered by the small gongs. Each phrase becomes progressively shorter until they merge, as if waves on the beach.

 

28. Thai Dam khap repartee singing

An example of courtship singing among the Thai Dam (Black Thai) minority in northern Vietnam. Many minority groups in Mainland Southeast Asia have various styles of courtship singing in which a male and a female alternate verses. While courtship songs reinforce social relationships, they also exhibit high levels of creativity in poetic expressions of love.

 

29. Bamboo jew’s harp - Kmhmu highlanders, Thailand

A common instrument used in courtship throughout Southeast Asia, the jew’s harp used here by the Kmhmu highlanders in Thailand is used by young men to convey speech messages to their beloved. By shaping his tongue and cheeks the player can produce specific vowel sounds, allowing him to speak in a disguised form. The boy visits his girlfriend in the evening, uttering endearments on the instrument that her eavesdropping parents can pretend not to understand. Also the girl may need to snuggle close to him to hear the delicate sounds produced by the harp.

 

30. Courtship flute with singing and humming - Kmhmu highlanders, California

An example of a female courtship instrument used by the Kmhmu people, a two-holed flute that a girl can play in response to the endearments played on a boy’s jew’s harp. This example, played by a Kmhmu immigrant in California, demonstrates how girls too shy to sing of their love out loud can hum or whisper their words of love into the flute while playing.

 

MAINLAND SOUTHEAST ASIA: Vietnam

 

31. Monochord solo

The Vietnamese monochord is an original instrument with a wooden sounding box, a bamboo stick and a gourd that serves as a resonator. The player varies the tension of the string and touches nodes on the string to produce harmonics. In this way a wide variety of pitches are available to the player. Expressive vibrato is created by manipulating the string tension with the stem. This piece is an improvisation in the pentatonic mode nam.


32. Vong Co (Thinking of Past Love)

This is the most well-known and popular piece in South Vietnam. Composed by Cao Van Lau in 1917 this song conveys the sentiments of sadness and separation between lovers. This excerpt is only the beginning of a longer form, opening with a free meter introduction. The accompaniment consists of a sixteen-string zither, a modified guitar, and a Vietnamese plucked lute.

 

MAINLAND SOUTHEAST ASIA: Laos

 

33. Khene solo - “On the Mekong”

The Laotian khene is believed to be the earliest mouth organ in the world. It was adopted and changed by the Chinese who made a version that became the model for the European harmonica. The instrument is typically played solo or to accompany folk songs.

 

34. Folk song of the north (with khene accompaniment)

Itinerant folk singers throughout Laos and Thailand are known as molam and are highly respected for their knowledge of culture, history and stories through song. This folk song is sung by a molam named Miss Lam Se, accompanied by Thao Phet on the khene. The delicate ornaments and the vocalizations ending in an extended hum are typical of the folk music of Laos.

 

MAINLAND SOUTHEAST ASIA: Myanmar (Burma)

 

35. Burmese kyo classical song

An example of classical Burmese singing, accompanied by the saun, a 13-stringed harp with origins in ancient India, and siwa, two small finger cymbals and clapper sticks that are used to mark time in Burmese music. While the vocal melody and harp accompaniment sound somewhat free and are quite flexible, they fit into a regular metric pattern articulated by the siwa.

 

36. Than Yoe (Simple melody)

Although this ensemble mixes both Burmese and Western instruments it is nevertheless typical of traditional Burmese music as the piano has been popular with traditional musicians since the late 19th century. The other instruments here are the chauk lon bat (circle of 10 tuned drums) and siwa (finger cymbals and clappers). This song is a learning piece as the melody is used as a vehicle for practicing variations and is characteristic of Burmese music with its sudden starts and stops.