Related Papers
Meddegoda, Chinthaka P. and G. Jähnichen (2019). Field Report: The Orang Kling of Sumatra’s West Coast and their Musical Self. Voicing the Unheard: Music as Windows for Minorities. Edited by Yves Defrance. Paris: L’Harmattan:185-208.
Gisa Jähnichen, Chinthaka P Meddegoda
In January and February 2014, the authors went on a fieldtrip to Sumatra’s West Coast with Padang as its centre aiming at discovering and analysing traces of Indian music practices within modern Sumatran society. This fieldtrip was not announced in advance and did not allow for preparations on the side of the informants and performers. All the authors found is exactly that what is always available and could be regularly reproduced. The authors’ impact on the scene was comparatively small as Sumatra is an area that is not unknown to the world of ethnomusicology. Evidence of some ethnomusicological activities such as documents of research-based projects regarding performing arts of Sumatra could be found in the library of Institute Seni Indonesia of Padangpanjang and in the local Museum of Arts in Padang’s Minang Village. However, this paper is initially focused on providing information about unnoticed traces of Hindustani music and some Hindustani cultural aspects that are still extant in some urban West Sumatran communities. The Indian population of Sumatra is multi-layered from every aspect. It is a minority that includes a number of sub-minorities. Orang Kling musicians are a special case as they are descendants from different Indian origin that were migrating at different times who are now mainly Muslims. Simultaneously, they are those responsible for entertainment, a business that is often challenged by leading religious and ideological opinions. The music they are playing and identify themselves with ranges from drumming in the mosque to wedding music that is Bollywood inspired, and storytelling. Two findings were outstanding: the drum of the Muhammadhan Mosque, mainly used by the Kling, with the flower offerings; and the second are musical objects and practical knowledge excavated from Sofian’s family that is trading in spices and has been the centre of some Kling musicians in Padang and Pariaman. Finally, this preliminary study gives an ethnographic as well as individual account on the musical understanding of this group of Indians among other Indians along Sumatra’s West Coast. While “Kling” has in some other places of the Malay World a pejorative meaning, the Kling of Padang and Pariaman are seemingly proud of their name. The discussion of historical and recent literature as well as some questions arising from it may contribute to understand why this is so and whether the musical self of the orang Kling in West Sumatra expresses a differentiated view on their cultural positioning. The story of the orang Kling and their music in Sumatra can throw another light on the complexity of migration and the history of constructing minorities in Southeast Asia.
Music, Ethics and the Community
Meddegoda, Chinthaka P. (2015). Ethnic Labelling: Malaysian Perception on Indian Performing Arts and its Impact on Malay Music. UPM Book Series on Music Research, Edited by Gisa Jähnichen, Made Mantle Hood and Chinthaka P. Meddegoda, vol. 7:103–116.
2015 •
Chinthaka P Meddegoda
In: Nathan Porath (ed.), "Hearing South East Asia: Sounds of Hierarchy and Power in Context", pp. 87–116, Copenhagen: NIAS Press
Music and the cline of Malayness: sounds of egalitarianism and ranking
2019 •
Geoffrey Benjamin
The cline of Malayness as exhibited in Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula extends through tribal-Malay, rakyat-Malay, aristocrat-Malay and modern urban-Malay. As a consequence of the manner in which Malay states came into being, this cline exhibits an increasing elaboration of the cultural expression of transition and transitivity. This is manifested in the different manners of musical performance favoured in the various Malay populations. In turn, these differences are paralleled closely in such other areas of Malay cultural expression as: social personality, cooking & eating, dance, religion, grammar & lexicon. Fifteen illustrative audio examples are available on the Soundcloud.com website through links given in the footnotes, where links to other cited online audio examples are also provided.
Sindhenan Banyumasan: An Example of Variation and Pluralism of the Javanese Female Singing Tradition
2021 •
Ilaria Meloni
Sindhenan Banyumasan, meaning the female traditional Javanese singing in the style of Banyumas, represents an interesting “regional variant” of sindhen vocal tradition. Flourished in the court of Surakarta in the 19th century, the sindhen practice has spread rapidly across the centuries, reaching many territories outside the court centers. Deeply connected with the ancient practices of the singer dancers, sindhen styles are still indicative of the local traditions and a testimony of differences and continuity with the formal teaching of central Javanese institutions. Despite the importance of the local variants, existing international studies on sindhenan have mainly focused on the styles of Yogyakarta and Surakarta, often neglecting rural areas, like Banyumas. The aim of this paper is to shed some light on sindhen practice in Banyumas territory, investigating its history, performance practice, repertoires and vocal style. Research outcomes reveal how Banyumas singing tradition has ...
UPM Book Series on Music Research, No. 1 (ISSN 2289-3938): Observing, Analysing, Contextualising Music, 2nd ed. Edited by Gisa Jähnichen & Chan Cheong Jan. 61–72.
What Are Those Songs of Our Own We Are Singing? Musical and Social Identity of Chuangzuo in the Gongzuofang in Penang
2015 •
Owwei Chow
Música e Cultura 22 The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same: Peranakan Musical Culture in Malacca, Malaysia 1
Margaret Sarkissian
Religions
Performance and Aesthesis in Malay-World Musics, Religious and Secular
2022 •
Geoffrey Benjamin
Abstract: The endogenous religious and secular musics of the Malay World’s various social formations display a range of performance manners and organisation that reflect their distinctive socio-cultural and religious orientations. This brief paper supplements the material in my chapter “Music and the cline of Malayness”.
Expression of Music Culture in Malaysia and Indonesia: Analysis of Musical Aspects
2021 •
haris azis
Music is one of the cultures that has ever created by humans. It is one of the rhythms of interest and received a warm welcome among artistes and listeners in the entertainment world in Malaysia and Indonesia. This can be seen from the number of views of the song via Youtube link and the response to the production of rhythmic music in various digital music channels such as Joox, Spootify, Tik Tok and many more. However, there are perceptions and issues arisen by the public such as “why do dangdut song lyrics, although expressing about events of sadness or social problems, still encourage its connoisseurs to dance and sway?' Nevertheless, there is a confusion among the public when they began to question ‘I don’t understand why should belly dance and dangdut be promoted to children?’ Therefore, this study was conducted using qualitative content analysis method obtained from the list of songs found in Malaysia and Indonesia starting in the 60s (Indonesia), 70s (Malaysia) and the cu...
Ethnomusicology
Music-Making, Ritual, and Gender in a Southeast Asian Hill Society
1993 •
Ken George
journal article
Islamic Musical Forms and Local Identity in Post-Reform Indonesia
2019 •
Neneng Y A N T I K H O Z A N A T U Lahpan
Through an analysis of local Sundanese music in distinct settings in village and urban contexts, this article observes and analyses different constructions of meaning around Sundanese Islamic music, as well as the role played by cultural activists and village audiences in those constructions. Based on fieldwork in Tasikmalaya, West Java, I explore the novel meanings given to village genres in urban contexts, and contrast that with the affective responses of village audiences. I find that musical meanings offer different processes of identity formation within particular social boundaries. Emergent Indonesian political developments shape these processes. Keywords Islamic music-Sundanese culture-the construction of meaning-village-urban settings-local identity 1 Introduction West Java has long been a site of tension over Islam and cultural expression. The most recent incidents involved the destruction of statues. On 11 Febru-ary 2016, members of the hard-line Muslim group Front Pembela Islam (FPI, Islamic Defenders' Front) ventured out at midnight to destroy statues depicting the wayang character Arjuna in a tourist park in Purwakarta Regency. The regency is well-known for its wayang statues erected in the park and in other prominent locations. In a later attack, a number of other statues in the city Downloaded from Brill.com01/05/2021 07:53:50AM via free access
