Essentials of Indonesian Music Culture - Essay Example

Indonesia: Archipelago of Music Music is one of the crucial fields of humanities. Everyone in the world probablyknows the notion about humanities which is making human more humane. Each country has their musical style. In some cases, there are hybrid musical styles which are results of colonization. Southeast Asia is home to one of the most colourful music culture. Indonesia, in particular, has a vivid musical style and instruments. Culture, as we all know, speaks about identity. We have to consider how the identity and the music of Indonesia interact with each other. Music and Identity Indonesia is one of the former colonies of the Dutch. Most the time, the colonies have been suppressed and oppressed by their colonizers. These harsh natures pushed the colonies to adapt and live the lifestyle of their colonizers to compete with them in all aspects of things. The traditional culture of the people has been undermined. The colonizer’s culture strongly asserts its influence to exercise control and power over the colony. Thus, the interaction that rises from such clash of cultures is a hybrid. There is clearly a very big difference as to how people in Indonesia deal with their identity. As Papastergiadis (2005) asserted in his paper that “cultural difference continues to be one of the most explosive geopolitical issues – people are dealing with it constantly in everyday life and artists are in their various ways exploring its complexity, and yet we have no coherent or satisfactory framework for addressing the moral and social problems that have been spawned in its name.” In this case, hybridity does not only encompass the international level justified by the neo-colonization. Even on a country like Indonesia which was subjected to a colonial rule also experiences hybridity on the regional and national spheres. It only intensifies the justification to the assertion that culture varies per location. According to Sumarsam (1988), the “geographical setting and their historical development, brought about Indonesias diversity of its people and cultures. Each of hundreds of ethnic groups and subgroups has its own local characteristic, in language, customs, and forms of organization, ritual, dances, music and other cultural expressions.” This gives an implication that music, as part of culture, and identity, which defines what Indonesia is, has a very complex relation. Their interplay is very complex given that there is also a strong cultural diversity existing in the whole archipelago. Jakarta, the capital has different culture in comparison with Bali and Java. Since this diversity is strong, the hybridity of the Indonesian culture is prevalent. However, despite hybridity, there will be a common ground for all the different cultures existing in the Archipelago. When it comes to music, Gamelan, the traditional musical instrument of Indonesia, becomes the common factor the diverse Indonesian culture. (Gong Keybar, 2000) Gamelan provides a very crucial explanation about the interaction of music and identity in Indonesia. “Indonesian gamelan is essentially a performer-orientated, struck-percussion ensemble played by amateur musicians who "perform" from memory.” (Gong Keybar, 2000) This orientation implies that Gamelan has a very intrinsic nature to compel an individual playing music. This compelling nature draws a very humanist attitude to appreciate the music culture. The performance from memory somehow gives Gamelan a very individualistic nature that transcends to society. This musical showcase relates to human experience and sensibilities that somehow relate to the Indonesian people. Gamelan’s unique performance has a chance to open possibilities of evoking national consciousness and identity. However, there are incursions that affected the relevance of Gamelan music in relation to Indonesian identity. In particular, the western culture that entered Indonesia through colonization affected the condition of the musical culture. Social Peripheries of Indonesian Music The interplay of music cannot be isolated on a single case. Since it is relevant to culture, there are certain contexts that modify the relations of music with other social institutions like the government, education, media, family and the like. At the same time, how an individual’s immersion on these institutions affect the appreciation and abhorrence with the Indonesian musical culture. Of all these institutions, which ones exert a direct influence as to how the musical culture strives or undermined? The most important institution to deal with is the government. Why is this so? The government has the capacity to dictate courses of actions to take and policies to implement that encompass all the relevant institutions. Eventually, an individual’s perception towards culture, in all its aspects, is affected by how the institutions shaped them. According to Mack (2007) that “seeing from art education, it was a pity that Dewantara’s concept was not taken as a basis for a national education policy. During the establishment of the Indonesian educational system after the independence in 1945, politicians favoured again the colonial models instead of modified traditional local ones.” Maybe there is wonder as to who Dewantara is. He is a critic of the Dutch Government which was then the colonizer of Indonesia (Mack, 2007). According to Mack (2007), “Dewantara’s principles were based completely on Indonesian (Javanese) culture, and this also holds for the arts.” On this level, he shows the picture that people are unaware of the condition that people in the national sphere of Indonesia is not given a chance to appreciate their own culture. Given this case, this shows that government has not detached itself from its colonizer to at least seek their own national identity. Gamelan, its use, function and relevance as a vital musical instrument is somehow undermined. In the education system of Indonesia, particularly in the arts, Gamelan also falls under certain restrictions. It is rarely taught given the current system (Mack, 2007). Therefore, its usage is somehow restricted. However, who really plays the Gamelan despite of the restrictions imposed by the government through the educational system? Obviously, there are still people who appreciate the music formed by the Gamelan. According to Gong Keybar (2000), Gamelan has been played mostly by performers in traditional areas or at tourist’s spots to showcase the Indonesian culture. Also, it serves as an accompaniment to different shadow puppet plays showcased in Indonesia (Gong Keybar, 2000). Based on the aforementioned paragraphs, it opens to an assumption that performers are the ones who play the instruments. Therefore, it somehow opens a conclusion that not all people play the music of Indonesia. The possible culprit for this cultural demeanour is the strong colonial influence. It gave the Gamelan music of Indonesia a foreign status wherein people treat it differently or unusual. There seems to be a strong regard over the colonizer’s culture prioritized by their political system in reaching a globally competitive standard (Mack 2007). When it comes to the urban social periphery, the music becomes relatively different in comparison with the traditional and regional spheres. According to Mack (2007), by “referring to Indonesia’s urgent intention to become a modern industrial society, similar to the Western development, it seems also to be necessary to adapt Western music culture as an element of such a modern type of nation, in order to become competitive on an international level.” Based on the political and economic desire of Indonesia, the dominance of the western influence lingers in the operations of the institutions. Culturally speaking, the music of Indonesia becomes more of a hybrid leading to homogeneity. Western pop music incorporated with the Indonesian musical elements seems to dominate the cultural arena. The concentration of the use of the western-style Indonesian music is probably on the capital city Jakarta. The powers rest in it. Therefore, systematically speaking, the policies and implementations of cultural, political and social practices are strongly exercised there. The question now is why the western-music style did not really affect the regional areas? Or how come that even if there are influences that entered the Gamelan music in the regional areas, why is it able to maintain its distinctively Indonesian element? Complexities rise when these questions are answered. This will lead to the assertion of Mack (2007) that the cultural issue of Indonesia strongly involves politics. The political assertions actually influence how the society works in general. This political side really affects the interplay of cultural factors and the people. The politics side dictate how things should flow. This is somehow detrimental because it undermines the utmost potential of society for progress, mobility and prosperity through its own efforts. There is ambiguity with the power relations in Indonesia given this case. There is complexity with the national against the regional practices all the more with the traditional and the western interplay of cultures. National vis-à-vis Regional Given this situation, it seems that to define nationality is to have its grounding on something foreign to intensify their security and progress as a country. Papastergiadis (2005), asserted that hybridity is something to be used as a new critical approach to view art which is included under culture. However, the problem with fully adapting or accommodating a foreign culture and making it as a priority makes it hegemonic. In some cases, homogeneity undermines the value of cultural diversity in Indonesia (Mack, 2007). Now, what seems to be the problem that arises with the clash of the imported, western culture with the traditional and regional cultural practices when it comes to the issue of music? Inherently, there will still be clashes as well on the traditional and regional traditions since diversity exists. On the smaller scale, the different traditional cultures will obviously compete for the prestige of being the prime culture that speaks about the identity of the country. Mack (2007) asserted as well that “the huge diversity of the respective Indonesian ethnic music cultures does not allow that one of them will be declared as the “national music”. This would create serious ethnic tensions. Consequently, something has to be “imported”.” The preceding paragraph implies that there is really problem as to how we the different cultures respond to each other. It is true that the occurrence of conflict is inevitable. The different groups will definitely fight over about not being selected as the forefront of the national identity of Indonesia. This might stir greater trouble if it is not resolved. This assertion by Mack is drawn from a political perspective. This might be a superficial conflict formulated by the Government. Why is this so? There are two possible implications drawn from the situation. The first one is that there is no initiative on the part of the government to institutionalize Gamelan music as the national music of Indonesia despite of its strong potential to promote nationalism. Gamelan’s role and relevance is very strong since it is determines the commonality of the diverse regional cultures of Indonesia. The shadow play puppet uses Gamelan and the famous tourist spots in Indonesia highlights the grand musical score that the Gamelan provides. These activities already manifest the need to institutionalize the said musical culture of Indonesia. The government can take advantage of it. The second possible reason for the politically-inclined assertion is that the government is too preoccupied on the thought of advancing their country on economic terms that is why they are prioritizing the western culture which has a capacity to underestimate their very rich and vibrant musical culture. They are neglecting the potential of the Gamelan to advance their culture and economy through its enticing nature to attract tourists that will help their economy to prosper. On a national-regional relation of Gamelan and the westernized Indonesian pop music culture, there is a more depressing problem. The Gamelan is on a more problematic situation. The western cultural incursions can change the original and traditional nature of Gamelan which evokes a very humanist experience. Somehow, the Gamelan is forced to integrate western elements of it to suite the taste of the spectators. Sumarsam (1988) asserted that the Gamelan is part of a century of oral tradition. This oral tradition deteriorates when western incursions happens. The real historical and cultural importance of Gamelan is bastardized. Another, the strong desire of the Indonesia being globally competitive has forced itself to integrate western culture to their practices. This acculturation shows a detriment that it undermines the potential of the Indonesian culture to prosper but also represses the capacity of a strong culture to integrate and resist global domination. It has been a common knowledge that domination in all its aspects clearly hinders the capacity of a nation for independence. The worst case is that they have to change their culture to be competitive in the mainstream culture at the cost of being homogenized by the existing hegemonic culture. Another problematic condition about the Indonesian culture, as asserted by Mack (2007), is that “the younger Indonesian history, especially since the beginnings of the independence movement, has been signified by a selection of nationalistic and patriotic songs, using a Western music idiom. This has to be seen as a thorough justification that Western music language becomes the main content in music education on a national level.” This condition already proves that they themselves discredit their own culture when they speak about their national identity. This condition is hypocritical for the reason that the very own culture promoted by the means of other culture. This invokes the true sense and spirit of nationalism and evokes a false consciousness about nationalism at the same time. This is really problematic because the musical identity, together with the Indonesian identity fails to progress to real path that it must take. On an overall basis, the complexity of the Indonesian musical culture stems from the complicated power relations which traces its origin from the colonial condition Indonesia has gone through. This cultural backlash impedes and undermines the whole potential of the Indonesian music, particularly the Gamelan, to evoke true nationalistic spirit which can give progress to their country. The colourful music of the Gamelan is reflective of the cultural diversity present within Indonesia yet this colourful music that gives a very humanist experience shows its capacity to unite the people of Indonesia. Gamelan is their common ground no matter what how they call it in their respective regions. Gamelan’s relevance as a historical practice complements the real identity of Indonesia which has been suppressed for a long time. Cultural change for Indonesia is not yet too late. They can still save themselves from the repressive culture of the western hemisphere that can homogenize their culture. As long as Gamelan exists, the hopes and aspirations of Indonesia to become globally competitive are not impossible to achieve. Appreciation of culture should come first to unite the people towards the same goal. The real recognition of the importance of tradition ferments social consciousness and advances social change. Gamelan is important. It is their soul. It is their identity. It is their music. It binds them together as one nation. LIST OF REFERENCES Papastergiadis, N. 2005, ‘Hybridity and Ambivalence: Places and Flows in Contemporary Art and Culture’, Theory, Culture, Society, pp. 39 - 64. Mack, D. 2007, ‘Art (Music) Education in Indonesia: A Great Potential but a Dilemmatic Situation’, Educationist, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 62 - 74. Gong Keybar, 2000, ‘Indonesian Music’, The Balinese Gamelan, pp. 1-32. Sumarsam,1988. Revised for Wesleyan’s gamelan webpage, Fall 1999. Last revised, Fall 2002. Read More