Andy's Pick of the Year !

It's almost the end of the year. Although this year ends with the unlucky number 13, I must say that it's not been a bad year at all. With the things that I absorbed this year, there were some really inspiring works of art. So, here's my pick of the year 2013. .............................................................................................................................................. This year is especially fruitful for me in consuming great writings by Indonesian writers. Of course Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet and Julius Caesar, Ovid's Metamorphosis and Plato's Symposium still remain my "bible", keeping them beside my bed the whole year, but for the new ones, I should pick my favorites of this year (the order is random, neither alphabetical nor a ranking of what I think is the best since it's difficult to say which one is better than the other) : Leila S. Chudori : Pulang , Budiman Sudjatmiko : Anak-anak Revolusi , Laksmi Pamuntjak : Amba , Okky Mandasari : Pasung Jiwa , and I enjoy so much the collection of Fira Basuki's tweets in her book "140 karakter". .............................................................................................................................................. The only foreign book that impressed me deeply this year is Paolo Coelho's Manuscript Found in Acra. I must admit that I haven't read that many books in other languages this year, I dunno why. .............................................................................................................................................. In classical music, although we could claim that technology has made it possible to listen to things almost immediately, I just heard recently some pieces written a few years ago, due to the inavailability of the recording on CDs. In fact, I heard them first through youtube. Those that have moved me deeply this year include : John Williams' Cello Concerto (from the 1990s !), Andre Previn's Harp Concerto (from 2007) and Lera Auerbach's "Icarus". The first two have been my favorites all my life, and am so glad that in their old ages (Williams is 81 and Previn is 84 and now quite frail) they remain so prolific in their musical productions. Lera Auerbach is a new discovery for me, I befriended her through facebook and have always listened to all her music posted in her facebook.The really new ones written this year I should mention Robert Zuidam's Bosch Requiem and Santiago Lanchares' 3 pieces from "Castor & Pollux" for orchestra (the latter is the only one that I heard through the radio at the moment of its premiere last November). .............................................................................................................................................. Of course I am really delighted that pianist Henoch Kristianto has released a CD of many of my piano music; it's been a highlight for me this year. I would certainly pick that CD for the high quality of PERFORMANCE, but with the music, I wish I could produce at least 10% of artistry of those composers mentione above. My music (especially the 6 numbers of Rapsodia Nusantara) is not easy at all, and I must admit, sometimes so unpianistic, but Henoch's playing was just admirable. I am glad that the whole CD is now also available on iTunes, and both the CD and the iTunes is enjoying a good selling. If you wanna have it through iTunes (which is much cheaper than the CD, almost 50%, but you can't read my amusing program notes. Oh well, mostly they are taken from this blog anyway) the link is : http://itunes.apple.com/album/rapsodia . .............................................................................................................................................. Movies ? Well, I don't really like Hollywood movies, but I could mention Richard Linklater's Before Midnight, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and of course as a faithful Trekkie I should mention the last Star Trek : Into Darkness (my God, Benedict Cumberbatch's acting is so impressive! He should do some Shakespeare!). Anyway, I am not a movie freak, so I should limit my movie pick into just 3. .............................................................................................................................................. This might be my last entry of this blog this year, since starting the 26th I will be busy in preparing the Jakarta New Year Concert 2014, which will take place on January 5th, 2014. I am performing on the piano in the first half, and will conduct the Nusantara Symphony Orchestra in the second half. I am excited to accompany the best young Indonesian soloists of today; they are all under 20 years of age. They are : violinist Amadeus Giovani Biga, pianist Randy Ryan (winner of Ananda Sukarlan Award Int'l Piano Competition 2012) and vocalists Nikodemus Lukas and Isyana Sarasvati (both winners in different categories of Kompetisi Tembang Puitik Ananda Sukarlan voice competition). In fact, the theme of the concert this time is JUVENUM, and not only the soloists are young, but the music is about youth as well. To end this entry with a light spirit, let me invite you to enjoy one of my last pieces, the short n humorous piece with a very loooong title (you can check my last entry in this blog). Here's the link : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3c-32i6fOqQ. I am very much looking forward for more great artistic creations in 2014 !

MOZART MEANDERING THROUGH JAVA BEFORE BUMPING INTO BEETHOVEN IN BOSTON

These last few days we are having so much fun preparing for the concert in Jakarta with some woodwind principals of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The original plan was a wind quintet with them, but the flutist & clarinetist had to cancel their trip, so the organizer had to find 2 substitutes. We premiered (well, it wasn't the official world premiere, it was a "teaser" so to say) yesterday at the American Cultural Center "@atamaerica" the piece I wrote, commissioned for this event, and the title was a result of the brainstorming among all of us: me and the Boston guys, just before that sneak peak event at @atamerica. At last we corrected the very long title (even longer if you consider the piece is only 3 minutes long!) into MOZART MEANDERING THROUGH JAVA BEFORE BUMPING INTO BEETHOVEN IN BOSTON. The piece was written very quickly, around 2 days in November : one was on the airplane from Jakarta back to Spain, and another day already home in Cantabria (see my entry last month on November 19th). It's dedicated to the players who premiered it : Katie Zagorski (flute), John Ferrillo (oboe), Erin Svoboda (clarinet), Richard Svoboda (bassoon, father of Erin), James Sommerville (horn) ... and myself ! Thanks to David Svoboda (the nephew of Richard) who commissioned me to do it. I certainly didn't regret writing it, although I was given very short time. Well, my fault. I set my own deadline, since in fact I could just submit the piece a few days before they arrived to Jakarta, and knowing that they are such FUN-tastic players that they could learn and understand the piece very quickly. However, I always would like to give any piece at least 1 month ahead to the players, if possible (this wouldn't be possible in cases like writing music for films, where I had to write the music TONIGHT and give it to the musicians TOMORROW to be recorded THE DAY AFTER). And since the idea of a new piece came up around 6 weeks before the premiere, then .. well, that was what happened. Anyway, the piece is a kind of polyphonic game between Mozart's themes, the West Javanese children folksong "Tokecang" and .. well, you'll hear Herr Beethoven approaching in the end :). ................................................................................................................................. .............

It was in fact a happy accident. I planned to write a "normal" piece; fun, but normal. But I was stuck when I needed a second theme, and time is the only thing I DIDN'T have at that moment! So I thought, well let's be a rather naughty and take a phrase from Mozart, and it should be a famous one. After stealing his symphony's theme, I thought that I should link it with a Javanese song, since those Boston guys are visiting here, so I took "Tokecang", a children folksong from West Java, which I also used in my Rapsodia Nusantara no. 2. And the game went on, stealing from other themes ! If you wanna test your musical knowledge, please check at youtube that looooong title, and see how many themes of other composers you can find. ................................................................................................................................. ............. Apart from the world premiere of that "Mozart" piece, the Boston players are playing 2 of my other pieces : Echo's Whisper (for oboe & piano), and Niobe Weeping while turning into stone (for french horn & piano). Like my other pieces for woodwind instruments and piano, they are all inspired from a (some) characters from Ovid's deeply moving Metamorphosis. The concert will be tomorrow (14th) and Sunday (15th). .............................................................................................................................................. People always ask me, why I love classical music so much. Well, I think any kind of love, if it's sincere and coming from the heart, is inexplicable. I haven't even asked that question to myself, and when people ask me that question, I gotta think ... and still don't have the answer. .............................................................................................................................................. But is it true that everything about music is just wonderful? Well, some people might think so. I tweeted a few days earlier: "If John Lennon imagined a world w/ no religions, countries etc., I just imagine a world w/ no DEADLINES n can take all the time to compose:( " . And some people replied, basically tweeting something like "do composers have deadlines?" . I thought it is quite obvious that we have deadlines all the time, but apparently it is not. Many don't realize that an artistic profession, like any other profession, has its stressful sides too. That "Mozart" piece mentioned above might sound fun 'n funky, but it wasn't so fun writing it being chased by a tight deadline! So, many people (yeah, many! There were about 10 tweets replying to me stating that disbelief of deadline for composers) think that the date of a release of a film can be comfortably postponed, and so do concerts, opening of an exhibition, world premieres .... But when it actually happens, imagine the mess of the hundreds or thousands of people who claim their money back !

Complete interview with David del Puerto & me, uncut

Last Monday the newspaper The Jakarta Globe published an interview by guitarrist John Paul that he did to David del Puerto and me during his visit to Madrid (see previous entry). It was as usual cut for the newspaper, but here is the complete interview, literally transcribed from his real time chat. I think it is important to hear the opinion of Spain's prominent composer about Indonesian music. .............................................................................................................................................. During my trip to Madrid recently to perform a concert with Ananda Sukarlan and other selected Indonesian musicians, I had the opportunity of working with David del Puerto, one of Spain’s most important composers today, in preparing to perform his Nocturno y Toccata, for solo guitar. David has composed a number of large works influenced by Indonesian music. His 2nd symphony Nusantara, was dedicated to Ananda Sukarlan. While in Madrid, I was also able to interview David and Ananda especially for The Jakarta Globe readers. .............................................................................................................................................. David del Puerto 1. Would you mind to tell us a little bit about your compositions which were inspired by Indonesian music? I love music from everywhere in the world and the musical culture of Indonesia is one of the most developed, not exactly the folk, but the traditional music. I have composed some big works that are quite entirely devoted to Indonesia such as my 2nd symphony called Nusantara, dedicated to Ananda Sukarlan. Indonesian elements are a strong influence not just in some of my compositions but in my compositional language in general. I am not an atonal composer. My lungs and my breath are modal, sometimes even tonal. The important thing about modalism is not just how the scales sound, but how they work and the understanding of this is important in creating modal music that sounds natural, so not just Indonesian pentatonic scales but also Indonesian culture is a central part of my musical language. .............................................................................................................................................. 2. The identity of the Spanish sound of the Spanish composers particularly of the 20th century is one of the most distinct. How would you advise today’s young Indonesian classical music composers in forging an Indonesian identity in their music? In the Avant-garde world there is the danger of forgetting the ethnic and folkloric sources of music. The Avant-garde was developed by countries which had a strong relationship with such sources in the 19th century. Any country that has not overpassed this status has to develop it now. Indonesia, Japan, Latin America or China has somewhat of the obligation to go through the same steps as France or Germany did in the 18th or 19th centuries. Classical music is not a closed world. Its material includes folkloric sources and this was true for the music of German composers of the 18th and 19th century. So if an Indonesian composer forgets that, then he will lose all the real roots of the way of thinking in regards to Indonesian artistic identity and he will become just a copy of the Germans, French or Italians. This is something that an artist needs to absolutely avoid. He has to find his way of developing from his country and his roots. Of course, he should not forget his studies, but he should not imitate. His point of reference could be his own roots, and the history of the classical music of the 20th century that has not followed the Avant-garde language. Assuming that we are speaking of Indonesian composers who consciously want to produce music that belongs to the long tradition of classical music, then in the simplest terms I would say one must learn from the past, but do not imitate. .............................................................................................................................................. 3. Would you mind to share with us your impression of the concert of the Indonesian diaspora in Madrid recently? It was for me a big, nice surprise. It is great to see how young musicians coming from such a distant country - with a strong and distinctive culture -, are fully involved in the performance of contemporary classical music, the art music of our time. It means that the seed of the musical creation is alive, so we can expect a great harvest in the immediate future. And furthermore, the contribution of the spirit of a rich and complex culture that has recently joined the adventure of classical music will be for sure of the greatest interest, both in interpretation and in composition. I think this event in Madrid was a true guarantee of future for the music, in which we can trust firmly. .............................................................................................................................................. Ananda Sukarlan .............................................................................................................................................. 1. What do you hope to achieve through this event? It’s a beginning where I hope to prove that we can show our quality in Europe. .............................................................................................................................................. 2. Why did you choose Grace, Ratna, Amelia and I? I have seen all of them play and I see potentials in all of you. I hope this is not a onetime project, and I do hope to invite more (Indonesian) musicians in the future. I chose you in particular because you are a guitarist and this is Spain. Also because, well, to be honest, I don’t know any other Indonesian guitarist in Europe. So that’s you in particular. .............................................................................................................................................. 3. The German minister of Arts is quoted as saying that spending on culture is not a subsidy but an investment in the future of our society. Do you agree with this? Of course! And it’s not just the future, it’s the present. .............................................................................................................................................. 4. What must our musicians, educators, corporate sector, government and Indonesian society in general do to improve classical music in general in Indonesia, the appreciation for it, and to forge this Indonesian classical music identity? To start, just one. Believe in ourselves. Many of us still believe that western music is better. Classical music started in Europe, but it no longer belongs only to Europe. The task of American musicians in establishing an American classical music identity was considerably easier than ours since Americans tend to be very proud of America. We don’t believe in our own musicians. The proof can be seen by low attendance at concerts by our own musicians. But try inviting a foreign musician and it will be much easier to sell the tickets. On the other hand, our musicians also don’t play enough music by Indonesian composers. After we believe in ourselves, then what we need is collaboration. Walt Whitman said, “A great nation is one that provides a great audience for its artists”. .............................................................................................................................................. 5. This question of Indonesian identity holds true in a lot of other aspects of Indonesian society. Yes, but we have an advantage over countries like the United States for example, where everything has come from outside. Americans were all immigrants, whereas Indonesians are all natives. So we do have an identity, and it can sound a bit Acehnese or Javanese, etc. .............................................................................................................................................. 6. I have an interesting point about natives. Would you say that any ethnic group that has been in a country for over 500 years or even millennia can be called native? Yes. In fact, I call the Chinese people in Indonesia as native. I’m against people who say “Oh, he’s Chinese” (condescendingly) because for me anybody who was born in Indonesia is a native. .............................................................................................................................................. 7. Why relate Indonesian arts to this long line of classical music that originated from Europe, why not just learn the Gamelan or Balinese dancing? What’s the point of going to Europe to study in a conservatory and of creating this whole intertwined idiom? Well, in my case it’s because that (classical music) is my passion. It’s like asking why are you in love with this girl instead of that girl? .............................................................................................................................................. 8. So it’s not mutually exclusive? No. I mean, I love gamelan and I love reading books but I don’t want to be a writer and I don’t want to play the gamelan. I want to play the piano. I love Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and gamelan simultaneously. But then I write my own music, having learnt from both of them. .............................................................................................................................................. 9. There seems to be a common misconception among people, parents and children alike, that one learns the arts in order to become an artist. Is this true? No. .............................................................................................................................................. 10. What do you think? Why should anyone or everyone learn the arts? The brain is divided in two parts, one is the logical part and the other is the illogical part. Using only the logical part creates imbalance and this can be seen in our imbalanced society. It’s all money-oriented with people selling weapons and creating wars, dirty politics, no spirituality because the part of the brain which includes spirituality, instinct, artistic values, including chaos is never used. .............................................................................................................................................. 11. What do you mean by spirituality though, since one might consider that in Indonesia we seem to be perhaps even to “spiritual”? Yes, even corruptors. They ask dukuns to santet, if you call that spiritual. .............................................................................................................................................. 12. So you might say that as a result of the imbalance, many decisions that should use logic are being made illogically since they never train that part of the mind? Yes! I mean corruption is basically illogical. One has lots of money and yet still needs more money from poor people.