My preface to my Transformations on Indonesian Children Songs

Children are the best learners. They catch and digest new informations so naturally. Through seeing, hearing and acting with the information, children record things and experiences that would benefit their future life. They then reproduce what they have just got, and apply it in daily life. Thus, songs are one of the best learning media for kids. Through songs, children would hear and then record the songs in their brain. If they like a particular song, they would try to sing along with it. What I mean "like" concerns both the melodies and the lyrics: they should be simple but catchy. This method could be applied in language and other learning processes. Language learning would help children to learn new things easier. ............................................................................................................................................ But what is happening now in Indonesia is that we have no more children songs like we, older generations, used to have. I used to sing songs by A.T. Mahmud, Ibu Soed and S.M. Mochtar (although I didn't know this latter's name, I just loved his songs a.o. "Kasih Ibu" or "Mother's Love"). ............................................................................................................................................ Now that Indonesian young pianists are clearly superior in technical capabilities than those in Europe, I felt the urge to give them piano pieces that deal with children songs from my era, back in the 1970s. My hope is that they would look at the original songs (now that there is youtube and other means to do it), learn it again and learn the lyrics too, since nowadays there are not many good Indonesian children songs being made. Indonesian children now sing American teen-idol songs, which is good for their English, but hey, we are Indonesian, right? ............................................................................................................................................ These piano pieces are just based on children songs, but are by no means playable by beginners. They are done for concert purposes, although they are indeed easier than, let's say, Rapsodia Nusantara. They are, however, lighter in character than the Rapsodia's, so they could serve as "encores" for a concert, if not being played in the main program. In the past I had written Variations on Ibu Soed's "Kupu-kupu" and Daljono's "Bintang Kecil" which were published in Alicia's 6th Piano Book, and since I enjoyed writing them so much, I decided to do more. Indeed, I had enormous pleasure doing them everywhere and every time I had some spare time. Most of them are in variations form, as I wrote each variations without knowing the overall structure beforehand and only order them when I thought I had enough material. Another thing is about the fugues, canons and other polyphonic writings, which I wrote during long journeys or waitings in airport lounges and just incorporate them in the piece on a later date. I hope (young) pianists would have as much fun playing them, and the audience listening to them, as I had writing them. @anandasukarlan September 2017