Ghost, not Buster, not a movie, but still in love with them

Spectrophilia: 1. Sexual attraction to ghosts. 2. Engaging in sexual activity with a ghost. .......................................................................................................................................... While religious radicalism (our President proposed a better term: religious manipulation) is very much on the rise in Indonesia and many countries, Spectrophilia is used by religious leaders to lure their followers. Among others, they say that if we die, we will have 72 angels (no description whether they are beautiful, fitting our taste or sexual orientation, or just random angels) serving us continuously. That's why some suicide bombers wore a protector around their vital organ, hoping that they would still "function well" after they enter heaven. .......................................................................................................................................... I don't have spectrophilia, but I did have a period of depression in my early 20s, and so I was fascinated with those dark places that attract people to commit suicide. In those places I sat down and wrote sketches of textures, chords and their progressions and change of colours, inspired by anything in those places. Those sketches remain in a pile of manuscripts, and when the fantastic Duo Xistra whose concert I listened to around 2 years ago asked me for a piece for their anti-mainstream formation of flute & accordion producing that rich and strange atmosphere, I immediately thought to resuscitate these sketches and develop them into real music, among others because duo Xistra were formed in Galicia, and Finisterre was one of the places that fascinated me in my younger years .... to consider committing suicide. .......................................................................................................................................... Cape Finisterre (literally means The End of the World) in Galicia is a beautiful place facing the Atlantic Ocean, wild rough landscapes and amazing beaches, some (protected by the cape) with calm waters and others with strong waves. And the greatest attraction of all times: the sunset over the enormity of the ocean, the sea of the end of the world. Unfortunately it's the real end of the world for many people too. Finisterre has long evoked a profound sense of mystery in the souls of mankind. The roots of the legendary aura of this site, open to the immensity of the Atlantic Ocean, can be found in the mythology of the first European inhabitants. They believed that, after death, the earthly life was replaced by another existence on an island situated to the west, where the sun set. In Celtic legends it is frequent to find images of heroes making their final journey to this paradise in a stone vessel. This merging of stone, sea and spiritual life is still present in different forms along the Costa de Morte (Coast of Death). .......................................................................................................................................... I visited Aokigahara Forest, known to be "suicide forest" since suicidal people could just enter it and they will never return, lured by the "yurei" inside the forest. In the Japanese popular belief, if a person dies in a deep sense of hatred, anger, sadness, or desire for revenge, their soul can’t leave this world and continues to wander, appearing to people affected by the spell or those who cross his path . These souls are called yurei and they can be found in many modern cultural references such as movies as well. Unlike western horror movies, where the ghost wants something specific in order to be able to rest in peace, the yurei wants nothing in particular; they just want to have their curse removed or conflicts resolved. .......................................................................................................................................... When the forest guardians find a dead body, they will take it to a special room designed for dead bodies that can be found next to the forest. Here, the body will be placed on a bed. What is more interesting though, is that a guard will sleep in the same room with the body. This may seem surprising, but it is said that if the corpse is left alone in the room, its yurei will move all night in the dormitories screaming and being deranged. .......................................................................................................................................... I haven't thought of the third piece yet, but I have always been wishing to develop my sketches I did at Isola de San Michele, in Venice. There lies the graves of Stravinsky, Diaghilev, Ezra Pound, Joseph Brodsky and many more. It's an island of cemetary, but it's so peaceful. You should visit it during sunset, and you'll never forget the feeling. But then this has nothing to do with suicides, but yeah, of ghosts. My favorite ghosts, if they haven't reincarnated yet. So, we'll see about this third piece of Spectrophilia. Now, back to writing the actual notes.

My Foreword for Rapsodia 23,24 and some new Variations

All the works in this book were written in 2019 and mostly (I would say 80% of them) in Indonesia. It is quite a bleak period at the moment and now, preparing for the publishing of this book, I realized that much of the music reflects this. Religious radicalism and extremism are very much on the rise, constantly threatening the government and the peaceful lives of the society. Until just about a few years ago Indonesia was famous for its unique cultural brand of religious tolerance and nationalism. Even until now, Indonesia is the test bed for political and social theories. Indonesia’s evolution from hundreds of languages and cultures into a single nationalism was used by Benedict Anderson to showcase how communities are “imagined” and created. It's quite amazing how 17,000 islands and dozens of competing histories and geographies were carefully interpreted to create the Archipelagic national identity of Indonesia. My musical works starting 2016 reflected my anxiety and discomfort of the situation: starting from "December 2016", my orchestral works "The Voyage to Marege" and the Marzukiana concertos up to "No More Moonlight Over Jakarta" which depicts the imprisonment of my hero, the Jakarta governor Basuki TP. .......................................................................................................................................... At this moment my feeling is more about nostalgia but also hope for a pluralist, tolerant Indonesia like it used to be, pre-2016. We need this tolerance and common sense back, since they are instrumental to the development of a peaceful state, one that supports progress. Musical as well as other artistic education is crucial in character building of a better society and individuals. .......................................................................................................................................... Rapsodia Nusantara no. 23 is the second Rapsodia that I wrote for the left hand alone (the first was Rapsy 15). I am a strong believer in the potentials of disabled people; their disabilities should not hinder them from developing their talents and contributions to their surroundings. What if a one-handed person had more musical talents than "normal" two-handed people? What is "disability" anyway? I can't tell how many times has it occured, while I was writing down the music in my head, that I had to "simplify" it since the music required more than 10 fingers or 2 hands. That would mean that most of my music is written for pianists of "limited ability", right? Anyway, Rapsy 23 differs from Rapsy 15 in its concept, that I don't want to constantly give the illusion of it being played by two hands. No. 23 is also more percussive and toccata-like, and shows that it's perfectly ok for the piano sound to be played just with five fingers of one hand. And it's very much possible to be a professional pianist with one hand! .......................................................................................................................................... Rapsodia Nusantara no. 24 was commissioned by Tifa Foundation to be premiered at the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival in October 2019. Pelita Harapan University immediately took the iniciative to introduce it (with the composer performing it, since nobody else has played it for the moment) to the Jakarta public. Tifa asked me that it should be based on any traditional music from the regency of Dogiyai in Papua to commemorate the passing away of Father Neles Tebay, who had worked tirelessly to end the long-running violent conflict in Papua using peaceful dialogue. I then found the song (which starts with a chanting) "Domidow" from the specific village Paniai of that regency. .......................................................................................................................................... I don't consider myself a political artist. My position is like that of Shostakovich: music is our defense and statement against the attacks towards us and the society. That's why I am so happy for the birth of a new political party in Indonesia, founded by a group of young, progressive people defending minorities and differences. I have done some events to raise funds for them, among others by auctioning my music. Bagimu Negeri is well-known a patriotic song by Kusbini, and I find it so appropriate to make a series of variations on it (which turned out to be quite dark is some sections, I think due to my --sometimes-- pessimistic views of this moment). The score was then auctioned in a fundraising concert done for this new party, and generously acquired by Imelda & James Joseph who dedicated this music "to Indonesia, our home". .......................................................................................................................................... Both Rapsodia Nusantara no. 23 and 24, as well as the "Bagimu Negeri" Variations are recommended pieces for the Ananda Sukarlan Award 2020, which hopefully would contribute in promoting our (traditional) musical heritage to a bigger public through the fingers of pianists (not necessarily Indonesians) who would perform these works. .......................................................................................................................................... "Mendelssohn's Wedding March Going East" was commissioned by a Meidyati Abadi for the 55th anniversary gift of her parents, Gregorius Kunar Abadi and Katarina Maria Teresia Sugondo, but at that moment her father was lying sick at the hospital. I managed to make a (very amateur) recording through my smartphone to be shown to her father on his sickbed before he then passed away, a few days after the actual anniversary. I wrote this in a few hours, knowing that I didn't have much time and planned to write more variations in the future, but now a few months later, revisiting this music for its publishing I feel that it's fine as it is. I want to keep it simple (musically as well as its pianistic techniques), short and (hopefully) meaningful beyond its notes. .......................................................................................................................................... Variations on the old Christmas song "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing", together with the "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" variations were written for the new Yamaha En-spire grand piano which I was elected to be one of its ambassadors for this year, for their Christmas edition. I must admit, on the contrary of the creative process of the previous "wedding march variations", I got carried away with this. I had much time to write, it was really fun composing 1 or 2 variations a day during a few weeks during my travels and spare time between working on bigger projects without realizing how many variations I have written. When the deadline approached and I had to compile them and restructure the music, I found out that I wrote more variations than I needed! This final work is already cut from the variations that I consider not so good and therefore thrown away. This explains why "Hark!" becomes a quite long and complex work, unlike the light and simpler "God Rest Ye" that only consists of 5 variations. Moral of the story: don't enjoy your work too much! .......................................................................................................................................... Ananda Sukarlan, September 7, 2019 .......................................................................................................................................... P.S. I am deeply grateful to visual artist Julie Putra for her exquisite design for the cover of this book. It's a metaphorical depiction of the Bird of Paradise (Cendrawasih), natural of Papua, using the actual notes of Rapsodia Nusantara no. 24. I do it with music, she with design.