Tumirah interrupted ... gladly. And RIP David Bowie

Woohoo, I received a God-given excuse to interrupt the composition of my opera, Tumirah, Sang Mucikari ! The opera's vocal and piano score is almost finished, I just have to orchestrate it which will take a few weeks. But I feel my brain rather exhausted from it, and was feeling like taking a small break without feeling guilty about it ... and voila! ............................................................................................................................................. The young rising star poet Adimas Immanuel contacted me last week that he is having his new book of poem launched by publisher GRAMEDIA next month. He was happy that the also rising soprano star Mariska Setiawan (I guess they are of the same age, around 24-25?) has recorded my music based on one of his poems in her first CD. Since Mariska came to Jakarta for the Jakarta New Year Concert last week (she normally lives in Surabaya), all 3 of us made an appointment to meet very late after the concert. When I said "very", it means like eerrr ... almost 11 p.m., in a restaurant near my apartment. This photo was taken during that meeting, which was so inspiring and went on and on until very late ... or shall I say early? Adimas asked us if we would like to do (meaning: make music of) some of his poems for the launching event, and Mariska and me didn't think twice to accept it. And so, he emailed us both the softcopy of his new book, and both Mariska and me got the privilige to be the first readers (outside his publishers) of his new book, 1 month before its official launching! Of course we are "under oath" not to forward it to anybody else, since Adimas is now one of the hottest property of Indonesian literature at the moment and the launch of a new poetry collection is something that is much looked forward to. Everything happens very quickly. A few days later Gramedia had a meeting with my manager Chendra, and everything is set to be done for next month. ............................................................................................................................................. And so we are in the middle of the compositional process which is fun and unique, since to begin with, most of the poems are inspired by paintings. Therefore, setting them to music is a second step of the artistic transformation: from painting to poetry, and from poetry to music. So Mariska and I discuss a poem (and the painting that inspired each of them) every night before she sleeps. By the way, she sleeps "normally" as most of human beings do: around midnight. So we pick a random poem (like me, she is also a literature freak), talk about it, agree whether to set it to music (or not) and after she falls asleep I start to work on a chosen one until about 3-4 a.m. I then email the finished music just before sunrise before I walk a bit around the swimming pool and then sleep, so she wakes up and finds the music to learn it during the morning and gives me some feedbacks. Oh, the beauty of technology! Poor Brahms or Schumann couldn't do these kinda things with their singers. It's really a fun and inspiring way to write music. And I learn a lot from Mariska too. The human voice is a neverending mystery to reveal. Since Mariska is also a pop singer -- and a damn good pop-songwriter too, I feel a good connection, since I am a huge fan of many of her heroes, such as The Beach Boys, Freddie Mercury, Michael Jackson .... and from her I start to appreciate the great art of David Bowie, may he Rest in Peace. What a way to leave the world, with his latest farewell song Lazarus ... and dying from cancer at the age of a Cancer symbol, 69. ............................................................................................................................................. The concert and launch of Adimas' new book Di Hadapan Rahasia (Facing a Secret), plus the World Premiere of my new song cycle "Rangkaian Rahasia Untuk Mariska" (A chain of secrets for Mariska) will take place at Teater Kecil, Taman Ismail Marzuki, on Wednesday the 17th of February. We still discuss the time it should start, since there are many things happening there: book signing, a small discussion with some snacks and about 1 hour of concert, not only with the songs, but with some Rapsodia Nusantara as well. Please just contact my office Ananda Sukarlan Center for more info and details : ycep@yahoo.com or 0818 891038 (WA or sms too).

God Only Knows What I'd Be Without You

Do you believe in coincidence or destiny? That question aroused when I was writing that section in my opera CLARA, exactly when Clara is driving her BMW before she was attacked by the rapists. It was designed to be 3'30" maximum to create the equilibrium with the sections coming before and after. What I knew was that the music should be calm, but tense. You know, like a thriller or horror movie, when things look all right, but something really bad's gonna happen. Since until then I had no slightest idea of what the music should be like (in terms of notes and harmonies), I left it until the last moment. And so, I have finished all the arias, recitatives, everything, and was left with this 3'30" section. And still it was .... blank. Could something be worse than this situation for a composer ... and time is running out? Apparently it could be. .............................................................................................................................................. It was 3 a.m. (Central European Time) and I had my chat with my new friend Ryan Tandya in Jakarta, an excellent photographer whose works I admire a lot. But we mostly talk about other stuff .... like music, as apparently we have some musical tastes in common. I just finished orchestrating the existing materials of the opera for the day but still stuck on that mentioned scene. And Ryan showed me that BBC Music has released a remake of Beach Boys' "God Only Knows", which I haven't heard for ... oh I dunno ... 30 years maybe or more. It used to be my favorite song, my mom had a vinyl of it, and I remember I loved it since it's so weird, and full of polyphony, which is unusual for a pop song (yeah yeah, I love polyphony since the day I remembered! And not only Bach, but also Brian Wilson - The Beach Boys). Apart from the polyphonic element, the song has a sophisticated harmonic complexity. It modulates in a unique way from A major, D major and E major and extensively uses inverted chords. The tonic chord (E major) usually only appears with the major 3rd or the 5th in the bass. The entire verse progression sounds restless and ambiguous, until the line "God only knows what I'd be without you" when the chord progression finally reaches a clear goal (A—E/G#—F#m7—E). It is as if the idea of 'key' has itself been challenged and subverted. Shortly speaking, a work of genius by Brian Wilson. .............................................................................................................................................. I slept afterwards with that song banging in my head like 50 times repeated during our chat (it was at least a 2-hour one), and naturally I woke up the next morn .. I mean noon with that song in my head. And the song was there to stay, for the rest of the day. If you are a fellow composer, then you know this problem too well : an existing piece of music sounding in your head blocks your own music from coming out. But hey, I gotta do something. If something's hanging in your head, you can't take it away by thinking that it should go away, in fact it would cling stronger if you do it that way. It just gotta go away naturally ... but how long? And .. if life gives you lemons ... make lemonade, right? So, since the song itself is full of polyphony, why not put more voices to the song? And then I also realized the fact that I (and perhaps even the writer of the story, Seno Gumira Ajidarma) have forgotten this: in a critical situation such a mass riot, when you are driving a car, what do you do? You listen to the radio to hear the news, right? And radios don't just put news, but also music. And what texts could be more appropriate after Clara's father anxiously called his daughter to stay away from the city? If you should ever leave me / Though life would still go on believe me / The world could show nothing to me / So what good would living do me .............................................................................................................................................. Isn't that what we call the conspiracy of the universe? So I decided to put the old recording of that song, and make the singers (Clara and her father) sing polyphonically. Which is in fact, composing new melodies with Brian Wilson's tune as the cantus firmus (that's the cool -- or nerdy -- term for a melody used as the basis for a polyphonic composition). And guess the duration of the song .... yup, it's 3 minutes. With some modification using loops and cut & pastings, it's the perfect duration. And it gives time for the orchestral musicians to rest while the singers are singing with the recording. Nothing could fit perfectly. Well, well, Ryan. I wanted to kill you that day for showing me that bloody videoclip. But now, it feels like .... God Only Knows What I'd Be Without You, Ryan. Thanks!