A literary festival which is not only literary

It's been quite an inspiring half a week! The 2nd ASEAN Literary Festival was held in Jakarta, visited by literary figures from 20 countries. I am honoured to be invited to give a half-an-hour concert for the opening, which also include some poetry reading by Indonesian prominent poet Khrisna Pabichara and a speech by Dr. Ma Thida, a writer and human rights activist from Myanmar who spent many years in prison for "endangering public peace, having contact with illegal organisations, and distributing unlawful literature." .............................................................................................................................................. The program director of this highly inspiring festival is Okky Madasari, the awardwinning writer famous for her novels about (the lack of) human rights. She designed this year's festival as a tribute to Sitor Situmorang, Indonesia's great poet who died less than 100 days ago. Since Sitor is one of my favorite poets, I have written a few songs based on his poems, but then I wrote a new one, (and a looong one by the way!) based on his masterpiece, La Ronde. It is one of the most erotic poems ever done in Indonesia literature, and written so subtly and exquisitely. It was in fact written for tenor and harp, since I felt that the harp represents more the sound that was triggered by the poem in my head, but unfortunately the young harpist partner of the tenor (Nikodemus Lukas, who sang so beautifully) had some examinations at those dates. Yeah, Jessica Sudarta the harpist is only 16, and her school makes her too busy. So I adapted the harp part for the piano and played it myself accompanying Niko. But they will record that work this year, so I am very much looking forward to it. Niko and I then perform my older songs based on poems by Sitor, and apparently many members of the audience made video recordings of them (yeah, it's so easy to do it nowadays!) and even uploaded them on youtube. This is one of them : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZBQs9YVaa0 .............................................................................................................................................. What made me happy about this is that at last the relationship between (classical) music and literature in Indonesia is now re-established. Since the death of composers such as Mochtar Embut and F.X. Sutopo (who wrote songs based on poems by W.S. Rendra etc) in the 1970s and 80s, these two artistic fields didn't meet anymore. I continued the tradition without even being aware that it was cut, since I live in Europe, where composers keep on composing based on existing poems or other literary forms since the 19th century (as you know, Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann were the pioneers in doing this). You might ask, what do we, composers, contribute to those poems that are already so highly expressive? Well, music enhances words with emotional energy that speech alone cannot convey. But obviously, there is more to it than this! We in Indonesia have a beautiful term for this art: Tembang Puitik (Poetic Song, which differentiates it from other songs whose texts are written by the songwriter himself). Therefore it strives to be the perfect combination of music and literature, based on four elements: poet, composer, singer and accompanist. The composer uses the full resources of the art form to embellish the poet's text, sometimes even realizing potential interpretations that were not explicit in the poet's words. In a well-realized Poetic Song, the composer creates a duet between the accompanist and the vocalist, so an accompanist's job is not merely "accompanying" with nice rhythms and chords. That is, the poetic song paints for us a picture of what the poet might have envisioned. The performance of an poetic song literally breathes life into this picture through a complementary, coordinated partnership among the four significant elements. .............................................................................................................................................. Now I have written around 120 songs based on Indonesian poems, and another 60 or 70 on poems of Whitman, Browning and other foreign writers. In fact, I started to write those Indonesian songs in 2006 after having written many songs in English and Spanish, and now I feel really comfortable in composing on poems of my mother tongue. And I met new literary friends in this great festival, and I discovered the works by young writers such as Adimas Immanuel and Bernard Batubara so I am looking forward to write something based on their works. I also met long-time-no-see great poets Hasan Aspahani and Joko Pinurbo. .............................................................................................................................................. My latest poetic songs are included in my CD "An Essay on Love", sung by Widhawan Aryo Praditha, Theodora Amabel Beatrice and Niko as well. If you are interested in it, please tweet me at @anandasukarlan .

Pain is Inevitable, Suffering is Optional

There have been quite a few pros and contras about the "teaser" or "preview" on my next opera, CLARA when we performed parts of it last month at the Four Seasons Hotel, Jakarta. Whatever the reaction, it didn't leave people indifferent. The role of Clara's father was sung by the same tenor who will sing it in the premiere next December, Nikodemus Lukas, but the role of CLARA was sung not by Isyana Sarasvati, but by Evelyn Merrelita, who is a bit older than Isyana. Her role at this "teaser" concert wasn't big anyway, and it was done without much acting, and no real costumes and decors, so it was allright. Allright? No, she sang brilliantly, as usual, and so did Niko. We performed 2 arias of Clara's Father : Jangan Pulang (Don't Come Home) and Pesan Papa Terakhir (Dad's last message). The text (by Seno Gumira Ajidarma) is direct, stabbing, and clear. Poetic, but honest and true. In fact, CLARA will be premiered as the closing of the International 16 days against Gender violence, also coinciding with the International Human Rights Day which will also include the Indonesian premiere of that controversial documentary by the Oscar-nominated (for his previous documentary on exactly the theme of violence during the Suharto era) director, Joshua Oppenheimer : The Look of Silence. This film has already been premiered during the Venice Film Festival a few weeks ago. Anyway, about the "contra"s for my opera : some people (especially who went through what happened during the period of the fall of Suharto in May 1998) expressed that my opera will be too painful to them. Not only politically, but also psychologically. Those scars are about to heal, why should we open them up again? .............................................................................................................................................. Do we move on in this life by forgetting the pain of the past? My best friend, the one I always turn to in times of sorrow, always tells me this phrase : Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional. That simple? If it's that simple, why is it so hard? .............................................................................................................................................. I am working hard, very hard in finishing this opera. It's been a difficult period, last August and September. I practically composed next to zero during that period. Now time is running out, apart from the fact that my biggest inspirer is always that thing called "deadline", I suddenly have all the things that could inspire and motivate me to compose : the performance of Evelyn Merrelita and Nikodemus Lukas really boosted something inside me (although Evelyn will not sing in my opera in December. I will, certainly, write another opera involving her, after my comic opera "Laki-laki Sejati" where she took the main role 2 years ago), and also the book "Disangkal" ("Denied") which the National Commission On Violence Against Women gave me as a gift. It is a manifestation of "Homo Homini Lupus", a proof of how low humans could act and inflict sufferings to each other. It is a powerful book, and I now know that I am indeed destined to write these operas to understand more about what happened in the past in my beloved country. You see, in May 98 I was still in my appartment in Den Haag. I didn't have internet back then and since it's never a habit for me to watch the news on TV, I realized what happened only a few days later. I then called my mom in Jakarta, who said that I shouldn't worry since that huge mass riot was systematically and massively organized against people of Chinese descendant. Not only we are Javanese, but also my dad was in the military so my family was just very, very safe. And only a year later when I went to Indonesia I found out that things indeed were much worse than I thought. Hundreds of Chinese weren't just killed; they were tortured, and the women were raped in ways unimaginable. There is a history of anti-Chinese sentiment in Indonesia, but even taking that into consideration, the violence of May 98 was unusually extreme and virulent, attributed to the encouragement of the army and the Suharto regime. .............................................................................................................................................. Friends, we are afraid of ourselves, of our own reality; our feelings most of all. Pain is a feeling. Your feelings are a part of you. Your own reality. If you feel ashamed of them, and hide them, you’re letting society destroy your reality. You should stand up for your right to feel your pain. This is not opening old scars, friends. This is about resisting to forget. To heal, we must forgive, but we cannot forget. This entry I wrote is not about being strong, it's about overcoming our weakness. Whether you were held or beaten, cared for or neglected, happy or sad, or TORTURED AND RAPED, take a moment to remind yourself that we are not defined by what has been done or done to us, but by what we choose to do with the time we have left. Fear should be faced head-on and if we're going to fight it, we should do it in a forum that allows the opportunity to help anyone who can relate to it find the courage to move past the past or reach out to get help to escape a painful present. It is painful, yes it is, but we should turn pain into wisdom, and make sure we do not inflict that pain to others in the future. I believe painful emotions have a self-healing and self-correcting component. When we take advantage of it, we flourish. When we don't, we suffer. So, we choose. That simple? If it's that simple, why is it so hard?

A short note to all winners, my colleagues

Just came back from Surabaya, after the exhilarating, exciting and inspiring National Vocal Competition Tembang Puitik Ananda Sukarlan (TPAS) for the whole weekend last week, organized as always by its initiator, Amadeus Performing Arts and its director Patrisna May Widuri. My impressions? Too much, too many to be written in words. Basically, I am more than happy to listen to all (yes, ALL) participants. Their vocal techniques are pretty accomplished. The only problems for some of them lie on their understanding of the music they sing, the interpretation and the grip for the style of the music. But each vocalist has something in them, and if I were obliged to write music for their voice, I know what kind of music suits for each and every one of them since they all have strong characters. As I always say, I can catch any elements in every artists in of all sorts and quality to inspire me. ............................................................................................................................................ But what's next, for those enthusiastic young vocalists, especially the "winners"? Well, I guess they should know that the last week's competition is the lightest, easiest thing they have done for their career, nothing compared to the real competition that awaits them now: the real life competition. It is right now that the real competition starts. Yes, of course all, or perhaps 99,9% of all musicians having a musical career today had gone through some kinda competition, whether it is purely as such, or auditions of some kind. While competitions are something normal in Europe, the Americas or already in many countries in Asia, it is still quite new in Indonesia, where we had, and still have the tradition of engaging artists based on family relations or friendships, not on objective qualities of the musician. For my new Violin Concerto to be premiered next month with the Nusantara Symphony Orchestra I had to hold an audition through youtube, and the winner was a young violinist of 17, Amadeus Giovani Biga who I didn't know at all before. I wouldn't be able to get his kind of quality among my relatives or friends. Many musicians are still weary, not to say afraid, to join one, and I even cannot think of a competition for instruments other than piano and voice here in Indonesia. Even some music teachers still prohibit their students to join one for being afraid of "losing". Well, if the only thing that matters is being the prizewinner, then I would discourage you to join one. Imagine, there will be only one, yes ONE winner among all the participants, no matter if there are 10 or 100 participants. What's the use, then? The answer is that being the first, absolute prize winner in a competition does not guarantee anything. Oh, then competitions are even more useless? Whazza diff between being the winner and the losers? Wait, wait. Read my thoughts further below and hope you'll understand my point. ............................................................................................................................................ TPAS hopefully would serve as the first step of their looong musical career journey upwards. Our previous (TPAS 2011) winners have gone to different directions, all upwards. Indah Pristanti (Senior Female winner) continues her voice studies in Vienna. Adi "Didut" Nugroho is enjoying his new career, not far from singing: becoming the conductor of the ITB University Choir, and still sings some times. Evelyn Merrelita stays in Surabaya, but is now the darling of our capital city; she's been invited several times to be a soloist by the Indonesia Opera Society, Nusantara Symphony Orchestra in Jakarta and all 3 of them have had the leading roles in my chamber operas. ............................................................................................................................................ But is it that nice 'n easy? Oh no, my dear. There is one thing that no competitions in the whole universe could do to filter the best musicians, and that is ATTITUDE. You can sing until all the windows break, you can move your fingers on the piano faster than the speed of light, you can win all the competitions on this planet and the others, but if your attitude is not exemplary, you won't make it as a musician. I will tell you the real truth: the more you become successful, the more "friends" you will have. Those "friends" will try to pull you down, since you are higher than them. They will stab you in your back, since that is where their position is: behind you. They laugh at you because you are different or outstanding, coz they want you to be the same as anybody else. They like to talk bad things about you, and if they can't find bad things, they will invent them, coz it comforts them, it soothes their worries. Remember : they don't hate you. They really really adore you, so much that they want to become you. It's called envy, and it comes from admiration, but a negative one. And you can defend yourselves from those things, my friends, with your attitude. The only way to eliminate your enemies is to make them your friends. Now, THAT you don't learn in ANY music schools on this planet. Remember, they consider you better than them from the musical point of view. But if you don't have a good attitude, you are definitely worse than them. As a human being. And in the end, that's what counts. Unfortunately, the most common mistake for upcoming young musicians is mingling with other people's business. You know why? Coz what people think or talk about you is NOT your business at all, it's THEIR business. So let them do their business, and you, my friends, yeah, you go on with your life. You, my friends, have a wonderful future ahead of you, having such big talents and coming from the richest country in the world which I am proud of. Show the world how great is Indonesian culture, and how you can give something that nobody else can give. You don't only share music in your life. "Behold, I do not give lectures or a little charity, When I give, I give myself. I exist as I am, that is enough" (Walt Whitman) ............................................................................................................................................ Winners of the TPAS 2013 are listed at https://www.facebook.com/groups/361289260607185/ . Congratulations not only to Isyana Sarasvati, Theodora Amabel Beatrice, Widhawan Aryo Praditha & Nikodemus Lukas Hariono who won 1st prizes in their respective categories, but to all participants. By daring to participate and challenge yourself, you are already a winner. At least for me, coz I'm like that too, and I'm proud to have you as my colleagues and friends.