A mathematical mistake in Romeo & Juliet?

Well well, only after the 100th time reading Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet I start to do my mathematics. Here we go : .............................................................................................................................................. The tragic story of Romeo and Juliet took place from Sunday to Thursday. Romeo and Juliet met each other at the party on Sunday night. They married Monday morning. Around noon time Romeo kills Tybalt. Tuesday, Juliet goes to the friar to ask for help. Tuesday evening, Juliet drinks the potion. Wednesday is the day of the discovery of Juliet's fake death, and in the evening, Romeo commits suicide when he believes his wife to be gone. Thursday, Romeo and Juliet dies. .............................................................................................................................................. But think about this: if Juliet takes the potion on Tuesday night, and the potion lasts 42 hours, she will not wake up until Thursday afternoon (in the play that's when Romeo and Juliet's funeral takes place). Therefore, in Act 5, when Friar Laurence says that Juliet will wake up in 3 hours, it is still Wednesday night. You see? It doesn't add up!! .............................................................................................................................................. Can someone, a fellow nerd or a fellow love-sick patient clear this up for me?

Foreword to Alicia's 4th Piano Book

Yup, it's now being printed! We plan to release it in about 2 weeks time. This is what I wrote for the introduction. .............................................................................................................................................. Although practically all of the pieces in this book are not for my daughter anymore (to play on the piano), she still plays an important role as my muse and inspirer. You see, Alicia is now 15, and we can talk about things of the adults : friendships, relationships ... and romance. Yup, as a 15-year-young lady, she already has her shares of the beauty and pain of love and passion. It's only nowadays, during our loooong and intense conversations through the night, that I find the real beauty and meaning of life. That beauty that can't be exchanged with all the success, money or anything else in this world. 5 years ago I wouldn't believe that I could learn so much about life from my very young Alicia. And yet she belongs to a generation that tweets, being immersed in their smartphones during a big chunk of the day and have short attention spans. Even the pop music written today are much simpler then those written during my generation to adapt to the limited musical brain of today's generation. No more poignant recitatives of Whitney Houston or Queen. No more breathtaking harmonies of The Beatles. And of course, goodbye to those incredible riffs n rhythmic inventions of Michael Jackson. Alicia, like her friends, listens to the pop music of today. And yet, she has so many inside her to inspire and teach me. .............................................................................................................................................. Therefore, pieces like "Call me but love .." (this is the longest, and perhaps most complex piece in this book) was born from our conversations, analyzing the balcony scene of Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet, when we delved into the theme of passion and the whole divine madness. The title came from the lines of Romeo, responding to Juliet's : .............................................................................................................................................. O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou, Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name; Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, And I'll no longer be a Capulet. .............................................................................................................................................. And Romeo answered : Call me but love, and I'll be new baptis'd; Henceforth I never will be Romeo. .............................................................................................................................................. Many of the pieces here are also written for friends either for a special event in their lives, or just because I wanna write them, because I believe that everyone that came to my life is there for a reason. And my music is the manifesto of that reason, since it is thanks to those dedicatees that I could give birth to the music. Therefore, Alicia's 4th piano book is more like a collection of my short piano pieces, a musical diary of my day-to-day life, sometimes with no educational purposes in mind. Unlike my longer pieces, the pieces in this book are more intuitively written, therefore I don't really think about their technical difficulties. It is thanks to pianist Henoch Kristianto who has recorded most of my piano music (including many of them in this book, and all of my heavily virtuosic Rapsodia Nusantara, yes, all of them!) and his team at the Clavier Music Academy that these pieces are now graded according to their pianistic levels of difficulty. He even found pedagogic values and educative purposes in those pieces! I will leave you now with his words while he worked on them. And thank you again to all of you who have made the music in the previous Alicia's Piano Books part of your musical life. Hope you all still enjoy studying these modest pieces, either for educational or teaching purposes, repertoire for your concerts, or just for plain fun playing them at home during rainy days :) . .............................................................................................................................................. Ananda Sukarlan, April 2014. .............................................................................................................................................. Introduction by Henoch Kristianto .............................................................................................................................................. Those who were fortunate enough to hear Ananda Sukarlan's piano music in live performance would agree that his music is very close to the ears of his Indonesian listeners or those who are Indonesian at heart. It cannot be disputed that his compositions comprise the greatest variety, from the deepest pathos to most sparkling humor. As a prolific performing pianist and composer of variations, rhapsodies and other small-scale works for piano, Sukarlan claimed that he always felt more at home when composing his vocal works. Perhaps due to this personal preference, you may find many of the pieces in this Alicia book very "cantabile" in the sense that they are very much singable. This feature of course is an excellent tool for the musical development of any young pianists. Intended primarily for the cultivated amateur, these works are abound in attractive melodic ideas and brilliant instrumental writing. Indeed, their study will lead to higher realms of imagination and it shall prepare for all that can be found in piano literature. ~Henoch Kristianto

The truth about the number 12+1

Yeah I don't even dare to write that number, but I should openly, honestly tell you that that number terrifies me, and have had (negative) effects on me. There is even a name for the fear of number 12+1, and that is TRISKAIDEKAPHOBIA. I suffer from it. I wanna write this entry after the correspondence with my pianist friend Henoch Kristianto whose CD of his interpretation of my Rapsodia Nusantara is just released and is the talk of the week at the moment, telling him that I was (and still not finished) writing both Rapsodia Nusantara no. 12 and no. 12A (I haven't made up my mind whether it will be numbered as such or 12+1). He wrote : 12A! Oh, come on, you believe that kind of stuffs? Hehe, why not even go with a horror theme for no 13? And I answered in my next email : About 12A, yes yes, I am very afraid of that number, 12+1 . And if Shakespeare, Arnold Schoenberg and even JESUS CHRIST fell upon it, why shouldn't I? ............................................................................................................................................ Well I'm gonna tell you the facts, the real facts of what happened with William Shakespeare & Arnold Schoenberg. I don't have to explain about Jesus Christ since we all know that that number originally came from him and his disciples, which made a total of 12+1, and one of them (Judas) betrayed him. With Shakespeare, suicide occurs an unlucky 13 times in his plays. If I still should give you some examples, the most famous ones occur in Romeo and Juliet where both Romeo and Juliet commit suicide, and also in Julius Caesar where both Cassius and Brutus die by consensual stabbing, as well as Brutus’ wife Portia. And WS, I am sure, was very conscious about this unlucky number when he wrote Romeo and Juliet, which is a love story that ended in failure. Here we go: ............................................................................................................................................ Do you know how old (or better rephrase it: how young) was Juliet when she fell in love with Romeo, and then committed suicide just a few days later? As the story occurs, Juliet was approaching her fourteenth birthday. She was born on "Lammas Eve at night" (August 1), so Juliet's birthday is July 31. Her birthday is "a fortnight hence", putting the action of the play in mid-July. So, she was 13. And notice the inversion of that number with her birth date. Her name is JULIET CAPULET. Check how many letters does it have. And in order of appearance, Juliet was the thirteenth character to appear on stage (ok, ok, she comes out together on stage with her nurse, but still...). Romeo referred (or called her name) 14 times, and the last time he did was when he was dying. So you can count how many times it was before he killed himself. Now those facts I wrote just from memory, there are more things that involve this unlucky number. ............................................................................................................................................ And to top it all off, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre burnt down in 1613 after a cannon shot set fire to it during a performance of Henry VIII. OK, that year was perhaps just coincidental, but still .... ............................................................................................................................................ With the composer Arnold Schoenberg, it was more terrifying. He himself knew that that number would kill him. Indeed, he was born on September 13th 1874 and died on July 13th, 1951. His triskaidekaphobia possibly began in 1908 with the composition of the thirteenth song of the song cycle Das Buch der Hängenden Gärten Op. 15. Moses und Aron was originally spelled Moses und Aaron, but when he realised this contained 13 letters, he changed it. According to friend Katia Mann, he feared he would die during a year that was a multiple of 13. He dreaded his 65th birthday in 1939 so much that a friend asked the composer and astrologer Dane Rudhyar to prepare Schoenberg's horoscope. Rudhyar did this and told Schoenberg that the year was dangerous, but not fatal. But in 1950, on his seventy-sixth birthday, his friend, mentor, and fellow composer and musician, Oskar Adler wrote Schoenberg a note warning him that the year was a critical one: 7 + 6 = 13. This stunned and depressed the composer, for up to that point he had only been wary of multiples of 13 and never considered adding the digits of his age. He died on Friday, 13 July 1951, shortly before midnight. Yup, Friday the 13th, 76 years of age. Schoenberg stayed in bed — sick, anxious and depressed all day. In a letter to Schoenberg's sister Ottilie, dated 4 August 1951, his wife Gertrud reported, "About a quarter to twelve I looked at the clock and said to myself: another quarter of an hour and then the worst is over. Then the doctor called me. Arnold's throat rattled twice, his heart gave a powerful beat and that was the end". Gertrud Schoenberg reported the next day in a telegram to her sister-in-law Ottilie that Arnold died at 11:45 pm. I took all these data and some exact quotes from his biography by Hans Stuckenschmidt. ............................................................................................................................................ So now you have my reason of not writing my 13th Rapsodia Nusantara. In fact, I've been writing two Rapsies at the same time, and since I like to write a set of variations for my rapsies whose numbers are a multiple of 4, BOTH Rapsy 12 and 12A are a set of variations, and both are based on just 1 folktune, just like the 4th Rapsy is based on the song Buka Pintu, and the 8th on O Inani Keke. And I've been enjoying writing both rapsies very much, since all the pianistic ideas that can't be valid for 1 Rapsy can be applied to the other Rapsy. I planned to write both just 2 weekends ago, thinking that I would need a few days or a maximum of 1 week to finish them, but apparently I am still working on them. It's already 10 days now. But things are going well. And yeah, there have been some small misfortunes happening in this year that ends with the unlucky number, but overall, I am happy and productive. One of the happiest moments of this year is, of course the release of this CD by Henoch. Those Rapsies sound as I never imagined they could sound Check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBKjNO2fm50 . And I am excited to give a solo piano concert again for the Jakarta public after almost 3 years not doing so. Jakarta public? Well, I heard from Chendra my manager that piano lovers from all around Indonesia are already booking tickets for it. Put the date in your agenda: Sunday, October 20th at 4.30 p.m. at Aula Simfonia Jakarta. Yup, when it's over, you go out of the hall and you still can watch the nice sunset. That's why I am playing my light n sweet Sunset pieces too, apart from 6 numbers of Rapsodia Nusantara. Which ones? I still dunno. It's still more than 2 weeks from now.

Cinta bung, bukan kebencian

Kali ini saya harus mencoba menulis dalam bahasa Indonesia, karena saya mengharapkan "mereka" membaca. Dan "mereka", saya yakin, tidak bisa bahasa Inggris. Dan kalaupun membaca dalam bahasa Indonesia, semoga mereka tidak salah interpretasi. Soalnya, membaca itu juga adalah suatu yang harus dibiasakan dan dilatih, bukan semata-mata bisa membaca alias tidak buta huruf.

Tulisan saya ini mengenai tiga hal, dan keduanya menyangkut salah interpretasi dari kegiatan kami yang menyangkut film "Romeo - Juliet", dan terkait pula dengan kejadian pemukulan terhadap sutradara dan beberapa anggota tim R-J di Bandung Sabtu lalu. Inilah tiga hal yang sekarang sering disebut-sebut oleh banyak emails ke kami :

1. "R-J adalah tentang konflik dan kebencian". Bukan! Begini bung, di setiap kisah atau karya seni itu harus ada kontras. Lukisan itu tidak bisa hanya satu warna.Untuk menonjolkan satu warna, harus ada warna yang kurang menonjol, atau "dikorbankan". Musik itu tidak bisa hanya satu melodi. Nah, di satu cerita itu juga harus ada kontras. R-J itu ingin mengisahkan sebuah kisah cinta. Jadi elemen kontrasnya, yaitu kebencian, ya terpaksa harus ada! Tapi fokusnya tetap saja ke cinta. Tapi kalau anda memang sudah penuh dengan kebencian dan sampah-sampah lain di dalam diri anda, ya pastilah anda hanya lihat hal-hal tersebut saja. Yang paling penting, yaitu cinta 2 sejoli itu, malah nggak kelihatan. Cinta itu ada, bung. Cinta itu eksis, dan kalau dicari pasti dapat (wong nggak dicari aja dapet kok !) .
Jadi, R-J itu bukannya mau menyebarkan kebencian, tapi justru kebalikannya. Ya tentu saja harus diperlihatkan sisi konfliktif dari dua grup itu, kalau tidak, bagaimana penonton mau mengerti ?

2. "Film R-J Andibachtiar Yusuf itu plagiat !" Nah, betul sekali ! Anda memang sangat intelek ! Memang itu plagiat, nyontek abis. Cerita itu sudah ditulis oleh pujangga terbesar dunia, William Shakespeare di abad 16 (silahkan google saja kalau tidak percaya). Dan setelah itu buuuuaaanyak sekali yang mengambil cerita itu dan diadaptasi seenaknya. Soalnya, kisah ini sangat penuh dengan metafora, dan sangat mencerminkan kehidupan siapapun. Mungkin itu adalah kisah cinta yang paling lengkap yang pernah ditulis.
Nah, yang nyontek itu bukan hanya penulis, sutradara film atau teater setelah Shakespeare. Bahkan komponis pun banyak yang nyontek! Coba google saja nama-nama Hector Berlioz, Tschaikovsky atau Prokofiev (aduh, 2 nama terakhir itu kok susah bener ya. Belum lagi nama penulis aslinya, Shakespeare), mereka pernah bikin karya yang sama persis judulnya. Tapi, soal contek-menyontek di dalam dunia seni itu adalah satu hal yang kalau dibicarakan nggak akan habis dalam 7 hari 7 malam dengan minum kopi satu gentong. Jadi ... gimana kalau saya pribadi mengakui saja .. ya kalau anda bilang ini nyontek, ya terserah deh bung!

3. "Andibachtiar Yusuf itu digebukin untuk promosi". Nah, kalau ini salah besar, bung. Kami semua yang terlibat di produksi ini memang berharap bahwa film ini ditonton oleh orang banyak, dan kami mengadakan promosi masing-masing. Cuma saja kami tidak segitu "putus asa" (desperate, dalam bhs Inggris) sampai sang sutradara rela digebuki supaya filmnya ditonton. Ini kecelakaan, bung! O ya, kalau saya ke Jakarta, jangan digebukin juga ya?

Nah, untuk anda semua yang doyan ngritik, kami sangat berterimakasih atas segala masukan anda. Tapi, jangan harap bahwa karena anda doyan ngritik dan doyan nggebukin sutradara film, kami anggap anda tuh "macho" loh ! Nggak keren deh ! Buat saya pribadi, lebih keren bisa bikin film lah! O ya, saya punya jawaban untuk para kritikus saya "O, jadi anda bisa bikin yang lebih bagus ya? Wow, salut, bung! Tapi kok nggak bikin?"
Kami hanya minta satu hal : tonton dulu filmnya, bung ! Baru boleh ngritik atau nggebukin sutradara ...

Ananda Sukarlan
penulis musik untuk "Romeo-Juliet"

Four O, Four O, the Hobby-Horse is NOT forgot

Does that work, that pun I did from Hamlet ? Not really, eh ? Anyway, I just passed that danger zone. I am now f***ing FORTY !! Some said life begins at forty, others talk about that famous crisis of the forties. My deduction : Life begins with a crisis . Ooops ...

Many thanx for the hundreds of birthday wishes arriving through emails, friends. I love you all! You're the greatest !

Last year, the great poet Sapardi Djoko Damono gave me a special present for my birthday : Four Sonnets, beautiful ones for me. You (if you read Indonesian) can read them in this blog, in my entry in June, last year. They were even chosen as one of the 100 best poems in Indonesian (those awards are irrelevant especially when you read the few other poems by other authors included in those 100 which are sort of ...hmm, shall we say, OK); you just read those sonnets and see how moved you'd be. This year, I have received --and am deeply touched, moved and grateful-- some poems as presents from my literary friends (which I'll publish in this blog later this month), but I think a more suitable poem --at least for today --would be an existing one from Walt Whitman (obviously, not written for me, and I'd be the only one in the world who says that this is one of the 100 best poems of the galaxy or whatever) :

O ME! O life!... of the questions of these recurring;
Of the endless trains of the faithless—of cities fill’d with the foolish;
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light—of the objects mean—of the struggle ever renew’d;
Of the poor results of all—of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me;
Of the empty and useless years of the rest—with the rest me intertwined;
The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?
Answer. That you are here—that life exists, and identity;
That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse. Have I contributed my verse ? Have you ? I guess this is the poem which has made me going thru these years. Certainly I identify myself with the one who answers. I am not such a pessimistic person, though I do ask those questions from time to time. One can't help it when he turns 40! But I guess what Uncle Walt means with "you will contribute a verse" is exactly that : YOUR verse, MY verse . Not anybody else's. Not going with the flow. And I think I have been doing that all my life. And I always will. I remember an advice from my parents : "Kid, I don't have the secret of success, but I have the secret of failure, and that is : trying to make everybody happy. You just CAN'T make everybody happy." You just can't.