Erza S.T., founder of Indonesian Opera Society & writer for the newspaper The Jakarta Post interviewed me on my opera Ibu, yang anaknya diculik itu. It was published on April 28th, as usual heavily cut & edited by the newspaper, so I thought to post our original interview here which contains some more information
1. What's the background story of this opera? What inspired you to start composing it?
Many things: first & foremost of course the monologue of Seno Gumira Ajidarma itself which I read in a newspaper back in 2008. After I was commissioned to do an opera of any theme of my choice by the Jakarta Opera (which is a small but significant opera company here in Jakarta) I immediately thought of this. But the idea of writing for just 1 female singer was too crazy at that time, both because it was something quite new not only for me but for the world of music, and second because I didn't really believe that a single singer would be able to do that: singing & acting for 40 minutes non stop.
But as you have seen, Aning Katamsi proved it to be possible. And then there was another example of an opera as such already in the history of music: La Voix Humaine by the French composer Francis Poulenc, which I luckily could witness live at Teatro Real, Madrid, where it was about a lady who was talking on the phone all the time. But even that opera with its similar rich themes of loss, fear & death lasts shorter than my opera.
2. Why do you choose pocket opera as the style of the opera?
The idea of "pocket" opera is an opera which can be carried easily, toured easily (like a "pocket book"). So, since I will write it only for one soprano and nobody else, I am thinking it to be accompanied by a very small group of musicians. In fact, only 2 : piano (myself) and a flute doubling piccolo. I am thinking of its practicality and low budget of its repeated production, and luckily I proved my point in this. In 3 years, this is the 3rd time this opera is produced.
3. Did you revised the opera since its premiere in 2009 for this performance now? Musically no, only Chendra Panatan (the stage, acting and lighting director) changed (I should say "improved") some things.
4. How do you describe the music in this opera? Do use some Indonesian sound in this opera?
People has been describing my music as having "Indonesian sounds written by a composer from another planet" and I think it can be applied here. You can't blame me, in spite of my Indonesian-ness, I've been living in Europe for 23 years! Now with facebook & twitter I am of course much more Indonesian than, say, 10 years ago since I am much more connected (I even know new Indonesian slangs through twitter which some Indonesians themselves don't know!), but the ghosts of European music still hangs around me.
5. Your opera is considered to have a contemporary sound and style to some. What do you think on that comment?
Well it better be. I am trying to express a theme which is very contemporary, and I am aware and do admit that musicians who perform my music were always baffled when they see the music for the first time, since many things in my music are quite new and are not to be found in earlier music, although my music is deeply rooted in those of Mozart, Puccini or Britten -- and Javanese traditional music I absorbed in my first 17 years living in Indonesia.
6. Is there any new opera that you plan to compose?
Oh yes! I love opera, and in fact, like Mozart, the only thing I want to compose in my life are operas. But I know its problems of productions, financially and artistically, so I compose other things in between. Even Mozart, who had a generous patron, couldn't do only operas (thank God for his beautiful piano concertos and sonatas!). But my real passion in music is opera, and my absolute favorite instrument is the human voice. I am working on a prequel of the opera we are talking, this time about the mother 10 years before when her husband was still alive, and it will be about the dialogue between them about their kidnapped son, Satria. It is, naturally enough, called "Satria" and commissioned by the Indonesian Opera Society, and is again based on a play by the same inspirational author, Seno Gumira Ajidarma. His genius lies in writing a play where the real protagonist, Satria, is totally absent on stage. In my opera Satria will be represented by a dancer who doesn't talk nor sing, and will be directed again by Chendra Panatan.
Mostrando entradas con la etiqueta aning katamsi. Mostrar todas las entradas
Mostrando entradas con la etiqueta aning katamsi. Mostrar todas las entradas
lunes, 9 de mayo de 2011
viernes, 25 de marzo de 2011
Satu satu, Aku sayang Ibu, yang anaknya diculik itu
I am writing this entry in Indonesian, since you will have to know (a bit of) Indonesian anyway if you wanna see my opera, "Ibu, yang anaknya diculik itu". But as google translator is getting more sophisticated nowadays, I kindly ask you to use that device if you wanna read this anyway (and am thankful for it).
Tanggal 16 & 17 April ini opera saya "Ibu, yang anaknya diculik itu" akan dipagelarkan lagi dengan soprano yang memperdanakannya 2 tahun yg lalu, Aning Katamsi yang dengan spektakulernya menggali segala macam emosi selama 40 menit durasinya. Sigmund Freud akan dengan antusias menganalisa keadaan Aning setelah dia selesai pagelaran!
Opera ini saya berani tulis setelah saya menonton operanya Francis Poulenc, "La Voix Humaine" yang juga ditulis hanya untuk 1 soprano saja. Voix Humaine ditulis juga berdasarkan sebuah monolog dari Jean Cocteau, tapi Poulenc dan Cocteau ada satu "advantage" yang saya tidak miliki: monolog mereka adalah seorang wanita yang "berbicara lewat telpon". Sedangkan opera saya adalah benar2 monolog seorang ibu, menceritakan banyak hal (termasuk juga menerima & berbicara lewat telpon selama beberapa menit). Jadi benar-benar monolog, bukan dialog (walaupun imajiner, lewat telpon).
Waktu itu saya kira saya akan membuat kesalahan, baik dalam proses komposisi maupun secara konseptual, karena ini sangat "experimental" buat saya : membuat musik untuk 1 soprano saja yang terus bernyanyi dan menguras tenaga selama 40 menit (hanya dengan 4 menit intermezzo di tengah, dimana sang soprano bisa keluar sebentar sementara saya dan pemain flute bermain intermezzonya). Tapi Aning Katamsi benar2 berkomitmen tinggi, dan walaupun saya tetap merasa bersalah membuat musik yang kadang-kadang ritme dan interval-intervalnya cukup ... ehm ... tidak begitu konvensional, saya tidak merevisi apa-apa lagi dari partiturnya. Kalaupun ada hal-hal yang saya tidak puas, biarkanlah ini menjadi dokumen dari "kebodohan" saya di tahun 2009. Apalagi untuk mengubah beberapa hal berarti meminta Aning untuk mempelajari hal-hal baru, dan dia sudah "rela" (oh ya?) untuk mempelajari hal-hal yang mungkin bisa disederhanakan atau diperbaiki. Jika saya harus menulis sebuah pocket opera berdasarkan monolog lagi, saya akan membuatnya dengan cara lain. Bagaimanapun, penulisan setiap karya adalah suatu proses pembelajaran buat saya, dan walaupun itu tidak menjamin bahwa karya berikutnya akan lebih baik, paling tidak saya belajar apa yang TIDAK akan saya lakukan di karya berikut. Mozart atau Britten pun tetap merelakan karya-karya awal mereka (yang juga penuh dengan hal-hal yang tidak memuaskan mereka sendiri) untuk diterbitkan. "A poem is never finished; it is just abandoned", kata penulis Paul Valery. Ganti saja kata "poem" dengan "piece of music" dan anda mengerti apa yang saya maksud. Kalau tidak begitu, setiap seniman hanya akan berkutat dengan satu karya saja seumur hidup!
Saya telah banyak bercerita tentang proses penulisan opera ini di blog ini, dalam bahasa Inggris (maaf saya kok lebih merasa mudah menulis dalam bahasa Inggris, walaupun grammarnya mungkin ada yang jeblok). Silakan cek di bulan Maret & April 2009 saja, atau silakan klik kata-kata yang menjadi "tag" dari artikel ini (IBU atau Aning Katamsi).
Ibu, yang anaknya diculik itu, akan dipagelarkan lagi tgl 16 & 17 April di Auditorium Bank Indonesia, Jakarta dengan para pemain yang sama. Selain Aning, Liz Ashford juga akan mendampingi saya dengan flute dan piccolo-nya, serta kami bersama-sama bermain beberapa instrumen perkusi juga. Silakan cek www.musik-sastra.com untuk info lengkapnya.
Tanggal 16 & 17 April ini opera saya "Ibu, yang anaknya diculik itu" akan dipagelarkan lagi dengan soprano yang memperdanakannya 2 tahun yg lalu, Aning Katamsi yang dengan spektakulernya menggali segala macam emosi selama 40 menit durasinya. Sigmund Freud akan dengan antusias menganalisa keadaan Aning setelah dia selesai pagelaran!
Opera ini saya berani tulis setelah saya menonton operanya Francis Poulenc, "La Voix Humaine" yang juga ditulis hanya untuk 1 soprano saja. Voix Humaine ditulis juga berdasarkan sebuah monolog dari Jean Cocteau, tapi Poulenc dan Cocteau ada satu "advantage" yang saya tidak miliki: monolog mereka adalah seorang wanita yang "berbicara lewat telpon". Sedangkan opera saya adalah benar2 monolog seorang ibu, menceritakan banyak hal (termasuk juga menerima & berbicara lewat telpon selama beberapa menit). Jadi benar-benar monolog, bukan dialog (walaupun imajiner, lewat telpon).
Waktu itu saya kira saya akan membuat kesalahan, baik dalam proses komposisi maupun secara konseptual, karena ini sangat "experimental" buat saya : membuat musik untuk 1 soprano saja yang terus bernyanyi dan menguras tenaga selama 40 menit (hanya dengan 4 menit intermezzo di tengah, dimana sang soprano bisa keluar sebentar sementara saya dan pemain flute bermain intermezzonya). Tapi Aning Katamsi benar2 berkomitmen tinggi, dan walaupun saya tetap merasa bersalah membuat musik yang kadang-kadang ritme dan interval-intervalnya cukup ... ehm ... tidak begitu konvensional, saya tidak merevisi apa-apa lagi dari partiturnya. Kalaupun ada hal-hal yang saya tidak puas, biarkanlah ini menjadi dokumen dari "kebodohan" saya di tahun 2009. Apalagi untuk mengubah beberapa hal berarti meminta Aning untuk mempelajari hal-hal baru, dan dia sudah "rela" (oh ya?) untuk mempelajari hal-hal yang mungkin bisa disederhanakan atau diperbaiki. Jika saya harus menulis sebuah pocket opera berdasarkan monolog lagi, saya akan membuatnya dengan cara lain. Bagaimanapun, penulisan setiap karya adalah suatu proses pembelajaran buat saya, dan walaupun itu tidak menjamin bahwa karya berikutnya akan lebih baik, paling tidak saya belajar apa yang TIDAK akan saya lakukan di karya berikut. Mozart atau Britten pun tetap merelakan karya-karya awal mereka (yang juga penuh dengan hal-hal yang tidak memuaskan mereka sendiri) untuk diterbitkan. "A poem is never finished; it is just abandoned", kata penulis Paul Valery. Ganti saja kata "poem" dengan "piece of music" dan anda mengerti apa yang saya maksud. Kalau tidak begitu, setiap seniman hanya akan berkutat dengan satu karya saja seumur hidup!
Saya telah banyak bercerita tentang proses penulisan opera ini di blog ini, dalam bahasa Inggris (maaf saya kok lebih merasa mudah menulis dalam bahasa Inggris, walaupun grammarnya mungkin ada yang jeblok). Silakan cek di bulan Maret & April 2009 saja, atau silakan klik kata-kata yang menjadi "tag" dari artikel ini (IBU atau Aning Katamsi).
Ibu, yang anaknya diculik itu, akan dipagelarkan lagi tgl 16 & 17 April di Auditorium Bank Indonesia, Jakarta dengan para pemain yang sama. Selain Aning, Liz Ashford juga akan mendampingi saya dengan flute dan piccolo-nya, serta kami bersama-sama bermain beberapa instrumen perkusi juga. Silakan cek www.musik-sastra.com untuk info lengkapnya.
sábado, 26 de diciembre de 2009
Conversation with the poet of "Bibirku Bersujud di Bibirmu"
Sorry that this is only in Indonesian. Commemorating the 5th anniversary of the tsunami disaster in Sumatra (26 Dec 2004), I paste this article here. This article is important for my personal artistic reasons as well. It has been published in many newspapers in Kalimantan (Borneo) and Sumatra, and it's a conversation between me and the poet of "Bibirku Bersujud di Bibirmu", Hasan Aspahani. Here it is:
* Ananda Sukarlan Gubah Sajak Hasan Aspahani
Tajam, Pedih, dan Menggerakkan
Bagaimana dan apa jadinya jika sebuah sajak digubah menjadi sebuah komposisi musik klasik, dan dipadukan pula dengan sebuah tarian? Inilah yang akan terjadi pada tanggal 3 Januari 2010 nanti di Graha Bhakti Budaya, Taman Ismail Marzuki (TIM).
Ananda Sukarlan akan tampil dalam konser bertajuk Jakarta New Year Concert. Ia akan membawakan komposisi yang ia gubah dari sajak Hasan Aspahani "Bibirku Bersujud di Bibirmu". Chendra Panatan, koreografer bereputasi internasional, akan menghiasi konser itu dengan tafsir lain atas sajak itu lewat gerak tari.
"Bukan hanya judul sajak itu yang begitu menyentuh. Seluruh isi sajak itu tajam, pedih dan menggerakkan!" kata Ananda Sukarlan.
Kompisi "Bibirku" terdiri dari dua sesi: pertama, trio untuk piano, alto flute dan biola. Dan bagian kedua, untuk soprano dan piano. Masing-masing bisa dimainkan terpisah. Chenra tampil di bagian pertama.
"Kami tak menyebut tariannya sebagai balet. Karena memang bukan balet. Pokoknya, para penari tampil menyuguhkan gerakan yang kompleks dengan ratusan meter kain properti, yang dengan spektakuler mengesankan gerakan ombak. Ananda Sukarlan bermain dengan dukungan Inez Raharjo pada biola, Elizabeth Ashford pada alto flute, dan Aning Katamsi - penyanyi soprano.
Berikut ini petikan wawancara Hasan Aspahani (HAH) di Batam dengan Ananda Sukarlan (AS) yang menetap di Spanyol, ihwal kerjasama kreatif mereka tersebut.
HAH: Kenapa ya Anda tertarik dengan sajak itu? Saya ingat saya kirimi Anda buku "Orgasmaya.." Ada sajak "Bibirku... " di buku itu. Itukah pertama kali Anda membaca sajak tersebut?
AS: Wah, saya lupa dimana pertama kali baca-nya. Mungkin di buku itu, mungkin dari blog sejuta puisi. Yang saya ingat adalah "kortsleting" yang terjadi di badan saya saat saya membacanya. Kadang-kadang kortsleting itu hanya sebentar terus hilang, tapi dalam kasus "BBDB" itu "setruman"-nya cukup lama, bahkan saat saya sedang utak-atik untuk bikin musik, masih saja terasa.
HAH: Kelihatannya susah ya menafsirkan isi sajak itu ke komposisi musik. Apa saja tantangannya?
AS: Yang susah bukan menafsirkannya. Menafsirkannya itu gampang, bahkan saya bisa bilang bahwa proses ini otomatis, karena ada beberapa puisi yg "bunyi" begitu saya baca (puisi-puisi lain adalah seperti "Dalam Sakit"nya SDD, "The young dead soldiers"nya Archibald MacLeish dll). Ini tidak ada hubungannya dgn panjangnya puisi ataupun struktur dll ... ada puisi yang "bunyi" di dalam diri saya, ada yang tidak.
Yang sulit adalah saat menerjemahkan detail-detail bunyi yang saya dengar. Itu berhubungan dengan teknik komposisinya, bukan penafsiran atau inspirasinya.
Ada bunyi-bunyi yang kompleks, dan tugas seorang komponis adalah menuliskannya untuk "mentransfer"-nya ke para musikus yang nanti memainkan not-not balok itu. Nah, bagaimana supaya bunyi itu bisa direproduksi secara akurat, itu yang sulit. Ini berhubungan dengan progresi harmoni-harmoni yang masih jarang (bahkan belum pernah) saya dengar sebelumnya, dan juga warna dari bunyi itu kan harus ditentukan (oleh karena itu saya menggunakan instrumen alto flute, yang belum pernah dipakai di Indonesia. Mungkin ini adalah karya komponis Indonesia pertama yang menggunakan instrumen ini). Juga hal-hal teknis lain misalnya proses repetitif tapi transformatif dari kata "gelombang".
Itu sama seperti kalau sedang dibaca : diulang-ulang tapi tidak sama intonasinya, kan? Nah, intonasi itu diterjemahkan ke dalam progresi harmoni kalau di dalam musik.
HAH: Berapa lama menggarapnya sampai merasa selesai, beres, pokoknya sampai Anda merasa ada sesuatu dari komposisi itu.
AS: Ada dua proses : sketching, dan kemudian proses menuliskan detailnya. Sketching-nya cepet banget : 1-2 jam setelah (dan sambil) baca puisi itu sudah kelar.
Sebetulnya setelah saya sketch, baru saya bikin beneran beberapa bulan setelahnya, karena banyak hal yang tidak bisa saya tinggalkan. Dengan sketching inspirasi itu tertulis dan jadinya tidak akan terlupakan. Sejak permulaan saya merasa bahwa ini bukan karya yang kecil (bukan hanya dari segi durasi, tapi juga dari kedalaman & kompleksitas ekspresinya).
Saya selalu bawa kertas kemana-mana, karena inspirasi kadang-kadang terjadi pada saat yang tidak tepat, dan kalau tidak saya tulis (walaupun hanya secara garis besar) biasanya akan lupa. Nah, penulisan detailnya itu saya kerjakan on and off, di tengah kesibukan lain, dan juga karena faktor bahwa karya ini cukup panjang dan arah-arahnya cukup "unpredictable". Makanya saya menganggap karya ini penting dalam daftar karya-karya saya (yang sekarang Alhamdulilah jumlahnya ratusan, dan tidak semua sama "pentingnya" buat saya he he ...) karena ada konsep harmoni baru yang buat saya sendiri merupakan suatu "discovery". Ini penting buat saya sendiri dan perkembangan musik saya.
HAH: Bisa sebutkan beberapa contoh karya anda yang "penting" dan juga yang "tidak penting" bagi perkembangan artistik anda ?
AS: Yang penting adalah "Dalam Sakit" (dari puisi Sapardi Djoko Damono), The Young Dead Soldiers (dari puisi Archibald MacLeish) dan Requiescat (karya instrumental untuk english horn dan string quartet). Karya-karya tersebut buat saya adalah references, atau tonggak-tonggak yang menentukan jalannya nilai-nilai artistik saya selanjutnya. Yang tidak penting misalnya musik saya untuk film "Romeo & Juliet" : itu musik yang --walaupun sekarang menjadi cukup populer di antara banyak sekali pianis yang memainkannya karena melodinya "enak didengar"-- saya ciptakan semata-mata untuk menggambarkan emosi dan latar belakang suatu adegan saja. Juga beberapa lagu-lagu pendek yang saya ciptakan misalnya untuk kado ulang tahun teman-teman, dan sebagainya. Anehnya, seperti kasus film R & J itu, banyak musik saya yang tidak penting buat saya tapi justru yang paling populer ....
HAH: Ada juga tarian nanti ditampilkan bersamaan dengan komposisi itu. Kenapa ada kolaborasi begitu? Bagaimana bisa muncul ide memadukan tari dan musik itu?
AS: Saya bercerita tentang musiknya dan kemudian saya mainkan ke Chendra Panatan , koreografer yg saya paling kagumi di Indonesia dan sering bekerjasama dengan saya.
Sebetulnya proses dia sama saja dengan proses saya dgn sebuah puisi. Kalau saya "mendengar" musik dari puisi itu, dia "melihat goyangan" dari musik saya. Ada musik saya yang "menggoyangnya", ada yang tidak, dan kebetulan "Bibirku" secara visual juga sangat "menonjok". Koreografi itu memakai gesture-gesture dan gerakan yang sangat besar, sehingga tubuh penari butuh semacam "extensions", makanya dia akan memakai kain-kain, efek lampu dan lain-lain. Sampai saat ini sih saya belum melihat koreografinya dia (yang masih juga dalam proses, belum selesai), tapi saya yakin efeknya akan sangat luar biasa, bukan hanya sekedar mencengangkan, tapi juga secara emosional sangat dalam.***
* Ananda Sukarlan Gubah Sajak Hasan Aspahani
Tajam, Pedih, dan Menggerakkan
Bagaimana dan apa jadinya jika sebuah sajak digubah menjadi sebuah komposisi musik klasik, dan dipadukan pula dengan sebuah tarian? Inilah yang akan terjadi pada tanggal 3 Januari 2010 nanti di Graha Bhakti Budaya, Taman Ismail Marzuki (TIM).
Ananda Sukarlan akan tampil dalam konser bertajuk Jakarta New Year Concert. Ia akan membawakan komposisi yang ia gubah dari sajak Hasan Aspahani "Bibirku Bersujud di Bibirmu". Chendra Panatan, koreografer bereputasi internasional, akan menghiasi konser itu dengan tafsir lain atas sajak itu lewat gerak tari.
"Bukan hanya judul sajak itu yang begitu menyentuh. Seluruh isi sajak itu tajam, pedih dan menggerakkan!" kata Ananda Sukarlan.
Kompisi "Bibirku" terdiri dari dua sesi: pertama, trio untuk piano, alto flute dan biola. Dan bagian kedua, untuk soprano dan piano. Masing-masing bisa dimainkan terpisah. Chenra tampil di bagian pertama.
"Kami tak menyebut tariannya sebagai balet. Karena memang bukan balet. Pokoknya, para penari tampil menyuguhkan gerakan yang kompleks dengan ratusan meter kain properti, yang dengan spektakuler mengesankan gerakan ombak. Ananda Sukarlan bermain dengan dukungan Inez Raharjo pada biola, Elizabeth Ashford pada alto flute, dan Aning Katamsi - penyanyi soprano.
Berikut ini petikan wawancara Hasan Aspahani (HAH) di Batam dengan Ananda Sukarlan (AS) yang menetap di Spanyol, ihwal kerjasama kreatif mereka tersebut.
HAH: Kenapa ya Anda tertarik dengan sajak itu? Saya ingat saya kirimi Anda buku "Orgasmaya.." Ada sajak "Bibirku... " di buku itu. Itukah pertama kali Anda membaca sajak tersebut?
AS: Wah, saya lupa dimana pertama kali baca-nya. Mungkin di buku itu, mungkin dari blog sejuta puisi. Yang saya ingat adalah "kortsleting" yang terjadi di badan saya saat saya membacanya. Kadang-kadang kortsleting itu hanya sebentar terus hilang, tapi dalam kasus "BBDB" itu "setruman"-nya cukup lama, bahkan saat saya sedang utak-atik untuk bikin musik, masih saja terasa.
HAH: Kelihatannya susah ya menafsirkan isi sajak itu ke komposisi musik. Apa saja tantangannya?
AS: Yang susah bukan menafsirkannya. Menafsirkannya itu gampang, bahkan saya bisa bilang bahwa proses ini otomatis, karena ada beberapa puisi yg "bunyi" begitu saya baca (puisi-puisi lain adalah seperti "Dalam Sakit"nya SDD, "The young dead soldiers"nya Archibald MacLeish dll). Ini tidak ada hubungannya dgn panjangnya puisi ataupun struktur dll ... ada puisi yang "bunyi" di dalam diri saya, ada yang tidak.
Yang sulit adalah saat menerjemahkan detail-detail bunyi yang saya dengar. Itu berhubungan dengan teknik komposisinya, bukan penafsiran atau inspirasinya.
Ada bunyi-bunyi yang kompleks, dan tugas seorang komponis adalah menuliskannya untuk "mentransfer"-nya ke para musikus yang nanti memainkan not-not balok itu. Nah, bagaimana supaya bunyi itu bisa direproduksi secara akurat, itu yang sulit. Ini berhubungan dengan progresi harmoni-harmoni yang masih jarang (bahkan belum pernah) saya dengar sebelumnya, dan juga warna dari bunyi itu kan harus ditentukan (oleh karena itu saya menggunakan instrumen alto flute, yang belum pernah dipakai di Indonesia. Mungkin ini adalah karya komponis Indonesia pertama yang menggunakan instrumen ini). Juga hal-hal teknis lain misalnya proses repetitif tapi transformatif dari kata "gelombang".
Itu sama seperti kalau sedang dibaca : diulang-ulang tapi tidak sama intonasinya, kan? Nah, intonasi itu diterjemahkan ke dalam progresi harmoni kalau di dalam musik.
HAH: Berapa lama menggarapnya sampai merasa selesai, beres, pokoknya sampai Anda merasa ada sesuatu dari komposisi itu.
AS: Ada dua proses : sketching, dan kemudian proses menuliskan detailnya. Sketching-nya cepet banget : 1-2 jam setelah (dan sambil) baca puisi itu sudah kelar.
Sebetulnya setelah saya sketch, baru saya bikin beneran beberapa bulan setelahnya, karena banyak hal yang tidak bisa saya tinggalkan. Dengan sketching inspirasi itu tertulis dan jadinya tidak akan terlupakan. Sejak permulaan saya merasa bahwa ini bukan karya yang kecil (bukan hanya dari segi durasi, tapi juga dari kedalaman & kompleksitas ekspresinya).
Saya selalu bawa kertas kemana-mana, karena inspirasi kadang-kadang terjadi pada saat yang tidak tepat, dan kalau tidak saya tulis (walaupun hanya secara garis besar) biasanya akan lupa. Nah, penulisan detailnya itu saya kerjakan on and off, di tengah kesibukan lain, dan juga karena faktor bahwa karya ini cukup panjang dan arah-arahnya cukup "unpredictable". Makanya saya menganggap karya ini penting dalam daftar karya-karya saya (yang sekarang Alhamdulilah jumlahnya ratusan, dan tidak semua sama "pentingnya" buat saya he he ...) karena ada konsep harmoni baru yang buat saya sendiri merupakan suatu "discovery". Ini penting buat saya sendiri dan perkembangan musik saya.
HAH: Bisa sebutkan beberapa contoh karya anda yang "penting" dan juga yang "tidak penting" bagi perkembangan artistik anda ?
AS: Yang penting adalah "Dalam Sakit" (dari puisi Sapardi Djoko Damono), The Young Dead Soldiers (dari puisi Archibald MacLeish) dan Requiescat (karya instrumental untuk english horn dan string quartet). Karya-karya tersebut buat saya adalah references, atau tonggak-tonggak yang menentukan jalannya nilai-nilai artistik saya selanjutnya. Yang tidak penting misalnya musik saya untuk film "Romeo & Juliet" : itu musik yang --walaupun sekarang menjadi cukup populer di antara banyak sekali pianis yang memainkannya karena melodinya "enak didengar"-- saya ciptakan semata-mata untuk menggambarkan emosi dan latar belakang suatu adegan saja. Juga beberapa lagu-lagu pendek yang saya ciptakan misalnya untuk kado ulang tahun teman-teman, dan sebagainya. Anehnya, seperti kasus film R & J itu, banyak musik saya yang tidak penting buat saya tapi justru yang paling populer ....
HAH: Ada juga tarian nanti ditampilkan bersamaan dengan komposisi itu. Kenapa ada kolaborasi begitu? Bagaimana bisa muncul ide memadukan tari dan musik itu?
AS: Saya bercerita tentang musiknya dan kemudian saya mainkan ke Chendra Panatan , koreografer yg saya paling kagumi di Indonesia dan sering bekerjasama dengan saya.
Sebetulnya proses dia sama saja dengan proses saya dgn sebuah puisi. Kalau saya "mendengar" musik dari puisi itu, dia "melihat goyangan" dari musik saya. Ada musik saya yang "menggoyangnya", ada yang tidak, dan kebetulan "Bibirku" secara visual juga sangat "menonjok". Koreografi itu memakai gesture-gesture dan gerakan yang sangat besar, sehingga tubuh penari butuh semacam "extensions", makanya dia akan memakai kain-kain, efek lampu dan lain-lain. Sampai saat ini sih saya belum melihat koreografinya dia (yang masih juga dalam proses, belum selesai), tapi saya yakin efeknya akan sangat luar biasa, bukan hanya sekedar mencengangkan, tapi juga secara emosional sangat dalam.***
martes, 22 de diciembre de 2009
(Not just) Another choral piece (for ITB Choir)
I spent a most memorable afternoon today at Saung Angklung Udjo in Bandung. It's a center for the making and learning the traditional instrument called angklung, made of bamboo. The reason I was there is because ITB Choir has commissioned me to write quite a big (they use the term "monumental"-- I hope I can realize it!) piece for choir and (western) orchestra and an ensemble of angklung, which will be the first piece in the world written for that formation. This piece is meant to mark the inauguration of their ITB International Choral Festival and Competition, where I am also honoured to be invited to serve as a jury member.
I left Saung Udjo with a strange feeling : a mix of enlightenment, happiness and peace (yeah, the place gave you that feeling, especially we watched the sunset in that wondrous, heavenly place) but also full of doubt of what piece would come out of my brain (which sometimes doesn't collaborate happily with me). One thing for sure is that I am not going to change my musical style, and as I always say, I write what I feel I should write. The inauguration will be televised, and attended by thousands of people from all over the (choral) world. Bandung will be the center of choral music during that week starting from end of July 2010. The concert of my piece itself will be on the 29th of July 2010.
I don't have to worry about it for now. I have another mammoth coming very shortly : in about 10 days my second cantata "LIBERTAS", this time reorchestrated and will be performed by more than 100 musicians will be the main course of the Jakarta New Year Concert on the 3rd of January 2010. Plus my new collaborative work with Chendra Panatan : a choreographic work on the tsunami, called "Bibirku Bersujud di Bibirmu". The music and the choreography turn out to be quite complex (no, not only a cascade of running notes depicting tsunami: it has a love theme, tsunami theme, and then a vocal part sung by Aning Katamsi, based on a poem of the same title by Hasan Aspahani). So, I'll concentrate on that for now. My great friends (and great artists!0 are joining me for this, and I also have the greatest luck to meet new friends with no less talents, such as the 15-year-young violinist prodigy Inez Raharjo and the singers of Paragita from Universitas Indonesia (yeah, they were the ones who commissioned me my "Choral Fantasy", if you remember, but this is the first time that I had the pleasure to work with them. They are F-A(U)-N-T-A-S-T-I-C !
Next week will be a week of basically rehearsing and rehearsing with different people, before we have all the musicians and dancers coming together for the general rehearsal the day before the concert. As you can imagine, New Year for me doesn't mean champagne and big lobsters, since 5 years ago when we did the Jakarta New Year Concert for the first time. Many rains has fallen since then, and it has now grown into a full-blown celebrational event and a trademark for the first Sunday of the year in Indonesia's capital city. Thanks to all of you who've supported us these 5 years!
Happy New Year, and Happy New Ears for Classical Music ! Now, who said that classical music is dying??
I left Saung Udjo with a strange feeling : a mix of enlightenment, happiness and peace (yeah, the place gave you that feeling, especially we watched the sunset in that wondrous, heavenly place) but also full of doubt of what piece would come out of my brain (which sometimes doesn't collaborate happily with me). One thing for sure is that I am not going to change my musical style, and as I always say, I write what I feel I should write. The inauguration will be televised, and attended by thousands of people from all over the (choral) world. Bandung will be the center of choral music during that week starting from end of July 2010. The concert of my piece itself will be on the 29th of July 2010.
I don't have to worry about it for now. I have another mammoth coming very shortly : in about 10 days my second cantata "LIBERTAS", this time reorchestrated and will be performed by more than 100 musicians will be the main course of the Jakarta New Year Concert on the 3rd of January 2010. Plus my new collaborative work with Chendra Panatan : a choreographic work on the tsunami, called "Bibirku Bersujud di Bibirmu". The music and the choreography turn out to be quite complex (no, not only a cascade of running notes depicting tsunami: it has a love theme, tsunami theme, and then a vocal part sung by Aning Katamsi, based on a poem of the same title by Hasan Aspahani). So, I'll concentrate on that for now. My great friends (and great artists!0 are joining me for this, and I also have the greatest luck to meet new friends with no less talents, such as the 15-year-young violinist prodigy Inez Raharjo and the singers of Paragita from Universitas Indonesia (yeah, they were the ones who commissioned me my "Choral Fantasy", if you remember, but this is the first time that I had the pleasure to work with them. They are F-A(U)-N-T-A-S-T-I-C !
Next week will be a week of basically rehearsing and rehearsing with different people, before we have all the musicians and dancers coming together for the general rehearsal the day before the concert. As you can imagine, New Year for me doesn't mean champagne and big lobsters, since 5 years ago when we did the Jakarta New Year Concert for the first time. Many rains has fallen since then, and it has now grown into a full-blown celebrational event and a trademark for the first Sunday of the year in Indonesia's capital city. Thanks to all of you who've supported us these 5 years!
Happy New Year, and Happy New Ears for Classical Music ! Now, who said that classical music is dying??
lunes, 19 de octubre de 2009
Choral (too much) Fantasy ?
I have always admired the musical artistry of Aning Katamsi, as so have I always admired the poems of the recently departed WS Rendra. So when Aning, on behalf of her choir PARAGITA (who's gonna join forces with the ITB Choir singing my second cantata "Libertas" for the next New Year Concert -- having those 2 top Indonesian choirs sharing the stage is like having a (wet) dream come true !) commissioned me to write a choral piece using Rendra's poem to commemorate his passing away, I accepted it delightly without second thoughts ; even when the answer to my question about when the deadline would be was "a.s.a.p. please, since the concert will be next month." Ooops ...
But things got rather complicated, because apparently Rendra's poem has been set into a pop song by a pop songwriter, and he is the person who iniciated and organized this concert. So, what I should do is to "interpret" his song (Aning specifically told me not to "arrange" the song, so I guess the process would not be so different from my pieces such as the 3-pianos 6-pianists "Schumann's Psychosis" where I took Schumann's Toccata and "messed it all up", shall we say.)
The original song itself has the title Kantata [sic] Belavita (you know Indonesian pop musicians like to use the words "cantata", "symphony" and "opera" for their songs. I guess there are more "operas" in Indonesian pop music than the whole history of Italian music. I wonder why nobody puts other fancy titles such as Passacaglia or Concerto Grosso). So, certainly I wouldn't like to apply that title to my piece which definitely is NOT a cantata. He he .. in this case I really am an old-fashioned classical music composer. Therefore, my piece bears the fancy title "Choral Fantasy" (yeah, yeah, it sounds beethovenianly bombastic for a 6 and-a-half-minute piece, but at least it's correct!). But that's not the problem : the problem was that when I read the poem, I couldn't connect it to the pop song (I really tried, I did !). In other words, if I were given that poem, my tune and even the character of my music would sound completely different, and even directly opposed to the existing pop song which should be the basic material for my new piece.
So I was like the son of those old-fashioned parents who is told "Meet this girl, love her coz you're gonna marry her.", while I am like those rebellious sons who'd say "OK, I'll marry her but then I can have affairs with anybody I like". I guess the birth process of my Choral Fantasy was sort of like that. Therefore for my first extra-marital affair I took another element for my piece --to make things more complicated-- which is the rhythmic structure of Beethoven's First Movement of the famous 5th symphony. And so writing my Choral Fantasy became really fun !!
"Choral Fantasy" will be premiered on the 29th of October at Gedung Kesenian Jakarta by Aning Katamsi (soprano soloist) and the Paragita Choir accompanied by a pianist which I still do not know who will it be until now.
But things got rather complicated, because apparently Rendra's poem has been set into a pop song by a pop songwriter, and he is the person who iniciated and organized this concert. So, what I should do is to "interpret" his song (Aning specifically told me not to "arrange" the song, so I guess the process would not be so different from my pieces such as the 3-pianos 6-pianists "Schumann's Psychosis" where I took Schumann's Toccata and "messed it all up", shall we say.)
The original song itself has the title Kantata [sic] Belavita (you know Indonesian pop musicians like to use the words "cantata", "symphony" and "opera" for their songs. I guess there are more "operas" in Indonesian pop music than the whole history of Italian music. I wonder why nobody puts other fancy titles such as Passacaglia or Concerto Grosso). So, certainly I wouldn't like to apply that title to my piece which definitely is NOT a cantata. He he .. in this case I really am an old-fashioned classical music composer. Therefore, my piece bears the fancy title "Choral Fantasy" (yeah, yeah, it sounds beethovenianly bombastic for a 6 and-a-half-minute piece, but at least it's correct!). But that's not the problem : the problem was that when I read the poem, I couldn't connect it to the pop song (I really tried, I did !). In other words, if I were given that poem, my tune and even the character of my music would sound completely different, and even directly opposed to the existing pop song which should be the basic material for my new piece.
So I was like the son of those old-fashioned parents who is told "Meet this girl, love her coz you're gonna marry her.", while I am like those rebellious sons who'd say "OK, I'll marry her but then I can have affairs with anybody I like". I guess the birth process of my Choral Fantasy was sort of like that. Therefore for my first extra-marital affair I took another element for my piece --to make things more complicated-- which is the rhythmic structure of Beethoven's First Movement of the famous 5th symphony. And so writing my Choral Fantasy became really fun !!
"Choral Fantasy" will be premiered on the 29th of October at Gedung Kesenian Jakarta by Aning Katamsi (soprano soloist) and the Paragita Choir accompanied by a pianist which I still do not know who will it be until now.
viernes, 7 de agosto de 2009
Mourning becomes Indonesia
Just a couple of hours ago I landed at the Jakarta airport, picked up by Chendra. His first words were :"Rendra just passed away". WS Rendra was one of Indonesia's greatest poets, and a personal friend of mine. I have set a poem of him, "Tidurlah Intan" which you can listen to Aning Katamsi singing it at : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgrT3CCdbYo .
In 5 days, Joseph Kristanto will be the soloist together with ITB Choir and a small ensemble, all conducted by Indra Listiyanto in my newest work, my second cantata "LIBERTAS". It is now that I realize and understand the meaning and existence of this work.
When I was commissioned to write a piece to celebrate this year's Indonesian Independence day, I knew that I should have written a joyful, optimistic and celebrational work. After all, the occasion demands it, with the presence of Indonesia's president, vice president and many of our cabinet ministers. Instead, the piece turned out to be a cantata glorifying death. I was about to change the title into "Requiem" if it were not for my consideration that I didn't have any more time left to write the commissioned piece, a real "LIBERTAS". Apart from the poems which were specifically written for the occasion and included in Libertas (by Sapardi Djoko Damono & Ilham Malayu), all the poems I chose for LIBERTAS are about death. Death of all the fallen heroes, and one of them is by WS Rendra, "Ia Telah Pergi" (He has gone). But that was not the real coincidence. Another poem is "A Un Poeta Muerto" (To a dead poet) by Spanish writer Luis Cernuda, written as a requiem to the death of Federico Garcia Lorca. And this is the point I wanna make : The most crucial point in LIBERTAS doesn't lie in the most exuberant fortissimo or exciting moment in the piece. It lies in this number, where a pianissimo, etherial B-flat major chord starts the phrase "Para el poeta, la muerte es la victoria" (For the poet, death is the victory), after a long section of dark atonal utterances. I remember exactly that LIBERTAS in fact started when I read those lines by Cernuda. They trigger those chords in my head, from which LIBERTAS was born.
I certainly wasn't thinking of Rendra when I wrote LIBERTAS. In fact, the 3 big works this year (the other two are the opera "IBU--yang anaknya diculik itu" and a dance piece to be choreographed by Chendra next year which I will write about it in a few weeks in this blog) all deal profoundly, and exclusively with death. You can also check an entry I wrote here when I was deeply immersed in this definitely-not-my-favorite-at-all subject.
I can't help but dedicating LIBERTAS, in its entirity, to the memory of WS Rendra. LIBERTAS is so him. So Rendra. Sadly, it turned out that way, as I am assimilating it while I am writing these very lines.
And now, fellow Indonesians, you can shout your favorite word "Victory!" to Rendra. Because for the dead poet, death is victory.
Requiescat et libertas, WS Rendra. Your art will live forever.
In 5 days, Joseph Kristanto will be the soloist together with ITB Choir and a small ensemble, all conducted by Indra Listiyanto in my newest work, my second cantata "LIBERTAS". It is now that I realize and understand the meaning and existence of this work.
When I was commissioned to write a piece to celebrate this year's Indonesian Independence day, I knew that I should have written a joyful, optimistic and celebrational work. After all, the occasion demands it, with the presence of Indonesia's president, vice president and many of our cabinet ministers. Instead, the piece turned out to be a cantata glorifying death. I was about to change the title into "Requiem" if it were not for my consideration that I didn't have any more time left to write the commissioned piece, a real "LIBERTAS". Apart from the poems which were specifically written for the occasion and included in Libertas (by Sapardi Djoko Damono & Ilham Malayu), all the poems I chose for LIBERTAS are about death. Death of all the fallen heroes, and one of them is by WS Rendra, "Ia Telah Pergi" (He has gone). But that was not the real coincidence. Another poem is "A Un Poeta Muerto" (To a dead poet) by Spanish writer Luis Cernuda, written as a requiem to the death of Federico Garcia Lorca. And this is the point I wanna make : The most crucial point in LIBERTAS doesn't lie in the most exuberant fortissimo or exciting moment in the piece. It lies in this number, where a pianissimo, etherial B-flat major chord starts the phrase "Para el poeta, la muerte es la victoria" (For the poet, death is the victory), after a long section of dark atonal utterances. I remember exactly that LIBERTAS in fact started when I read those lines by Cernuda. They trigger those chords in my head, from which LIBERTAS was born.
I certainly wasn't thinking of Rendra when I wrote LIBERTAS. In fact, the 3 big works this year (the other two are the opera "IBU--yang anaknya diculik itu" and a dance piece to be choreographed by Chendra next year which I will write about it in a few weeks in this blog) all deal profoundly, and exclusively with death. You can also check an entry I wrote here when I was deeply immersed in this definitely-not-my-favorite-at-all subject.
I can't help but dedicating LIBERTAS, in its entirity, to the memory of WS Rendra. LIBERTAS is so him. So Rendra. Sadly, it turned out that way, as I am assimilating it while I am writing these very lines.
And now, fellow Indonesians, you can shout your favorite word "Victory!" to Rendra. Because for the dead poet, death is victory.
Requiescat et libertas, WS Rendra. Your art will live forever.
miércoles, 15 de abril de 2009
Rectifying Rossini's Record
Whew ! At last I finished my "pocket opera", IBU, a few days ago. Just sent the score to the musicians last nite. Now I gotta immediately start composing my second cantata, LIBERTAS.
I've broken my own record of the shortest time period in composing IBU. I did sketch its formal, harmonic & rhythmic structures last year right after I received the text of the monologue from Seno Gumira Ajidarma himself, but practically I started writing its actual notes on the plane carrying me back to Spain on the 10th of March this year. Then there was a one-week "black-out" period, plus some small travellings until at last I wrote its last note on the 11th of April. So, about 4 weeks of intense composing IBU. In between, some notes and sketches of LIBERTAS had also been done, even a number has been completed (I intended it to have 9 numbers, each based on a poem by a.o. Walt Whitman, Hasan Aspahani, Sapardi Djoko Damono, Ilham Malayu, WS Rendra).
Not that I wanted to break Rossini's record being the world's fastest scribbler ; I did it because of the scheduled World Premiere which will be on the 7th of June ! It will be programmed for the Jakarta Opera's Festival at the World Theatre of the British International School. And Aning Katamsi, the one and only singer of the opera, would certainly like to have it as early as possible. If I were her, I'd kill the composer for doing this to her ...
Now to LIBERTAS. My second cantata (my first was Ars Amatoria, which I will conduct again right 1 week before the premiere of IBU in Jakarta) will have approximately the same duration of IBU : a bit more than half an hour, but it will demand bigger forces : a baritone solo, a mixed choir (Joseph Kristanto will be the soloist together with the ITB Choir conducted by Indra Listiyanto) accompanied by 8 instruments. Commissioned by Bimasena, it is scheduled to be premiered in August this year for an audience which will include the president of Indonesia and some ministers.
But gimme a break ! Another big piece to write ? No way. I wanna have some days of "relax composing" as I always say, which means writing something completely different and unburdened (does that word exist? Anyway, I wanna say no deadlines, no commissions). I have started doodling on a new Rapsodia Nusantara no. 4 this morning. Am excited about it for 2 things : 1. It will be in variation form, a form which I never had explored & exploited thoroughly or explicitly. I will just write 1 variation a day, and put them in order after I decided that they should be enough (let's see .. perhaps 7 or 8 variations ?). 2. I have promised my friend Henoch Kristianto to dedicate it to him. He is a fine & brilliant pianist whose playing I admire so much (he studied & graduated in the US, but hey .. nobody's perfect). In fact, it was his playing of the Saint Saens 6th Etude which inspired me this morning to write a "light" variation. My Rapsodia won't sound like Saint-Saens, but sometimes my secret love to a certain composer come to the surface ...
By the way, d'you have something to do next weekend (24th of April) ? If not, you might like to have a date with your loved one to go to the cinema (if you live in Indonesia) and watch Romeo & Juliet. You won't regret it. I don't say it because I wrote the music for that film, I just think it's a very fresh & original look at the greatest love story of all time.
I've broken my own record of the shortest time period in composing IBU. I did sketch its formal, harmonic & rhythmic structures last year right after I received the text of the monologue from Seno Gumira Ajidarma himself, but practically I started writing its actual notes on the plane carrying me back to Spain on the 10th of March this year. Then there was a one-week "black-out" period, plus some small travellings until at last I wrote its last note on the 11th of April. So, about 4 weeks of intense composing IBU. In between, some notes and sketches of LIBERTAS had also been done, even a number has been completed (I intended it to have 9 numbers, each based on a poem by a.o. Walt Whitman, Hasan Aspahani, Sapardi Djoko Damono, Ilham Malayu, WS Rendra).
Not that I wanted to break Rossini's record being the world's fastest scribbler ; I did it because of the scheduled World Premiere which will be on the 7th of June ! It will be programmed for the Jakarta Opera's Festival at the World Theatre of the British International School. And Aning Katamsi, the one and only singer of the opera, would certainly like to have it as early as possible. If I were her, I'd kill the composer for doing this to her ...
Now to LIBERTAS. My second cantata (my first was Ars Amatoria, which I will conduct again right 1 week before the premiere of IBU in Jakarta) will have approximately the same duration of IBU : a bit more than half an hour, but it will demand bigger forces : a baritone solo, a mixed choir (Joseph Kristanto will be the soloist together with the ITB Choir conducted by Indra Listiyanto) accompanied by 8 instruments. Commissioned by Bimasena, it is scheduled to be premiered in August this year for an audience which will include the president of Indonesia and some ministers.
But gimme a break ! Another big piece to write ? No way. I wanna have some days of "relax composing" as I always say, which means writing something completely different and unburdened (does that word exist? Anyway, I wanna say no deadlines, no commissions). I have started doodling on a new Rapsodia Nusantara no. 4 this morning. Am excited about it for 2 things : 1. It will be in variation form, a form which I never had explored & exploited thoroughly or explicitly. I will just write 1 variation a day, and put them in order after I decided that they should be enough (let's see .. perhaps 7 or 8 variations ?). 2. I have promised my friend Henoch Kristianto to dedicate it to him. He is a fine & brilliant pianist whose playing I admire so much (he studied & graduated in the US, but hey .. nobody's perfect). In fact, it was his playing of the Saint Saens 6th Etude which inspired me this morning to write a "light" variation. My Rapsodia won't sound like Saint-Saens, but sometimes my secret love to a certain composer come to the surface ...
By the way, d'you have something to do next weekend (24th of April) ? If not, you might like to have a date with your loved one to go to the cinema (if you live in Indonesia) and watch Romeo & Juliet. You won't regret it. I don't say it because I wrote the music for that film, I just think it's a very fresh & original look at the greatest love story of all time.
sábado, 4 de abril de 2009
Dichotomy
No, that's not a title of a new piece. It's what I have been thinking these days, writing my new opera.
Let's face it, my (and many of other artist's) taste is not (always) the common public taste. Nobody has heard even one note of my new "pocket opera" IBU (oh, by the way, this word means "Mother"), but many questions, opinions and even protests (!) have been sent to me regarding my article about my creative process (see my previous entry). Most of you expressed concern about this surrealistic idea of mine of writing "unfinished" arias in my new opera. And now that it is 99% finished, I can see that I am truthful to my original idea about "unfinishing" arias, recitatives, even its overture and instrumental intermezzi. Basically, most of your reaction is simply "Hmmm ...Andy, I don't think it's a good idea ..."
"Unfinished" is my way of symbolizing the underlying theme of IBU : What really happened to my son ? And it also expresses this kind of strange sadness. If you have an unanswered (and very important) question in your life, I guess that's what happened. Everything keeps hanging in the air. But one thing is symbolism, another thing is being artistic. Will the public stand an opera, sung by one and only one singer (Aning Katamsi will be spectacular in her singing and acting, I can assure you, but this lasts for 35 minutes non-stop !), singing broken arias all the time ?
But hey, writing with this technique could perhaps make an "Indonesian identity". You see, Indonesian public likes to clap (which is nice, I know. Imagine a public who does NOT like to clap !), especially between movements and even before a piece is finished. I always regret them clapping right before the coda of my song, "Dalam Doaku". This coda was very difficult to write, and I think I succeeded in its timing and placement. But Indonesian public never heard it because they always clap right before the coda arrives ! So, "broken arias" might be a solution to avoid them clapping, he he ...
I have done some "dangerous" artistic experiments in my life. Some failed, some succeeded, as usually happened in any kind of experiments. I lost count on the amount of music I wrote that ended up in my dustbin. The last time I did this kind of experiment was in the film "Romeo & Juliet" by film director Andibachtiar Yusuf, already received its world premiere at the Hongkong International Film Festival a few weeks ago, and due to be premiered in Indonesia on the 25th this month. Some say it's outrageous, some say it's brilliant, but I will let time to tell the ultimate truth. Which means that in a few years time, when I am older (and hopefully wiser) I will look at it again and see whether I did a brilliant thing or I was just exercising an idiocy.
Some artist friends always told me that the public is not my business. But then I believe, with several other artists friends, that I am part of the public. Whatever the truth is, for many many years now I've been holding on to this catchy phrase of my favorite painter Piet Mondriaan : "Art has to be forgotten, beauty must be realized".
World Premiere of "IBU -- yang anaknya diculik itu" will be held at the World Theatre of BIS ( British International School )
Bintaro Jaya Sektor IX, Jl. Raya Jombang
Ciledug, Pondok Aren
Sunday, June 7, 2009 at 4 p.m
Performers will be : Aning Katamsi, soprano as IBU
Elizabeth Ashford, flute
Ananda Sukarlan, piano
BIS Children Choir dan JCOM Children Choir
conducted by Elizabeth Ashford dan Mirta Hartono
Let's face it, my (and many of other artist's) taste is not (always) the common public taste. Nobody has heard even one note of my new "pocket opera" IBU (oh, by the way, this word means "Mother"), but many questions, opinions and even protests (!) have been sent to me regarding my article about my creative process (see my previous entry). Most of you expressed concern about this surrealistic idea of mine of writing "unfinished" arias in my new opera. And now that it is 99% finished, I can see that I am truthful to my original idea about "unfinishing" arias, recitatives, even its overture and instrumental intermezzi. Basically, most of your reaction is simply "Hmmm ...Andy, I don't think it's a good idea ..."
"Unfinished" is my way of symbolizing the underlying theme of IBU : What really happened to my son ? And it also expresses this kind of strange sadness. If you have an unanswered (and very important) question in your life, I guess that's what happened. Everything keeps hanging in the air. But one thing is symbolism, another thing is being artistic. Will the public stand an opera, sung by one and only one singer (Aning Katamsi will be spectacular in her singing and acting, I can assure you, but this lasts for 35 minutes non-stop !), singing broken arias all the time ?
But hey, writing with this technique could perhaps make an "Indonesian identity". You see, Indonesian public likes to clap (which is nice, I know. Imagine a public who does NOT like to clap !), especially between movements and even before a piece is finished. I always regret them clapping right before the coda of my song, "Dalam Doaku". This coda was very difficult to write, and I think I succeeded in its timing and placement. But Indonesian public never heard it because they always clap right before the coda arrives ! So, "broken arias" might be a solution to avoid them clapping, he he ...
I have done some "dangerous" artistic experiments in my life. Some failed, some succeeded, as usually happened in any kind of experiments. I lost count on the amount of music I wrote that ended up in my dustbin. The last time I did this kind of experiment was in the film "Romeo & Juliet" by film director Andibachtiar Yusuf, already received its world premiere at the Hongkong International Film Festival a few weeks ago, and due to be premiered in Indonesia on the 25th this month. Some say it's outrageous, some say it's brilliant, but I will let time to tell the ultimate truth. Which means that in a few years time, when I am older (and hopefully wiser) I will look at it again and see whether I did a brilliant thing or I was just exercising an idiocy.
Some artist friends always told me that the public is not my business. But then I believe, with several other artists friends, that I am part of the public. Whatever the truth is, for many many years now I've been holding on to this catchy phrase of my favorite painter Piet Mondriaan : "Art has to be forgotten, beauty must be realized".
World Premiere of "IBU -- yang anaknya diculik itu" will be held at the World Theatre of BIS ( British International School )
Bintaro Jaya Sektor IX, Jl. Raya Jombang
Ciledug, Pondok Aren
Sunday, June 7, 2009 at 4 p.m
Performers will be : Aning Katamsi, soprano as IBU
Elizabeth Ashford, flute
Ananda Sukarlan, piano
BIS Children Choir dan JCOM Children Choir
conducted by Elizabeth Ashford dan Mirta Hartono
miércoles, 18 de marzo de 2009
Flirting fingers and a desperate housewife
One thing I notice about the public of a piano concert. Everybody wanted to have a seat at the left side of the hall, "where I can see the fingers of Ananda". That's what the majority of the people told Chendra, my manager, when they reserved the tickets for my only solo piano recital in Jakarta this year. (By the way, the last time I did another solo piano recital in that city was in 2006. Time flies ! At that time it was at the (still) beautiful old building Gedung Kesenian. The director(ress) was just appointed then, in 2004. Since then, the building and its management became a big mess, no more audiences, and therefore no more concerts these days (I saw in their Calendar of this (or last?) month,and there were only 3 events in a month). The most important artists of Indonesia don't want to perform there anymore. I'm not important, but I also don't feel like going there again under this management.)
Now I am back home, writing my pocket opera, "IBU". It is commissioned by Jakarta Opera to be performed in Jakarta on June 7th this year. The libretto is based on a monologue by Seno Gumira Ajidarma, and it is a sequel to "Mengapa Kau Culik Anak Kami". So, since I will write it only for one soprano and nobody else, I am thinking it to be accompanied by a very small group of musicians. In fact, only 2 : piano (myself) and a flute doubling piccolo. That's the idea of "pocket" opera : an opera which can be carried easily, toured easily. I am happy that my friend, the excellent soprano Aning Katamsi has agreed to do it.
I am trying to do something terrifying in this opera. I mean, terrifying to myself. I am going to write lots of "arias" , but all of them will be without a finishing cadence. In fact, even sometimes without reaching a climax. The idea is to evoke desperation of a mother whose husband and son has gone. No hope is fulfilled. It is all dark, sadness and gloom. And anger.
I wonder how people will react with arias which just start and do not continue. Look, the whole idea of the original text is not meant to entertain. Seno Gumira wrote a very dark monologue. So, I treat this as one BIG aria, from beginning to end. Will I succeed ? I dunno. But one has to try things at least once in their lifetime.
viernes, 18 de julio de 2008
Every language creates its own music
I had a really nice concert 2 days ago. Aning Katamsi and Joseph Kristanto "Akis" sang sooo well, and perhaps that's my best birthday present up till now. Nothing gives greater happiness to a composer than listening to his music so well performed. I am so grateful to those two friends.And thank you for all the emails, sms, and the attendance of 120 VVIP people in the concert ! This is an entry to respond to your answers and comments.
1. What is an Indonesian opera ? Well, this relates to the question "What is Indonesian classical music" (classical in the "western" idiom), and this kind of question was asked already about 100 years ago by the Americans, and starting about 50 years ago in countries such as Japan and Australia. Basically it was answered not by mere sentences, but by the creation of music by composers such as Aaron Copland, Roy Harris, Toru Takemitsu and Peter Sculthorpe. I believe that Indonesian music is simply music written by an Indonesian composer. Therefore, my music is included, even if I live already more than 20 years abroad and carrying the (heavy) influences of European music such as those of Benjamin Britten, Stravinsky or Sibelius. Or am I wrong in self-declaring my music as "Indonesian music" ? Is it not Indonesian enough ?
2. As my opera "Mengapa Kau Culik Anak Kami" is postponed (whew ! What a relief ! The music is completely, 100% finished, but surely with all the things happening, we won't be able to stage it in this period), we are trying to fix a date for its premiere for the beginning of 2009. Of course the singers will be the same, my brilliant friends Aning and Akis. And now that I get to know Akis' voice better (this is the first time that we worked together -- with more than satisfactorical results --), I would like to revise some parts of my opera. I wouldn't like to kill him now with all my falsetti ; I still want him to sing in all my operas (God grant me a long and prosper life) of the future !
3. Now about "Songs of the Night" (Nyanyian Malam). I will have to contradict myself saying earlier that it is written for any kind of voice, male or female, as long as they are within the register (Oh yes, I would like to stress again the fact that I usually conceive a song in its exact tonality -- perhaps due to my absolute pitch--, so I always feel uncomfortable to have my songs transposed to suit the registers of the singers. Sorry for being that fussy !). There are some songs which I couldn't imagine sung by the other kind of voice, such as :
- Tidurlah Intan, for female voice (medium - high)
- Di Depan Sebuah Lukisan, for male voice (and falsetto in the end !)
- Meninggalkan Kandang, for female voice (med-high)
- Kasih, definitely for male voice and DEFINITELY with all those dangerous falsetti for the last 2 pages ! Many thanx, Akis, for those beautiful, beautiful ones you did. I know you have worked a lot for it. My appreciation is never enough !
Apart from those songs, the rest can be sung by either male or female voice.
The next few days will be completely occupied by the Ananda Sukarlan Award, a national piano competition here in Jakarta. Chendra my manager has created a new blog containing all the infos about this event ; check it out at http://www.maestroatforty.blogspot.com . Yes, it's with the www in front, I don't know how Chendra did it. Anyway, let me use this opportunity to thank Chendra as well ; he's the person behind the scene of all those events, and I just don't understand how he managed to organize all of this. These organizing business is all Greek to me. My job is just writing all those notes, which I must admit, is 10 times easier than controlling our office with 7 people working simultaneously. I don't think I can even manage writing a 7-part fugue !
1. What is an Indonesian opera ? Well, this relates to the question "What is Indonesian classical music" (classical in the "western" idiom), and this kind of question was asked already about 100 years ago by the Americans, and starting about 50 years ago in countries such as Japan and Australia. Basically it was answered not by mere sentences, but by the creation of music by composers such as Aaron Copland, Roy Harris, Toru Takemitsu and Peter Sculthorpe. I believe that Indonesian music is simply music written by an Indonesian composer. Therefore, my music is included, even if I live already more than 20 years abroad and carrying the (heavy) influences of European music such as those of Benjamin Britten, Stravinsky or Sibelius. Or am I wrong in self-declaring my music as "Indonesian music" ? Is it not Indonesian enough ?
2. As my opera "Mengapa Kau Culik Anak Kami" is postponed (whew ! What a relief ! The music is completely, 100% finished, but surely with all the things happening, we won't be able to stage it in this period), we are trying to fix a date for its premiere for the beginning of 2009. Of course the singers will be the same, my brilliant friends Aning and Akis. And now that I get to know Akis' voice better (this is the first time that we worked together -- with more than satisfactorical results --), I would like to revise some parts of my opera. I wouldn't like to kill him now with all my falsetti ; I still want him to sing in all my operas (God grant me a long and prosper life) of the future !
3. Now about "Songs of the Night" (Nyanyian Malam). I will have to contradict myself saying earlier that it is written for any kind of voice, male or female, as long as they are within the register (Oh yes, I would like to stress again the fact that I usually conceive a song in its exact tonality -- perhaps due to my absolute pitch--, so I always feel uncomfortable to have my songs transposed to suit the registers of the singers. Sorry for being that fussy !). There are some songs which I couldn't imagine sung by the other kind of voice, such as :
- Tidurlah Intan, for female voice (medium - high)
- Di Depan Sebuah Lukisan, for male voice (and falsetto in the end !)
- Meninggalkan Kandang, for female voice (med-high)
- Kasih, definitely for male voice and DEFINITELY with all those dangerous falsetti for the last 2 pages ! Many thanx, Akis, for those beautiful, beautiful ones you did. I know you have worked a lot for it. My appreciation is never enough !
Apart from those songs, the rest can be sung by either male or female voice.
The next few days will be completely occupied by the Ananda Sukarlan Award, a national piano competition here in Jakarta. Chendra my manager has created a new blog containing all the infos about this event ; check it out at http://www.maestroatforty.blogspot.com . Yes, it's with the www in front, I don't know how Chendra did it. Anyway, let me use this opportunity to thank Chendra as well ; he's the person behind the scene of all those events, and I just don't understand how he managed to organize all of this. These organizing business is all Greek to me. My job is just writing all those notes, which I must admit, is 10 times easier than controlling our office with 7 people working simultaneously. I don't think I can even manage writing a 7-part fugue !
sábado, 21 de junio de 2008
Songs of the Night (Nyanyian Malam)
I have a hunch that this new cycle of mine will consist of dozens of songs. These songs were written throughout these years, and they have one thing in common : they were all written during the darkest hours of the night, and mostly when the composer was feeling lonely and miserable in a hotel room at any corners of the world. It was always the time where everybody's asleep and that there was no internet connection in the room, so my only true friend at that time were books. And most of the time, book of poems. And somehow, music just flow from those poems, so I wrote them down. Some of them can be sung by either male or female voice, so I just indicate whether they are for high, medium or low voice. Some of them even can be transposed comfortably, well, just a few, so please try to consult me first if you wanna do it anyway.
Last week I was going through my manuscripts recovering them, since I will have the honour and opportunity of premiering them with my fantastic singer friends, Aning Katamsi the soprano and "Akis" Joseph Kristanto the baritone (photos ; I especially like Akis' photo in front of my favorite "fachada" of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. And I found Aning's photo somewhere after googling ; that's another facet of her life, being a choir conductor) in a concert to celebrate my 40th birthday at Hotel Alila on July 17th. 5 numbers of "Songs of the Night" will be premiered in this occasion, together with my other "greatest hits" such as some songs from my cantata Ars Amatoria, the song cycle Senyap Dalam Derai and some piano pieces. This concert is a birthday gift from Chendra my manager, and from Alila Hotel, and it will be preceded by a Gala Dinner. Mmmm ! And the organizer told me that I can just be myself in that concert and I can do whatever I want. I think it's quite dangerous to suggest such a thing to me ....
If you fancy coming to this event, please contact Chendra at 0818 891038 or http://ycep@yahoo.com/
Last week I was going through my manuscripts recovering them, since I will have the honour and opportunity of premiering them with my fantastic singer friends, Aning Katamsi the soprano and "Akis" Joseph Kristanto the baritone (photos ; I especially like Akis' photo in front of my favorite "fachada" of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. And I found Aning's photo somewhere after googling ; that's another facet of her life, being a choir conductor) in a concert to celebrate my 40th birthday at Hotel Alila on July 17th. 5 numbers of "Songs of the Night" will be premiered in this occasion, together with my other "greatest hits" such as some songs from my cantata Ars Amatoria, the song cycle Senyap Dalam Derai and some piano pieces. This concert is a birthday gift from Chendra my manager, and from Alila Hotel, and it will be preceded by a Gala Dinner. Mmmm ! And the organizer told me that I can just be myself in that concert and I can do whatever I want. I think it's quite dangerous to suggest such a thing to me ....
If you fancy coming to this event, please contact Chendra at 0818 891038 or http://ycep@yahoo.com/
sábado, 3 de mayo de 2008
My first opera : "Mengapa Kau Culik Anak Kami?" (Why did you kidnap our son?)
Now that I almost (just a few bars left to be orchestrated !) finish the writing of my first opera (it will be a long time before I will write my second ; I am totally exhausted and running out of notes!) , I dare to share with you more details about it. I wrote a bit about it last January, in relation to the death of our former dictator/president Suharto if you want to read more stuff.
It is based on a play by Seno Gumira Ajidarma which was done already (and had a huge success) in 2001 in Jakarta. The setting is in a living room of a married couple whose son, Satria, had been lost for a year, most presumably kidnapped during the Suharto dictatorship. Satria was a student and an activist, and it is unknown whether he is still alive or dead. For the world premiere, the father will be played by Joseph Kristanto (baritone) and the mother Aning Katamsi (soprano). Satria will come and go as both a flashback and in an imaginary situation in a torture chamber, being interrogated. Satria's role will be played by Chendra Panatan, who will also choreograph and direct the whole opera. Oh, and don't worry, he's not going to sing ! He will, however, undergo all the violent tortures (yes, it will be quite realistic, so don't bring under-age children to the opera) by two additional dancers.
In addition to the fantastic artists above, Tommy Prabowo will conduct an ensemble of 9 musicians which include : a string quartet, a woodwind trio, a keyboard and one percussionist. This opera is the result of a commission by the Indonesian Opera Society, and the world premiere will take place at Usmar Ismail Hall on a date that is easy to remember : 8 - 8 - 08, at 8 pm. That is the eighth of August this year. There will be another performance the day after.
Apart from the arias, there are some highlights from the opera that could be performed as separate numbers in the future. Those include a 4-minute string quartet when Satria is being interrogated and reaching out in futile to his parents, and a 2,5-minute bassoon solo piece "Satria Sendiri" (Satria alone) where Satria was alone in jail, frightened, blindfolded, but with a spirit that has not been broken.
It is based on a play by Seno Gumira Ajidarma which was done already (and had a huge success) in 2001 in Jakarta. The setting is in a living room of a married couple whose son, Satria, had been lost for a year, most presumably kidnapped during the Suharto dictatorship. Satria was a student and an activist, and it is unknown whether he is still alive or dead. For the world premiere, the father will be played by Joseph Kristanto (baritone) and the mother Aning Katamsi (soprano). Satria will come and go as both a flashback and in an imaginary situation in a torture chamber, being interrogated. Satria's role will be played by Chendra Panatan, who will also choreograph and direct the whole opera. Oh, and don't worry, he's not going to sing ! He will, however, undergo all the violent tortures (yes, it will be quite realistic, so don't bring under-age children to the opera) by two additional dancers.
In addition to the fantastic artists above, Tommy Prabowo will conduct an ensemble of 9 musicians which include : a string quartet, a woodwind trio, a keyboard and one percussionist. This opera is the result of a commission by the Indonesian Opera Society, and the world premiere will take place at Usmar Ismail Hall on a date that is easy to remember : 8 - 8 - 08, at 8 pm. That is the eighth of August this year. There will be another performance the day after.
Apart from the arias, there are some highlights from the opera that could be performed as separate numbers in the future. Those include a 4-minute string quartet when Satria is being interrogated and reaching out in futile to his parents, and a 2,5-minute bassoon solo piece "Satria Sendiri" (Satria alone) where Satria was alone in jail, frightened, blindfolded, but with a spirit that has not been broken.
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