More introductions to my music during the pandemic, 2021

Foreword to Rapsodia Nusantara 34 & 35 and other pieces ............................................................................................................ All of the works in this book was written during the Covid-19 pandemic, and two of them are closely related to the impact of the virus itself. ............................................................................................................. Organum was written during my stay in Labuan Bajo, after the passing away this year (2021) of Brigifine E. Syams, a piano teacher and close friend of mine, born and living in Surabaya. She passed away in July in hospital, and this music uses the method of Organum (in general, a plainchant melody with at least one added voice to enhance the harmony, developed in the Middle Ages). The melody itself uses her name B-R(e)-I-G-I-F-I-N-E as the motif and it develops as a kind of passacaglia. ................................................................................... Variations on Ibu Soed's "Pergi Belajar" is in fact written for myself after I was released from hospital. I hadn't played the piano for at least 1 month, I had some kind of brain fog and I was (and still am at this moment writing this) recovering from Long Covid. My stamina was so down, not only physically but also mentally, and I begin to think that I should start writing piano works that is not so mentally and physically demanding, not only for now but for my old(er) years. This is one of them. In fact, I even premiered it in its shorter version, but afterwards I was inspired to write more variations, and so I made this into 2 versions: the shorter one that ends at bar 74 , and the longer one where one should go to bar 71 from bar 75. ........................................................................................................................ I then donated "Pergi Belajar" together with Rapsodia Nusantara no. 35 to Habitat Foundation, to be auctioned for their fundraising event to help victims of the Seroja Typhoon in East Nusa Tenggara. "Pergi Belajar" then was bought by Edwin Soeryadjaya, to be dedicated "to my lovely wife Julie H. Soeryadjaya", while Rapsodia Nusantara no. 35 becomes the gift "From MedcoEnergi to the People of Naibonat Village, Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara". ................................................................................. I was still in my covid recovery period and didn't feel so secure in performing Rapsodia 35 at that event, so I asked one of the winners of the Ananda Sukarlan Award 2020, Michael Abimanyu Kaeng to perform it. He already played it for the Kayserburg International Youth Piano Competition that made him the winner of the Asian Region a few months before. I had written a Rapsy based on folkmelodies from East Nusa Tenggara, which was Rapsodia 11. Now that I have covered all the provinces of Indonesia (except Bengkulu from which I haven't found an original folksong) I am focusing on some specific regions or islands and make new Rapsies from them. Hence Rapsy 35 is entirely based on 2 folk-melodies from the island of Rote, which happens to be the most southern island of Indonesia, very close to Australia. Rapsy 35 was also played in the video "Matahari Terbenam di Timur" (The sun sets in the east) produced by the Ministry of Education and Culture on their YouTube channel "Budaya Saya". In that video, Gabriella Prisca Handoko performed that AND Rapsodia Nusantara no. 11. .................................................................................... Apart from these 3 piano works, Rapsodia Nusantara no. 34 and "I Wish Matilda had Waltzed to Minang" was written earlier during the pandemic. I wanted to write a series of "I Wish" pieces, where I intertwine a popular international melody with one from Indonesia, like I did with "I Wish Pavarotti Had Known Marzuki". So, "Matilda" was a "marriage" between "Waltzing Matilda" and the Minang folksong "Kampuang Nun Jauh di Mato". ........................................................................................... Rapsodia Nusantara no. 34 is quite particular because it intertwined two folksongs from two different provinces, although both still are in the island of Kalimantan. I only did this once, in my Rapsy 2, where both folksongs are children folktunes: one from Central Java (Cublak cublak suweng but a bit different melodic contour from the one today: I used the one I heard from the memories of my childhood) and one from West Java (Tokecang). Rapsy 34 used the folksong Tumpi Wayu (Central Kalimantan) and Cik-cik Periuk (West Kalimantan). I mix them both for they have a common motif made of the interval thirds. .................................................................................................. Ananda Sukarlan, November 2021, IG & twitter @anandasukarlan

Flashback to January 2021 : The preface to my music written in 2020, published in Jan. 2021

Have you all barely left the house in these last 9 months? Now you just realize, how much needed are art and artists right? How many works of music, films, literary works (even if they are as short as poems or short stories) or visual arts have you enjoyed while you couldn't leave your house? ...................................................................................................... There is one significant thing resulting from the quarantine of the Covid-19. The number of artistic productions of professional artists has increased sharply, but their communicative power to the "live" public has decreased significantly due to the closure of concert halls and theaters, cinemas, galleries and other public places. And this is dangerous, especially in a time when we are flooded (to be precise: allow ourselves to be flooded) by all forms of online entertainment and information. This can turn us into a passive and ignorant society, by allowing our brains to just accept (not mentioning that the current forms of entertainment and "art" are (very) easy to digest) and be unproductive, let alone creative. Besides, the term "social distancing" in my opinion is a big mistake, because it triggers us to be asocial. The reality is that we are "physical distancing", and we have to fight against anything that is "socially distant". ............................................................................................. Productivity and the new perspectives in creative products have been proven throughout history that creativity cannot be suppressed and silenced. The more limited space the artist is confined, the more his creativity will burn. In 1593 when the theater in London was closed by the plague, William Shakespeare was unable to perform so he wrote "Venus and Adonis," a beautiful narrative poem on love and nature. When the theater closed again in 1606, the poet busied himself locked at home writing "King Lear," "Macbeth," and "Antony and Cleopatra," according to Shakespearean James Shapiro. Indonesia's greatest writer, nominated for the Nobel Prize and recipient of the Magsaysay Award, Pramoedya Ananta Toer, wrote his major works during his exile during the Suharto dictatorship on the island of Buru. Oscar Wilde's greatest work "De Profundis" and French composer Olivier Messiaen's 50-minute "Quartet for the End of Time" were written while they were in prison. I myself, who wrote 26 numbers of Rapsodia Nusantara for 12 years, produced 5 numbers of Rapsodia Nusantara (no. 27-31) in 20 days in April during this Covid 19 quarantine period! In the world of science, not many might remember that Isaac Newton discovered the theory of gravity from the apple that fell from the tree during the bubonic plague that hit London in 1655. If quarantine did not close Cambridge University - sending student Isaac Newton to his village, perhaps the discovery of the theory wouldn't be that fast. .............................................................................................................. Now, in January 2021, I have finished 35 numbers of Rapsodia Nusantara and more piano works than ever, about 80 vocal works for my projects with the Ministry of Education and Culture for their "Rapsodia Nusantara" video series on YouTube, and several chamber works. This is certainly the most productive period, artistically, in my whole life, apart from my student days. Since the Ananda Sukarlan Award had to be done online, we were fortunate to have Calvin Abdiel (from a North Sumatran family) participated from Sydney where he is now currently studying at the Sydney Conservatory of Music, and at last won the 2020 prize. I then wrote a new Rapsodia dedicated to him, based on "Sigulempong" from North Sumatra, although I have written a Rapsodia from that region (number 14, based on the song "Rambadia") and numbered it no. 31 so that it could be published now (chronologically speaking it should be no. 34) . ............................................................................................................ Ananda Sukarlan, January 2021

Introduction to my "Happy Birthday Remix" and other piano pieces in the book

"Happy Birthday Remix" is a set of variations or merely twists from pop songs that was extracted, inspired or derived from melodies or motifs in classical music. To make life more complicated, I add the "Happy Birthday" tune to them, and dedicate them to my friends according to the occasion or zodiac. It's a spontaneous project started during the lockdown era of Covid-19, April 2020. Yes, I do quote from the pop song, but the pop song writer quoted from the classical melody, so who should pay royalty to whom, here? These were written in April - May 2020, during the lockdown of the Covid-19 pandemic. They wouldn't have been composed if I haven't had so much spare time! The way I copy and paste those pieces of music was in fact inspired by how the final scene of the movie "Rocketman" was made, when "Elton" sang "I'm Still Standing" using the original video clip. It was that visual technique which I applied in a musical way. ........................................................................................... Eric Carmen used Rachmaninov's tune from the 2nd movement of his Piano Concerto no. 2 as the base of his song, "All By Myself", later made hugely popular by Celine Dion. Released in 1975, it was before the Russian composer's 70th anniversary of death, so Carmen was contacted by the Rachmaninov estate and informed that it was still protected under royalty. An agreement was reached in which the estate would receive 12 percent of the royalties from "All by Myself". Carmen just speeded up the tempo of the original Rachmaninov melody, and put his words on it. What I did is I slowed it down, but not as much as the original tune, and mixed the chorus (which I think is original by Carmen) and the Happy Birthday tune, so listening to this, one gets confused which tune is which. That Rachmaninov’s music would be the source of a pop song hit should come as no surprise. If one of the requisites—at least in the 1970s— of creating a Top 40 hit is having a first-rate tune, then Rachmaninov might actually be the best place for a songwriter to start! . ...................................................................................................... "Memories ... Of Pachelbel" uses the melody from "Memories" of Maroon 5. Adam Levine basically ripped off the main melody of Pachelbel's Canon in D, added lyrics about wistfully recalling memories and missing people from your former life, and created an instant hit (and instant tear-jerker). The vocal melodies use the exact melodic and rhythmic motifs of Pachelbel's, not just the chord progression. I then intertwined the Happy Birthday tune, still using the rhythmic accompaniment of Maroon 5 (the only original thing of Maroon 5 that I used). .............................................................................................. The classic opening theme song of "Inspector Gadget" cartoon series came from Shuki Levy, an American composer famous in children’s television. Levy based his Inspector Gadget song on In the Hall of Mountain King, by the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg. ..................................................................................................... Toni Wine and Carole Bayer Singer based their song “Groovy Kind of Love” on the opening of the final movement of Clementi’s Sonatina in G minor, Op. 36, No. 5. “Groovy Kind of Love”. It was recorded early on by multiple groups including Diane and Annita (1965) and Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles (1966) and then became a big hit with Phil Collins. Basically Wine & Singer just took the first few bars of Clementi and slow it down and make it "groovy". ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Seikilos epitaph could date as far back as 200 B.C. It is the world’s oldest surviving piece of musical composition that has been found in its entirety. And because this piece exists in its entirety, scholars have not only been able to translate the lyrics but have also been able to convert the piece into modern musical notation that can be played today. Researchers have few clues about the creation of the Seikilos epitaph. What they do know is that the inscription on the stele may translate as “Seikilos to Euterpe.” Historians believe the composer, a man named Seikilos, wrote the song for a woman named Euterpe, presumably his deceased wife, and placed it on this tombstone for her. However, another possible interpretation of the text could be “Seikilos, son of Euterpe [or Euterpos],” so it is possible the song was actually dedicated to his mother. “As long as you live, shine, / Let nothing grieve you beyond measure. / For your life is short, / and time will claim its toll.” / .................................................................................................... In addition to the lyrics, another piece of the puzzle is the inscription engraved on the stele that reads, “I am a tombstone, an image. Seikilos placed me here as an everlasting sign of deathless remembrance.” There is thus no doubt that the composition is a type of mourning song, engraved on a loved one’s tombstone as a reminder of the fleeting nature of life. Much of the rest when it comes to the Seikilos epitaph, however, remains unclear. ................................................................................ The song, the melody of which is recorded, alongside its lyrics, in the ancient Greek musical notation, was found engraved on a tombstone (a stele) from the Hellenistic town Tralles near present-day Aydın, Turkey, not far from Ephesus. It is a Hellenistic Ionic song in either the Phrygian octave species or Iastian tonos. While older music with notation exists (for example the Hurrian songs), all of it is in fragments; the Seikilos epitaph is unique in that it is a complete, though short, composition. I therefore can analyze and delve deeply into it in order to make a set of variations on the original theme. Ananda Sukarlan, July 2021 IG & twitter @anandasukarlan