Rainy Saturday with apple pie

What do one do in a rainy Saturday ? Of course, with youtube, DVDs, satellite TVs etc. that's a stupid question. Anyway, we were planning yesterday to go out for lunch at the beach, but obviously it had to be cancelled. So, Raquel my wife stayed and baked an apple pie. Just like any other conservative family (and then I am against the Republicans !), we stayed at home. Meanwhile Alicia Pirena, my daughter, asked me to teach her how to write music, so with nothing else to do we both did a short one, a bit more than 1-minute long. It is for 4-hands, and since the recipe of "Apfelstrudel" was there in the kitchen, she decided to call it .. well, Apfelstrudel.

Oh, by the way, about the Haiku which was "commissioned" by Alicia. I did 12 of them and decided that that's it. So, there are 12 Haiku for Alicia, ranging from 3 to 12 bars each. From very easy to moderately difficult. Maybe I'd do the same with Apfelstrudel ; I'll write a series of works for 4-hands, with 2 hands easier than the other ones. No commissions this time, not even 1 euro ! Any technical suggestions welcome, fellow pianists and piano teachers.

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.

Alicia's first commission

I was deeply immersed writing my opera today when my daughter Alicia came and said "Daddy, I want to commission you a piano piece for me to play. I want my own piano piece". The commission fee : 1 euro. Well, I certainly cannot reject a commission of this importance. By a very important commissioner. And hopefully without being cut by tax this time.

So, I wrote a very short piece in just 5 bars for her. But then I thought, this could be the beginning of a series of "haiku" for piano. It would be fun to write those sketches, one every day, after finishing my main work, the opera. In fact, those haiku can be used as a material for some bigger pieces, each concentrating on a certain colour. Let's see if this is realistic and I'll have some really tiny "mikrokosmos" for piano, for my dearest Alicia to play.

My vocal score "Tembang Puitik" almost sold out

I couldn't believe it myself. My manager, Chendra Panatan told me that my score of 25 songs for voice(s) and piano "Tembang Puitik Ananda Sukarlan" (see my entry in February 08) have been sold about 900 exemplars. 1000 ex. were printed for the first time last December. Ok, ok, this is far from the amount sold of Harry Potter or Da Vinci code, but for vocal works by an Indonesian composer this is quite unbelievable. To be honest, I am quite surprised, proud, and thankful to the mostly Indonesian singers who have bought my score. And also very grateful that you don't make photocopies out of it !
So, Chendra is considering making a second printing of another 1000. Will he succeed in selling another 1000 ? We sold that amount (no, no, we sold just under 900) in about 4 months. Yeah, this year I will be celebrating my 40th birthday, and many events are being organized everywhere to celebrate it, so there will be opportunities to sell them. Anyway, I know Chendra works miracles, so I told him to go ahead and boldly do it.

Since the score was released, I had written about 20 more songs, for all kinds of voices. And of course, some excerpts from my opera I am writing now can be arranged for voice(s) and piano. So, I am thinking of including them in the new score to be sold. Anyway, thanx guys, for your appreciation for my music ! May God bless you all singing my songs over the rooftops of the world !

First love never dies

I know, I know that I have to really sit down and finish my opera. But instead, today I spent 2 hours sitting and connected to the internet. Because ....

Today I saw my very first person I fell in love with in my life. In fact, it wasn't with a person, but with a frog. And it wasn't a female frog. His name is Kermit. And I saw him today at youtube, a snippet from the Muppet Movie. I remember the first time I felt that moment when I fell in love with him, and that very film exists exactly in youtube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSFLZ-MzIhM . Tears fell from my eyes today, so before doing anything else, to immortalize this day, I write this entry in my blog to share it with you. And to let you know a very important moment in my life.

I watched it when I was about 13, in the island of Belitung, where my sister lived as a doctor. That was the moment, the minute, the second when I decided that I definitely wanted to become a musician. Now, 25 or so years later, I listened to it again. So, it wasn't Glenn Gould playing Bach or a dance performance of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring or Puccini's Madame Butterfly who inspired me. It was a green creature called Kermit the frog singing The Rainbow Connection.

Why no "Sukarlan plays Sukarlan" ?

My manager Chendra Panatan has always been bombarded with this question (especially by many, many young pianists) : Why doesn't AS record and play his own piano music ? He's always answered with "Later perhaps", but now I will tell you the exact reasons why.

1. There are still not so many pianists who play my pieces, so I do not want to dictate them how to interpret my own music. Ok, ok, Rachmaninov as a pianist or Samuel Barber as a baritone were the best interpreters of their own music, but how many composers could claim it so? I am always surprised in listening to other people performing my music ; I always found new things which I even didn't realize before in my music. The good musicians always find new points of view in looking at the music. Don't misinterpret me as an idiot ! It's true, I tell you. It has happened also in the opposite way, when I am interpreting someone elses music. Sir Michael Tippett, Peter Sculthorpe and many others have expressed this to me (and in case of Sir Michael, God bless his soul, spoke it out loud on BBC Radio 3!) when they listened to my playing of their music.

2. You must understand that composing is one thing, being an interpreter is another thing. My interpretation of my own music doesn't make it more "authentic" than other (hopefully better) musician's interpretation. As a pianist, my position is exactly the same when I am playing Beethoven or when I am playing Ananda Sukarlan. The composer/conductor Andre Previn told me once that good music is always better than its performance. Therefore, nobody yet can achieve what Beethoven really wanted his music to sound. His music is still far better than any interpretations of it. In my case, it's the contrary : I am counting on my musicians to make my music sound BETTER than I wrote it !

3. I prefer at the moment to record music by other composers who I esteem highly. Especially now I am focusing myself on my Indonesian composers colleagues. Almost nobody cares about their music, and those who care, cannot play the piano ! Some of our senior composers such as Amir Pasaribu and Trisutji Kamal deserve to have recordings of their piano music NOW (to be precise, it's been long overdue). In case of the late Yazeed Djamin, there is also a feeling of friendship besides admiration. I am proud of their music, and I wish that Indonesian musicians could be proud of their composers. Who else but us, Indonesians, can introduce those composers ? They are not even known in our own country.

Accents in Silence

We had a rehearsal with the ITB Choir last Sunday the 16th with my piece they commissioned, "Jokpiniana no. 1". It was great fun (except for the bloody traffic jam on the way to the rehearsal) and everybody learned a lot (oh, well, I hope THEY did, because I really did. Every rehearsal of my music is like looking at the mirror & knowing myself better).

The ITB-Choir consists of mostly amateur musicians, but their dedication to music and the way they work surpasses most of the "professional" (classical-) musicians in Indonesia. Its director, Indra Listiyanto is doing a great job in developing the choir, and their contribution to Indonesian classical music is invaluable.

Now, I can spot some weakness in my music. Unfortunately I will have to humbly tell these things to those of you who are playing my music, so that you can make my music better than it really is ! Certainly I am not Mozart whose music can survive in any conditions. So, these are the most "vulnerable" elements in my music (especially the choral ones) :

1. Speed. Remember the film "Top Gun" ? I feel the need, the need ... for speed !! Sometimes I write heart-pounding speeds in my music ; without it, the rhythms and "drive" would become quite sissy and soft. There is this element of "macho"-ness that could be lost when one performs it in lesser velocity than I indicated in the score. So, commander, set to Warp Speed 9 and ... ENERGIZE !!! Let's boldly go where no man has gone before !

2. "Just do it", or "Don't even think about it". Now, those speeds are scary (especially with so many rhythmic problems going on !), but once you set the speed DO NOT SLOW DOWN. Imagine a moving bullet or airplane, you know what happens, right, when it slows down ? One should maintain it ABSO-bloody-LUTELY strict (check it perhaps with a metronome?). Just think that you are Sandra Bullock driving that bus in the film "Speed" : if you slow down, then ... tick, tock, tick, tock .... BOOM !!

3. The highly dangerous silences on down (or strong)-beats. Those syncopes, I mean. This makes any performer enter rather late in hitting the note afterwards, especially in that speed. The trick of doing it is giving oneself an imaginary accent in those silent down-beats, as if a note (and a fortissimo one !) existed in that strong-beat silence. Don't take a breath in those silences, otherwise it is guaranteed that you will sing that next note later than it should be.

Anyway, especially for Jokpiniana no. 1, perhaps the secret of its successful performance can be resumed in two words : FUN and FUNKY.

I write my music in the beginning of the 21th century, and I hope it reflects and expresses our contemporary situation : bitterly ironic, rushing everywhere, highly anxious, agressive, and .... unfortunately still very much macho-dominated (no matter what Hillary Clinton declares to earn votes from as many women as possible). But I am a highly optimistic person (and composer), so no matter how bleak things look like outside, life is still fun and funky for me. Certainly, some 80% of my music (including Jokpiniana no.1) has a male character. No offense to the ladies, it's just how my music turns out after I composed it ... I couldn't help it myself !!

Americans in Pyongyang (and everywhere else)

What a funny feeling it is, being home for the whole month, writing practically just one piece of music (well, in fact, I interrupted my opera once with writing a short choral work based on dang-dut rhythm-- see some entries below). But I am enjoying it immensely, and I start to appreciate my nice and big garden, my cactus trees and the already blossoming spring flowers -- and thanx to global warming, the nice spring weather in February! And my house ! At last I have been to all the corners of my house.

Around the time of the Oscar ceremony, another event happened, this time I consider really sickening if not immoral. The New York Philharmonic went to perform in North Korea. Certainly everybody has been talking about how bad they played under Lorin Maazel, but this is not the issue I am gonna talk about here.

According to the American newspapers, this visit " is a late postlude to a long- planned Asia tour, organized with the backing of the U.S. State Department'' and that they had put in a request that “the concert would be open to the average citizen.'' Now, let's google North Korea and Kim Il Jung, and I found this :
Human-rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, estimate that some two million North Koreans out of a population of 23.3 million have died of hunger; officials admit to 250,000.

I saw about 20 minutes of the concert on TV, and saw that it was packed by the officials of the government, many of them with bored faces (sorry for the subjective opinion). Frankly speaking, I am unable to differentiate those from the “average citizens”, if any. Anyway, a broadcast of the event around the world already means a victory for the regimes (I mean both regimes, of Kim Il Jung and of G.W. Bush), and an insult to the democracy. Honestly, all this americani-- sorry, globalization-- business is making me sick. It was fortunate for countries like Japan, New Zealand or Australia and the Latin-American countries to have been able to develop their own high quality and character of classical music before this “global”-ization era. They had managed to establish their own composers, with their own voices, and produce great musicians. But countries like Indonesia is lacking behind – and we are not able to climb up from the trap we have fallen into. Indonesian audience still flock to any concerts of white-skinned musicians (or any white skin, musicians or not), and the local musicians wouldn't even think of the existence of –let alone trying to establish-- Indonesian classical music. They only want to perform music by white-skinned (and even better, dead) composers. The “global” guys have managed to convince us that they are better, they are superior, and we have to give them our money. It's not worth spending money to listen to our local musicians : classical music is not our culture, therefore we know nothing of it. The message is too clear : just trust the global guys, that's where classical music comes from, and let's spend our money to support them.

Music is the loser in this battle, and unfortunately its biggest enemy is its own troops : the musicians.