Foreword to Alicia's 4th Piano Book

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

Inspired

The word, as where it comes from, remains a mystery. Just as the whereabouts of the Malaysian Airlines MH 370 which has been lost for exactly 7 days now. Inspiration is a word that is both under- and over-valued in the art world. .............................................................................................................................................. I am a true Indonesian, in the sense that I need the sun in my life. Winter always makes me gloomy. Spring officially arrives next Thursday the 20th, but we already feel it here. It brightens my days, it brightens my brain. 3 days ago I had an idea, which quickly turned out to be a pretty vivid musical structure, of a piece, a Rapsodia Nusantara-like one, based on that beautiful long melody by Indonesia's celebrated songwriter, Ismail Marzuki. His song, Rayuan Pulau Kelapa (The seduction of the coconut island) came to my mind, perhaps a little bit due to some homesickness (yes, I still call Indonesia home). I immediately set aside my present work, and started working on it. These last 2 nights were quite productive, and I almost finished it. It's a set of variations on the melody. Since it's originally a loooong melody, divided into the main and the "refrain" as we say in pop songs, at the moment I couldn't make more than 6 variations. In fact it's 5 variations, plus 1 short interlude which perhaps can't be called a variation, preceding the last variation. As you know, the more elaborate the theme, the less we can develop it. But I am not doing so bad. Perhaps after I try the whole piece on the piano I'd decide to write more variations .. who knows. And it's pretty strange that I am attracted to a long, winding tune to develop something out of it. Usually I am more attracted to simple themes, like the folk melodies I developed in my Rapsodia Nusantara. .............................................................................................................................................. Maybe these highly inspired 3 days are not only because of the bright spring days, but also due to my friend Henoch Kristianto's deadline to record my second volume of Rapsodia Nusantara. I asked him 3 days ago if he would like to replace the last Rapsodia which he hasn't recorded or even started practising with this new piece, and he agreed. I dunno if I can give away to you which Rapsies he is recording (maybe I'll let Henoch do it, it's his CD so I should not say too much about it now), but I can tell you that the no. 8, yeah that now very popular one, will be included in this CD. In fact, I have heard his recording of it, and my reaction was just "wow". I wish I could play it as he'd done it for this CD. So, I am gonna send him part of my new piece, Variations on Rayuan Pulau Kelapa after I finish writing this entry. I finished the 4 last variations, and that's what he'll receive from me for this moment. Yup, I have this habit writing a piece from the end. So he has a material to start working with, while I can take a break this nice afternoon. Spring is definitely coming, and I'm gonna take my usual sunset walk, with a light jacket for the first time this year. In fact, many of the chords and atmospheres in this new piece (like the interlude before the last variation) owe their colours to the numerous sunset colours around this valley where I live that I recorded both visually and aurally.

My article "Piano Competition : Quo Vadis?" at KOMPAS March 2 (in Indonesian)

Yesterday, one of Indonesia's most popular newspaper KOMPAS published my article, and I'm posting it here. It is in Indonesian, so if you wanna read it in your own language, please use google translate. Not that it's accurate, but it gives you an idea of what it is :) . .............................................................................................................................................. Kompetisi Piano, Quo Vadis ? .............................................................................................................................................. Mulai banyak kompetisi piano yang diadakan di tanah air, menyusul iklim musik sastra (istilah yg saya rasa lebih tepat daripada "musik klasik") yang sangat hangat dan aktif saat ini. Tak dapat dihindari pergerakannya ke arah positif dan negatif. Pendidikan musik pada umumnya di usia yang sangat muda (dibawah 10 tahun) dalam artian membaca not balok dan memainkan instrumen (bukan hanya piano) memang bukan bertujuan utama untuk membuat anak-anak itu menjadi musikus di kemudian harinya, tapi lebih ke pengaktifan otak yang lebih intuitif dan kreatif, sehingga mereka akan berkembang sebagai individu yang lebih peka, bukan hanya empatis, tapi juga dalam melaksanakan kualitas pekerjaan mereka yang sering tidak berhubungan sama sekali dengan seni. Dari pendidikan tersebut, sering secara tidak sengaja ditemukan bakat-bakat musik yang kadang luar biasa yang diharapkan dapat menjadi musikus handal dikemudian harinya, di mana modal bakat saja tentu tidak cukup untuk itu. .............................................................................................................................................. Kompetisi piano adalah salah satu wadah dimana mereka dapat menantang kualitas dirinya sendiri. Dua kata terakhir itu yang perlu diingat : dirinya sendiri. Pada dasarnya kompetisi seni apapun tidak dapat disamakan dengan kompetisi olahraga, dimana sang kompetitor memiliki "lawan" atau "rival" karena bagaimanapun subyektivitas para juri ikut memegang peran. Yang bermain musik Tschaikovsky dengan tempo lebih cepat belum tentu menang, tidak seperti di kolam renang. Yang penekanan tuts pianonya paling kuat juga belum tentu menang karena ini bukan olahraga gulat. Bahkan yang meleset memencet tuts piano pun belum tentu terkurangi nilainya, sedangkan di olahraga panah, jika anak panah tidak tepat sasaran nilainya akan berkurang. Oleh karena itu, di ajang seperti ini sang peserta diharapkan berkompetisi dengan kualitasnya sendiri, dengan perbedaan antara apa yang diharapkannya sebelum naik panggung dan kenyataan yang terjadi di panggung , seberapa besar aspirasi artistiknya bisa direalisasikan di depan penonton dan juri. .............................................................................................................................................. Jadi, apakah tidak ada standar atau kriteria dalam penilaian juri? Tentu saja ada, hanya saja semua kriteria tersebut berhenti pada tahap teknik permainan serta pengetahuan akademik. Dan kriteria-kriteria tersebut sudah 70-80% terpenuhi oleh teknik permainan yang makin membaik oleh para pianis muda Indonesia saat ini. Setelah semua kriteria ini terpenuhi, saatnya "selera" memegang peranan. Masalahnya mulai timbul jika kompetisi dijadikan ajang "rebutan murid" oleh para guru musik yang nota bene menjadi juri di kompetisi tersebut. Dan "selera" ini bisa saja diinterpretasi dengan subyektivitas yang memang tidak bisa dihindari, bukan hanya dari kualitas permainan, tapi menjalar jadinya ke "yang ini murid saya, jadi harus saya kasih nilai lebih tinggi daripada yang lain". Bagaimanapun, nama guru akan terangkat jika muridnya memenangkan sebuah kompetisi, apalagi yang bergengsi. Masalah lain, mungkin yang paling penting tapi sering dilupakan adalah jika juri adalah seorang pendidik tapi tidak merangkap seorang "performer" (dalam artian sebenarnya, bukan hanya bermain di depan murid-muridnya atau lingkungan sekolahnya), karena ia akan melupakan satu hal yang sederhana tapi penting : penonton datang ke konser untuk "disentuh hati"nya, bukan untuk mengontrol dengan stopwatch seberapa cepat sang pianis memainkan Chopin Etude serta menghitung jumlah tuts piano yang salah pencet. Kecepatan tempo, tingkat akurasi permainan yang tinggi dll. TIDAK menjamin tingginya nilai artistik sebuah permainan piano, seperti yang saya selalu tekankan (dan sulit diterjemahkan ke bahasa Indonesia) : Music serves to express, not to impress. .............................................................................................................................................. Indonesia sebagai salah satu pengguna terbesar media sosial di dunia , musik sastra-nya juga terwakili dengan begitu banyak pengikut Facebook dan twitter. Banyak sumber informasi yang di tulis oleh para amatir, dan beberapa dari mereka memberikan informasi (bukan hanya opini) yang kurang tepat. Dalam kasus ini hanya waktu lah yang dapat menyaring kualitas yang baik dari forum dan media tersebut yang saat ini tumbuh lebih dalam kuantitas daripada kualitas. .............................................................................................................................................. Penulis akui bahwa kompetisi bukanlah cara terbaik untuk membangun atmosfir kesenian , tetapi sampai sekarang , inilah satu-satunya cara untuk seorang musikus muda memulai karir di musik sastra , di mana kompetisi / audisi yang disaksikan publik umum menjadi sebuah platform di mana bakat seseorang ditemukan dan diakui . Jika ada metode yang lebih baik daripada audisi / kompetisi yang "fair", metode itu harus bisa menjawab dua pertanyaan ini : 1. Bagaimana seorang produser / penyelenggara acara / komponis mendapatkan dan menemukan musikus yang berkualitas, dan sebaliknya : 2. Bagaimana musikus yang berkualitas tapi tidak memiliki koneksi, uang yang cukup dan fasilitas lain mendapatkan kesempatan, atau "exposure" untuk bisa menunjukkan karyanya? Asumsi bahwa kompetisi / audisi itu seperti lagunya ABBA : "The winner takes it all, the loser has to fall" itu sama sekali tidak benar. Justru berdasarkan pengalaman saya mengadakan kompetisi piano internasional Ananda Sukarlan Award sejak 2008, terdapat fakta yang malah menguntungkan yang "kalah" seperti ini : .............................................................................................................................................. 1. Th 2008, Inge Buniardi memenangkan juara I, dan Edith Widayani pemenang II. Edisi berikutnya (2010), Edith Widayani menjadi pemenang pertama. Kini dua-duanya sedang melanjutkan kuliah di University of Kansas (Inge dalam program S3), dan Eastman School of Music (Edith program S2), dua perguruan tinggi yang "top" di AS, dan telah memulai karir sebagai pianis ke mancanegara. 2. Th. 2008, Randy Ryan memenangkan juara III, saat itu usianya baru 15 th. Ia ikut kompetisi lagi th. 2012, dan ia memenangkan juara I. Kini ia kuliah S1 di Juilliard School of Music, New York. Dua fakta ini tidak di"sengaja" terjadi, karena dewan juri setiap edisi berbeda, jadi mereka tidak mengenal siapa yang telah berpartisipasi di edisi sebelumnya. .............................................................................................................................................. Ketiga pianis yg saya sebut ini kini mendapatkan beasiswa dari universitasnya untuk kuliahnya. Kesimpulan yang dapat diambil adalah, sukses sering tidak tercapai langsung dalam satu kompetisi, "kegagalan" bukan berarti kiamatnya dunia tetapi memperkaya pengalaman. Itupun saya alami di masa-masa muda saya. .............................................................................................................................................. Dunia seni yang sangat menjunjung tinggi kualitas produknya tidak dapat lagi berkembang melalui nepotisme atau persahabatan semata. Betapapun cintanya anda terhadap istri atau anak anda (dan seringkali kasusnya merembet ke keponakan, sepupu bahkan tetangga), belum tentu ia dapat menjamin kualitas pertunjukan yang prima, betapapun besarnya usahanya dan niat baiknya selain untuk memberikan yang terbaik, juga untuk membahagiakan anda. Mengambil bagian dalam kompetisi dan bagaimana mempersiapkan diri untuk itu sekarang menjadi bagian yang tidak terpisahkan dari pendidikan musik , dan manfaatnya sekarang bahkan lebih bermakna , mengingat bahwa ada begitu banyak bisnis sekolah musik yang menawarkan pendidikan "instan", memenuhi banyak harapan orang tua kepada anak-anak mereka untuk menjadi "jenius " dalam bermain piano dalam waktu beberapa bulan. Kualitas seorang musisi hanya dapat dibuktikan dengan konser "live" atau rekamannya. Ekspresi yang ingin disampaikannya harus cukup dalam sehingga tidak dapat disampaikan dengan kata-kata, ucapan atau tulisan. Hanya melalui sebuah kompetisi atau audisi lah seseorang dapat menyajikan kualitasnya baik kepada masyarakat luas ataupun ke para ahli yang bertindak sebagai juri. Hanya melalui kualitas tinggi para musisi lah musik sastra kita akan tumbuh dan berkembang, dan dalam jangka panjang itu membuat musik sastra diterima , "dipahami" dan akhirnya dicintai. .............................................................................................................................................. Ananda Sukarlan, pianis & komponis, ketua dewan juri Ananda Sukarlan Award International Piano Competition. @anandasukarlan . http://anandasukarlanaward.wordpress.com

... and what about Asperger's Syndrome ?

I posted about Hans Asperger a few days ago in my facebook, at the International Asperger's Day on Feb. 18th that coincided with Asperger's birthday in 1906, in which I confirmed and admitted that indeed I am convinced that besides Tourette's Syndrome, I also am an "Aspie" -- the popular term for us who have Asperger's Syndrome. (please read http://andystarblogger.blogspot.com.es/2013_05_01_archive.html for my entry about Tourette Syndrome). It is quite common for a person to have both Tourette AND Asperger, since they both fall under the same autistic spectrum. .............................................................................................................................................. It all began when I was diagnosed in 1996 with a clear Tourette Syndrome and a "high probability" of Asperger's Syndrome. I even don't understand why they put Asperger with an apostrophe "s", which they don't put with Tourette! Oh well, psychologists, they are all full of mysteries. From now on, I'll refer to them with AS and TS only. .............................................................................................................................................. AS remains a controversial diagnosis due to its unclear relationship to the autism spectrum since Mr. Asperger's paper published in 1944. Only in the 1980s that people took interest in it. I have indeed given a clue of my AS in an interview at the Jakarta Post with writer Bruce Emond, back in 2008 during the celebration of my 40th birthday : http://andystarblogger.blogspot.com.es/2010/09/horribly-lonely-in-jakarta-post.html . I quote myself answering Mr. Emond's question: What would people be surprised to know about you?. I answered: I have this strange hormone in me which provokes the feeling of extreme loneliness (even if I am in a crowd). It’s been working inside me since I was a teenager. And that loneliness cannot be cured by just being with someone. When it happens, it usually indicates that I should write music. My best music is written when I am feeling horribly lonely. .............................................................................................................................................. Being lonely, or alone, is a common trait for Aspies. AS, as with the other syndromes in the autistic spectrum, has more to do with social and psychological aspects than a physical one. I won't try to explain everything about AS, since I am not an expert in that, and also since AS is still a mysterious syndrome. The problem is that there are so many speculations about people in the past who allegedly suffered from AS which I find rather disconcerting, such as Thomas Jefferson, Sir Isaac Newton or Albert Einstein. Even Mozart! With Mozart, his Tourette Syndrome was pretty convincing, but how would one know that he had AS too? Anyway, there are similar traits of people with TS or AS. What I would like to say is just that we, people with AS and TS could, and even should, behave and socialize quite "normally". I certainly --and am sure I represent other people with AS and TS-- do not want to be treated differently. Yeah, during the Nazi era, people like us were put into concentration camps, but that was the case of everyone "different", such as homosexuals etc. In fact, it is proven that people with AS usually excel in one or even several fields, since a particular part of our brain is highly activated. Therefore, we get people with AS like Bill Gates or the founder & designer of Pokemon game, Satoshi Tajiri. .............................................................................................................................................. Another thing I would like to rectify is the common belief that people with AS can't be "empathic". That's very wrong. In fact, after talking with fellow Aspies, I can tell you that we are just the opposite: we are hypersensitive people. We just don't know, most of the times, how to express it physically. And I think this is where my music comes from : it can express things which I am unable to express through gestures, words or actions. I found a good article about debunking myths of AS and explaining it better here : http://psychcentral.com/lib/debunking-6-myths-about-asperger-syndrome/0008957/2 . So, that convinced me again of what I always said about music : We write, perform and play music to express, not to impress.

The more things change, the more they remain the same

Now, why do we get to hear the same pieces of classical music all the time? This question is always inevitable before judging at a piano competition, especially in 5 months from now that the Ananda Sukarlan Award will take place. Imagine listening to hundreds of participants, all playing those same pieces of music. Chopin Ballades and Scherzi are on the top of the list, as well as his Etudes. Beethoven's Sonatas follow. My complain is not because that they are boring, no no no. They are masterpieces. But aren't there more piano works? Hundreds more that participants can choose to play, instead of all those same, though great, stuff? .............................................................................................................................................. I borrowed the title of this entry from a phrase by the 19th century French writer Alphonse Karr, and only now that it proves to be more true than ever. That issue mentioned above is, in my opinion, one of the reasons why classical music concerts become so "unattractive". Would you watch the same movie again and again? Would you read a book again and again? I mean, throughout your whole life, like, 50 times. Yeah well, I admit I do, with some movies like WestSide Story, The Godfather or Dead Poets' Society, and Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet or that Metamorphosis of Ovid that I went on and on in my previous entry, but I do watch new films, read new books. It's not that everytime I switch on my DVD player I watch The Godfather. Well it's different if it's an opera or a Shakespeare play, since the actors change, the settings change and there are more extramusical things there. But a Beethoven sonata? Could 2 pianists really, I mean really, give a significant difference in interpreting a Beethoven Sonata that would make it so fresh and compelling? The problem is that we've heard Schnabel's, Rubinstein's, Brendel's version of Beethoven's Sonatas. Now, could we (I include myself) give a performance that is really worth listening to, after those masters? .............................................................................................................................................. Another theme I wanna address here is about concentration span. Yeah yeah, people say that due to the social media etc., our attention span is getting shorter n shorter. You know what? I have received more than a few messages, saying that AT LAST they listened to my Rapsodia Nusantara no. 10, which is in fact the first track of Henoch Kristianto's CD of my piano works. Wanna know their reasons not to listen to it until the end before? Coz the introduction, which lasts more than 1 minute long, is too dissonant. But then they read some tweets or comments of people who said that no. 10 is, for them, my best Rapsy, and that it's based on a Balinese traditional song, Janger. "Eh?" they wondered. "But I didn't hear any Janger there". Well folks, you just gotta wait until about 1.30 minutes when the introduction ends! Instead, after about half a minute they went directly to the next track, which is my Rapsy 6. And oh, how nice it is, with its impressionistic colours and a nice melody that appears in about 2 seconds! .............................................................................................................................................. Now that made me think. Would Beethoven have done his Eroica Variations like that if he were alive today? You know, Eroica's theme didn't appear until like 2 minutes or so. The beginning of that piece is just so, so absurd and baffling. For people who listen to it for the first time today, they might not discover how great a piece it is! .............................................................................................................................................. And as a whole, some people complain about concerts being too long? You can’t sit through a 20-minute sonata? Believe it or not, sitting still and concentrating for extended periods of time are actual, important life skills. Grown up skills. If you can’t concentrate on something for 20 minutes, the problem may be with you rather than with the music. That doesn’t mean that the longer the piece of music the more it is a masterpiece, but maybe you could take the time to find out. And frankly, these composers wrote about some pretty serious things in their piece: life, death, (unrequited) love, faith, desire, war. Those things can’t always fit into a 3 minute song. Sorry. .............................................................................................................................................. Finally…if the music is too long, then it's boring? Excuse me? Boring, did you say? Listen to Shostakovich. The guy lived with a bag packed, looking over both shoulders, waiting to die a long, painful, horrible death in the frozen land of Siberia for, not wanting to call a violent, erratic sociopath (Stalin) the greatest guy who ever lived. Good ol’ Dimitri defied official orders time and time again; he was brave, and he was honest: this fear (and his love of his homeland) found its way into his music. Listen to his 5th symphony. Go, ahead, do it -– then tell me that this music is boring. .............................................................................................................................................. C'mon guys. Time's changing fast. WE are changing fast. And classical music should change with time and with us. To be better, of course. Be more creative. "Classical" doesn't mean "old", "pedantic" and "stale". There is a huge world to be discovered there, not only by the average audience, but by us too, musicians who deal with it every day.

Everything changes

Now, only now, the end of January, that we could really feel the winter. Blizzard, strong winds, rain and hail the whole day. It's been a warm winter since I came back to Spain, 10 days ago. With such laziness for going outside, I am re-reading, for the n-th time, Ovid's Metamorphosis. Ah yes, have you heard our latest performance of 2 of my pieces inspired by that? Check it out here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U97fRuNuq9c . I did it with my new friends, John Ferrillo (oboe) and James Sommerville (french horn) from the Boston Symphony Orchestra. .............................................................................................................................................. I made a series of pieces for wind instruments inspired, and based on, characters from Ovid's M. The others are Deianira, whose beauty is the source of her unhappiness for bassoon solo, Arachne the great weaver (clarinet and piano), Narcissus Dying and Rescuing Ariadne (both for flute and piano). Rereading M again, I feel like composing more pieces, this time for other instruments. But first I wanna share with you my thoughts about Ovid and his M. The nice thing about M is that it's so jam-packed that you don't even have to read it all the way through; if you want a taste of what it's about, you can pretty much start anywhere you want, or just look in the index to find your favorite myths, and go straight to those. I can say that it has no plot, or clear storyline. In this way, it's sort of like an all-you-can-eat buffet – with the difference that, once you get hooked, you're likely to go ahead and eat the whole thing. M begins with the creation of the world, which he describes in a mixture of scientific and supernatural terms. Then he talks about the creation of human beings, the Four Ages of early humanity (Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Iron), followed by the Great Flood that wiped out all human life except for a Greek guy named Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha. After Deucalion and Pyrrha repopulate the earth, Ovid starts talking about various strange occurrences involving gods, demigods, and mortals, all centering on moments of transformation from one physical state to another. In theory, these stories follow each other in time, though in practice it gets more complicated, as there are lots of flashbacks and flashbacks-within-flashbacks. This sounds confusing, but is actually really cool n fun to read. In fact, that is what makes it really cool n fun to read. It reminds me of SAMAN by the Indonesian favorite writer of mine, Ayu Utami. It goes back and forth like crazy :) . And that's why I like composing characters from M : I can just write short pieces from any page of the book. Although there are sections, like the creation of the world, which sounds as a whole orchestra with many brass instruments in it. Maybe I'll do it when I get a commission to do an orchestral work next time. .............................................................................................................................................. Ovid himself, born Publius Ovidius Naso (20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18) , was educated in law, and he insisted that his older brother who died young (and also educated in law) had a greater gift for eloquence. Oh you can just google Ovid to know more about him. Anyway, M keeps fascinating me, and in fact there is just one underlying theme throughout the whole 15 books, which is exactly the title, which I would translate into "everything changes". M captures and engages the reader because of, not in spite of, its size and scope. All humans here are transformed into stones, gods, animals etc. etc. In fact, just like real modern life. Nobody is who (s)he is. Life is beautiful because of, not in spite of, all the tragedies happening in it.

Andy's Pick of the Year !

It's almost the end of the year. Although this year ends with the unlucky number 13, I must say that it's not been a bad year at all. With the things that I absorbed this year, there were some really inspiring works of art. So, here's my pick of the year 2013. .............................................................................................................................................. This year is especially fruitful for me in consuming great writings by Indonesian writers. Of course Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet and Julius Caesar, Ovid's Metamorphosis and Plato's Symposium still remain my "bible", keeping them beside my bed the whole year, but for the new ones, I should pick my favorites of this year (the order is random, neither alphabetical nor a ranking of what I think is the best since it's difficult to say which one is better than the other) : Leila S. Chudori : Pulang , Budiman Sudjatmiko : Anak-anak Revolusi , Laksmi Pamuntjak : Amba , Okky Mandasari : Pasung Jiwa , and I enjoy so much the collection of Fira Basuki's tweets in her book "140 karakter". .............................................................................................................................................. The only foreign book that impressed me deeply this year is Paolo Coelho's Manuscript Found in Acra. I must admit that I haven't read that many books in other languages this year, I dunno why. .............................................................................................................................................. In classical music, although we could claim that technology has made it possible to listen to things almost immediately, I just heard recently some pieces written a few years ago, due to the inavailability of the recording on CDs. In fact, I heard them first through youtube. Those that have moved me deeply this year include : John Williams' Cello Concerto (from the 1990s !), Andre Previn's Harp Concerto (from 2007) and Lera Auerbach's "Icarus". The first two have been my favorites all my life, and am so glad that in their old ages (Williams is 81 and Previn is 84 and now quite frail) they remain so prolific in their musical productions. Lera Auerbach is a new discovery for me, I befriended her through facebook and have always listened to all her music posted in her facebook.The really new ones written this year I should mention Robert Zuidam's Bosch Requiem and Santiago Lanchares' 3 pieces from "Castor & Pollux" for orchestra (the latter is the only one that I heard through the radio at the moment of its premiere last November). .............................................................................................................................................. Of course I am really delighted that pianist Henoch Kristianto has released a CD of many of my piano music; it's been a highlight for me this year. I would certainly pick that CD for the high quality of PERFORMANCE, but with the music, I wish I could produce at least 10% of artistry of those composers mentione above. My music (especially the 6 numbers of Rapsodia Nusantara) is not easy at all, and I must admit, sometimes so unpianistic, but Henoch's playing was just admirable. I am glad that the whole CD is now also available on iTunes, and both the CD and the iTunes is enjoying a good selling. If you wanna have it through iTunes (which is much cheaper than the CD, almost 50%, but you can't read my amusing program notes. Oh well, mostly they are taken from this blog anyway) the link is : http://itunes.apple.com/album/rapsodia . .............................................................................................................................................. Movies ? Well, I don't really like Hollywood movies, but I could mention Richard Linklater's Before Midnight, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and of course as a faithful Trekkie I should mention the last Star Trek : Into Darkness (my God, Benedict Cumberbatch's acting is so impressive! He should do some Shakespeare!). Anyway, I am not a movie freak, so I should limit my movie pick into just 3. .............................................................................................................................................. This might be my last entry of this blog this year, since starting the 26th I will be busy in preparing the Jakarta New Year Concert 2014, which will take place on January 5th, 2014. I am performing on the piano in the first half, and will conduct the Nusantara Symphony Orchestra in the second half. I am excited to accompany the best young Indonesian soloists of today; they are all under 20 years of age. They are : violinist Amadeus Giovani Biga, pianist Randy Ryan (winner of Ananda Sukarlan Award Int'l Piano Competition 2012) and vocalists Nikodemus Lukas and Isyana Sarasvati (both winners in different categories of Kompetisi Tembang Puitik Ananda Sukarlan voice competition). In fact, the theme of the concert this time is JUVENUM, and not only the soloists are young, but the music is about youth as well. To end this entry with a light spirit, let me invite you to enjoy one of my last pieces, the short n humorous piece with a very loooong title (you can check my last entry in this blog). Here's the link : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3c-32i6fOqQ. I am very much looking forward for more great artistic creations in 2014 !

MOZART MEANDERING THROUGH JAVA BEFORE BUMPING INTO BEETHOVEN IN BOSTON

These last few days we are having so much fun preparing for the concert in Jakarta with some woodwind principals of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The original plan was a wind quintet with them, but the flutist & clarinetist had to cancel their trip, so the organizer had to find 2 substitutes. We premiered (well, it wasn't the official world premiere, it was a "teaser" so to say) yesterday at the American Cultural Center "@atamaerica" the piece I wrote, commissioned for this event, and the title was a result of the brainstorming among all of us: me and the Boston guys, just before that sneak peak event at @atamerica. At last we corrected the very long title (even longer if you consider the piece is only 3 minutes long!) into MOZART MEANDERING THROUGH JAVA BEFORE BUMPING INTO BEETHOVEN IN BOSTON. The piece was written very quickly, around 2 days in November : one was on the airplane from Jakarta back to Spain, and another day already home in Cantabria (see my entry last month on November 19th). It's dedicated to the players who premiered it : Katie Zagorski (flute), John Ferrillo (oboe), Erin Svoboda (clarinet), Richard Svoboda (bassoon, father of Erin), James Sommerville (horn) ... and myself ! Thanks to David Svoboda (the nephew of Richard) who commissioned me to do it. I certainly didn't regret writing it, although I was given very short time. Well, my fault. I set my own deadline, since in fact I could just submit the piece a few days before they arrived to Jakarta, and knowing that they are such FUN-tastic players that they could learn and understand the piece very quickly. However, I always would like to give any piece at least 1 month ahead to the players, if possible (this wouldn't be possible in cases like writing music for films, where I had to write the music TONIGHT and give it to the musicians TOMORROW to be recorded THE DAY AFTER). And since the idea of a new piece came up around 6 weeks before the premiere, then .. well, that was what happened. Anyway, the piece is a kind of polyphonic game between Mozart's themes, the West Javanese children folksong "Tokecang" and .. well, you'll hear Herr Beethoven approaching in the end :). ................................................................................................................................. .............

It was in fact a happy accident. I planned to write a "normal" piece; fun, but normal. But I was stuck when I needed a second theme, and time is the only thing I DIDN'T have at that moment! So I thought, well let's be a rather naughty and take a phrase from Mozart, and it should be a famous one. After stealing his symphony's theme, I thought that I should link it with a Javanese song, since those Boston guys are visiting here, so I took "Tokecang", a children folksong from West Java, which I also used in my Rapsodia Nusantara no. 2. And the game went on, stealing from other themes ! If you wanna test your musical knowledge, please check at youtube that looooong title, and see how many themes of other composers you can find. ................................................................................................................................. ............. Apart from the world premiere of that "Mozart" piece, the Boston players are playing 2 of my other pieces : Echo's Whisper (for oboe & piano), and Niobe Weeping while turning into stone (for french horn & piano). Like my other pieces for woodwind instruments and piano, they are all inspired from a (some) characters from Ovid's deeply moving Metamorphosis. The concert will be tomorrow (14th) and Sunday (15th). .............................................................................................................................................. People always ask me, why I love classical music so much. Well, I think any kind of love, if it's sincere and coming from the heart, is inexplicable. I haven't even asked that question to myself, and when people ask me that question, I gotta think ... and still don't have the answer. .............................................................................................................................................. But is it true that everything about music is just wonderful? Well, some people might think so. I tweeted a few days earlier: "If John Lennon imagined a world w/ no religions, countries etc., I just imagine a world w/ no DEADLINES n can take all the time to compose:( " . And some people replied, basically tweeting something like "do composers have deadlines?" . I thought it is quite obvious that we have deadlines all the time, but apparently it is not. Many don't realize that an artistic profession, like any other profession, has its stressful sides too. That "Mozart" piece mentioned above might sound fun 'n funky, but it wasn't so fun writing it being chased by a tight deadline! So, many people (yeah, many! There were about 10 tweets replying to me stating that disbelief of deadline for composers) think that the date of a release of a film can be comfortably postponed, and so do concerts, opening of an exhibition, world premieres .... But when it actually happens, imagine the mess of the hundreds or thousands of people who claim their money back !