Guide to Sundanese Music - Free EBooks Library

Chapter 2
SOME USEFUL TERMS AND PRINCIPLES
Sundanese music theory is a quagmire. The Dutch pioneer ethnomusicologist
Jaap Kunst and his Sundanese associate R. Machjar Angga Koesoemadinata were
the first to get bogged down. They introduced all kinds of Javanese and
Western concepts never spoken of by actual musicians, such as the pathet-ic
fallacy, tonic-dominant, and so on. The result was the spread of a music
theory which often bears little relationship to what musicians actually do.
More recent Sundanese academics have sunk further into the same patch of mud:
none dare to question the received wisdom of their distinguished
predecessors. When musical practice and theory do not match, the inclination
is to blame the musicians, rather than the theory: after all, most musicians
have no academic qualifications.^ Fortunately, the situation is somehow
saved by the very fact that so much theory is so wildly irrelevant and
incomprehensible that it would be difficult not to ignore it: the academics
can make mud-pies in peace and leave the musicians to get on with the music.
This chapter introduces some basic terms that I have heard practising
musicians use. Armed with these, I shall attempt to provide a few general
rules of thumb about the way Sundanese music works. Much of the most often
played Sundanese music can be described as melody and accompaniment. I shall
deal with these two aspects separately.
2.1 INSTRUMENTAL ACCOMPANIMENT
2'1«1 Sekar alit and sekar ageung
Many musicians and theorists classify the instrumental repertoire in
different ways. These classifications are not always very consistent, either
with each other, or within themselves. However, most schemes agree that
there are small pieces (sekar alit^) and there are large pieces (sekar
ageung ). The confusion arises about what there is in between.
In general, the sekar alit are based on a framework of destination pitches,
while the sekar ageung are based on melodies.
As in Javanese gamelan, the instrumental forms are cyclic, in other words,
when you get to the final goong you go back to the beginning. In sekar alit
Known in the literature as Koesoemadinata, but always referred to by
Sundanese musicians as Pa Machjar.
^ See van Zanten 1989:5-7, 56-57, 112, 131-132 etc. and Fryer 1989:214.
Sekar alit is a fairly posh name. They are also sometimes called
lagu leutik, lagu jalan, lagu poko and rancagan.
* A less posh name for sekar ageung is lagu gede.
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