Guide to Sundanese Music - Free EBooks Library

TERMS AND PRINCIPLES
Sundanese song titles can be confusing. A title may just refer to the sekar
alit played, thus identifying an instrumental structure without specifying
the melody. Or a title may refer to a set kawih melody, without identifying
the sekar alit that goes with it. There is an increasing tendency to do the
latter. Thus "Senggot" refers to the sekar alit with the patokan
4 (1) 4 (2), which can accompany any number of tunes, set or improvised.
Nowadays on cassettes and suchlike, this piece is more likely to be
identified as "ts Lilin" or "Surya Medal": the names (taken from the first
line of text) of two of the best known kawih melodies which fit to Senggot.
Cassette producers and the public are very interested in new songs. However,
nearly all new songs^ are based on existing sekar alit accompaniments. It
is the vocal melody and lyrics that are new, and it is these which tend to be
prominently billed.
On a good day, the title may tell us both the structure and the melody sung.
Thus "Kulu-kulu Nyawang Bulan" tells us that the tune and lyrics are Nyawang
Bulan, and the instrumental accompaniment is Kulu-kulu. Similarly with Kulukulu
Kasuat-suat, Kulu-kulu Ucing-ucingan and so on.
Sometimes the term senggol is used to refer to a melody. More often,
however, it is used on a smaller scale to refer to a particular turn of
phrase in a melody, or sometimes just an ornament. It can cover the same
ground as the Javanese term cengkok. It is often used to refer to specific
stylistic features. Senggol kaleran, or senggol dermayon refers to a style
of singing similar to that common around the northern towns of Indramayu and
Cirebon: a large number of syllables crammed into rather few beats, followed
by melismas which modulate wildly. A tembang teacher might upbraid his
pupil: "don't slide like that: that's senggol sinden". I heard a suling
player criticize himself while listening to a rather pedestrian turn of
phrase he had played during a recording session: "Aduh, eta mah senggol
angkot !" which roughly means "Ouch, that sounded like a bus !"
In general there is more vocal improvisation in gamelan than in degung kawih.
In panambih tembang Sunda there is almost no improvisation by the vocalist^:
the melodies and ornaments tend to be firmly set. If a singer tries a
different senggol in a panambih, people start getting hot under the collar.
By contrast, in gamelan different singers are praised for their inventiveness
when they spontaneously vary the senggol (to good effect).
2*2.2 Da-mi-na-ti-la notation
We have already touched on the use of Sundanese cipher notation in gamelan,
degung and kacapi tembang. The numbers 1 to 5 are a useful short-hand to
identify the note-names barang, kenong, etc. These refer to the relevant
key, pot or string in a fixed, absolute way, just as A, B, C ... are absolute
in Western music.
At least in gamelan and degung. Many new tembang Sunda songs depart
radically from existing sekar alit structures.
However, the suling and rebab players have a fairly free rein in
panambih tembang Sunda during the instrumental passages called gelenyu. In
kacapi suling the suling player has even more freedom to improvise.
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