Asian Transformations in Action - Api-fellowships.org

INTERMINGLING OF CONTINUITY AND DISCONTINUITY71have had to suffer through the academic drudgery(oftentimes under the advisorship of their own formerpupils or disciples with master’s and doctorate degreesin ethnomusicology or music education), a case ofexperts relearning what they already know and are verygood at. 5Ethnomusicology serves as another form of modernizingthe entire domain of traditional arts education. InIndonesia, ethnomusicology has become a traditionin itself, having been implanted by pioneers of thediscipline such as Jaap Kunst and Mantle Hood, whoadopted Indonesia as a prime study area and sourceof early exotic specimens of non-Western musiccomparative inquiry.The eventual “importation” of masters and artists,especially from Java and Bali, to teach and earn graduatedegrees in Western institutions of learning developeda new breed of experts. Except for a few committedscholars 6 who produce a substantive number of academicwritings and publications, local ethnomusicology differsfrom Western practice in that it is primarily concernedwith acquiring the tools for the study of differentmusical cultures and the acquisition of knowledge andskills in Western music theory, notation, transcriptionand research methodology.Ethnomusicology graduates abound in Indonesiatoday but because of the lack of practical employment,graduates end up with other occupations (e.g., playingand arranging popular Western music for entertainmentand the music industry, conducting choral groups,playing the organ in church). A more substantivereason for performing artists, whether in the field ofdance or karawitan (musical performing arts) to takeup ethnomusicology is the goal of earning advanceddegrees abroad since ethnomusicology is the only viablearea by which orally-trained artists in native music canstudy at Western institutions of higher learning.Innovation, creative exploration and compositionInnovation in a wider sense is an imperative responseto social changes. Such latter-day changes are easilytraceable to the advent and influence of Western cultureon the local way of life, secularization of expressiveforms, notion of public entertainment and concerts,sense of individualism, modern technology and itsapplication in the arts, and the commercialization ofthe arts in the context of popular culture. The idea ofthe public audience has shifted the power from theartist influencing the taste and cultural orientationof his community to the modern audience who now“commands” “market trends and tastes” that artistsshould cater to, even at the expense of altering thestylistic and aesthetic essentialities of his/her musicalpractice.Such dynamics are no more clearly underscored thanby the innovations and, sometimes revolutionary,inventions of individual artists. The blind khaen(reed mouth organ) player Sompat Simpla, 47, fromWang Hai village in Borabu, Northeastern Thailand,revolutionized the playing of the khaen, while molam(vocal repartee from Northeast Thailand) artist RatreeSriwilai (pronounced Seewilai), 54, has become apopular icon for her “invention” of the molam xing,a fast and popular version of the classic molam khlon,performed complete with a troupe of mini-skirteddancing girls. Among the Karo Batak, the name of JasaTarigan is very well known for having introduced theelectronic keyboard into “traditional” Batak music.Although functioning mainly for modern publicentertainment, electronic technology and other moderndevices have been adopted to facilitate learning. The useof recording devices in the classroom has effectivelyaddressed the limited time allotment for each class periodas well as the time a master has to teach each individualstudent. Some teachers have devised audio-visual kitswith prescribed lessons, such as the queen of molam xing,Ratree Sriwilai, who devised her own “distance learning”strategies by producing learning kits containing VCDsand written instructional materials. 7 RamkhamhaengUniversity is an open university that uses television andsatellite technology to teach around 600,000 studentsall over Thailand. Recently, the University acquired theservices of master musician Somsak Ketukanchan todesign a program of distance education for the musicalarts, which could substantially replace the notion andpractice of individual discipleship and apprenticeship infavor of highly impersonal, wholesale mass education.CompositionIn today’s arts education, emphasis has been placed oncreativity as part of the over-all strategy of modernizingartistic productions. In Southeast Asia, creation in thetraditional practice covers various notions such as the:a) composition of new songs (either melody alone ormelody and text) and or texts; b) re-creation of songsthrough the variation and improvisation of songsand/or texts; c) incorporation of Western tunes intotraditional forms (e.g., “Jingle Bells” played on gamelan(Indonesian gong-chime ensemble) instruments); andd) integration of all musically-related elements andaspects—Western and non-Western theory, notation,Asian Transformations in ActionThe Work of the 2006/2007 API Fellows