7. Other Characteristics of Central Range Songs

What are other characteristics of the Central Range songs in Netherlands New Guinea, as analyzed by J. Kunst? The characteristics include those of melodies and lyrics studied in the music of the Kauwerawets, Mamberamo Papuans, and pygmy tribes in the Swart Valley. For wider understanding, Kunst compares the music of these tribes with that found along the coasts of Dutch New Guinea, in Papua New Guinea, and in the eastern part of Asia.

Characteristics of the Kauwerawet and Awembiak Songs

The Kauwerawet songs denote four characteristics. Their songs use a pentatonic scale, the melody descends the scale, lower key notes end their melodies, and the lyrics use parallelism.

In parallelism, the spelling and sounds of initial words of two lines are identical but differ in their last words. The beginning words of each line can be pairs and form the same or second word repetitions. In another case, a single polysyllabic word is different at the beginning part of a line but shows identical spelling and sounds at the ending part of the line.

Parallelism

Not only the lyrics of Kauwerawet songs but also those of the Awembiak songs contain parallelism. The song entitled Yamo of the Awembiaks can explicate parallelism.

Naga naga dewi wowai

Dega dega duwa wowai o a o

Mugu naga lu ambagage o

Asiloe naga naga duwang wae

Each couplet of this type of quatrain contains parallelism. The first couplet has the pair of words naga-naga and dega-dega. Each word is a reduplication and has identical spelling and sound. In addition, the spelling and sounds of initial words in the second couplet, mugu naga and asiloe naga-naga, show parallelism at the word naga and its repetition. Parallelism is also present at the end of the first couplet: dewi wowai and duwa wowai. However, the word pairs at the end of the second couplet are different.

In other lyrics, an initial word pair does not sound identical at the beginning but at the end. This is particularly the case with words having more than three syllables, words that seem to be compound words. An example given by Kunst is based on a Kauwerawet song:

Mamakanane

Kerekanane

Vocalization

The o a o sounds in the Yamo lyrics resemble a musical interlude in the forms of vowel sounds that "fill in the vacancy" in the rhythm of a verse. These interlude-like sounds are similar to vocalization, that is, vocal sounds that fill in empty space in modern pop songs, such as o, oh, ooh, dooh, na, la, paparapap, and choochooa.

J. Kunst considers such interlude-like sounds as a "peculiarity". Dr. P. Wirz who noticed it tried to explain it based on the songs of other Papuan tribes who also used those sounds. During their singing, the words were not pronounced the usual way but were always ended with vocal sounds. Wirz presumed that this was an attempt by the singers to introduce rhymes. Besides, the words always ended with vocalizations affected by their melodies.

Other Characteristics of Central Range Songs

The songs of the tribes living in the Central Mountain Range of Dutch New Guinea are also known from other characteristics. What are they?

Rituals

Their songs are connected to rituals. In particular, their fanfare songs are related to rituals.

Reduplications

In addition, their songs make use of reduplications, seemingly for enhancing musical effects or beauty through the lyrics. A reduplication is a repetition of the same word. Some examples of reduplications in the song lyrics of the Central Mountain Range include solu-solu, naga-naga, mina-mina, dega-dega, wae-wae-wae-wae,we u we-we u we, and wi o-wi o.

Finger Clicking

They also accompany their songs by clicking or snapping their fingers. Such accompaniment seems to be rare in modern music.

It is not unique, however. Around 1958, Mr. P. Kanaar, a Dutch medical doctor working at the medical care and treatment quarter for lepers run by the Dutch Reformed Church Missionary in Manggurai (Wondama Bay), played a black-and-white movie for the Papuans gathering from various villages in the Wondama Peninsula in front of his house in Wasior, the little government town, at night. This event was part of the annual celebration of April 30, the birthday of Juliana, the Dutch queen at that time. The movie was about a group of black American musicians playing music. In a scene, they stopped playing their wind and brass instruments and instead clicked their fingers rhythmically in the air for some seconds before they continued playing their instruments.

Tremolo versus Vibrato

Interestingly, tremolo is also used in the singing voices of the Central Range tribes. This musical technique resembles vibrato in Western singing techniques.

In Western music, tremolo is a technique for melodic embellishments commonly used in instrumental music, such as string instruments that include the violin and guitar. In tremolo, two notes of different pitches are sounded rapidly and by turns. Usually, both notes form the second interval, such as doh-ray, ray-mee, mee-fah, or fah-soh.

The Central Range tribes who sang the songs studied by Western musical experts certainly did not know what tremolo was. To musically trained Western ears, it was a musical phenomenon that they identified as tremolo. This term indicates that there is a singing technique of the hinterland tribes that involves two notes that form the second interval performed rapidly and alternately.

Several Western experts in singing mistakenly use the term "tremolo" for what should actually be "vibrato". The succession of two notes in vibrato depends on their interval distance whereas the phenomenon of vocal music of the Central Range tribes should involve the interchange of the second interval. If this interchange was in fact aurally perceived by those Western musical experts, the term "tremolo" used by Kunst to identify that ornamental singing technique must be true.

How did the Awembiak and Dem singers produce tremolo? They got it through the roots of their tongues, especially, when they sang long drawn out notes. If compared with vibrato, this singing technique reminds one of the so-called "throat vibrato".

Throat vibrato is not recommended in modern singing techniques. It is produced by manipulating the throat muscles to move the larynx rapidly up and down to create fluctuations in pitch. The muscular tension it causes results in a shaking tongue, jaw, and a shaking head. Throat vibrato often results in vocal fatigue and hoarseness.

Peculiar Sighs

There is still another singing technique typical of the hinterland tribes. Their singers interlinked the lyrical lines by peculiar sighs. These were produced by the sucking in of the breath. Some singers sucked in their breath while closing their eyes in an ecstatic state.

Rhythmic Diversity

The Central Range songs indicate another characteristic: rhythmic diversity. This is particularly noticeable from their lyrics.

Lyrics are commonly formed from words and words from syllables. Words can have few syllables - from one to three syllables - or many syllables - more than three syllables.

The different numbers of syllables in different languages have been studied by linguists. On the one hand, there are languages rich in words consisting of many syllables and also in few (one, two, and three) syllables. These languages are monosyllabic because they have a lot of single-syllable words in addition to more-than-one and many-syllable words. English, for example, is a monosyllabic language. On the other hand, there are languages that are also rich in many syllables but poor in single and few syllables. These languages are polysyllabic because they have fewer single-syllable and few-syllable words in addition to many-syllable words. Indonesian, for example, is a polysyllabic language.

The monosyllabic or polysyllabic nature of a language is important in a song composition, particularly, in the composition of its lyrics. This characteristic affects the rhythmic and metric structuring of the song. The fewer syllables that form lyrics, the easier it is for a composer to structure the rhythm and meter of his song; the more syllables there are in lyrics, the more difficult it is for him to organize the rhythm and meter of his song. The difficulty of such structuring becomes evident when a translator of the polysyllabic Indonesian translates the lyrics of a foreign song in a monosyllabic language, such as English, into Indonesian. For the sake of congruence between the melodic and word accents, he will experience problems in ordering the rhythm and meter of his translation that involve polysyllabic Indonesian words to match the monosyllabic English words.

For the ease of ordering the rhythms and meters of songs, most composers, therefore, tend to use single-syllable or few-syllable words. These words are usually for conversations.

In its modern sense, the rhythm of a song can be said to be right if there is unity in the melodic and word accents. Unfortunately, a lot of Indonesian songs show conflicts between their melodic and word accents. A part of the lyrics and song, Burung Kakatua, already explained shows a conflict between both types of accents.

There are at least two presumptions about this conflict. First, the song composers do not know about prosody in music. Second, there are no standard rules about word accents in Indonesian. This lack results in the shifts in accents of polysyllabic words for various reasons, including the influences of vernacular languages in Indonesian and their typical intonations.

The shifts in accents on polysyllabic words can result in what Dr. J. Kunst termed "the rhythmic variability of polysyllables" in the lyrics of the Central Range songs. This phrase suggests that the languages used in the lyrics of the tribes are perhaps polysyllabic in nature. Furthermore, a monosyllabic word used either in one song or two different songs can undergo shifts in accents. For instance, the word nairoe - a four-syllable word - is pronounced through the recording with three different accents: na-I-ro-e, na-i-ro-E, or na-i-RO-e. The four-syllable word ambagage in two different songs is pronounced as am-ba-ga-GE in one text but as AM-ba-ga-ge in another text.

Note: Capitalized syllables indicating accents need to be read louder than others.

Even the few-syllable words undergo shifts in accents in the songs lyrics of those hinterland tribes. In one song, the researcher listened to the pronunciation of MI-na whose accent shifted to mi-NA in another song. In another song, a single-syllable word was uttered with two different accents: A-je and a-JE.

Why did shifts in accents occur in the song lyrics of the Central Range tribes? Kunst did not have the answer to this question. He only identified this linguistic phenomenon as rhythmic variability of polysyllabic words in those lyrics (and, occasionally, in the monosyllabic words of other lyrics).

End Rhymes

Not only did Kunst notice the shifts of word accents. He also paid attention to the rhymes in the song lyrics of the Central Range singers. A rhyme is a word that has the same sound or ends with the same sound as another word. In a song, the words have the same sound, especially at the ends of lines. End rhymes in songs are, therefore, words (two or more) that sound the same at the ends of lines.

What are the end rhymes used in the songs of the mountain tribes in Dutch New Guinea? In one song, the end rhyme appears as the same vowel sounds at the ends of three words: wowai-ujuwi-ragiwi. Another song has a real end rhyme: asiloe has an end rhyme with naga-naga duwang wae. The same song, however, also shows an attempt to create a more primitive end rhyme because it is formed by the "stop-gap" vowel o in o a o and ambagage o.

Pleasant Sounding Words

Kunst did not shed some light upon the problem of letter and syllable combinations to produce pleasant (or unpleasant) sounding words in the lyrics of the Central Range songs. Pleasant sounding words enhance music, "sounds that are arranged in a way that is pleasant or exciting to listen to". This characteristic not studied by Kunst will be briefly explored.

The Yamo of the Awembiaks will be used as an example. For simpler understanding, the words of each line will be spelled as syllables and the number of the syllables in the same line are counted.

Na-ga na-ga de-wi wo-wa-i (9 syllables)

De-ga de-ga du-wa wo-wa-i o a o (12 syllables)

Mu-gu na-ga lu am-ba-ga-ge o (10 syllables)

A-si-lo-e na-ga na-ga du-wang wa-e (12 syllables)

What are their features?

• If the "stop-gap" vowels or sound interludes are counted as syllables, the whole lyrics are formed from 43 syllables. The syllables that are formed from the combinations of consonants and vowels - such as na, ga, and de - total 32, around 74 percent of the total number of syllables used. The second largest number formed from a single syllable - all vowels - totals 9, around 20 percent of the total number. This number is followed by one single-syllable word formed from the combination of a vowel and a consonant - am - and 1 single-syllable word whose vowel is enclosed on either side by consonants: wang.
• If the sound interludes in the second and third lines are taken out, each of the first three lines has 9 syllables. The last line that has 12 syllables can be considered as a variation of the previous lines.
• If the vocalization sounds are excluded, the lyrics display an aabb rhyme scheme. The scheme is formed from the rhymes of the first two lines that end in the i sound - wowai, wowai - and those of the last two lines that end in the e sound - ambabage, wae.
• The whole lyrics uses 12 different letters. There are 8 voiced consonants (b, d, g, l, m, n, s, and w) and 4 vovels (a, i, e, o). Vowels are always voiced.
• How high are the frequencies of using the voiced consonants and vowels in those lyrics? From the highest to the lowest frequencies, the voiced consonants used are as follows: g 11 times, w 7 times, d 5 times, n 4 times, l and m respectively twice, and b once. The vowels used from the highest to the lowest frequencies are as follows: a 21 times, e and o respectively 6 times, and i 4 times. It can be said from this description that both the voiced consonants and vowels that vibrate the vocal cords when singing increase the musical quality of the lyrics.

To understand the quality of the pleasant sounds just explained, we should also understand two other aspects of the lyrics. First, their meaning; and, second, the reason for such letter combinations in the lyrics.

Unfortunately, no translation of the lyrics is provided. It is, therefore, difficult for us to explain their sound quality . We also do not know the specific rules in the art of composing lyrics among those Papuan mountain tribes, rules that establish the relation between letter choices and the beauty of word sounds. Kunst's works as one of our references do not provide us with the needed data.

Assuming, however, that the letters that form the words of Yamo evoke the same musical effects as those in Western music, we can try to understand them by using rules about their overall tone quality. This tone quality is limited to vowels. The Western art of singing distinguishes three types of tone quality: dark, neutral, and bright. Each vowel has a particular form and requires a specific adjustment of the lips, tongue, and palate. The dark vowels are formed by the depth of the larynx, with the back of the tongue in a low position. Vowels in English words such as owe, law, put, and moon have dark tone quality. The neutral vowels are produced with a neutral tongue position. Vowels in English words such as art, ever, ask, and under shows neutral tone quality. The bright vowels are produced with a wide position of the mouth and lips, requiring the back of the tongue to be in a high position. Vowels in English words such as eat, it, and ale suggest bright tone quality.

To apply those types of overall tone quality in Western singing to the tone quality of the Yamo lyrics, we need to establish the approximate pronunciations of the four vowels in Yamo as compared with those in English. The a in Yamo is more or less like the English a as in art, the e sounds similar to the English e as in ever, the i resembles the English i as in eat or it, and the o sounds like the English o in on. It is clear from this comparison and from the rules on Western tone quality that a, the vowel used with the highest frequency in Yamo, indicates neutral tone quality; it is followed by e, another vowel showing neutral tone quality. The o in Yamo suggests dark tone quality while i indicates bright tone quality. Qualitatively speaking, the four vowels used in Yamo evoke a dominantly neutral tone, followed by dark and bright tones.

Meaningful sound quality in modern poetry serves a means to unify form (word or line form) and meaning. In modern vocal music, this unification also involves the melody. This synchronization is based on a general rule: form follows function. If the words of a song function as means for worshipping ancestral spirits in a traditional ritual, the word and melodic forms are adjusted for supporting the function of the lyrics.

Nothing is known about the meaning of Yamo. It is therefore hard to explain whether the meaning of its words has a function supported by the letter forms, the syllables chosen, and the melodic form. Considering the letters and syllables that seem to have been deliberately chosen, we can say there seems to be a connection between the function of the lyrics - for a ritual - and the forms of words and melody chosen. Only a further study will tell us whether this presumption is correct or not.

Do the whole lyrics produce a pleasant musical effect? The remarkable number of voiced consonants and vowels used, the repetitions of vowels - particularly, at the ends of the first two lines - and the end rhyme of the words produce musical sound that I think is pleasant to the musical ears.

Partly Understood Language of the Lyrics

Surprisingly, the song lyrics of the mountain tribes in Netherlands New Guinea are partly understood. The words are "full of obsolete, corrupted or distorted words". G.A.J. van der Sande explicated the keen perception of Kunst by focusing on this aspect of songs of the coastal Papuans in the north. The language of the songs in the Humboldt Bay and Seka in the western part is probably from an ancient language. It is no longer used in daily conversations and is partly understood.

"Musical Stratification"

All those aspects and others of the traditional music in the Central Mountain Range that includes songs for rituals and ordinary songs indicate what Kunst termed "musical stratification". In other words, this vocal music implies layers of musical culture. In particular, the songs for rituals of the pygmy tribes in the Central Range are very similar to those sung by the people of the Karesau Islands, north of the present-day Papua New Guinea. These songs are formed by triadic notes, some of them result in fanfare songs.

Three Hypotheses

How is it possible that there are resemblances in the songs of the people living in two remotely located areas? Kunst forwarded three hypotheses.

Probably, the songs for rituals in the Central Mountain Range were inherited from one tribe to another. In the distant past, the Karesau people had inherited the songs for rituals to the highland tribes in Dutch New Guinea; some tribes living between Karesau and the Central Range were presumed to have possessed the same songs. "The cultural development of the mountain tribes, " Kunst wrote, "at least, seems to be perfectly homogeneous."

If the first hypothesis is not quite accurate, there is another hypothesis. Perhaps, the people of the Central Range and Karesau once had some contacts and lived together in the past. Through such communication, the triadic songs were inherited by the Karesau people to those of the Central Range.

If both hypotheses are not quite right, there is still another hypothesis. It is possible that the existing "fanfare" music of the Karesau and Central Range people points to another influence in the past. There was a particular civilization in the past that spread to a wider area. Later, that civilization was hit by various waves of a newer civilization. The fanfare music passed down by this civilization left an older musical layer which emerged to the surface and scattered over a wide area after it was "excavated" by Western musical experts, including Dr. J. Kunst from Holland. That musical layer was then engulfed by a newer musical culture from Melanesia and Australia and left a younger musical layer.

Three Important Questions

Which of the three suppositions is true? Before answering this question, Kunst said there are three important questions that need to be satisfactorily and comprehensively answered.

First, are the fanfare songs also found among other tribes living in and near New Guinea? Yes, Kunst answered. Fanfare songs are also discovered on Bougainville of the Solomon Islands, among the Karesau people, at the Tongara tribe, and at the Yabim tribe in Finschafen, all in Papua New Guinea. Those songs are noticed in the songs for magical practices in central New Ireland in the South Pacific.

Resemblances are also found in the song lyrics of those people from Papua New Guinea and those from the Central Mountain Range in Dutch New Guinea. The songs are characterized, for instance, by word duplications, finishing the lack of words for melodic phrases by using vocalization, the shifts in accents from one syllable to another in the same word, and the use of end rhymes at the ends of lines. An example of the last-mentioned feature is noticeable in the words wowai-ujuwi-ragiwi, each which ends in i.

Second, which race or cultural agent should those fanfare songs be related to? Migrations could have been from the north or northeast of New Guinea. In addition, the fanfare songs of the Awembiak and Dem tribes could also be related to the wind instruments of the Bougainville people in the Solomon Islands. The people living here used a bunch of medium-sized thin bamboo flutes tied together by string. (Other bunches also found in other locations in Papua New Guinea and Dutch New Guinea consist of three, four, five, seven, or eight thin bamboos.) The end blown has evenly spaced round holes in a row. The other end is cut in such a way that the whole shape looks pointed at its lower end; the lower part of the row begins from the longest to the shortest flutes for sounding various tones. Such a bunch of flutes resembles the Western pan-pipes and are, therefore, called "pan-pipe flutes". The Bougainville fanfare songs were probably influenced by the tritones and their inversions played by the musicians there. The pan-pipe flutes, however, were also found in other places outside Papua New Guinea, particularly, in Merauke. Meanwhile, the fanfare songs are typical of the Karesau and Central Range people. Therefore, the flutes establish a relationship between the fanfare songs and pan-pipe flutes as the creation source of the fanfare songs because this type of vocal music is limited to the people of both regions. In other words, the connection between the fanfare songs in the highlands of Dutch New Guinea and the migration from Papua New Guinea are hard to be defended.

Third, are there any possibilities for discovering the causes of the fanfare songs. The possibilities exist.

If not from the Eastern direction, where did the influence on the fanfare songs in Karesau and Central Range come from? Probably, from eastern Asia, Kunst answered. The pan-pipe flute, he said, is a product from a highly developed civilization in eastern Asia. The flute is presumed to have been brought by mainland Asia tribes who migrated eastward in the past and entered New Guinea, probably, indirectly through islands in Papua New Guinea. Moreover, the pan-pipe flute remains a foreign element in the Melanesian musical culture; it has never been assimilated into Melanesian musical instruments. In addition, the flute is hard to be accepted as the creation source of fanfare songs of the Karesau and Central Range people. Their fanfare songs always have a ritual characteristic and the pan-pipe flute has never functioned as a sacred musical instrument nor has been used for rituals. As a general rule, traditional flutes in New Guinea are used for ritual purposes. Therefore, the influence of the pan-pipe flute of the Asian tribes that migrated to New Guinea on the creation of fanfare songs of the Karesau and Central Range people can be ignored.

The Origin of Fanfare Songs

Based on all the considerations already explained, Kunst proposed an argument for the origin of the fanfare songs in Karesau, Bougainville, New Ireland, and the Central Mountain Range. At the same time, his argument answered a previously posed question: How is it possible that there are resemblances between the songs of the people from two locations remotely separated from one another?

The songs could be a direct proof of a lower ancient layer of a common culture in those regions. The culture was a main civilization which in many places had been replaced by waves of a younger culture that overlaid it.

This ancient musical form had already existed side by side with a different and younger musical form. For the Central Range tribes, their fanfare songs were not affected by the pan-pipe flutes even though the flutes could be used to play triadic melodies. If this assumption is accepted, then the ancient music in the Central Range and in other regions in Papua New Guinea has been preserved until the 20th century and has been researched by Kunst and other musical experts. Those areas have been the most protected against the influx of foreign elements. (Perhaps, this is no longer the case nowadays.)

This song form could be considered original musical heritage of the Central Range Papuans. In this relation, Dr. P. Wirz who studied the pygmy tribes in the Swart Valley said clear traces of one of the oldest cultural layers from Australia and Melanesia, a negritic (of the negrito race) cultural layer, exist in the central part of Dutch New Guinea.

Higher Negritic Civilization

According to Kunst, this negritic culture can be called a primitive negritic civilization. From the musical point of view, however, this civilization is higher than the younger cultures that drove it to the hinterland. Musically considered, the fanfare songs of the Awembiak and Dem tribes in the Central Range are more advanced than the Australian type of songs - also found in the northern coast of Netherlands New Guinea - and are also more developed than most musical phenomena discovered during Kunst's period of visits in Netherlands New Guinea.

What kind of typically modern Papuan can be developed from that negritic culture? The last part of this series on the music of the mountain tribes in Netherlands New Guinea will answer this question.

6. Music of the Central Range Tribes

The Sudirman Mountain Range in the present-day Papua was called the Nassau Mountain Range in the former Netherlands New Guinea. It includes the western snowy mountain range and a part of the central range that sticks out to the west of Dutch New Guinea, from the Balim Valley to the Weyland Mountain Range, more or less behind the present-day region called Nabire, the southern part of the Cenderawasih Bay.

The Papuan tribes living in the Nassau Range bartered with other Papuan tribes living in the high lands with lakes in van Rees Mountain Range for various commodities. This range is located in the hinterland of Waropen, west of the Mamberamo River.

The tribes in the van Rees Mountain Range used sacred flutes while those in Nassau Range used the jewish harps. The harp was apparently used in the whole of Dutch New Guinea. Different from the most primitive music of the Kauwerawets, the music of both tribal groups contains typically detailed songs.

Songs of the Uringup Tribe

The songs belong to the Uringup tribe which lives in the Swart Valley. The valley is located near the Swart River, one of the tributaries of the Mamberamo, the largest and longest river in Netherlands New Guinea, that flows from the Balim Valley. The songs were studied by J. Jongejans, a Dutch government officer, and were published in 1921, and also by Dr. P. Wirz, a Swiss ethnographer. Wirz's study was first published in German in 1924 and republished in English in Amsterdam, Holland, in 1952.

A large number of melodic phrases of the tribe shows a very primitive characteristic. Generally, their ranges do not exceed the fourth interval. Based on Dutch musical tradition, Dr. J. Kunst who listened to those phrases said the songs reminded him of "Dutch nursery rhymes and ditties".

Dr. Wirz gave three and Jongejans gave three other examples of the Uringup melodies. Each example is limited by double bar lines.

However, another fragment noted down by Jongejans is based on a song of the Awembiak tribe that differs much from other phrases:

Triad and Fanfare Songs

That fanfare melodic phrase reminds Kunst of a Western military signal. Such a short tune is usually played on a bugle or trumpet to wake soldiers in the morning, to call them for morning assembly, or to call them for raising or hauling down their national flag.

The impression of the similarity between the melodic phrase and military signal is strengthened by a number of songs and song fragments collected from the Awembiak and Dem tribes by Le Roux and Muhammad Saleh, his assistant. Both hinterland tribes are related to the Uringups and live in the mountainous area near the present-day Enarotali.

However, the fragments sung by the Awembiaks were noted down only by listening to them. Such notation method is feared to have neglected the curious or exotic intervals of the Awembiak original melodies. Neglecting such intervals happens if the way the melodies of remote tribes noted down tends to be affected by modern music.

In spite of this, there is a way for confirming whether the notations of the Awembiak and Dem melodies are accurate or not. They can be compared with similar melodies also noted down of other Papuan tribes in New Guinea. Such a comparison is meant to cross check the noted accuracy of the melodies.

Kunst then rewrote the songs sung by the Awembiaks as they were sung and whistled by Le Roux and played on the violin by Muhammad Saleh after they returned to Batavia. Those songs reminded Kunst of a type of Western music called "fanfare music". It is a flourish for trumpets (or other instruments imitating them), usually for celebrating somebody or something important arriving; it is sometimes used in the compositions of some Western classical music. In modern Western pop music, fanfare music is called brass band.

The fanfare melody in Western military or modern music is formed from three basic notes. In the key of C major, they are C, E, G or other notes - such as F, A, C - and their inversions. The three basic notes and their inversions are artistically manipulated by involving typical rhythmic and pitch patterns.

Other terms that denote fanfare music include reveille, trumpet call, or bugle call. Day is Done is an example of Western fanfare music; the melody basically uses triads.

Not all songs that use the three basic notes can be called fanfare songs. They show typical characteristics.

Kunst characterized the fanfare melodies of the Awembiaks that he noted from Le Roux and Saleh "flourished triad" melodies. The melodies are, therefore, formed from triads - and their inversions - that are short and loud.

You can observe two different fanfare songs of the Awembiaks. The first, Panizage, uses two different time signatures: 3/8 and 4/8. The second, a 6/8 song, is sung by the Delosi clan of the Ndani family group. No translations of the texts of both songs are available.

What about the fanfare songs of the Dem tribe? They are very interesting because they remind Western musical ears of antiphones. The word "antiphone" is derived from the ancient Greek word antiphon which means "sounding across". The term is used in Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox church services to describe songs sung as responses between single and many voices or between two groups of singers. The noun phrase antiphonal singing means singing whose effects are drawn from the use of groups of performers stationed apart.

In the case of the Dem singers, their singing of fanfare songs is antiphonal in the sense that it involves a solo singer and a choir. The solo singer sings a part of the melody followed by the choir that includes the solo singer. All of them sing in unison.

Such singing must have reminded Dr. J. Kunst of antiphonal singing in Anglican Church services. He termed the part of a song sung by a solo singer "precentor" and the part sung by a choir "chorus". A precentor in an Anglican cathedral is a musical dignitary, a cleric in charge of the vocal music and technically leads the organist. In other words, a precentor has some general control on the songs in an Anglican Church service. In relation to the singing technique of the Dem singers, Kunst uses the term "precentor" to refer to the solo singer; he, in turn, has some general control on the group singing.

Two Dem songs that involve a precentor and a choir sound like modern Western songs. Yao is the first and the second is a lullaby. Both are triadic songs that uses fanfare melodies.

The word aye means ancestors.

Precentor and Chorus

A Dem song that consists of a precentor and a chorus is actually not unique of the Dem tribe. This characteristic is also found in the songs of some other tribes in Netherlands New Guinea and in some modern songs.

The rano, a traditional row song of the people in the coastal Yapen-Waropen and the wor, a collective name for various traditional songs some of which are for dancing in Biak-Numfor, are basically antiphonal. A solo singer who starts a song is joined later on by a choir. (The rano and wor will be discussed separately in some chapters.)

Antiphonal singing is used in modern pop songs and in church songs. In modern pop songs, it can be heard from some songs of Harry Belafonte, a New York-born Jamaican singer of the 1950s and 1960s. In The Banana Boat Song, one of his famous songs, he sings the solo part and a choir enters the refrain or melodic repetition that has the words Daylight come and me wan' go home. This singing technique is also noticeable in hymns or songs for Christian church services, including those of the Catholics.

Antiphonal singing, the use of a precentor and chorus, is obviously nothing new in modern music, secular and spiritual. Its origin can be traced back to traditional antiphonal singing in the past.

The Origin of Fanfare Music

Where does the Awembiak fanfare music with its flourished triads come from? It is not easy for Kunst to answer this question. The info he needs to answer it either does not exist, is inadequate, or is less adequate. The influence of traditional music from the coastal Papuans in the northern coasts of Netherlands New Guinea is hard to be determined because, to a certain extent, their music has been influenced by the music from what is nowadays known as the Indonesian Archipelago.

This foreign source is more apparent in the southwestern coast of Netherlands New Guinea through the musical elements, particularly, from Tidore and Ternate in North Moluccas. This origin is noticeable from the musical instruments - the rebab ( a two-stringed musical instrument), tambourine, gong, and Malay tifa (the cylindrical drum) - played by coastal Papuans in the southwestern coast of Netherlands New Guinea.

The inspiration from traditional music from the Indonesian Archipelago in the old days is not only apparent in the traditional music of the Papuans in the southwestern coast. It has also existed side by side with the Australian aborigine type of music in Sarmi, a coastal area near the Mamberamo estuary some hundred miles west of the present-day Jayapura. From the various collections of songs from Sarmi, J. Kunst discovered both the Australian aborigine type of music and music inspired by traditional Indonesian music.

A song from the musical layer of the Australian type in Sarmi indicates triadic but with no fanfare characteristics.

There is, however, another Sarmi song of the fanfare type.

Kunst's collections include a song from Sarmi that has probably been influenced by traditional music from the Indonesian Archipelago. This short song is melodious but slightly droopy.

The Aborigine and Indonesian Types of Music

The influences of the Australian aborigine type of music in Kauwerawet songs and of the traditional Indonesian music in that Sarmi song are also found in the traditional music of Yapen, Waropen Coast, and Humboldt Bay. Kunst noticed these from the recording of the singers from these areas in the Ethnographic Exhibition in Batavia in 1929. The Yapen songs show an affinity with those of the Kauwerawets. The Humboldt Bay songs, however, are more varied; they are not fanfare songs but songs still related to the Australian type of songs. In contrast, various songs from the Waropen Coast seem to have been affected by Indonesian traditional music of the past centuries. This effect can be noticed from what Kunst termed the "pelog character" in the Waropen songs in which semitone or second minor intervals are frequently audible.

Another Waropen song is prominently triadic but is not of the fanfare type. It has a range of one octave.

Other Characteristics

A festal song from Sarmi, however, has a range of more than one octave because it has twelve tones. The song is beautiful and contains some variations; its melodic range is the same as that of Panizage of the Awembiaks.

Talking about intervals in songs, some song fragments from the Marind-anim tribe in the southern coast of Dutch New Guinea tend to use the third intervals and, occasionally, triads. These songs are short, like those of the Dem tribe. The Marind-anim songs, however, are not fanfare songs.

Two fragments are given here:

A slightly longer and more varied melody was noted down by Kunst from a song sung by an adult male from the Kaoh River, Upper Digul, in the southern part of Dutch New Guinea. The man accompanied Dr. de Rook, a Dutch scholar, to Bandung, West Java.

Rallentando and a Tempo

Interestingly, the temporary slowing down and return to the normal tempo applied twice by the Papuan singer are indicated by the two musical terms Kunst used: rallentando (slowing down of the tempo) and a tempo (return to the normal tempo). Both enhance the expressive power of the song and indicate that the rallentando and a tempo techniques also exist in traditional music in Dutch New Guinea.

Summing-Up

The musical culture of the Kauwerawet and Uringup tribes which is the most primitive belongs to the Australian aborigine type of music. This type of music is also discovered among certain songs of the coastal Papuans living in Sarmi, Yapen, and Humboldt Bay. The primitive level of their musical culture forms a part of the original Papuan music.

The songs discussed so far use different time signatures. There are songs that are controlled by one type of time signature. It includes 2/4 (Yao); 3/4 (the Uringup melody and Awembiak fanfare melody); 4/4 (the Dem lullaby song, the songs from Sarmi, and the second song from Marind-anim); 6/4 (the last two melodies of the Uringups); 9/4 (the first Marind-anim song); and 6/8 (the song of the Delosi clan). There are also songs controlled by more than one type of time signature, such as Panizage (3/8, 4/8, 3/8); and the Upper Digul song (9/8, 6/8, 9/8, 6/8). Such change of time signatures shows that the melodic motion is freer; besides, the beats and rhythmic patterns of the songs change.

The higher level of musical culture in Netherlands New Guinea is noticeable from the Awembiak and Dem songs in the high lands and from those of some other tribes. The Awembiak songs involve triadic fanfares, a form also found in Dem songs. Triadic but non-fanfare songs are also found in Sarmi and the Waropen Coast.

The higher level of musical culture in Dutch New Guinea has six characteristics:

• The melodic motion is varied. Different from the most primitive traditional songs that start with the highest and end with the lowest tones, the more developed songs tend to be short, slightly short, or slightly long. The short ones tend to ascend and descend the scales, like the Awembiak fanfare melody, the Dem lullaby, and the two Marind-anim melodies. The slightly short songs use higher tones at the beginning and tend to descend the scale, such as the Upper Digul song. The slightly long songs, such as Panizage, move up and down and then descend the scales at the end.
• The singing techniques that include a solo singer and choir in Dem songs show musical development that is higher than those of the Australian type of songs. The application of precentor and chorus seems to affect the composition of the triadic melodies through inversions.
• The influence of traditional music from the Indonesian Archipelago, particularly, from Tidore and Ternate in North Moluccas is evident from the musical instruments - the rebab, tambourine, gong, and cylindrical drum - used among the coastal Papuans of southwestern Netherlands New Guinea. This foreign element has also influenced the melodic structure of a song from Sarmi and another of pelog character of a song from the Waropen Coast.
• The triadic and fanfare songs of the Awembiak and Dem tribes and the varied motion of their melodies indicate a level of musical culture that is higher than that of the aborigine type of musical culture in Dutch New Guinea. This level reminded Kunst of the triadic and fanfare music in the West, a thought association that implies his identification of another level of musical culture in Dutch New Guinea.
• The identification of rallentando and a tempo in the Upper Digul song on the basis of Western music shows a new level of development of traditional music in Dutch New Guinea discussed so far. Both terms that are related to tempo nuances indicate that tempo nuances are also found in the traditional music of Dutch New Guinea.
• The broader ranges of twelve tones in a festal song from Sarmi and of Panizage tell us of a higher development of vocal music in Dutch New Guinea. The twelve-tone festal song from Sarmi shows one extra tone compared with the famous Christmas hymn, Silent Night, whose main melody has eleven tones.

Modernizing Traditional Songs

Singing or playing traditional Papuan music as it really is will not help anyone to develop it. The modern musical ears even of the conservative Papuans of the 21st century have made them foreigners, strangers to the music of their ancestors. It is only through developing or modernizing Papuan music that those concerned with its "survival" can popularize it to a wider audience.

One of the challenges to be overcome is to popularize transformed or renewed traditional Papuan music without ignoring its characteristics, including its typical imagery. Overcoming this challenge means strengthening the cultural identity of the Papuans through music.

The texts (words or lyrics) of almost all the traditional Papuan songs discussed so far are not translated into Dutch or English. These include the texts of the triadic fanfare songs of the Dem tribe. Consequently, the whole meaning, functions, or roles of these songs in both tribes are not known. For example, it is not known whether the triadic fanfare songs of the Dem tribe have the same role as the Western triadic fanfare songs, such as announcing or celebrating important people or events that are arriving. If they have different roles, what are they?

Lacking the knowledge and understanding of such roles makes it hard for concerned musicians to modernize Dem triadic fanfare songs. Assuming that both the text and the melody of a Dem song work together to convey a main message that fulfills its role, then modernizing it has to take these prosody and role into consideration. Unfortunately, nothing is known about both.

A modern musician who wants to modernize a Dem song is only left with its melody. How should he modernize the text on the basis of the original words of the song that he does not understand? What should he do if he is not able to ask a present-day member of the Dem tribe to translate the text for him?

A possible solution for him is to establish a musical bridge between the old and new music he recreates. He can modernize the melody without neglecting its characteristics, for example, by adding some measures and its tempo, modifying or rearranging some notation patterns, harmonizing it, using local imagery, and using modern musical accompaniment. In addition, he can add a new text that fulfills the role of a modern fanfare song, such as the announcement of an important person who is arriving. Such musical communication is expected to be appreciated by both the traditional and modern musicians and listeners.

It is on such reasoning that Seba Woseba, a Papuan musician, ventured to recreate the Yao song of the Dem tribe. He did not change its original melody that includes its precentor and chorus but extended its measure by adding three notes of the same pitch as the last. To give it a modern feel, he determined its new tempo, new key and time signatures, harmonized it in four parts, and used some wind instruments (the trumpet, trombone, and tuba) and percussion to arrange its musical accompaniment. He also added a new text that fulfills its modern role: to announce or celebrate the second coming of the biblical King of kings.

This biblical image, however, is foreign to the Papuan tribes in the hinterland. They do not know kings but tribal chiefs. An analogous phrase of that biblical image the tribes will understand better is "the Chief of (our) chiefs". In addition, their music consists of solo and choir singing, dancing, and occasional yells, such as yells of delight and "jungle yells".

The extended main melody, tempo, and words of the modernized Yao is given below. The text reveals typical imagery of the mountainous Papuans. The complete instrumental melody can be listened to by clicking it at the side bar of this blog.