9. Songs from North Netherlands New Guinea

In addition to studying the traditional music of the Papuan highlanders, Dr. J. Kunst also made a research on the songs of several Papuan tribes in North Netherlands New Guinea in 1929. They included some families from Serui, at that time the main village of Yapen, and some people from the Waropen coast. (Yapen is an island, Waropen is a coastal area; both are located in the Geelvink Bay, nowadays called the Cenderawasih Bay.) The singers also included some men and women from Hollandia and Sarmi, a coastal area a few hundred miles west of Hollandia and not so far from the Mamberamo estuary.

Kunst made a study on the Papuan singers when they took part in the ethnographic exhibition in Batavia in 1929. The exhibition was held by the Royal Batavia Society during the Fourth Pacific Science Congress in Batavia. Their songs and music were recorded with the aid of Ch. Le Roux, at that time, the curator of the Royal Batavia Society. Furthermore, Kunst conducted a study on their songs and music based on the recording Le Roux made by using the phonogram.

Characteristics of the Yapen-Waropen Songs

There were nineteen traditional Papuan songs studied by Kunst. They are often rather long. Their intonation, that is, their quality of singing exactly in tune, as perceived from the recordings is different and keeps changing. Kunst did not attempt to measure the intervals that formed the songs. In spite of this decision, he said the intervals he listened to are "Western" and differ slightly from the European diatonic intervals. Therefore, the transcriptions of the songs into block notations are almost as accurate as the original intervals.

What types of intervals are used in those songs? First, the use of the first and second intervals are conspicuous. This, according to Kunst, is common in virtually all vocal music of primitive tribes. Second, various songs use various intervals. Two songs are wholly formed from second intervals. One song uses a third minor and a third major interval. Eight songs are formed from the alternations of the second major and/or the third minor intervals. Second, third, and fourth intervals are audible from another song; another song involves the fourth and fifth intervals; and two other songs consist of various intervals. Still another song displays the diminished and perfect fourth intervals, the seventh minor and major intervals, and, for only once, the tenth minor interval. Though the songs make use of various intervals ranging from the first to the tenth intervals, either diminished, minor, or major, the second and third intervals are prominent in all of them.

Furthermore, three songs from Yapen belong to the original melodies of the Australian aborigines. These songs are therefore very primitive. One of them was sung by Kamasepadai, an adult man. Its melody is on a level with the primitive melodies of the aborigines in central Australia.

When viewed from the series of notes used in those traditional songs, we can see that the melodic ranges and scales are very narrow. Their melodic range schemes and ranges are as follows:

We also notice the use for so many times of the 6/8 time signature. As already said, this signature seems to be one of the three different time signatures - the two others are 3/8 and 9/8 - favored by the anonymous composers of the Papuan traditional songs.

A particular song from Serui shows more development. Its melody makes use of semi-tone intervals. According to Kunst, their use indicates Malayan influence. Traditional melodies that involve semi-tone intervals are rarely found in the music of the coastal people living in the east, such as in the Humboldt Bay; the intervals are also rarely used in the music of the Central Mountain Range tribes. However, they are common in Malayan-Polynesian music.

Where did the Malayan-Polynesian influence on the traditional melodies from Yapen-Waropen particularly come from? Kunst presumed that the influence of the semi-tone intervals came from Tidore, North Moluccas. Between the 16th and early 2oth century, the Tidore (Muslim) Sultanate had an influence on a part of the coastal people of North Netherlands New Guinea, especially, in the north-western part and in the Geelvink Bay. Its influence has also left a trace in certain traditional songs of the Yapen-Waropen people.

One of the traditional songs from Waropen affected by the Malayan-Polynesian music is a song entitled Munabai. It was sung by Sindusi, an adult man. Kunst, however, did not note down its lyrics or words.

The song shows alternate changes between the 3/8 and 4/8 time signatures. A modulation from C to Bb is noticeable in the last three bars. The semi-tone or second minor intervals Kunst assumed to have been influenced by Malayan-Polynesian music (particularly, from Tidore) can be noticed in the second, third, and twelfth bars as well as in the note groups controlled by the flat B key in the last three bars of the song.

There are some other characteristics of the song. The 3/8 time signature seemingly favored by Papuan composers appears here again. In addition, we notice the combinations of notes with small values, such as eighth and sixteenth notes and their equivalent rests. Such combinations can be traced to modern music, including contemporary pop music. It can be said that the history of modern musical rhythm is a continuation of the past musical rhythm.

The melodic scheme and scale of the song are developed. In the diatonic scale of C major, it includes six notes, two of them are semi-tones.

Songs in the Humboldt Bay and Sarmi

Dr. J. Kunst conducted a study on six songs recorded from the Humboldt Bay and Sarmi. Each differs in its development. Two songs are very simple, two others are respectively formed by six tones of the scales used, and one song has a range of one octave.

Mande, another song from the Humboldt Bay, resembles a song from the Australian aborigines. It frequently uses semi-tone intervals. However, they are not used to form the melody; instead, they serve as the backdrop of the song.

Tinguan, a song from Sarmi, has a range of one octave and a fourth. This song, according to Kunst, is the most beautiful of the six songs from the Humboldt Bay and Sarmi.

Its transcription in block notation resulted in seventy-one bars. To prevent using a lot of space or bytes, the complete notation of the song cannot be made available here.

The schemes of its melodic range and scale, in the diatonic scale of C major, is as follows:

What does Kunst think of the way the singers from the Humboldt Bay sing their songs? To Western musical ears, they sing carelessly and roughly; their voices sound discordant and unrefined.

Yet, Tinguan as sung by a Sarmi male singer, has its own charm. It uses more than one time signature, its repeated beginning is solid, its rhythmic pattern is lively, and its climax - rare in Papuan music - is a merry festal song. Besides, the song gives the impression of a modulation to Western musical ears.

Kunst's Worry

Kunst assumed that the Papuan traditional music in Dutch New Guinea had already been influenced by various layers of civilizations. These layers have already been discussed in a previous chapter.

During the time he conducted his study on Papuan traditional music in Dutch New Guinea, he was worried about the consequences of neglecting the study on and follow-up recording of the traditional music here. Neglecting these measures would allow stronger civilizations from outside to replace Papuan traditional music with their music. If this happens, it would then be too late to "save" the traditional music. Therefore, the important thing to be carried out soon, Dr. J. Kunst said, is documenting (through field study, sketches, pictures, photographs, and song recording) the Papuan traditional music. Concerning the documentation, he stated: "This is the only way that musicology will be able to contribute to ... wider and reliable knowledge of the races and ... cultures of which the Papuans and their civilization are the product."

To a large extent, however, his worry has come true. Modern civilization has penetrated into a large part of Dutch New Guinea, particularly after the Second World War. Christianity, modern education, and modern development of the area have contributed to the fading away and even vanishing of the traditional music. Today, the Papuan traditional music in Indonesia is perhaps not much influenced among a few tribes living in remote areas where the modern civilization of the 2oth century and the beginning of this century has little impact. For a lot of Papuans nowadays, their musical heritage has no longer been a living heritage.

Fortunately, new awareness of the importance of maintaining cultural identity among modern Papuans from Indonesia, most of them university students and graduates, since the former Dutch New Guinea became a part of Indonesia, has surged. This awareness, also noticed from the aim of this blog and its Indonesian link (http://musiketnikindo-papua.blogspot.com/), can be considered a response to Kunst's worry.

Modernized traditional songs from Papua and West Papua have appeared in modern pop songs, secular and Christian, and in church songs in Indonesia. However, a lot of them have not captured the typical Papuan rhythm and other characteristics of their music. This lack seems to have been caused by the modern musical preference of the musicians and singers and ignorance of the traditional Papuan music.

Of course, attempts by the musicians or performers to show Papuan cultural identity through their music are easily noticeable. A Papuan or non-Papuan singer appears on a stage and sings a modernized Papuan traditional song in a Papuan language he or she either understands or does not, accompanied by modern musical instruments. Papuan or non-Papuan young people in "modernized" Papuan and modified non-Papuan traditional clothes perform modernized Papuan dances either as backdrops or as parts of their performances. Appreciative audiences would clap their hands after their shows finish.

Do their attempts show typical Papuan music? Not really. They try to artistically represent some Papuan cultural identity through music on the stage. The characteristics of Papuan music, however, are not sufficiently and rightly expressed on the stage. Instead of the traditional call-and-response singing between a solo singer and a choir, the performers sing either in solo, unison, or harmonized parts. Instead of using the typical rhythm of the tifa, the native drum, the percussion players use different rhythmic patterns. However sincere they are in their attempts, they reflect Kunst's worry that, to a large extent, has come true.

Does this mean that their attempts to revive Papuan music fail? Not really. Anybody who also expresses Kunst's worry will sincerely appreciate their attempts. The point is that they need to dig deeper into Papuan music and modernize it in such a way that it still keeps its typicality, its identity. Modernized music without identity is like a person without his dynamic self.

A good example of recreated or modernized Papuan music can be watched from this youtube movie. The performance is a mixture of various elements, Papuan and non-Papuan.

The song performed, Diru-Diru Nina, is a traditional folk song from Yapen-Waropen which is based on the 1-2-3-5-6 pentatonic scale. The singer, however, mixes this and the diatonic scale in his singing style. The Papuan dancers in recreated traditional male costume and adornment, one of them holding and occasionally beating a tifa, a native drum, are occasionally interrupted by other dancers in modern clothes. The dance steps and styles they show are also a mixture of various dance elements in Papua, including the typical knee-shake dance of the Asmat tribe in the southern part of Papua. The modern musical instruments accompanying the song in a modern pop beat are spiced up with a dangdut style of melody played on a bamboo flute. (Dangdut is the name for a type of popular music in Indonesia that has strong beats reminiscent of Hindi and Arabic music.) The rhythm is strong, lively, typical of Papuan rhythm.

8. What Can Be Developed?

To develop typically modern Papuan music, a musician should make some selection and modification. Not all characteristics of traditional Papuan music are suitable for the 21st century.

Reasons for Selection and Modification

Short and simple melodies with monotonous motion - such as those beginning with the highest and ending with the lowest tones - quickly bore listeners. Composers of modern popular music having strong rhythms - such as reggae, disco, rock 'n roll, samba, salsa, and chachacha - might find it impossible to develop rhythm if the time signatures of their idioms keep changing in their songs, such as from 2/4 to 4/4 to 3/4 and then to 4/4. Moreover, each idiom has its own dance version developed on the basis of only one time signature. The regular steps of dancers will therefore be interrupted if the song to which they are dancing changes its rhythm to fit its changing time signatures, including rare ones such as 9/4 and 4/8. Therefore, the tendency of traditional Papuan music to change its time signatures frequently, including rare measures, is impractical for the creation of popular musical idioms. Even modern church songs rarely make use of time-signature changes. If the traditional Papuan songs that use more than one time signatures should be modernized, musicians should make selection of which songs they can modernize and modification by using only one time signature. In short, the selection and modification of Papuan traditional music is indeed necessary for enabling it to be a part of the 21st-century music, nationally and internationally.

Selection and Modification

What characteristics can be selected and modified? The following recommendations are personal.

Single time signature

Develop typically Papuan songs by giving priority to the use of single time signatures. Choose time signatures that are common in modern music, such as 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 6/4, 3/8, 6/8, and 9/8. Then, determine one type of time signature to substitute for the different time signatures in one traditional Papuan song. This step will make it easier for the typically modern Papuan music to be absorbed by national and international music, especially popular music, nowadays. There is an exception. If a traditional Papuan song will be developed into a meter-free song like a psalm or Gregorian chant, a musician can make the adjustment needed.

Greater chance of being developed

The triadic and fanfare songs of the Awembiaks and Dems seem to have a greater chance of being developed into modern songs. Triadic and fanfare melodies are common in modern military music in the West. They can also be traced to musical phrases of various national anthems, such as that of France, and even in some famous church songs, like "Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus". In Indonesian national songs, a triadic and fanfare phrase can be heard from the opening part of Maju Tak Gentar where singers sing the phrase, "Maju tak gentar". Another phrase can be heard in the opening of Dari Barat Sampai ke Timur, another national song, where singers sing the phrase "Dari Barat sampai ke Timur, berjajar". Such fragments of triadic and fanfare melodies were creatively developed on the basis of certain rules in music and have contributed to the popularity of some famous songs in Indonesia, France, and church services. Obviously, the potentiality for developing the triadic and fanfare melodies of the Awembiak and Dem tribes into modern songs exists.

Careful development of typical rhythm

The typical rhythmic patterns of traditional Papuan songs should be carefully developed. Modernizing Papuan music without its typical rhythm will make it lose its identity because it is not different from the rhythms of other music. The traditional vocal music contains rhythm affected by the lyrics or words of songs and, to a certain extent, the rhythm in nature. The words chosen for traditional melodies consist of word accents, intonation, tempos, musical instruments used, and - in certain cases - the imitation of natural sounds, such as animal sounds and bird chirps. Each language and natural environment produce different rhythm. Therefore, a musician who wants to develop typical Papuan rhythm should absorb it before he recreates it as typical modern Papuan music.

Typical Papuan melodies

Musicians should also develop typical Papuan melodies. Rhythm is an important component of a melody; therefore, a musician should study the relation between the typical Papuan rhythm and melodic contour. Note combinations with various values and the use of triplets and other irregular divisions need to be carefully studied before a musician recreates the typical Papuan rhythmic patterns.

Factors determining melodic shapes

A melodic shape is also determined by the type of scale, tonal range, and melodic form used. There are, for example, tetratonic scales such as the G, Bb, C, Eb scale that underlies the melodic structure of Huembello. There are also pentatonic scales such as the C, D, E, G, A scale that forms the basis of Yamko Rambe Yamko, Diru-Diru Nina, and Gembala Baik Bersuling nan Merdu. There are some other traditional scales not developed yet into typical Papuan songs, a part of them will be explained later. In addition to the scales, the tonal range of the traditional Papuan songs is one octave, more or less. Modern Papuan songs can use various tonal ranges that fit the need. Regarding melodic forms, the form frequently noticed so far in the traditional Papuan songs is the strophic form. This form is also noticeable in modern music; therefore, a musician who recreates Papuan music can make use of the modern strophic forms.

Precentor and chorus

The singing technique that involves precentor and chorus of the Dems needs to be developed. It can refresh secular and Christian pop music as well as church music.

Favorite time signatures?

The frequent use of 3/8, 6/8, and 9/8 in traditional Papuan music is an interesting musical phenomenon. This is not because these different time signatures are typically Papuan; modern music often uses them. They seem to be time signatures favored by the composers of traditional Papuan melodies. If this is true, why did the composers like them? It is not easy to answer the question. Rhythm is endless motion in nature, around and inside the music-composing man. Due to factors hard to explain, the composers of traditional songs were spurred by their creativity, either spontaneous or planned, to choose the three different time signatures and their related rhythmical patterns. Their choices have affective or emotional meaning that they like.

If the traditional composers do like those time signatures, a modern musician can recreate traditional Papuan melodies by using one of the three time signatures. Modern church songs frequently use them; therefore, recreating a typical Papuan melody for church services will be easy. However, it looks not easy to use any one of them in current pop music which are generally composed by using 4/4, 2/4, and 3/4. This opens a challenging opportunity for musicians to recreate modern and typical Papuan pop music using 3/8, 6/8, or 9/8. Only a creative and persistent musician can become a trend setter of some new pop music from Papua, pop music based on one of the three time signatures.

Reduplication, vocalization, and pleasant-sounding words

The use of reduplication, vocalization typical of the Central Mountain Range using the o a o vowel sequence, and word choices that produce pleasant-sounding words need to be studied and used in modern Papuan music. These characteristics can strengthen the typicality of the music.

Melodic fragments

Melodic phrases or fragments of the mountain tribes and several tribes along the coast as already explained can be developed in modern pop music, such as disco. These short melodies have the potentiality to be developed into modern music.

In fact, there is a type of modern disco that makes use of strong rhythm and short melodies as parts of the disco rhythm. Two examples can be listened to from the recordings by D.J. Mangoo in http://www.mp3.com/mangoo: Screw Me dan Sad Memory. Both songs are short and simple; the chords used are basic. Their sizes and simplicity are not very different from those sung by the mountain tribes and several tribes along the coast of Netherlands New Guinea. Mangoo, however, can develop his disco songs into interesting pop songs.

Interestingly, Sad Memories seems to make use of a musical instrument that resembles the jewish harp in Papua. The rhythm it creates is strengthened by drum beats and bass line typical of the disco. It reminds a Papuan listener or anyone else familiar with Papuan music to a modern Papuan melody accompanied by the tifa, native drums, and a typical bass line.

By learning from short and simple melodies that can be developed into interesting and even captivating disco music by Mangoo, a musician is now challenged to recreate the traditional and short melodies into modern songs. As far as I can remember, the Black Brothers, a Papuan pop-music band, pioneered the modernization of traditional and short Papuan melodies and also of other short melodies in the Pacific, especially, after they lived abroad. Huembello formed from four tones is an enchanting song because it combines Papuan and Western pop music. You can hear, for example, "jungle" voices that are blended with modern music.

Their pioneering efforts need to be continued by other musicians. The basic stuff - original melodies from various Papuan tribes in Dutch New Guinea - is already there. Who else want to develop them?

Gembala Baik Case

Considered one of the most beloved church songs by an Indonesian composer in Indonesia and abroad, Gembala Baik Bersuling nan Merdu (The Good Shepherd Playing a Flute Melodiously) has often been sung in various church services and choirs, Indonesian tv broadcasts, during Christian funerals and personal Christian meditations, in Christian choir competitions in Indonesia, in Christian singing groups, and on some other occasions. It has also been recorded by several Christian singers and musicians, in Indonesia, Holland, and Germany. Mus Mulyadi, an Indonesian Catholic and also a famous pop singer, sings it in kroncong style, a successful blend of Portuguese and Indonesian music. While the song is composed by using the 1-2-3-5-6 pentatonic scale, Mulyadi sings it by using the diatonic scale typical of the kroncong idiom. Amos L. Tjanu from Holland and his group and Helen Perina from Indonesia sing the same song in a country style. Kharitas Singers from North Sulawesi (eastern part of Indonesia) sing it in a contemporary pop style while Sonia Hitijahubessy turns its refrain into a flexitone. There are some others who sing and perform the same song in different ways and in different parts of Indonesia and abroad.

Though the song is very popular, probably few know that its composer is a Papuan musician. Mostly self-taught in Western music since the Dutch period in Dutch New Guinea, C. Akwan, a Protestant of Calvinistic background but now a retired HRD staff from a multinational oil and gas company operating in Indonesia, is the man behind the song. The six-foot tall man who originally came from Manokwari, now the capital city of the newly formed Indonesian province of West Papua, used one of the traditional scales in the central northern coast of Papua to compose the melody. He then turned most of Psalm 23 from the Old Testament into heart-felt, soul-stirring lyrics for a melody he also composed that sounds simple, but strong and majestic. (Akwan has lived in Jakarta for almost 30 years.)

His song is one example of the use of traditional scales from Papua to compose songs for a modern world. The song that has three verses is published in Kidung Jemaat (no. 415), a hymn book used mainly by mainstream Protestant churches and also by Catholic churches in Indonesia.

The song is also available on the Internet. Those who are interested in the kroncong rhythm of the song by Mus Mulyadi can access it via http://www.youtube.com/. After opening this site, type in the dialog box gembala baik bersuling nan merdu and you can see the song title, the singer, and the thumbnail picture of a sheep on the youtube screen. (This site has already been embedded below.) You will also notice another modern idiom (jazzy?) of the same song by My Voice, a singing group from Bandung, West Java; still another version is played on a guitar by a young man who identifies himself as fid0m5r. If you are interested in contemporary pop idiom, please, access the song at http://www.imeem.com/people/mHfW6b as sung by Kharitas Singers. To play the song, please, click Next or 2. The flexitone version of its refrain can be accessed at http://www.telkomflexi.com/popup.