Papuan Ethnic Music

10. Music of the Waropen Coast

2009-04-03T13:05:00.001-07:00

Besides studying the song recordings of the Waropens in Batavia, Kunst also conducted further study on the music of the Waropen Coast through the printed research of Prof. Dr. G.J. Held. Held's works that Kunst used as his reference is Papoea's van Waropen, published in Leiden, Holland, in 1947. Its English edition, The Papuas of Waropen, was published in the Hague in 1957.

Held is not a professional musician like Kunst. Actually, he is a linguist graduating with honors from the prestigious Leiden University in Holland and was employed by the Dutch government to conduct language research in the Waropen Coast.

In spite of his real profession, he must have shown some specific interest, for some reason, in the traditional music of the Waropen Coast. He, therefore, spent some of his time to make recordings of the songs from Waropen. His recordings were made by using an Excelsior Phonograph granted to him by the Phonograph Archives in Berlin, Germany. His recordings of the Waropen songs were then sent to Berlin, but it is not known whether or not they were intactly kept there after World War II. Even if they are stil kept there, it is not known whether they have already been changed into block notations and texts - if there are any. As a result, Kunst studied the music of the Waropen Coast by only using the research stuff from Prof. Dr. G.J. Held. What Kunst did was studying the parts from Held's book relevant to the music from Waropen.

Characteristics of the Music from the Waropen Coast

The traditional songs of the Waropen people narrated and commented upon their myths. They include rano, a rowing song sung by males; ratara, another type of song sung by females during a wedding ceremony or the birth of a baby; and muna, a kind of song sung by both males and females at a ritual for a deceased. Although the rano, ratara, and muna were respectively sung in different styles, they were all related to myths.

The rano consists of seven types of songs. First, soitirano, sung when a bride and bridegroom were "accompanied in a procession" by a large canoe rowed by other people around a village to introduce the couple to their fellow-villagers. It was also sung when a newly made canoe was ready to be rowed for the first time. Second, ghomindano, was sung during slave-hunting raids by sea and after head hunters returned home from their voyage. Third, amairano, a morning song sung at initiation rites, rites of passages in which children were accepted as adults. Fourth, damadorano, a song at the house of an initiate, the child who during the initiation ceremony would become an adult. Fifth, nuarano, a trade song sung in particular on a canoe. Sixth, ramasasisri, a special song, usually sung in a foreign language and sung only during a voyage. Seventh, ratisara, songs about love, sung on rowed or sailing canoes and at home. After the Waropen people became Christians, they also sang the three last-mentioned types of songs when they traveled by canoes.

A rano sung sounds like a Western round. A singer or several singers sang a part of the song. Before they finished their part, another singer or several other singers sang the same part from the beginning while the first group that finished the song repeated it from the beginning. The second group did the same thing. At a certain moment, both groups stopped simultaneously or successionally.

Professor Held depicted and mulled over this kind of singing as folows:

First, one man sings the song, the men at the back of the canoe then take up the first strophe and when they have sung a part of the song, the men in the front come in with the beginning of the song. For each group of the singers, there is thus a series of pauses throughout the singing of the song. The informants compared this kind of singing to a kind of chase in which each party tries to urge on the other to overtake it. The idea probably is that the language of myths in which these songs are couched drives the canoe onwards.

The rano composition involved euwo. The last-mentioned term means "base" or "foot". This probably means the first part of the first strophe. In its round-like form, the euwo of rano can be called the first verse sung by one of the two groups that sang the rano. If there is an euwo, is there an uri, the top of rano? It was not discovered.

In which atmosphere and for what reasons did the rowers sing those rowing songs? They just sang them when they rowed their canoe. When the day was sweltering, the canoe could not sail because there was no wind blowing the sails, they felt burned up. When the sea was choppy and hit the sides of the canoe, the rowers sang at the top of their voices to overcome the howling wind. When the night fell, when the voyage ended and the rowers entered their village, they sang their rowing songs melodiously and triumphantly while using short, choppy strokes with their paddles to splash up the sea water. Such a rowing style was called kikaworo, which literally means "they chop". While the canoe was being rowed in such a manner, interested fellow-villagers stood while watching the canoe and its paddlers.

Aside from the rowing songs, there were other songs accompanied on the siwa, the traditional drum shaped like a beaker. It was the most important musical instrument for the Waropen people and was imported mainly from the Moor and Mambor islands in the southern part of the Geelvink Bay. The people on these islands were well-known for their artisanship in crafting ornamental motives on the siwa. Held did not find any evidence of the artisanship of the Waropen people in crafting their typical drums.

The siwabuino, a half-drum, was often played by females and resembled the half size of a siwa. To accompany traditional dances, both the siwa and siwabuino were tuned to two different pitches. For this tuning, hides tightened repeatedly over a small fire were stretched along the rims of the drums and stuck around them with tiny balls of resin. "Apparently, the Waropen {people] demand a high standard of sound from their drums," commented Dr. G.J. Held. "They give individual names to their drums and they can recognize them at a distance by their sound."

How can the hides produce the sound they wanted? The hides were gotten from the moiwa, iguanas, which lived in large numbers in Waropen. The hides were cleanly scraped while they were still fresh, then stretched over frames made of laths and dried in the sun. If the old, stretched hides on the drums would be replaced with new ones, artisans had to smear the rims of the drums with the sticky parings of mangrove fruits. The hides were made pliable by wetting them, pulled taut over the gummy rims and bound tightly with pieces of canes. The hides were then dried under the sun and firmly fixed to the drumheads; after that, the canes were removed.

Other musical instruments were also used in Waropen. They include various mauno or gongs, and buro, trumpets made from conch shells whose conical ends had holes bored into them. Tungge or the jewish harp was also used; it probably originated inland. The traditional flute in Waropen used two holes through which simple melodies could be played.

Held also mentioned a typical musical instrument that probably has disappeared from Waropen: the mbumbu. It was shaped into "a wooden propeller ... turned by pulling a piece of string that runs through a round nut."

9. Songs from North Netherlands New Guinea

2008-10-30T11:39:00.001-07:00

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?

2008-10-15T09:27:00.001-07:00

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.

7. Other Characteristics of Central Range Songs

2008-09-30T05:57:00.001-07:00

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

2008-09-03T02:16:00.001-07:00

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.

5. Modern and Traditional Bamboo Flutes in Netherlands New Guinea

2008-08-14T03:28:00.001-07:00

There are two types of bamboo flutes known in Dutch New Guinea. The modern thin bamboo flute, not native to Papuan traditional music, has been used for probably more than a century. The traditional one is virtually nonexistent and is known only through scientific studies and missionary reports.

The Modern Flute Orchestra

The nine-hole thin bamboo flute used in a modern flute orchestra - particularly, along the northern, northeastern, and northwestern coasts in Netherlands New Guinea - is not a typical Papuan flute. It was probably introduced by Ambonese Christians to the Christian Papuans in those areas at the turn of the 20th century and has been used ever since.

One end of this flute is usually plugged up with a cut piece of gabah-gabah, the inside part of a dried stalk of a sago tree. A mouthpiece is drilled with a pointed iron bar heated with firewood close below the plugged up end. A few inches downwards, eight finger holes evenly spaced are also drilled with the same heated iron bar. Usually, no tuning fork or pitch instrument is used to measure any diatonic major key for the flute. Anybody skillful enough can produce a flute by using a previously made flute perfectly tuned as a standard pitch measurement. The other end of the flute is left open.

This modern flute can produce an octave of a diatonic scale. No chromatic tones can be played and heard from it.

One modern flute orchestra can consist of one small, thin bamboo solo flute with a high and piercing sound, similar to that of a Western piccolo. This flute leads the orchestra by playing the main melody. A large majority of the other flutes are of a medium size and are grouped into those playing the soprano, alto, and tenor parts. Another group consisting of large size thin bamboo flutes form the bass. Self-made drums that resemble the Western snare and bass drums used for marching complete with a pair of sticks (for the snare drum) and a mallet stick (for the bass drum) form the percussion section. The mallet stick is made from a piece of strong and round wooden stick ; one of its end used for beating the drum is wrapped with a special piece of clothes that can produce a deep, dark, rumbling bass sound, resembling that of a disco bass drum. Certain flute orchestra groups also use complete sets of commercial snare and bass drums used for military march music. In a 2/4 or 4/4 song, the bass-drum beats usually follow the meter, with some incidental variations. The snare drum is played in various rhythms, some of them improvised. A complete flute orchestra consists of at least seven players.

The songs played by a flute orchestra are of any types. They include church songs, modern folk songs, Western (including Dutch) march songs, and even self-composed songs.

Strange as it may sound, the church songs played are often of Anglo-Saxon origin. They include those mellow, sentimental, "bound-for-heaven" songs, and other lively, sunshine-bright songs.

This inclination was probably influenced by two hymn books that contain a lot of Anglo-Saxon church songs: Doea Sahabat Lama and Mazmoer dan Tahlil. Both were very popular before and after the Second World War among the Christians in the eastern part of Indonesia (West Timor, North Sulawesi, and the Moluccas) and in Netherlands New Guinea.

The harmony of the orchestra is usually formed from the Western diatonic music. It includes the tonic, subdominant, dominant (including dominant seven) and is sometimes varied with the supertonic, mediant, and submediant. The harmony usually follows parallel and similar lines: when the lead flute goes up, flat, or down in the main melody, the accompanying soprano, alto, and tenor flutes do the same or form similar lines. The bass flute usually plays the root notes of the chords or harmony. This type of harmony is also typical of both hymn books, also sung in four parts by both children's and adult choirs in church services or Christian festivities.

Harmony moving in such parallel and similar lines is not only easy to play. It is also easy to construct. Once a flute player understands and masters the ABC of such harmony, he can easily or spontaneously form the melodic line of his part that harmonically supports or embellishes the main melody.

Then, came Rev. I. S. Kijne (1899-1970), one of the most prominent missionaries of the Dutch Reformed Church Missionary in Dutch New Guinea. As a highly gifted musician, he taught his Papuan students modern church and selected secular songs from Continental Europe, Britain, and the USA by using a different system of harmony at the Christian Teacher's Training College for rural areas in Miei, an important village in the Wondama Peninsula, north Netherlands New Guinea, from 1925 to 1942. The harmonic parts of the songs are combinations of parallel, similar to parallel, oblique, in-unison, and contrary motion. He taught his Papuan students, later teachers at Christian three-year elementary schools in the rural areas managed by the Missionary of the Dutch Reformed Church in Dutch New Guinea, to teach Papuan pupils and their congregations to sing the "Kijne method": choirs should sing their songs by heart, the singing mouths should look oval to produce sonority, the right singing voice should be put in the right singing part, and the new harmony that also includes chromatic tones should be used.

The college is also the first teacher's training institute in the whole of Dutch New Guinea.

Before the Second World War, he published his translations into Malay (now Indonesian) of those songs he had taught at that college and some others in a hymn book entitled Mazmur dan Nyanyian Rohani (Psalms and Spiritual Songs). The spiritual songs include Beethoven's Song of Joy, G.F. Handel's melody for Daughter Zion, another melody for his Joy to the World theme, and J.S. Bach's O Sacred Head Now Wounded. A four-part edition for mixed choirs uses the modern harmony just mentioned. This hymn book containing only the main melody in the sol-fa notation plus lyrics is still being used by some main-stream Protestant churches in Indonesia, including the Evangelical Christian Church in the present-day Papua and West Papua provinces.

What not many of those who use Kijne's hymn book know nowadays is that he also published a special edition for a four-part flute orchestra in Dutch New Guinea. Because the flute players were familiar with the tonic sol-fa notation (the number or cipher notation), the edition used this notation system. It was not published again, however, when Netherlands New Guinea became a part of Indonesia in 1963.

Though the flute orchestra has been quite popular among the coastal main-stream Papuan Protestants in Dutch New Guinea since the turn of last century, the flute itself is not native to them. It is a foreign cultural element that nevertheless has enriched their musical heritage.

Traditional Flutes

How does the traditional flute in Dutch New Guinea look like? Why is it virtually nonexistent?

There are many types of traditional flutes in Dutch New Guinea. They are made from the thin and thick bamboos. We know them from scientific documents left by Dutch and other scholars.

Two of them, however, were commonly used in the northern coast. First, the small flute for giving signals used in Witriwai and Humboldt Bay. Second, the flute played by the Saberi tribe east of Apauwar River. One of its end is open and a part of the other end is covered by a cut hole at its joint. Both flutes are typical of both areas.

Uneven overtones

Can traditional flutes create harmonics? In other words, can they produce overtones in addition to the lowest or fundamental tone?

Dr. Kunst said the flutes did create fundamental tones but with uneven and even overtones. Their shapes, sizes, and how they were made and blown affect their characteristics of overtones. The two types of bamboo flutes already mentioned were described by G.A.J. van der Sande, a Dutch scholar.

One of them comes in various sizes. It is thin in relation to its length and is blown at its upper end; its lower end is closed by its joint or node. Because of its typical size, shape, and way of playing, it produces uneven overtones in addition to its fundamental tone.

Even overtones

The other type comes also in various forms and sizes. Compared with the first type, the second type is wider and shorter. It also has a round, oval, or square hole in the middle. Generally, the hole is closer to its closed end than to its open end. The size and shape of such a flute can produce even harmonics, but the larger diameter of the bamboo seems to obstruct more than one single tone.

The last mentioned flute is short and thick. The aerophonic instrument is played more easily than the thin, long flute.

The Sacred Flutes

The thin, long flutes are called "sacred flutes" because they were blown only during sacred rituals. Women were forbidden to see or watch or listen to them when they were blown.

Playing them was so difficult that not a single European, even Dr. Kunst himself, could blow one! His attempts even ended in embarrassing failures.

Only the sturdy, barrel chested, and mature Papuan men could blow them. Because the way a sacred flute was blown needed a lot of energy, the men able to play sacred flutes could only hold on for a short period of time, became quickly exhausted, and perspired. Van der Sande who witnessed the playing of the sacred flutes commented: "I have seldom seen a Papuan exerting himself more than in producing this sacred music."

The musical tones of the thin, long bamboo flute were carefully and accurately measured. Which harmonics was sounded? Attempts to determine the series of partials (overtones) failed, partly because the flute pitches were not based on Western harmonics and presumably the manner of blowing the flute also caused the failure.

Van der Sande determined the fundamental tone of the sacred flute with a cut hole at its joint at C sharp (#C). However, he determined its harmonics at A, C, and E; the overtones considered were uneven, caused partly by the stopped or closed end of the flute.

Chord 9

In spite of the problems of determining the harmonics, a part of the melody played on the flutes and recorded produces four tones that can be appreciated by Western musical ears. The tones "have a sweet organ-like sound". Not only that. The four tones even form "a true chord", the ninth chord sounded only by four tones. They sound familiar and quite pleasant to European ears.

In the C diatonic major key, the ninth chord of the tonic (C), for example, is formed from the C as its root or bass note. By going up step-wisely from the lowest tonic note, you meet D nine diatonic steps above C: C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C-D. According to standard rules of Western harmony, C9 is composed from C-E-G-Bb-D, with D as its highest note.

The sacred flutes that create the four tones indicate the voicing of a ninth chord. If this is a C9, there are at least two types of voicing. First, the selection of the tone sequence of C-E-G-Bb; or, second, the selection of the tone sequence of E-G-Bb-D.

Is the ninth chord detected in the sacred flutes the same as one of the tone sequences? Kunst noted down the ninth chord produced by the flutes as follows:

You can notice a practical equivalent for singing at "Transposition". The note sequence in this diatonic key in fact consists of four out of five tones of the F9#11 chord whose B tone is not used. From the lowest to the highest tone, the complete sequence of the ninth chord is C -Eb-A-B-G. The B note not used leaves four tones: C-Eb-A-G. If you reorder this sequence, you get the ninth chord sequence Kunst discovered from the sacred flutes: C-A-Eb-G. The Eb note that sounds exactly the same as D# can also be written as D#, making another possible four-tone chord: C-A-D#-G. (See "9th chord" and "9#11 chord".)

Changing tempos

In addition to the ninth chord, Kunst noted down the tempo of the song played on the sacred flutes as recorded by the phonogram. The tempo was measured on the basis of the number of tones played in one minute; he got sixty tones per minute.

Another recording indicates the development of different characteristics of the melody and tempo. The melody starts with "a soft indefinable tangle of sounds, a melodious whispering in the higher tones: the playing is fast, approximately 240 tones per minute. After that, there is a plaintive movement which is repeated several times" which is presumed to be the imitation of bird calls. The plaintive movement begins with a speed of 148 tones per minute, then increases to more or less 196 tones, and finally slows down again to 148.

The melody played is as follows:

The four tones are played on four different flutes. Two are long and the other two are short.

Why the Traditional Flute Disappears

Why is the traditional flute virtually nonexistent? There are many reasons.

Obviously, the modern life the Papuans in Dutch New Guinea experienced has been one of the causes of the disappearance of the traditional flute. The modern life resulted in the tendency, particularly, among the younger Papuan generation who were educated in modern schools established by the Dutch and managed under their supervision, to prefer modern music, including the modern flute orchestra. Sooner or later, the older Papuan generation who knew the art of playing the traditional sacred flutes and their related rituals based on myths died and, therefore, could not pass on their skills to the next generation. The younger generation in turn began to see their musical culture as being inferior and shameful to the modern one.

Perhaps, a more significant or enduring cause of the disappearance of the traditional flute came from Christianity. The flutes were strongly related to anti-Christian teachings. They were used in rituals based on myths that among others dealt with spirits of the ancestors and forest (trees, animals, and so on) and beliefs that were contradictory to what the Bible taught. Dutch missionaries who understood this challenge to the Christian faith sometimes used confrontational missionary methods to overcome this challenge. They tried to do away with the anti-Christian traditional culture, including traditional music, through persistent persuasion. Through such persuasion, they built negative images of the culture with its traditional music in such a way that the Papuans won to Christ abandoned their culture and music. Generally, the missionaries were successful in their efforts.

Such persuasion, however, was not forced by the missionaries into the Papuan perception of freedom, including their freedom in making the right choices. Rev. F.J.F. van Hasselt, Jr., a Dutch missionary of the Dutch Reformed Church Missionary assigned in Manokwari as the center of the missionary work in the northern part of Dutch New Guinea since 1855, is one of those who showed prudence and persistence when he tried to persuade the Papuans to leave their old ways of life and accept the new, Christian-based life.

He came at the time the Papuans - particularly, along the north-eastern, northern, north-western, and south-western coasts of Dutch New Guinea - underwent what might be called the Great Spiritual Awakening after the Gospel was brought to them in 1855. The awakening started on January 1, 1908 and spread like a "spiritual earthquake" from its spiritual "epicenter" on the Island of Roon, north of the Wandamen (Wondama) Peninsula in the southern part of the Geelvink Bay. Papuans from these areas came in masses - in scores, hundreds, and thousands - to a new era after they and their ancestors had lived on that western part of the huge island of New Guinea in the South Pacific for around 10,000 to 40,000 years. For aeons, they had been dreaming vaguely through their sacred myths of such a "golden age". The Biak-Numfor and a lot of other Papuan tribes had for millennia kept their mythical belief of the return of Lord of the Utopia, a Messianic figure, a mythical hero from the dim past who would bring Utopia, a kind of Welfare, Happy-Go-Lucky State to the Papuans. The Great Spiritual Awakening then made them aware that the expected Lord of the Utopia they had been dreaming about for so long was Nobody else than Jesus Christ and that the Utopia they had been yearning for during those aeons was nothing else than the Christian civilization!

The transition from the old to the new ways of life did not happen as dramatic miracles. The sober-minded Papuans frequently showed inner conflicts when faced with the consequences of abandoning their old, endearing tradition on the one hand and accepting Christianity as their new "tradition" on the other hand.

Van Hasselt, Jr. who understood their mind-set well and employed prudent and persistent persuasion came up with a solution acceptable to both biblical-based and Papuan logic. He came to them not as a "temple destroyer" but as a "liberator". As a liberator, the Gospel he preached to the Papuans was that of "openness, freedom, [and] emancipation", fundamental ideas understood and accepted by the Papuans.

In what specific cases did he not appear as a temple destroyer but as a liberator? There were some specific cases, but one will suffice in describing his role among the Papuans who sometimes wavered in choosing between the old and the new ways of life.

In 1910, he visited Masi-Masi in the Sarmi area, some hundred miles west of Hollandia (now, Jayapura). Darma, a traditional temple in which spirits of the ancestors were revered, was still standing. The dawet, the traditional sacred flutes, were still played in and around the temple. Van Hasselt, Jr. persuaded the Papuans to choose the church instead of the temple and the Christian God instead of the "demons" in that temple. The evil spirits in there would not make them smart but ignorant.

The Papuans finally came to a decision to let the temple be destroyed. At the missionary's request, around 100 sacred flutes in the temple were thrown outside the temple. They were brought to the house in Masi-Masi where van Hasselt, Jr. stayed. Then, came the destruction of the temple for demons. Since 1910, both the sacred flutes and the temple in Masi-Masi where they were kept and played have disappeared from that area.

When criticized for his role in the destruction of the traditional culture of the Papuans in Masi-Masi, he defended his decision to do so. He was not a temple destroyer; instead, he was a liberator of the Papuans from their old beliefs. He got strong support from influential Papuans, such as village and clan heads in Masi-Masi, to liberate the people from their old ways of life.

Difficult to Be Developed

Apparently, those traditional flutes are hard to be developed into modern flutes. The sacred flutes have limited mouthpieces and finger holes, it is extremely difficult to blow them, they are related to traditional beliefs, and have other limitations.

This does not mean that it is impossible to modernize them. Any creative musician, Papuan or non-Papuan, can modernize them.

What I think can be developed is the four-tone melody played on the four sacred flutes. The change of the melody, its atmosphere, and tempo can be recreated by using the tones as a melodic motive. A highly imaginative musician who understands Western music and its techniques thoroughly can compose modern songs using the four tones and make them sound typically Papuan.

Possibility for Development

A comparison with the development of the nine-hole modern flute can be made. So far, only diatonic tones of an octave have been played on the flute. The tones are produced through the correct lip position at the mouthpiece and the correct blowing of the flute. At the same time, opening one finger hole while closing others according to the tones of a melody produces a song. Such lip and finger positions, however, do not create chromatic tones.

Is there is a possibility to play chromatic tones on the modern bamboo flute? Yes, there is.

How? Assuming that the flute is tuned to the key of C major, a player can transpose the key from C major to G and D major and extend the melodic range to more than one octave. What he (or she) needs to do to get the chromatic tones is to partly open his fingers from the holes! The creation of chromatic tones will enable him to not only play songs having both diatonic and chromatic tones but also to transpose his first key to another key.

Such an improvement in tonal range and colors shows clearly the capability of the creative human mind to transcend what was previously considered unthinkable or impossible. The musical reality is not a rigid wall a musician cannot "batter down" through his creativity. Instead, this reality is like "rubber": it has a lot of creative flexibility in different dimensions.

4. Traditional Musical Instruments in Dutch New Guinea

2008-08-11T03:39:00.001-07:00

Kunst classified traditional instrumental music in Netherlands New Guinea into four main groups. First, idiophones; second, membranophones; third, chordophones; and, fourth, aerophones. The areas from which these instruments originated were also mentioned.

Idiophones

This group includes the music whose source is from its own body. There are five types of idiophones discovered in Dutch New Guinea:

Musical instruments that produce rattles. They are made of dried fruits hanging like small mangoes tied to a stem or stick; they are also made of some shells connected through a piece of thin string to another piece of string tied to the body. The shells rattles when a person wearing them probably dances. Origin: Sentani Lake and Humboldt Bay.
Bell made of a Conus shell; its tongue is usually made of a boar's tusk. Origin: Humboldt Bay.
Sounding block, it resembles a prow shaped like a sheath with an oblong-like hole in the middle. Origin: Humboldt Bay.
Throwing block or thunder block, it resembles a fetus lying flat in the womb with arms and legs folded inward, facing upward. Origin: Humboldt Bay.
Jewish harp, made of the bark of a palm tree or of a piece of bamboo, resembles a biconvex bamboo comb with three, long, pointed teeth with slots in between and with a sharp and pointed end; played with the mouth. Origins: Humboldt Bay and Sarmi.

Membranophones

This group consists of musical instruments whose sources of sounds are from membranes. There are also five types of membranophones discovered in Netherlands New Guinea:

Globes drum, the larger upper part resembles a rather elongated liqueur glass with a handle, its shorter "neck" is similar to the base of the liqueur glass. Origins: Waropen Coast and Yappen.
Transitional form between goblet and cylindrical drums; the end beaten is covered with dried animal hide. Origin: Waropen Coast.
Thin and long bamboo (buluh) drum, the round part beaten at one end has narrow parallel lines and makes the drum look like the gill of a mushroom. Origin: Humboldt Bay.
Two-legged drum in the form of an inverted V. Both legs support the drum that has a partly round handle, with the beaten dried hide flat on one of its end, looks round outward and has curved, parallel lines along its side, the hollow trunk of the drum has motifs. Origin: Sentani Lake.
Hour-glass drum with a round handle holding the upper and lower parts at its neck. The upper end where the dried hide is stuck is covered with the cap-like shape of a mushroom that has very narrow, curved, parallel lines, making it resemble a flat mushroom with its gill around its cap. The handle and the upper part starting from the neck are very much decorated with local motifs; the lower part starting from the neck is sparsely decorated with a different motif.

Chordophones

This group of musical instruments produce their sounds from their strings. Not a single chordophone from Dutch New Guinea was noted down by Kunst except three types from Papua New Guinea during its colonial period. The self-made ukulele, contra bass, and large four-string guitar played, particularly, in the rural areas in Dutch New Guinea and even in present-day Papua and West Papua do belong to chordophones. Kunst, however, did not mention them in his book probably because they are not original products but are influenced by Western culture.

Aerophones

This group of musical instruments use air as its source of sound. There are ten types discovered in Netherlands New Guinea:

End-blown wooden trumpet similar to a large Sprite bottle whose neck resembles an inverted Christmas bell with the mouthpiece at its top. The part below the neck is ornamented with certain motifs. Origins: Arso and Sentani Lake.
Wooden trumpet with its mouthpiece near one end and blown from one side; the part of the mouthpiece is carved into a human head with a slightly slanted but pointed forehead; the back part of this hollow trunk shows a square handle resembling an ear, its lower part or base has a large round whole. Origins: Tobati, Hollandia.
Thin bamboo flute with large-spaced joints with a round mouthpiece at one of its end, decorated slightly below it with some motifs. Origin: Saberi.
End-blown conch trumpet from the Waropen Coast.
Large side-blown conch trumpet, also from the Waropen Coast.
Ocarina made of a small, hollow coconut shell with the open mouth shape of a fish carved at one end, a round hole resembling the eye of a fish near its upper middle, and a small hole at its other end through which a rope is attached for holding it. Origin: south coast of Dutch New Guinea.
Transverse flute, carved with various motifs, with a round, u-shaped, or square hole near, in the middle, or slightly below one of its end. One of its end is closed or open. The upper part looks similar to the sharp metal point of a spear. Origins: Humboldt Bay and northern coast (Beko, Arso, Waabe, Tobati, Kaptiau).
Short bamboo (with narrow-spaced joints) flute, open at both sides, with its mouthpiece carved slightly closer to the lower end, decorated with various motifs. Origin: north coast.
Vertical thin bamboo flute without a finger hole on its side; instead, it has a largely flat cut hole with the rest of the outer layer sticking upward and the other end closed. Origin: north coast (Nacheibe, Ujang, and Mande).
Five-row pan pipe consisting of five thin bamboos of different lengths tied near the upper end and serving as mouthpieces with a piece of rope; the lower end of each bamboo is cut sideways to get an oval shape hole. Origin: Merauke.

Do They Still Exist?

Various types of the tifa, the native drums, are still used. In spite of this, they may not be as many as they have been before. The increasingly dominant influence of Western music has reduced their social roles.

Do other traditional musical instruments Kunst mentioned still exist? No recent research seems to answer this question.

If they are lost, is there anybody interested in reviving them? Your accomplishment will not only be noted down and remembered. Hopefully, it will also draw the attention of other professional musicians to develop them into modern musical instruments which can enter the world music of this century.

3. Kauwerawet Vocal Music

2008-08-04T02:59:00.001-07:00

The Kauwerawet or Takutameso tribe lives in the montain range near the bank of the Mamberamo River. Dr. J. Kunst undertook his research on its vocal music.

Two of its songs were recorded. Each has more than one version and was sung by four different tribesmen.

After recording both songs and their versions, Kunst and his colleagues made further study on them. They wanted to know which parts of the melodies could be considered the most fundamental and which were variations.

Various Musical Elements of the Kauwerawets

For that reason, they had a closer look at the various elements of Kauwerawet music. What elements?

Their songs were very short, each time sung with different words. For example, one song used three different texts, each with different words. The texts are given here in their syllabic and single-syllable word forms.

The first version: En-ce ma-ri-ri bo pi-ra-wa ri-ni-o /mak a ti bi-bi-dan. There are eighteen syllables: the first line has twelve, and the second line six syllables.

Ence, a bird hunter, came from across the sea. He was killed in the highland because of love. This is the only translation Le Roux provided from the Kauwerawet songs.

The second version: A-na ma-u ki-tau ki-ta ta ra mau /sab-a-ta bu-nu ki-ta. This version also has eighteen syllables: the first line has eleven and the second seven syllables.

The third version: En-ce bo-ya bo-ya, ko-bo ra-mak o so /tom a ko-ja sa-tu. There are also eighteen syllables: the first line has twelve and the second line six syllables.

Despite the same total number of syllables in the three versions, the words for each version are different.

The translation available from one of the versions does not help us understand the meaning of the other two. We, therefore, cannot determine whether each version is a different verse that supports a main idea or one that stands apart.

In addition, the text or words of the songs are strophic. The songs are, therefore, repeated.

Meanwhile, their meters are rather free. In other words, the songs are not so strictly controlled by one type of time signature, such as 4/4 or 6/8. Such meters of the Kauwerawet songs remind us of the Gregorian chants and psalms sung in Christian services that are also meter-free.

Furthermore, the number of syllables in a line is highly varied. In the three versions of one song, the numbers of syllables in both lines of the first and third versions are the same but those in the first and second lines of the second version are slightly different. In another example, the variations in the numbers of syllables of the lines of various versions of other songs are different. These variations obviously affect the rhythms of the melodies.

To understand further the change of rhythm caused by the addition or subtraction of the number of syllables in a line, I will add some words to the first verse of a Papuan folk song from the northern-coast tribes of Dutch New Guinea, composed in the diatonic major scale and entitled Gara-Gara Janda Muda (Just Because Of A Young Widow). The original lyrics and the number of syllables of each line are as follows:

Ga-ra-ga-ra jan-da mu-da, 8 syllables

ga-ra-ga-ra jan-da mu-da, 8 syllables

ru-mah tang-ga ja-di ru-sak, 8 syllables

ru-mah tang-ga ja-di ru-sak. 8 syllables

The English translation: Just because of a young widow, just because of a young widow, the married family falls to pieces, the married family falls to pieces.

In total, there are thirty-two syllables in this folk song. The same number of syllables in each line makes it not only symmetric but also determines the types and patterns of note combinations used.

Now, the same lyrics will be modified by adding irregularly the number of syllables in each line, as follows:

Ga-ra-ga-ra Yo-se-fi-na jan-da mu-da, 12 syllables

ga-ra-ga-ra jan-da si Yo-se-fi-na, 11 syllables

Ru-mah tang-ga pa-ce ja-di ru-sak, 10 syllables

ru-mah tang-ga-nya ja-di ru-sak. 9 syllables

English translation: Just because of Josephine, a young widow, just because of Josephine, a young widow, the married family of the man falls to pieces, the married family of him falls to pieces.

Now, there are forty-two syllables that form the lyrics of this song but with irregular number of syllables for each line. In order to sing the additional syllables to the melody, a singer has to add some notes with different values to the original melody. The addition simultaneously modifies the rhythmic pattern of the song.

The expansion of the original lyrics of the coastal Papuan folk song - popular around the 1980s - explicates Kunst's discovery of the highly varied numbers of syllables in the lines of some song versions of the Kauwerawets. Such additions remind us of those in modern popular songs in which a solo singer sometimes adds words and therefore extra notes to an original song backed up by a duet, trio, or choir. The addition in a modern popular song however supports the main idea in the lyrics of the song.

What other typical characteristic is noticeable from the music of the Kauwerawet tribe? The imitation of bird voices woven by a singer into his song. When the recording was made, the imitation of bird chirps or twitters by the singer was not only woven into the song but also pleasant to the musical ears of the phonogram recorders. During the recording, the crow of a rooster and the natural quacks of ducks around the site for recording were even recorded and formed "natural" rhythm with the imitation of bird chirps or twitters by a male singer. Komasa, one of the male singers, was an expert in imitating bird songs.

Imitating bird songs was not only through the human voice. They could also be imitated by traditional musical instruments in other parts outside the area inhabited by the Kauwerawets, such as in the northeast coast of Dutch New Guinea. G. A. J. van der Sande, a Dutch researcher who joined an expedition to Netherlands New Guinea early 2oth century, observed the skills of the coastal people living in the Humboldt Bay in imitating bird songs through their sacred flutes. These are not the nine-hole bamboo flutes - thinner than the thick bamboo and with more space between two joints - used in modern flute orchestras, such as in church services. This bamboo flute probably originated from the influence of Molluccan Christians who brought it to Dutch New Guinea at the turn of the 2oth century; since then, the bamboo-flute orchestra has become a musical tradition among Papuan Christians. The sacred flute van der Sande noticed was made from a long piece of thin bamboo with more space between two joints. One of its end had a hole with a sliced circle that resembled the U letter; this part that was close to the end was carved with various motifs. The flute was sacred because it was used only in traditionally sacred rituals.

The Indonesian language distinguishes between "bambu" and "buluh" just termed "bamboo" in English. Both belong to the same plant family. The bambu, however, is thicker than the buluh and has less space among its joints when compared with that among the buluh joints.
A modern nine-hole flute is made of buluh. The sacred flute used in the Humboldt Bay as witnessed by van der Sande was also made from buluh.

Why were bird songs imitated in the traditional music of the people living in northeast Dutch New Guinea and of the Kauwerawets? Van der Sande presumed the birds whose songs were imitated through the sacred flutes in the Humboldt Bay were a part of the religious beliefs in their pre-Christian tradition. Based on van der Sande's presumption, Dr. J. Kunst also presumed that the bird-song imitation in the songs of the Kauwerawet tribe also originated from their traditional belief.

The technique of imitating animal voices in traditional songs in Papua was also observed among singers of the Pesechem tribe. It lives along the slopes of the southern part of the present-day Jayawijaya mountains. According to Kunst, however, the animal voices the Pesechem songs imitated through the Pesechem singers were intertwined and served as musical ornaments.

In fact, imitating animal voices has become a singing technique in some commercial music of the 20th century. It is apparent, for example, in the hoarse singing voice of a famous black-American trumpeter and jazz singer of the last century: Louis Amstrong. In some of his songs (such as Hello, Dolly), he imitated a voice similar to that of the growl of a dog or wolf - in short, a jungle voice - which was later known as "growl" in modern pop/jazz singing techniques.

Aside from the various jungle voices woven into traditional and modern music, Kunst's ears that were accustomed to European melodies perceived two distinctive characteristics of the traditional songs of the Kauwerawet tribe. First, they are short; and, second, they tend to descend the scale.

According to him, both indicate the earliest layer of Papuan culture. Both show primitive melodies equal to those of the Australian aborigines. Due to their identical cultural layer, the Kauwerawet melodies belong to the Australian (aborigine) type of music. Similar music was also discovered in the songs of the native islanders in the Torres Strait, between north Australia and south Dutch New Guinea. ". . . it is undoubtedly the most primitive music known at the present day."

What about the melody rhythms of the Kauwerawets and the tribes living in the Humboldt Bay as well as on the island of Yapen? The rhythmic patterns or forms of their melodies are simple. Some tones have small values followed by a tone sustained slightly longer, usually a low-sounding tone. The rhythm however can develop if the melody is accompanied by a text or words. The addition of the text can result in the combination of sixteenth notes, triplets, and quintuplets. The frequency of using triplets - each lasting for one beat in, for example, 4/4 songs - in Kauwerawet melodies was already observed in the traditional music of Papua New Guinea, later called Papua Nugini. The one-beat triplets are also heard in the melodies of the Humboldt Bay and Central Mountain Range tribes. Dr. J. Kunst himself listened to 6/8 songs containing triplets when he observed the songs of the singers from the Humboldt Bay and Yapen who took part in the Ethnographic Exhibition in Weltevreden - nowadays, Jatinegara (Jakarta) - in Batavia.

The use of triplets and quintuplets does not indicate typical rhythmic patterns of Papuan melodies. Triplets are also very common in the traditional melodies of the aborigines in Queensland (Australia) and in those of the Melanesians along the coasts of New Guinea as well as in those of the ethnic groups living in Nias, Sunda (West Java), and Flores in the former Dutch Indies.

To understand the cores of such melodies to identify their nature in a nutshell, Kunst frequently used melodic form schemes. In particular, what are the melodic form schemes of the two Kauwerawet songs discussed at the beginning of this chapter and their versions? Kunst gave two notes on their schemes, with the second scheme as the most clearly identified.

The first and second melodic scheme shows the range of one octave. While the first starts and ends with its C tonic, the second begins and ends with its F tonic, rare start and ending in modern music. The downward movement of the melody is obvious from each scheme.

What are the scales then that underlie the melodic structures of both Kauwerawet songs? The first scale is composed of four main notes, one of them - the tonic (I)- is repeated. The second scale was an estimate from the results of three different recording. The E and D notes were estimated to exist in the scale.

The capital Roman numerals under each note of the three scale forms demonstrates the types of intervals used. The scale forms, however, are not based on Western major or minor scales; as a result, we may find it hard to apply whole tones and semitones in Western music to the three Kauwerawet music scales.

For example, the distance between the highest C and A notes in the second scale show a third interval (C-B-A) in the Western diatonic major C scale. According to rules in Western music, Roman numeral III should have been written under the A note. In the scale underlying the Kauwerawet melody, however, the A note is the second note after the highest C. Therefore, the A note forms a second interval with its previous C note. In short, it is the note sequence in that Papuan traditional scale that determines the type of interval used.

What types of intervals were frequently sung by the Kauwerawet singers? According to Kunst, the average intervals they sang include the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth intervals.

Another recording of Kauwerawet songs demonstrates a mixture of solo and choir singers. There are four male singers, one of them can be considered the solo singer whereas the other three form the choir also joined by the solo singer. The solo singer always sings the melody and three singers sing along at the key notes of the song.

The third scale forms the basis for the solo song. Meanwhile, the scale for the choir uses the E and B notes, each of which is lowered to a semitone and becomes Eb and Bb. Both notes remind us of the blues notes in blues music in America.

The principal note for the choir begins from the first F note. It lasts until the second F note one octave lower. Based on Western musicology, the choir part, however, was added as a harmonic line to the solo scale by Kunst.

At the choir section, the voices of the four singers do not sound in tune. According to Western standards of good singing, the rhythm and melody in their singing are ragged, "untidy". However, they are in unison when they sing sustained notes. Kunst said their typical choir singing is an important characteristic of primitive music.

Another variation of one of the Kauwerawet songs results in another melodic form scheme and scale. The scheme is shown at the third melodic scheme. Its scale - the fifth scale -has the E note that seems to be suggested in the scale.

The Modernization of Kauwerawet Songs

The music of the Kauwerawet or Takutameso tribe belongs to the most primitive music. This category is known from three prominent characteristics: its melodies are short, they tend to descend the scale, and the choir singing is ragged. Their music, according to Kunst, indicates the earliest layer of the history of the Papuans.

In spite of these, some other characteristics of their songs can be traced forward to modern music, including that performed in Indonesia. Other characteristics are typical of Kauwerawet music and that of other tribes in Dutch New Guinea and Papua New Guinea. What characteristics?

The song texts are strophic, a characteristic noticeable in a lot of modern songs influenced by Western music in Indonesia.
There are slightly free meters in the songs. This tendency can also be noticed from psalm songs and Gregorian chants used in Christian services in Indonesia and abroad.
The imitation of bird songs in the Kauwerawet songs and the playing of the sacred flutes in the Humboldt Bay seem to be connected to the religious beliefs of these tribes. For the Pesechem tribe, the imitation of animal voices is a musical ornament. In modern music of the last century, the imitation of animal voices, such as the growl in some of the songs sung by Louis Amstrong, reminds us of their primitive origin.
Other characteristics of the Kauwerawet melodies include their brevity, tendency to descend the scale, and ragged choir singing. These characteristics are rare in modern music, except in short children's songs, "Amen" or "Hallelujah! Amen" songs in Christian services, commercial advertisement songs or melodies, and some disco songs.
The typical rhythmic patterns of the Kauwerawet songs include different intervals and notes with different values, including triplets and quintuplets. In particular, triplets are also found in the melodies in the Humboldt-Bay, Yapen, Queensland, Melanesia, and Dutch Indies. Triplets frequently appear in modern music but quintuplets seem to be rarely used in modern music, such as popular music.
The longest traditional scale known so far in Papuan traditional music has six notes. The shortest scale has four notes.
The first to the sixth intervals are used in the scales. Rules about intervals for Kauwerawet melodies are different from those for Western diatonic music.
The melodic form schemes for Kauwerawet songs are also typical because they are influenced by the scales that underlie them.

Obviously, there are some main characteristics of the melodies of the Kauwerawet and other Papuan tribes discussed so far. Some can be observed in modern music in Indonesia that are influenced by Western music. Others are typical of Papuan songs; they are not found or hard to find in modern music.

To enable Papuan ethnic music to be a part of the music of this century, professional Papuan and non-Papuan musicians have to modernize it. Life is change; therefore, the traditional Papuan music has to change, too. It has to be adapted to the musical trends of this century if it wants to become a part of modern music. Few people seem to like traditional music as it is. The majority, however, who are used to modern music will feel alienated from such traditional music. Therefore, Papuan traditional music has to be modernized, adapted to the demands of modern life.

How can Papuan and non-Papuan musicians modernize Papuan ethnic music with such characteristics? The following answers are subjective:

Modernizing traditional Papuan songs should not eliminate their characteristics, including their typical features. Their elimination will make them identical with those of modern songs. Without identity, the modernized Papuan songs will lose their typicality and the chance for adding at least a new genre to the world music heritage.
The recreation of traditional Papuan songs needs their modernization power from modern music, such as melodic and harmonic variations. Nevertheless, their typical marks have to be retained to strengthen their identity.
Both secular and religious modern songs can be recreated based on the characteristics of traditional Papuan songs.
The most primitive element of the songs can be emphasized by recreating it. The newly created music can express the primitive sides of man, such as his jealousy and tendencies for revenge as well hatred.
To modernize Papuan ethnic music, musicians should be professional. They also need to show perseverance if they want to achieve significant results.

2. The ABC of Western Music (2)

2008-07-30T20:43:00.001-07:00

Whether composed on the basis of the diatonic, chromatic, or natural minor scale, a melody has certain general characteristics. What are they?

Motive

The melody is formed from a core idea called a motive. In Western music, a motive is a short but recognizable melodic figure. It indicates the smallest possible subdivision in musical analysis.

A motive to a melody is like the central pillar to a house. From this central pillar, a constructor builds a house by adding other pillars, a framework, walls, and a roof. He also refines his work, paints the walls, adds decoration and ornaments as well as other construction details to such a degree that the house looks great, completely different from the first time its construction started with the central pillar. The motive is the central pillar; its development into fascinating details is the melodic development of the motive into a wonderful creation of musical pillars, framework, walls, roof, refinement, painting, decoration and ornaments as well as other details of sounds.

In the composition of Western melody, its motive is usually at its beginning, lasting for around two bars or measures. It can be repeated - by using the same or different tones - in other parts of the melody.

Here are some examples. The motive of the Christmas song, Silent Night, Holy Night, can be heard when the congregation sings, "Silent night, holy night". The core idea of Yamko Rambe Yamko, a Papuan folk song in a vernacular language which is popular in Indonesia, is at the beginning of the song where singers sing, "Hei, yamko rambe". G.F. Handel's Great Hallelujah has its melodic motive at the beginning of this great song where the choir sings "Hallelujah!" and then repeats the motive several times.

Note Combinations

A melody is composed through the combination of notes of various values and rest periods among notes. Notes sustained for some beats are combined with notes lasting for one beat, half a beat, a quarter beat, an eighth beat, a sixteenth beat, a thirty-second beat, and so on. The time for rest is usually indicated by a comma (where a singer stops temporarily to inhale) or a rest sign. In the tonic sol-fa (the "number or cipher notation") system, the rest sign is indicated by a zero (0).

A melodic composition needs time for rest. A melody without rest signs can be tiring for both a singer and listeners.

Scales

A melody is composed from a scale. The commonly used scales have already been explained.

Harmonic and non-harmonic tones

A melody can use harmonic or a combination of harmonic and non-harmonic tones. The harmonic tones are those used in various chords whereas the non-harmonic tones are those not being parts of chords but are inserted as variations among harmonic tones.

In the key of C major, the major C triad, for example, has the C-E-G notes. Each pair vertically forms the third interval. The three notes sound harmonic. They sound non-harmonic, however, when a note forming a second interval with its adjacent note is added. Because there are two pairs of third intervals, there are also two non-harmonic notes that are inserted: D between C-E and F between E-G. The combination of harmonic and non-harmonic tones results in an extended vertical sounding of notes: C-D-E-F-G.

The addition of non-harmonic tones to the harmonic ones is meant to smoothen the motion of a melody and produce certain musical effects. A bass guitar player who embellishes his harmonic with non-harmonic tones could make the melodic line he picks sound flexible and fascinating to listen to.

The melodic motion

A melody can show various motion. It can start with a high note then descends and ends with a low note. This is often the case with traditional melodies from Papua. For instance, Yamko Rambe Yamko, begins with the highest tonic note at its beginning and ends with its lowest tonic note. Besides, the melody can begin with the lowest note and ends with its highest. This is typical of Billy Joel's My Way. If you sing it in the key of C major, you will begin with its lowest note: G. You then move through various intervals, pitches, and rhythmic patterns higher and higher until you reach the climax of the song at the D note that corresponds to the word my in the last line: I did it my way. Still another melodic motion is comparable to climbing and going down a hill. You begin your singing journey by sounding a low note when you are in a valley, you step-wisely climb up and go down a hill several times, jump up and down over different steps, walk straight ahead, ascend to its highest peak and descend to its valley and stop for a rest there. This is the typical motion of Oh, Danny Boy, which was popularized in the 1960s by the wonderful baritone-bass male singer from America, Jim Reeves. A lot of great songs use the third motion.

Multiple keys and meters

A melody can move by using one or several key-notes. For example, it uses one key-note such as C major and then changes its key-note in the middle to E major before it returns to C major. The melody can also use one type of meter such as 4/4 or changes it: the melody begins with 4/4, then changes it to 2/4 on its way and ends its movement by going back to 4/4. There is clearly variation in the melodic motion.

Pentatonic scales

The influence of ethnic or traditional music results in the composition of songs based on pentatonic scales. The term "pentatonic" is derived from penta (five) and tonic, the adjective of tone, a noun; therefore, a pentatonic scale literally means a five-tone scale.

One of the scales seems to be widely used among a lot of ethnic groups, communities, and societies. In the key of C major, it consists of five notes: C-D-E-G-A. This type of pentatonic scale underlies the composition of traditional songs of various ethnic groups in Indonesia, such as the Papuans, Balinese, Javanese, Sundanese, and Bataks. The scale is termed laras slendro in Java and is noticeable in various folk songs in Javanese, such as Lir Ilir. It forms popular gospels of the Black-American communities in the USA, including Swing Low, Sweet Chariots, Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho, and Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen; it also underlies the internationally famous Auld Lang Syne from the Scottish people and even various popular songs from China and Korea. An American popular song of the 1980s, Kung Fu Fighting, was based on the same scale. The Christians recognize it in that simple but enduring song, Amazing Grace.

Some Indonesian Christian composers used the pentatonic scale of that mode to compose some church songs for the congregation. Kidung Jemaat, a hymn book used particularly in main-stream Protestant and Catholic services in Indonesia, contains songs using this scale. Subronto Kusuno Atmodjo, a German-educated musician, used the scale to compose Betapa Kita Tidak Bersyukur. C. Akwan, a Papuan musician, used the same scale prevalent in the ethnic or traditional music of coastal Papuans in the northern part of Papua and West Papua to compose Gembala Baik Bersuling nan Merdu, one of the most beloved songs frequently sung in church services and recorded by Christian singers and musicians in Indonesia as well as in Holland. The same scale underlies, for example, Semua yang Tercipta by M. Karatem, an experienced musician from Southeast Mollucas in the eastern part of Indonesia. The song was published in Nyanyikanlah Kidung Baru, a hymn book used by the Indonesian Christian Church, a main-stream Protestant church.

Another pentatonic scale of a different mode and not so widely used is called laras pelog in Javanese. In the key of C major, it has the following notes: C-E-F-G-B.

The pentatonic scale with such a mode also formed the basis of some Christian compositions in Indonesia. Subronto Kusumo Atmodjo used this in Roh Kudus Turunlah and Puji Allah Pencipta published in Kidung Jemaat. The same hymn book contains a pelog song by Father Soetanta S.J., a Catholic priest and Dutch-educated musician. Rev. Dr. Sutarno, a former president of Satya Wacana Christian University in Salatiga, Central Java, composed two Christian pelog songs in Nyanyikanlah Kidung Baru: Ya Tuhanku, Kasihanilah Daku and Amin, Haleluya!. (Historically, the university was established around mid 1950s by main-stream Protestant educators from Indonesia, supported by the churches where they were members.) The three composers are Javanese.

In his book, Dr. J. Kunst mentioned anhemitonic scales also found in Dutch New Guinea. They have two, three, four or five tones.

Anhemitonic scales? What are they?

An anhemitonic scale is a shorter term for an anhemitonic pentatonic scale. We will look further into the one that has five tones. The tone area in this scale is divided into five different tones of an octave without semitones. The anhemitonic scale is also a term used in relation to primitive melodies with larger tonal range.

The complete tones of the C-D-E-G-A pentatonic scale that has five tones but without semitones should be C-D-E-G-A-C. The last C, though repeating the first, is one octave higher than the first. Each pair of tones forms a second major interval except the E-G and A-C pairs, each of which forms a third minor interval or four semitones. Its scale is also formed from two core melodies; each core has three notes. To understand this better, divide the six tones of this pentatonic mode into three. The lower three notes - C-D-E has E as its core melody; the higher three notes - G-AC has A as its core melody. Such a mode of pentatonic scale that has two core melodies and three notes for each core is a part of anhemitonic scales frequently noticed in primitive melodies.

Some other types of anhemitonic scales that are of pentatonic nature are as follows:

The name of each scale is derived from its lowest and highest notes. Each scale that has six notes is divided into two core melodies; each of them has three notes. The core melodies are indicated by the whole notes. The highest whole notes in the second and third scales are given but not counted because they are repetitions of their lowest tones of the same name. The lower three notes with the core melody of the first scale on the top left, for example, are EG-A; the higher three notes with their core melody are BD-E. It is not hard for you to analyze the core melodies and the notes of the other two scales.

Melodic range

Songs - that include melodies - are composed within certain range. For congregational or community singing, the lowest and highest limits of the range are average. If a song contains a note that sounds too low, singers with high voices such as soprano or tenor will face some difficulty in singing that note clearly. If the song contains a note that sounds too high, singers with low voices such as alto and bass will also face some difficulty in singing a note that sounds too low clearly. For solo singers, the melodic range is adapted to their suitable parts of voices, such as soprano, alto, tenor, and bas, and also to the melodic range achieved naturally - with no forced attempt.

Huembello, a traditional song from Ayamaru area in the western part of Dutch New Guinea, has a very limited tonal range. It has four tones, another example of the anhemitonic scale. To a certain extent, the scale reminds us of the blues scale. The song was modernized into a pop (funky) style and popularized in the late 1970s or early 198os by the Black Brothers, an Indonesian pop band from the former Irian Jaya - now Papua and West Papua. (For some unknown reasons, the group moved to Holland, Australia, and Vanuatu in the South Pacific.)

Diru-Diru Nina, a traditional pentatonic song from Yapen-Waropen in the northern part of Papua also modernized into an exciting reggae song by the same band, has a rather limited tonal range. The song which is a mixture of solo, duet, and trio has five tones sung by the lead singer. Simplified in the key of C major ( not the original key used by the Black Brothers), the five tones are C-D-E-G-A . The children's song from Biak, Apuse, composed by using the diatonic major scale uses one octave in its main melody. The song was also modernized into another pop song by the Black Brothers. Sajojo, a song in a Papuan language composed by one of the band members and also popularized for the first time in Indonesia by the band has nine notes. The famous Christmas hymn, Silent Night, Holy Night, uses eleven notes from the diatonic major scale: C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C-D-E-F. The last four notes sound higher than the previous ones. All these songs with different tonal range can be sung by a solo singer or by a group of singers.

Melodic forms

Modern melodies from Indonesia influenced by Western music adhere to certain forms. One of them is called the strophic form. Simply said, a song having a strophic form repeats exactly or almost exactly its lyrical verses. The simple gospel, Amazing Grace, has more than one verse; yet, each verse repeats the same melodic line. The song shows an example of strophic form. Another famous hymn, How Great Thou Art, is also strophic in its form. The first four bars of this Swedish folk song turned into a church song are repeated in the next four bars. Then comes the refrain whose first four bars are also repeated almost the same in the next four bars.

The opposite song form is called the non-strophic form. A non-strophic melody keeps changing and does not repeat its parts or itself.

Key-note and tempo

A melody has a key-note and a tempo. The key-note is known from the key signature of a musical composition. It may have one or more than one sharp (#) or flat (b) written at the beginning of the notation or neither of both. In the last case, the melody is in the key of C major. The tempo is indicated at the beginning of a composition like this: q=100 or MM=100. It means the song is played for 1oo beats per minute (bpm). MM stands for Maelzel's Metronome, a tool for measuring various music tempos, from the slowest to the fastest.

The metronome as we use it today was invented by D.N. Winckel, a Dutch instrument maker in Amsterdam, at the beginning of the 19th century. Then, Maelzel, an Austrian instrument maker from Vienna, did some improvement to Winckel's invention and exploited it after he established a metronome factory in Paris (France) in 1816. Since then, the metronome has been named after Maelzel despite the fact that it had been Winckel's invention.

Melodic form scheme

For the sake of melodic analyses, music experts have discovered a way to summarize so many notes in melodies into their essential notes and motion patterns. This technique is called melodic form scheme. The scheme is controlled by the type of scale used in a melody.

The essential note is represented by a harmonic half note while a non-harmonic note is represented by a quarter note. A non-harmonic note is not a part of the notes in a chord; for the sake of variation or creating a certain effect, the note is inserted into the chord.

Let us take the C major chord in the key of C major as an example. Its triad has the C-E-G notes that form harmonic or chord tones; each note forms a third interval with another. The triad becomes a mixture of harmonic and non-harmonic tones when other notes outside the key and chord are added. Two non-harmonic notes: D and F can be added; the D is inserted between C-E and the F is put between E-G. The added notes form a second interval with the three notes of the C major triad.

The Biak's folk song, Apuse, put in the key of G major has in its main melody all the diatonic tones of the scale except the second note (A). The primary chords used for this song indicate that there are some non-harmonic tones inserted here and there in some chords, all without any inversions.

The diatonic chord notes , in their triad and dominant-seventh structures, are as follows: G (G-B-D or doh-me-soh), D (D-#F-A or soh-te-ray), D7 (D-F#-A-C or ray-soh-te-ray-fah), and C (C-E-G or fah-lah-doh). All the notes form the harmonic tones of the chords.

The non-harmonic tones are found in the chords of D7 (B or me) in the second and sixth bars and of G (B and C or fah) in the fourth bar. They form some variation and effects in the chord tones.

The main melody of Apuse covers one octave, with the A note implied in its harmonic tones. Its starts with the lowest G and ends with its highest. The diatonic major G scale used includes G-B-C-D-E-F#-G (doh-me-fah-soh-lah-te-doh).

To summarize Apuse, the experts in music choose only one stemless note to represent each type of harmonic and non-harmonic tones in the main melody. Such a summary is technically termed by Kunst as a "melodic form scheme".

What is the melodic form scheme of Apuse, then? The following notation shows the scheme:

You will frequently come across the analysis of such essential pillars of melodies when you read the research of Dr. J. Kunst on the traditional music in Dutch New Guinea. By understanding its essence, you (if you are or want to be a musician) will be easily helped to develop other melodic schemes into typically Papuan music by neatly blending Papuan and modern music elements.

Harmony

Simply said, harmony is the structure of chords. The easiest way to understand harmony is by studying the triads of a diatonic major scale. There are within a scale such as C major two types of triads: primary and secondary triads. In their chord symbols, the primary triads in C major include C-F-G/G7. The secondary triads cover Dmin-Emin-Amin-Bdim. Each triad is formed from a third interval with different qualities. The triads become chords through the addition of one tone or more. The primary chords are major, including the dominant seventh chord G7. The first three secondary triads are minor and the last chord is diminished. They are all diatonic chords because they are formed from the notes of a diatonic major scale, such as C major.

The major chords are generally used to express an optimistic mood. The minor chords are usually used to convey an introspective mood. In vocal music, both types of mood are determined by the melodic form adapted to the meaning of its lyrics.

In addition to the chord structure, harmony also includes voicing. It is the choosing of chord tones you want to play or sing. A complete chord can have more notes than the ones you need to play on your guitar, piano, organ, or to make your song arrangement into two to four parts. A C13 chord, for example, has seven notes in the key of C major: C-E-G-Bb-D-F-A. You need three chord notes to play on your organ or piano and six others to strum on your guitar. Obviously, yo have to make some choices of which chord tones you need. The choices you make are called "voicing".

Harmony is a musical concept typical of Western music. It is not found in the traditional music of the Papuans in Netherlands New Guinea. What was often discovered by Kunst in his research was community singing (in unison). If he detected any voice blends similar to harmonized songs in the West, they did not follow the rules of Western harmony.

Related to harmony is the term "harmonics". It is a term used for the acoustic phenomena of music. The phenomena result from the fact that there are no pure tones that you can hear. (You can hear a pure tone, for example, from a tuning fork.) A pitch in harmonics is actually a composite, a blend, of many overtones also called partials . These notes are not heard as clearly as the the tone for which the pitch is named: the lowest note or fundamental. The overtones serve to establish the perceived timbre or tone-colors of the musical sound.

To illustrate, we will use the C note in the bass stave of the C major key as the fundamental note you can sound on your guitar. When you strike C, the fundamental note, on a string of your guitar, do you listen to that note only? Well, you listen to it clearly, but it is not the only note you perceive acoustically while you sound the string. If you listen closer, you will vaguely perceive other notes that sound together with the fundamental. These vague sounding notes can be another C an octave lower than the fundamental note, a B that forms a perfect fifth with the lowest C, an E, a G, and another B above the fundamental note. All notes other than the fundamental note (C) are called "overtones" or "partials". When you strike the guitar string, you actually sound a blend of the fundamental note and the vaguely distinctive other notes of the harmonics to create a certain tone-color of the string on your guitar.

Rhythm

Rhythm in the form of musical notation energizes the meaning of the lyrics in a song. The feeling for rhythm should therefore be compatible with the feelings in the words of the song.

In practice, the power of rhythm in the form of a musical notation is enhanced by musical accompaniment. In modern popular music, the musical accompaniment is called rhythm, style, idiom, tradition, genre. Those who are familiar with playing Yamaha PSR 3000 keyboard will notice various rhythms at Styles written near the top of the keyboard. You will notice the Ballad button that contains Classical Piano Ballad and the Hard Rock button. Each style is equipped with four types of buttons for rhythmic variation or breaks called "fill 1, fill 2, fill 3, and fill 4".

You can adjust your choices of the various rhythms at the keyboard with the atmosphere, mood, and meaning of the song you want to play. A good song should match or show some sort of "cooperation" with its rhythm and the meaning of its lyrics. If a lyrical message is mellow and is supported by its melody, the rhythm or style that supports both should also be mellow. Certain types of mellow ballads at the Yamaha keyboard are suitable for expressing a mellow message and melody. If a lyrical message and the melody that supports it are romantic, are marked by feeling and preferring grandeur, passion, and informal beauty, their relevant rhythm should also be romantic. Classical Pop Ballad at that keyboard is suitable for accompanying the romantic lyrics and melody. If the lyrical message is strong, the melody and its accompaniment should also be strong. Hard Rock matches the strong message and melody.

Enhancing a song atmosphere and mood through the unity of lyrics, melody, and style is a standard rule in composing and performing modern songs. This rule falls to pieces if a conflict occurs among the three of them. The energetic samba and salsa, on the one hand, become weak if you play either of one them using a relaxed or romantic idiom. The rhythm you use is not suitable. On the other hand, lyrics about an idyllic or pristine country or rural area become unsuitable if their melody moves energetically and fast and their musical accompaniment is lively like disco, funky, or heavy-metal rock. To make all of them congruous, the songs should be performed according to their typical styles, atmosphere, and the moods of their lyrics.

These idioms are related to dynamics. Any song needs energy. Even calm songs need intensity to enliven them. Rhythm helps enliven or energize music.

The Blending of All Musical Elements

In modern or Western music, all the general and specific elements should be blended to strengthen the main message of a song. A general rule about this says: All elements of a song should work together to heighten the feelings of the meaning of the message.

One application of this rule is the synchronization of melodic and word accents. A lot of modern songs in Indonesian, whether popular or classical, lack this principle of compatibility for reasons that are too many to be explained here. What can be said here is that composers of melodies and their lyrics with conflicting accents seem not to understand or not to have understood yet the rule about suitability.

For instance, there is a conflict of melodic and word accents in Burung Kakatua (the Cockatoo Bird), an old, Indonesian, quick-waltz, and popular song of the 1950s. If we read the beginning section of the lyrics following the normal Indonesian accents, such as those used by radio and television announcers, we can easily identify the strong accents (indicated by capital letters) and weak accents (indicated by small letters) of the words. The syllables getting strong accents are read louder than those getting weak accents.

BU-rung KA-ka-TU-a HING-gap DI jen-DE-la.

NE-nek SU-dahTU-a, gi-gi-NYA TING-gal DU-a.

(The cockatoo bird is perching at the window.

Grandmother is already old; she has two remaining teeth.)

(The word “gigiNYA” (her teeth) can also be accentuated on its second syllable: giGInya.)

The Indonesian lyrics follow Indonesian traditional poetry called pantun, similar in some way to limerick. Each pantun verse consists of two couplets; the first suggests the second by sound or similarity. In the old days, the pantun was often sung in contests where a boy addressed a quatrain to a girl who had to answer with a quatrain of her own. Some pantun are similar in their tone to limerick when they sound humorous in the second couplet.

What we hear, however, when we read the word accents by matching them with the melodic accents is incongruous to the point of evoking a humorous effect.

To get the effect, read the syllables of the words following the strong accents given on the first notes on the first counts of the measures (bars) - indicated by dashes - and the weak accents on other notes - represented by curvy lines. Your voice should sound louder on the strong accents.

Like Burung Kakatua, many other Indonesian songs show the same incongruity. They include popular songs (secular and religious), ethnic and national songs composed in Indonesian, and even church songs.

One of the few national songs whose melodic and word accents fit in perfectly is Maju Tak Gentar composed by Cornel Simanjuntak, a famous musician from Batak, North Sumatra. Few of the Christian hymn books that strictly obey the blending of all musical elements include Kidung Jemaat, Mazmur dan Nyanyian Rohani, and Nyanyikanlah Kidung Baru (to a certain extent).

Ready for Your Music Exploration

Your understanding of several aspects of the rudiments of Western music will hopefully make things easier for you to understand the research of Dr. J. Kunst on traditional Papuan music better. As we go along, I will explain other technical terms not covered in this chapter.

1. The ABC of Western Music (1)

2008-07-23T09:42:00.001-07:00

This chapter and the next are meant for readers who are interested in music but have no basic knowledge and skills in Western music. So, if you are an expert in Western music, ignore both.

The rudiments are limited to the musical elements Dr. Kunst explained in his book on traditional music in Netherlands New Guinea. In such a way, you are expected to understand easily Kunst's discussions of Papuan traditional music in the coming writings. You can use both chapters as your references if the technical analysis of Kunst is not so clear or rather puzzling to you.

Elements of Western Music

GENERAL ELEMENTS

There are four general elements of Western music. First, rhythm (and meter); second, atmosphere; third, mood; and, fourth, message.

Rhythm and meter

The rhythm in popular or contemporary music is called style, tradition, idiom, or genre. In modern popular music, rhythm includes country, folk, waltz, rock 'n roll, samba, salsa, disco, and other kinds of styles. Rhythm also includes the fusion of various pop genres such as country-rock, jazz-rock, and Latin-disco.

Those who can play the rhythm guitar know that playing, for example, a country rhythm is different from playing a salsa rhythm. The strumming patterns of your guitar for the first kind of idiom is different from the ones for the second style. In a rhythmic notation, a special notation for the rhythm guitar, each tradition is described with patterns of note combinations of various values.

In music, rhythm is a part of a melody. The rhythm is related to the distribution of notes in time and the accents on notes. The notes in time are given various values.

For example, in a musical piece of four beats in a bar, a note having the value of four beats is played a bit longer (say, for four seconds) while one note having the value of one beat needs a shorter period of time to be played (for example, for half a second). Another note for half a beat clearly needs a much shorter period of time to be played or sung.

In addition, not all notes get the same accents. Some notes get strong accents, others get relatively strong accents, and the rest get weak accents.

In a song of four beats in a bar, the four notes that correspond to the four beats in a bar are restricted by two straight lines on their left and right sides. Each straight line is called a bar line and both lines form a bar (termed maat in Dutch but spelled and pronounced as mat in Indonesian). The unity of the four notes that have the same value as the four beats form the first bar. Though the second bar indicates four beats, only the first two notes correspond with the first two beats. The third note that includes two counts tallies with the other two beats in the same bar. There is clearly no one-to-one correspondence between the changing note values and the consistent beats or meter in a bar.

According to standard rules, the first quarter note that corresponds to the first beat in a four-beat bar gets a strong accent. Each quarter note that tallies with the third beat gets a relatively strong accent, and each note that has the same metrical value as each beat in the second and four counts in a bar is given a weak accent.

Two different signs are used to indicate the different kinds of accents. The dash (-) represents both the strong and relatively strong accents on notes. The crescent-like sign or curvy line indicates weak accents in a four-beat bar. The half note in the second bar, however, gets a strong accent because it has two counts or beats: beats three and four. When two beats of a 4/4 time-signature score are represented by a half note, the half note gets a strong accent.

Related to the research on Papuan traditional music in Dutch New Guinea is the term "free rhythm" that you also need to know. It is a kind of rhythm not determined by the regular occurrences of bar lines but by the occurrences of the natural or conventional flow of notes. A melody or song that uses free rhythm will virtually involve change of time signatures - some are uncommon - which can be more than twice. For instance, a song can begin with an odd meter such as 7/4 and then changes into 2/4, then 4/4, and ends with 7/4.

In Indonesia, you can scrutinize free rhythm in psalms published in two widely used hymn books in Indonesian for Christian services (mostly, for main-stream Protestants and Catholics). The first one, Mazmur dan Nyanyian Rohani (Psalms and Spiritual Songs), was a compilation and translation into Indonesian of various hymns from Europe, Britain, and the USA by Rev. I. S. Kijne (1899-1970). He is an important and famous Dutch missionary of the Dutch Reformed Church who worked in Netherlands New Guinea from 1923 to 1958. The second, Kidung Jemaat (Songs for the Congregation), was published by the Institute of Sacred Music in Jakarta that has involved professional musicians from Indonesia and abroad in an ecumenical cooperation between main-stream Protestants and Catholics.

The free rhythm is not only evident in the psalms in both song books. (The psalms were translated from Genevan Psalms of the 16th century into Indonesian in the 2oth century.) You can also observe it in the Gregorian chants sung in Catholic services.

Rhythm, however, is different from meter. Whereas rhythm deals with the distribution of notes in time and their accentuation, meter, simply said, is a grouping of basic and permanent beats of a song or melody.

In popular music, meter is known as beat. Different meters form different time signatures, such as 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 6/4, 3/8, 6/8, and 12/8. The figure on the left of the slash indicates the number of beats in one bar; the other figure shows the basic note value that underlies various note values that shape the rhythm of a melody.

Popular music styles are abundant with examples of meters. The energetic four-beat disco music demonstrates its meter through the regular sounds of its bass drum: DUM DUM DUM DUM.

Atmosphere

The term "atmosphere" refers to the environment of a song. It answers the question: Where are you: at a tropic beach, a snowy mountain top, a church, home, or a hotel?

Mood

What are your feelings behind what you are singing to us, your listeners? Are you happy, contemplative, peaceful, calm, respectful, lonely, playful, expressing a yearning?

Message

What do you, a singer, tell us, your listeners? What are your facts, viewpoints, and philosophy; what kinds of responses do you expect from us?

SPECIFIC ELEMENTS

Besides the four general elements, Western music also consists of for specific elements. First, lyrics; second, melody; third, harmony ; and, fourth, rhythm.

Lyrics

These are the words of a song. A message is different from lyrics. A message is what you say through a song or melody; lyrics are how you convey your message through your song.

Lyrics express emotions in general. Songs - that include melodies and lyrics - are expressive, lyrical. Lyrics can consist of verses and choruses. A verse shows, a chorus tells. A verse shows someone or something through a specific and an interesting language; a chorus tells us something through a comment or a summary of the verse.

Melody

This element is a combination of a series of pitches and rhythm. The series of pitches and rhythm are denoted by a series of notes and rests with various values. Harmony - the combination of two, three, four tones or more based on certain rules - and lyrics are other parts of a melody and are used as needed.

Intervals and scales

The series of notes in a melody are formed by intervals. An interval is "the distance" between two notes, as far as one is higher or lower in its pitch than the other. For example, the distance between the doh and ray or the other way round step-wisely forms the second interval because you sound two notes up and down. The third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth intervals are respectively doh-me (there are three notes, doh-ray-me); doh-fah (there are four notes, doh-ray-me-fah); doh-soh; doh-lah; doh-te; and doh-doh (the second doh is eight tones higher than the first). In addition, there are intervals larger than an octave, such as the ninth interval (doh-ray with ray as the ninth note above doh); the tenth interval (doh-me with me as the tenth note above doh); the eleventh interval (doh-fah with fah as the eleventh note above doh); and other intervals larger than the eleventh.

There are also intervals based on two notes with the same pitch - so, their tones are the same. Because they involve just one tone, they are called the first intervals, such as doh-doh, ray-ray, me-me, fah-fah, soh-soh, and so on.

Diatonic scale

The characteristics of intervals also depend on scales. The examples of intervals already mentioned belong to a Western scale commonly used for composing songs: the diatonic major scale.

Notes: wt=whole tone; st=semitone

All those examples of intervals based on diatonic major scales have tone distances. The tones in these scales are main or basic tones. Each pair of the most adjacent and step-wise notes have a whole tone except the semitone between me-fah and te-doh.

The diatonic major scale is usually used to compose happy, cheerful, "bright" songs - in short, songs that express optimism. There are also sad-sounding songs composed in the diatonic major scale. Listen to folk songs or classical pop songs from Ambon, the Moluccas, in the eastern part of Indonesia. Sentimental or mellow songs with slow tempo such as Nusaniwe and Sioh, Mamae composed in the diatonic major scale can be so moving that they make some listeners cry.

Chromatic scale

Because the diatonic major scale has two whole tones, arithmetically, the tone distances of note pairs having whole tones can be divided into two. The note pairs doh-ray, ray-me, fah-soh, soh-lah, and lah-te that respectively have whole tones as a result are divided into semitones. A new scale in which each note pair is equally divided into semitones is created.

The new scale is termed the chromatic scale. From the lowest to the highest sounding tones, the note sequence of the chromatic scale, both ascending and descending, is as follows:

In its ascent and descent, the new scale shows specific signs that identify the semitones. A sharp (#) is used to indicate a semitone in the ascending direction of the scale; a flat (b) is used to show a semitone in the descending direction of the scale.

Practically, the semitones in the ascending and descending directions of the chromatic scale sound the same. To be specific, the raised doh, ray, fah, soh, and lah respectively sound exactly the same as the lowered ray, me, soh, lah, and te. The identically sounding semitones in the chromatic scale are called enharmonic notes.

Songs composed in the chromatic scale give more emotional "colors". They sound subtle when they are used in harmony.

Minor scale

A third type of Western scale usually used for composing sad, melancholy, depressed, contemplative songs - in short, songs for introspection - is termed the minor scale. This scale is divided into three sub-types. First, the natural minor scale. The one of C has the following notes:

You can also play this scale from the highest to the lowest sounding notes. Second, the melodic minor scale. The notes in its ascent are slightly different from those in its descent.

Third, the harmonic minor scale of C in its ascending direction uses these notes:

The scale can also be played downwards, using the downward movement of that of the melodic minor scale.

There are songs composed in the minor scales, but they have cheerful atmosphere and mood. These include some religious songs from Israel and dangdut songs from Indonesia. These types of songs, however, are not common.

(Dangdut is a type of popular music in Indonesia. It has strong beats that are reminiscent of Hindi and Arabic music. It is also a type of dance to such music.)

Specific interval combinations

The typical rhythmic patterns of a melody in any of the scales already explained are formed by the combinations of various intervals. In vocal music (the combination of singing and musical accompaniment), the patterns are influenced by the rhythm and meaning of its lyrics. Sustained notes - for instance, for two to four counts in a four-beat song - are appropriate for emphasizing an important lyrical message, such as the title of a song. Pairs or groups of quick-moving eighth and sixteenth notes are suitable for songs that sound like conversations. The rhythmic patterns indicated by various flags of notes with small values express the mood of activity that needs high energy such as busy work, hustle and bustle, sports competitions such as soccer competitions, and even chaotic situations or wars.

There is still another technique for combining various notes to form some other rhythmic patterns. Three consecutive notes - not necessarily of the same pitch - are combined by a straight line having 3 written over it - a triplet. Four consecutive notes are also combined by a straight line having 4 written over it - a quadruplet. Five consecutive notes connected by another straight line with 5 written over it form a quintuplet. A group of six notes with equal time-value which are combined by a straight line with 6 written over it is called a sextuplet. Each specific combination of notes just explained is counted as one beat, for example, in a four-beat song.

The following example contains all specific combinations of intervals already explained:

Typical rhythmic patterns

In world popular music, typical rhythmic patterns of melodies can indicate origin and can even increase the "selling values" of songs. Compare, for instance, typical popular music from mainland Europe, Britain, and the United States that uses idioms such as waltz, country, and rock 'n roll with that of the Caribbean Sea such as reggae from Jamaica and bolero from Cuba and also with that of Latin America such as samba and salsa. You will listen to typical rhythmic patterns that may be difficult for you to explain from these areas but which you can really feel - and love so much that you buy their cassettes or CDs. These rhythmic patterns are affected among others by the rhythm and meaning of song lyrics in the languages of those areas and also by the typical combinations of various intervals and their note values.

The rhythmic patterns resulting from the combinations of various intervals and their values can evoke various moods. Combinations of small and relatively small intervals such as the first, second, and third intervals express calm and relatively calm songs. Combinations of the fourth, fifth, sixth, and other larger intervals produce dramatic, prominent moods. The note sequences can be from the lowest to the highest sounding or vice versa.

Introduction

2008-07-18T00:03:00.001-07:00

If you are musically talented, you can compose songs based on traditional scales in Papua. If you no longer remember the scales, you can study again the results of scientific research on traditional Papuan music. Then, you can compose typical Papuan songs. It would be better if you could arrange its musical accompaniment as typically as possible.

Dr. J. Kunst can help you develop modern music based on Papuan ethnic music. He had conducted some research on traditional Papuan music by the end of the 1920s and in the 1930s. His works on traditional music in the former Dutch Indies, now Indonesia, and Netherlands New Guinea, now Papua and West Papua, have been studied at various universtities, both in Indonesia and abroad. He is even considered a pioneer in that branch of musicology called "ethnomusicology".

Three Times to Netherlands New Guinea

New Guinea, probably the largest island in the world, is located in South Pacific. It is divided into the independent Papua New Guinea in the east and the western half that belongs to Indonesia. The Indonesian half consists of two provinces: Papua and West Papua. The western half was named "New Guinea", "West New Guinea", "Netherlands New Guinea" or "Dutch New Guinea", and "West Papua" during the Dutch colonial period.

Though the western half had been known for centuries, it became a Dutch colony in the 19th century. On May 1, 1963, the Dutch sovereignity over the western half of that huge island was officially handed over to Indonesia, previously a Dutch colony in Southeast Asia, which claimed since its independence in 1945 that the western part belonged to it.

Dr. J. Kunst conducted his research on Papuan ethnic music at the western half of New Guinea called "Netherlands New Guinea", "Dutch New Guinea", or simply "West New Guinea" before the Second World War. Here lived hundreds of tribes with different levels of civilization. The relatively advanced Papuans - mostly of Melanesian stock - lived along the coasts while their relatively backward fellow Papuans lived in the highlands. Whatever their cultural progress was, all of them sang and played songs and music in different languages, recently totalling around 270 vernacular languages.

Most native Papuans are Christians. The largest part of them are Protestants of various denominations followed by the Catholics and Muslim adherents. However, traditional beliefs - particularly, in the highlands and other remote areas - are still practiced.

It is against such socio-cultural and political backgrounds that Dr. J. Kunst undertook his research on ethnic music, including Papuan music, before WW II. He is famous in ethnomusicology because of his monumental works on traditional music in the Dutch Indies. Three English editions of his research on traditional music, among others, of Java, Sunda (West Java), and Papua, an old name for Netherlands New Guinea, were published after his death.

His published research however does not refer to the western half of New Guinea as any of the names already mentioned. To avoid possible confusions by readers of his research, he simply used the name "New Guinea" or "Western New Guinea" to refer to this part.

I prefer to use "Netherlands New Guinea" or "Dutch New Guinea" to refer to New Guinea that Kunst used in his book. It can also be confusing to readers of this blog if the use of the name "New Guinea" as Kunst used it makes it hard for them to identify which part of the island of New Guinea is meant: Papua New Guinea in the east or Papua and West Papua in the west. However, I also use "New Guinea" to refer to the whole island.

The research of this Dutch ethnomusicologist in Dutch New Guinea was undertaken for the first time in 1926. J. Kunst participated in the Dutch-American New Guinea Expedition led by C.C.F.M. Le Roux, a Dutch ethnographer and topographer. Through the aid of Le Roux, Kunst was equipped with sixteen phonograms for recording songs and flute music of the Takutameso or Kauwerawet tribe in the highlands of Dutch New Guinea. (The recording, however, was made by Le Roux.) Kunst was not able to record the music of the Awembiaks and Dems, two pigmy tribes in the highlands. So, Le Roux and Muhammad Saleh, his assistant, who knew their songs by heart recorded their songs separately for him. Le Roux whistled them; Saleh played them on a violin.

In May 1929, Kunst had a chance to encounter Papuan music from Netherlands New Guinea. During this month, the Royal Batavia Society for Arts and Science celebrated its 150th anniversary in Batavia, now Jakarta. The anniversary was held together with the Fourth Congress of Science for the Pacific in Batavia that included an ethnographic exhibition. At this exhibition, communities from all over the Dutch Indies exhibited or performed their arts. The communities included a number of Papuans from Dutch New Guinea. They came from various tribes from the northern coasts of this area: Waropen, Yapen, and Humboldt Bay (where the present-day Jayapura, the provincial capital of Papua, is located.) Kunst had the opportunity to record various songs of these tribes.

Kunst then made an official visit - not related to music - to Netherlands New Guinea in 1932. He had the opportunity to record various songs from the Papuan communities living in Waigeo, a large island of the Raja Ampat Archipelago, and Sorong, a town located at the western tip of the whole island of New Guinea. Around this year, he got a collection of songs recorded from the Marind, Ye, and Kau-anim tribes in the southeastern coast by Verschueren, a Dutch Catholic priest. The recording was made by Verschueren in Merauke, a small town in the southern coast locted near the border with Papua New Guinea. Kunst also got a collection of twenty-four songs from the Marind-Anim tribe noted down by Mr. Soukotta, an Ambonese police officer working in that region.

His last visit to Netherlands New Guinea came when he joined another expedition to this region in 1939. The expedition was organized by the Royal Dutch Society for Geography led again by Le Roux. During this expedition, Kunst had the opportunity to record the music of tribes living in the Central Mountain Ranges and songs of the Utah people in the southwest coast of Netherlands New Guinea.

Three Research Results

After Kunst passed away, his research on traditional Papuan music for different periods of time was published as a collection of three research results by his wife. In 1927, Kunst revised the subject matter for his first research; its results, A Study on Papuan Music, were then published for the first time by the Scientific Research Committee of the Dutch Indies in 1931. The results of his second research, Songs of North New Guinea, were published by the Royal Batavia Society for Arts and Science also in 1931. The results of his third research, The Native Music of Western New Guinea, were published by the the Royal Dutch Institute for the Tropics in 1950.

The research results of J. Kunst were first published in Dutch. Later, the English editions of his revised works were published by the Royal Dutch Institute for Linguistics, Geography, and Ethnology in 1967. Martinus Nijhoff, a publisher in the Hague, published the results under the title of Music in New Guinea.

Why Ethnic Music Was Studied

During Kunst's period, researchers on primitive societies knew little about the traditional music of these people. The researchers did not have a general picture of what traditional music of remote tribes was. They, therefore, needed systematic understanding of the music of all peoples through phonography. At that time, traditional African music not much studied and understood was threatened by foreign music. If this traditional music was not soon studied and recorded through the phonogram, music experts were worried that they could be late in understanding the true nature of African music. Such worries also applied to music in the Dutch Indies, including that in Dutch New Guinea.

Concerning the people in Netherlands New Guinea, Kunst stated that ethnographers seemed to have reached a consensus. They said that the people of Netherlands New Guinea were a mixture of various races with different levels of cultural progress. They, therefore, presumed that they would dicover different and overlapping layers of cultures among the inhabitants.

Is this presumption right? Research on music in Papua during Kunst's period was very limited. As far as this limitation was concerned with what he had already known, he said traditional music in Dutch New Guinea seemed to support the supposition that the Papuans were heterogeneous. (Now, it is known that his supposition is correct.) Based on the research on music of the Papuan tribes living in the Central Mountain Ranges, Kunst concluded that there existed two groups of music with different characteristics: Kauwerawet music and music of the pygmy tribes. In general, it can be said that the songs of both groups prove that more than one wave of civilization have hit the cultural development of the Papuans in Dutch New Guinea.

Kunst's works on Papuan music will be used as my main references for this blog and its Indonesian edition. Other references and my own observation on Papuan music will be added.

Introducing a Papuan Ethnic-Music Blog

2008-07-17T17:07:00.001-07:00

This new blog is actually the English version of the Indonesian edition of Indonesian ethnic music from Papua. You can access the Indonesian edition at http://musiketnikindo-papua.blogspot.com that appeared earlier. I hope ethnic music lovers will not only like it but also get valuable information from it.

I will start the English edition soon.

David Deba