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.
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