Selamat datang, Sugeng rawuh to the homepage of Sumarsam
work-in-progress
History and Myth, Interculturalism and Interreligiosity: The-in-Between in Javanese Performing Arts
This work-in-progress is my lifelong journey to master complicated, profound and changing art/ritual/entertainment through understanding its multiple variations from court village entertainment-cum-ritual to palace esthetic/proof of cultural competency, from coastal mercantile entrepots to central Javanese wet rice terraces, from colonial plantation and textile factory culture to contemporary industrial estates and creative economy efforts. I view these complexities as running parallel to my own experiences in between the dialectical encounters that have shaped my pursuit of the performing arts.
Gamelan: Cultural Interaction and Musical Development in Central Java is the first study of the music of Java and the development of the gamelan to take into account extensive historical sources and contemporary cultural theory and criticism. An ensemble dominated by bronze percussion instruments that dates back to the twelfth century in Java, the gamelan as a musical organization and a genre of performance reflects a cultural heritage that is the product of centuries of interaction between Hindu, Islamic, European, Chinese, and Malay cultural forces. Drawing on sources ranging from a twelfth-century royal poem to the writing of a twentieth-century nationalist, Sumarsam shows how the Indian-inspired contexts and ideology of the Javanese performing arts were first adjusted to the Sufi tradition and later shaped by European performance styles in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. He then turns to accounts of gamelan theory and practice from the colonial and postcolonial periods. Finally, he presents his own theory of gamelan, stressing the relationship between purely vocal melodies and classical gamelan composition.Hayatan Gamelan: Kedalaman Lagu, Teori & Perspektif. Prof. Sumarsam adalah pengrawit sekaligus intelektual yang sadar bahwa estetika karawitan Jawa penuh perhitungan yang sangat kompleks. Bunyi-bunyi gamelan secara empirik terwujud lewat konstruk, konsep, dan proposisi artistik-musikal yang terdefinisikan. Dalam buku ini, ia berusaha tekun memahami dan menjelaskannya. Tesisnya mengenai kedalaman lagu gamelan di tahun 1976 (bagian pertama pertama buku ini) merupakan reputasi menyejarah dan berpengaruh luas yang masih menggema sampai sekarang. Banyak teoretikus terpengaruh tesis ini. Bagian kedua buku ini mulai dengan bahasan praktek dan analisis instrumen depan, yaitu gender. Kemudian, dengan disertai ilustrasi sejarah dan fungsinya, gamelan sekaten dilihat dari keunikkan musikalnya. Karena keterbatasan wilayah nada tiap instrumen yang hanya satu oktaf , dalam memainkan gendhing musisi harus memecah konsentrasi pada lagu gendhing yang berwilayah luas di satu pihak, dilain pihak adalah insturmen lagu yang memiliki keterbatasan luasJavanese Gamelan and the Weststudies the meaning, forms, and traditions of the Javanese performing arts as they developed and changed through their contact with Western culture. Authored by a gamelan performer, teacher, and scholar, the book traces the adaptations in gamelan art as a result of Western colonialism in nineteenth-century Java, showing how Western musical and dramatic practices were domesticated by Javanese performers creating hybrid Javanese-Western art forms, such as with the introduction of brass bands in gendhing mares court music and West Javanese tanjidor, and Western theatrical idioms in contemporary wayang puppet plays. The book also examines the presentation of Javanese gamelan to the West, detailing performances in World’s Fairs and American academia and considering its influence on Western performing arts and musical and performance studies. The end result is a comprehensive treatment of the formation of modern Javanese gamelan and a fascinating look at how an art form dramatizes changes and developments in a culture.Memaknai Wayang dan Gamelan: Temu Silang Jawa, Islam, dan Global. Wayang dan gamelan telah membawa kita pada diskursus-diskursus yang tebanya sangat luas. Dua seni pertunjukan “adiluhung” ini merupakan pertunjukan multimedia yang mempunyai sejarah yang panjang, mengandung kedalaman estetika dan ungkapan simbolis dan religiusita, dan berafiliasi kuat dengan emosi pelaku dan penontonnya. Dalam perkembangannya, wayang dan gamelan tidak bisa lepas dari konteks sosial-politik dan budaya, termasuk perjumpaannya dengan modernitas Barat dan pandangan Islam konservatif, yang terkadang menimbulkan diskusi pro dan kontra. Maka, buku ini mengangkat tema temu-silang Jawa, Islam, dan global dalam menjajaki makna wayang dan gamelan.Contextualizing Wayang & Gamelan to History, Islam, and Nation State. Indonesia has gone through interrelated chains on historical events—religious conversion, colonialism, and from revolution to independent state—which has brought about a society whose people live in cultural pluralism and muliti-faith traditions.This inter-cultural and multi-faith traditions have led to the fluid ways for performing arts to move across the boundaries of religion or system of belief. For example, there hase been an intimate relationship between Javanese wayang and Islam, although wayang performs Hindu tales. However, a certain historical event has distanced this intimate relationship. What is the direction of the relationship between wayang & gamelan and Islam in contemporary Indonesia in light of the recent deeper Islamization?
