Bamboo Music Bridges East and West

Sundanese Corner News
Written by Hawe Setiawan

BANDUNG----A traditional Sundanese music, different songs from all over the world, a collaboration between local musicians and their foreign counterparts and a successful modification of musical instruments will all play their part in bridging East and West.

Such a hopeful impression might have come out of an angklung concert performed last night at Preanger Hotel, Bandung. The ‘Enchanting Night’ –-that’s the title of this charming musical performance---, which was presented by Bandung-based Angklung Web Institute, has apparently made its audience enchanted by some musical pieces, both traditional and modern, pop and classical, Sundanese and Western.

The three hours concert presented the performances of Insperto Orchestra, Arumba Parahiyangan and Temen Awi Angklung Orchestra, before some two hundred audiences, both young and old ---some even came with kids.

Insperto Orchestra, which successfully combined bamboo instruments with traditional percussions, performed ‘Tea for Two’ (Vincent Youmas & Irving Caesar), ‘Donau Wellen’ (Johanes Ivanovici), ‘Cari Pacar Lagi’ (a contemporary Indonesian pop song) and a medley of some Sundanese folk songs.

The second performance by Arumba Parahyangan presented ‘Pachito El Che’ (Benny More), ‘Blue Moon’ (Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart), ‘Tilil’ (a Sundanese folk song), ‘Hungarian Dance’ (Johannes Brahms) and ‘Masquerada’ (Jorge Ben).

And the last but perhaps the most excellent performance by Temen Awi Angklung Orchestra, conducted by Roswita Amelinda, Irma Noerhaty, Edward C. van Ness and Obby A.R. Wiramihardja, presented ‘Lalayaran’ (a Sundanese folk song), ‘Somewhere My Love’ (Richard Straus), ‘O Solemio’ (Eduardo di Capua), ‘New York, New York’ (John Kander & Fred Ebb), ‘Santorini’ (Yanni), ‘Li Biamo Ne Lieti Calici’ from ‘La Traviatta’ (Giuseppe Verdi) and an excerpt of ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra (Johan Strauss). Their performance was also enriched by two sopranos.

Angklung is one of well-known Sundanese musical instruments made from bamboo. Since time immemorial Sundanese people had been playing angklung music as one of their cultural heritages. The late Daeng Soetigna (1908-1984) created a kind of modern and diatonic angklung. And ‘The Enchanting Night’ was presented in commemorating a 100 years of the ‘Father of Angklung’.***