| Indonesian
composer Andreas Arianto Yanuar sums up the significance of the
recent contemporary music festival in Yogya in October 2008. (English/Bahasa)
 It
is true that the YCMF 2008 is over already on the Commemoration
of the Sumpah Pemuda (Indonesian Youth Vow) on 28th of October,
2008 and most of us will agree that this note is a bit too late
to publish. But isn't it better to be like that than not to
write anything at all? Still there was more excitement to spread
if I wrote it not too long from the festival's closing ceremony,
this year's biggest celebration on new music in Yogyakarta.
Blood, sweat and tears of the organizing committee was paid
off in that every year since 2004 this festival has "infected"
the local public not only with an awareness, but also a curiosity
and attention to new music performances. And the good news is,
it's not only to the laymen they spread the "virus",
but also to the senior musicians of Yogyakarta who now are engaging
with a new medium of music composition, in addition to their
usual fine arrangements and orchestrations of folk and popular
music. We're very happy to welcome more newcomers to contemporary
music stages and venues everywhere in this country.
It is quite well known that this music has been a marginal
art form in Indonesia, with only a very limited number of supporters
in only a few communities. But it is now time for the younger
generations to continue what the former generations of composers
like Slamet Abdul Sjukur, Suka Hardjana, Franky Raden, Sapto
Raharjo, Otto Sidharta, Tony Prabowo, Fahmi Alatas, Michael
Asmara, I Wayan Sadra and many of their contemporaries have
done with their efforts to keep contemporary music alive. Since
the 1980s they had started with a series of Pekan Komponis Muda
(Young Composers Festival) that placed their footsteps on the
history of new music in Indonesia, with various reactions and
responses from shocked audiences.
 We
cannot reject that the efforts of these sound artists are any
different from those of the artists in the Fine Arts. We have
to face the difficulty in performing their works in front of
a society that cares not too much about having to use their
ears to listen carefully without any presumptions. We know that
it is different with sculpture, painting, or any Fine Art subjects,
which can be enjoyed without any time limitations - musical
composition on the other hand is attached with certain time
frames and the event it contains is very significant, so that
with a little variation of timing, the content also changes.
What happened in the last YCMF was a kind of an upheaval among
the younger generations of composers. With a consciousness that
a piece of work does not exist only on pieces of paper, we supported
each other to bring our ideas to the performing stage. On the
stage the challenge was given to all of us: composers, performers,
audiences and also the critics.
The challenge generated different results: there was satisfaction,
unhappiness, curiosity, joy and also disappointment, all present
at the same festival. But what mattered more to us was that
a history was being written, and every single individual who
plunged oneself should never wait for the gears to move but
to encourage each other to make things happen.
Everyone should feel responsible to do something, to create
some music! Everyone should feel it, because if they don't,
then this moment will be no different from previous similar
events that had been held numerous times but without any satisfying
results, and which had no significant impact on composers, performers
and the audience.
This celebration is not over yet, it will burn our spirits
and more than that the circle will expand its echoing sound
and its accomplishments. Viva new music society in Indonesia!
Viva new young composers of Indonesia!
- Andreas Arianto Yanuar
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16 Nov 08
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