From jazz to Mozart, young Indonesian breathes new life into centuries-old stringed instrument
JAKARTA: With bang-up precision and agility, Seto Noviantoro's fingers glided across the strings of an Indonesian musical musical instrument, while his right arm moved the bow back and forth.
Despite its distinctive sound, not many people know the proper noun of this 2-string bowed dabble, fifty-fifty in Jakarta where the musical instrument originated centuries agone. Those who know how to play the instrument are fifty-fifty rarer.
Noviantoro, 23, has been showcasing his kongahyan skills for the past v years on Instagram and YouTube, creating his own renditions of annihilation from contemporary pop songs to jazz improvisations and Mozart's Turkish March.
The musician has too been updating traditional Betawi songs, rearranging them with modernistic beats and using both the kongahyan and contemporary instruments like keyboards and electric bass to perform them.
"People think of traditional instruments every bit something quondam fashioned and irrelevant with today's time. I want to use social media to reintroduce kongahyan to the masses, then people are aware that the Betawi (community) has an instrument chosen kongahyan," Noviantoro told CNA.
"I get people interested by playing striking songs of today. People are intrigued and realise that this instrument is suited for all kinds of genres. Eventually, they will desire to know more than about the instrument, what it is and where it'south from."
His endeavour shortly attracted accomplished musicians, artists and producers like jazz veterans Tohpati Ario Hutomo and budding composer Eka Gustiwana, who invited him for collaborations, both on stage and on records.
A NATURAL TALENT
Although his father was a traditional Javanese gamelan (ensemble music) player, Noviantoro said he never expressed whatsoever existent interest in condign a musician as a boy.
"The merely reason I enrolled for a traditional music major at my vocational schoolhouse was because my grades were not good enough for regular high schools and other majors at the school," he said.
Tourism Vocational School Number 57 in Due south Jakarta had just opened a new major in traditional music by the time Noviantoro graduated from inferior high school in 2012. At that place was not much interest in the new plan and the then xiv-year-one-time was accustomed easily.
"My class was the outset batch. The programme was so new, we didn't take a teacher until the fourth day of school," he recalled.
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The schoolhouse eventually brought in Firman Jalut, a multi-instrumentalist and son of Betawi music maestro Babe Jali Jalut, to serve as ane of the programme'southward commencement teachers.
The first thing Firman did in Noviantoro's grade was to evidence a apprehensive-looking wooden instrument virtually 60cm long, with a audio box made from stale coconut shell covered in goat's pare on one terminate and two tuning pegs at another. A curved bow is permanently wedged between the musical instrument's two strings.
Like many others in Jakarta, Noviantoro had never seen such an musical instrument in person, let lonely played one. Most pupils in his class did not fifty-fifty know the musical instrument's name.
"My teacher stood in front of the class, rested the instrument against his waist and began to play. It produced the most beautiful and smoothest sound I have always heard in my life. I was immediately hooked," he said.
Noviantoro proved to be a natural talent. His teacher Firman was so impressed past his pupil that 1 twelvemonth afterward he began bringing Noviantoro along to perform as a fill-in musician.
Firman fifty-fifty introduced Noviantoro to jazz veteran Dwiki Dharmawan, who at the time was looking to collaborate with a traditional musician for a major jazz festival after that year.
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"During the rehearsal, I was told to improvise a kongahyan solo. I didn't know what to do. I had only been learning kongahyan for a yr dorsum then," he said, calculation that eventually, Firman stepped in and took Noviantoro'southward identify in the band.
Although he did not get to perform at the jazz festival, the experience fabricated Noviantoro realise that the kongahyan is a versatile instrument which can fit into a wide diverseness of musical genres.
"I likewise realised that as a musician yous have to be versatile in adapting to changes on the fly, be mindful of what other players are doing and be prepared to improvise," he said.
A year afterward his encounter with Dharmawan, he eventually got his second chance to collaborate with the jazz veteran and perform in big concerts and festivals. Today, Noviantoro works as a full-time musician.
KEEPING TRADITION ALIVE
No one knows for sure when kongahyan was commencement invented – some historians believe information technology get-go emerged in the 15th century while others believe that it had been around for much longer.
Yet, anybody agrees that kongahyan, along with its bigger and lower-sounding siblings tehyan and sukong, were modelled after the Chinese erhu brought to the archipelago past merchants from people's republic of china.
The erhu was also the inspiration for some other instrument called rebab, which is found in Sundanese and Javanese communities in other parts of Java.
While rebab is relatively well preserved, the aforementioned cannot be said near the Betawi stringed instruments.
"Perhaps it is considering no one is educational activity them. In Due west Java and Yogyakarta (provinces), they have schools and institutes defended to preserving their musical heritage and teaching the next generation of artists. For some reasons, we don't accept that here," Noviantoro opined.
"To exist honest, I am quite jealous of the other provinces."
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The musician believed that the traditional music of Jakarta is facing a chicken-and-egg situation. "No one is education people these instruments because no i is interested. No one is interested because no i is educational activity them about information technology," he said.
Noviantoro aimed to alter that through social media.
"I want to use social media to reintroduce kongahyan to the masses so people are aware of the kongahyan instrument and that the Betawi (customs) has instruments called kongahyan, tehyan and sukong," he said.
Noviantoro said he noticed many people his age are starting to show an involvement in the instrument. "I don't want to say that it happens solely because of what I am doing on social media. Other musicians are also working hard to promote kongahyan in their own ways," he said.
"I hope more and more people are picking upwards kongahyan for the first time. Nothing would give me more than joy."
"I want the Betawi civilization and music to exist more well known, non merely in Indonesia merely also internationally. I believe that the Betawi culture can get the worldwide recognition that it deserves. Simply before we can exercise that, we have to starting time with ourselves first. Nosotros must be the ones who appreciate information technology and preserve it."
Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/asia/indonesia-jakarta-betawi-seto-noviantoro-kongahyan-erhu-music-249236
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