Gendang Sarunei of The Karo

Ali Idup Sembiring

Ali Idup Sembiring plays gendang anakna, second drum.

Ngemar Perangin-angin 

Ngemar Perangin-angin plays sarunei, an oboe type instrument.

Kilo Ginting 

Kilo Ginting plays gendang indungna, first drum.

Gendang sarunei of the Karo

[tracks 1 & 2]

The gendang music of the Karo, along with the gendang sarunei instrumental groups, corresponds to Toba gondang sarune music, from the point of view of both social status and symbolic significance, with the one noticeable difference that the Karo people have more completely preserved their ancestral religious traditions than the Toba. Even today, gendang music accompanies dances invoking spirits and possession dances, adat dances which respect the code of behaviour of the kinship groups and guests of honour, dances for entertainment which take place after the official program of feast-days, dances for young people of marriageable age during the ceremony for young people (guru-gugu aron) or the annual ceremonies before and after the harvest (kerja tahun). Except for dances of spirit possession, which occupy a ritual function, these dances are above all meant as expressions of beauty. We owe to the German geographer Wilhelm Volz, who travelled around in the Karo region between 1904 and 1906, a description of these dances:

"When everything was ready, the penghulu (the village headman) rose with a courteous gesture to us; the music started and the dance began. Some 8 or 10 men had taken their places on the narrow open space; the penghulu was the leader of the dance and all the others followed him, repeating his movements. With feet parallel and knees slightly bent, they all turned from one side to the other, moving up and down in time with the strokes of the gong and bending the knees sideways at every stroke of the gong. At the same time, the arms were extended sideways with upturned hands, mostly one extended upwards and the other down low. Simultaneously, the same circular movements as with the upper part of the body were then made with the arms and with the hands too. This was the slow, solemn rhythm and at every stroke everyone bent to the right and to the left as if every stoke of the gong was hitting the dances on the head" (Volz 1909 : 109).

A complete group consists of five musicians, the "five musicians who travel along the road together" (penggual lima sedalanen): the sarunei, or oboe, player, two drummers and two gong players. The construction of the musical instruments reveals to what extent this music esthetically seeks acoustic contrasts. The oboe, which is quite small, is very high-pit-ched. The double reed, made of a coconut palm leaf, is approximately 1/10 to 3/10 inche wide and 3 inches long. The conical body of the instrument has six very small upper finger-holes, a hole at the back and an eighth hole, which is not used.

The drum parts are divided between the accompaniment drum, or gendang anakna ("child-gendang") and the gendang indungna ("mother-gendang"), which is struck with great virtuosity. The gendang anakna is in fact a pair of drums with the smaller one, measuring 4 to 5 inches long, attached to the main drum. The body of this drum is a double cone, and total length is approximately 16 to 20 inches. The skin is stretched over the upper end, measuring about 2 to 3 inches in diameter, and it is struck with two small drumsticks; the skin on the under side (which is not struck) measures 1 and a half to 2 inches across.

The two bossed gongs are of widely differing size, the very small gong penganak measuring 6 to 7 inches in diameter, and the very large one, gung, 22 to 40 inches in diameter.

The regular gong beats form the rhythmical backbone of the ensemble playing. The gung is generally struck once for every two strokes on the penganak. The intervals between the gong beats are filled with virtuoso drum playing. To this the singindungi (the gendang indungna player) plays virtuoso sequences of beats which run in a counter-rhythmical relationship of tension with the basic beats of the anakna, mostly in the ratio of 2:3. Both drummers usually start off together in the basic rhythm, and it is only afterwards that the lead drummer breaks out in a different tempo. To give even more colour to this playing, which is already very lively and interesting, the singindungi makes use of all the possibilities of tone colours by hitting the centre and edge of the skin, up to the bamboo ring, and even striking the ring itself. In this way he introduces additional accents through rapid changes in percussive intensity.

The tone, intonation, and extremely ornamental phrasing of the sarunei oboes are also remarkable. The intonation of the pitches depends a great deal on the player's embouchure, and the resulting oscillations are not only unavoidable but also necessary to the final effect. The instrument has a wider tonal range than the large Toba sarune, and according to the piece being played, the tonal system may be either penta-,hexa-, or heptatonic.

Analysis of the melodic-thematic structures reveals three large categories, as follows:

1.      A clearly defined — mostly singable — theme which is repeated with relatively slight variants. In the modern repertoire, the links between this music and the vocal music called kolong-kolong can be heard.

2.      Short, improvised melodic phrases alternating sharply with long, smooth tones.

3.      A musical flow consisting of short musical figures strung together in no particular sequence, which by constant repetition may become stereotyped melodic set phrases. In certain cases, the order of these figures may become fixed. 

THE RECORDINGS

These recordings were made in the Rond- Point/Théâtre Renaud-Barrault, on June 6, 1993 during the concert series entitled "Undiscovered Indonesia," which was organized by the Maison des Cultures du Monde as part of a grand tour of the Extra-European Arts Committee.

GENDANG SARUNEI (Karo)

The "Gendang Lima Sedalanen" group consists of the following members:

Ngemar Perangin-angin, from Buluh Pancur : sarunei,

Kilo Ginting, from Kineppen: gendang indungna (first drum),

Ali Idup Sembiring, from Desa Sampun: gendang anakna (second drum), A gung (large gong) and a penganak (small gong).

1. Traditional music for adat feasts :

Perang-perang / Simalungun Rayat / Odak-odak / Patam-patam

The suite which follows used to accompany adat dance ceremonies. Perang ("combat") is a category of pieces and dances which were originally warlike, and which were performed before engaging in battle; the word may also be taken to mean a battle against evil spirits and a sham fight performed by two dancers. Simalungun Rayat is the most well-known composition for accompaniment of slow adat dances, during which the three kinship groups and the guests of honor make their appearance in a strictly prescribed order, and they dance facing each other. At certain moments the intensity diminishes and the rhythm lightens so that greetings, vows or praises may be pronounced. This first part may also be sung (Simon, 1987: 9).

Odak-odak may be played, as here, after Simalungun Rayat. The title here refers to movements of the hands and feet to simulate walking, and which are characteristic of this slow dance. Figuratively, this also means "charming," "pleasing to watch."

Patam-patam is a catetory of rapid pieces used to conclude a suite of dances.

2. Music from the ancient religious ceremonies with a sibaso guru :

Begu deleng / Odak-odak / Pertant-tang sabe / Peseluken

The mediator between men and the spirits of the ancestors is a woman, the guru sibaso. And it is when she is possessed by a begu (spirit of the ancestor) that she may serve as a medium for descendents who are trying to contact an ancestor. An incantation dance calls up the Begu deleng (the spirit of the mountain), who has powers of healing and prophecy. The Pertang-tang sabe piece recalls that offerings to the spirits of the ancestors should be made so as to pacify them. During a dance of possession called peseluken, the guru sibaso goes into a state of trance: upheld by the music which gradually becomes more forceful and more rapid in tempo, the dance itself becomes wilder and wilder and finally the guru is entranced, jumping about, falling to the ground in a state of hyper-excitation, tearing out her hair and rending her clothes before finally falling over with a loud cry, the sign that the spirit has now possessed her.

BIBLIOGRAPHIE / BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Jansen, Arin D. : Gonrang Music : Its Structure and Functions in Simalungun Batak Society in Sumatra (Ph.D.Diss.), University of Washington, Seattle, 1980.

• Simon, Artur : Gondang Toba. Instrumental Music of the Toba - Batak, 2 LP & livret/commentary, Museum Collection Berlin 12, (Département d’ethnomusicologie du Musée d’Ethnographie / Department of Ethnomusicology, Museum of Ethnography), Berlin, 1984.

• Simon, Artur : « The Terminology of Batak Instrumental Music in Northern Sumatra », Yearbook for Traditional Music, vol. 17 : 113-145, 1985.

• Simon, Artur : Gendang Karo. Trance and Danse Music of the Karo Batak, 2 LP & livret/commentary, Museum Collection Berlin 13, (Dépar tement d’ethnomusicologie du Musée d’Ethnographie / Department of Ethnomusicology, Museum of Ethnography), Berlin, 1987.

• Simon, Artur : « A Film Documentation of Social and Religious Ceremonies and

Ceremonial Music of the Batak in Northern Sumatra, Indonesia », Visual Anthropology, vol. 1 : 349-356, 1988.

• Simon, Artur : « Gondang, Gods ans Ancestors. Religious Implications of Batak Ceremonial Music », Yearbook for Traditional Music, Vol. 25 : 81-88, 1993.

• Volz, Wilhelm : Nord-Sumatra, Band 1 : Die Batakländer, Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin, 1909.

  

Collection fondée par Françoise Gründ et dirigée par Pierre Bois

Enregistrements effectués le 6 juin 1993 au Rond-Point/Théâtre Renaud-Barrault par Joël Beaudemont. Sélection des plages et coordination éditoriale, Pierre Bois. Notice, Prof. Artur Simon. Traduction française Birgit Wallborn et Pierre Bois. Adaptation anglaise, Judith Crews. Illustration de couverture, Françoise Gründ. Photographies, Jean-Paul Dumontier. Prémastérisation, Frédéric Marin. Mise en page, Morvan Fouillet Imprimeurs. © et OP 1995-2009 MCM.

INEDIT est une marque déposée de la Maison des Cultures du Monde.

Ces artistes ont été enregistrés à l’occasion du cycle de manifestations « Indonésie secrète » organisé en juin 1993 par la Maison des Cultures du Monde au Rond-Point/Théâtre Renaud- Barrault dans le cadre d’une tournée de l’Extra European Arts Committee. Les artistes et le programme des concerts ont été choisis par Rizaldi Siagian (Medan, Nord-Sumatra) et Huib Haringhuizen (Soeterijn, Musée Royal des Tropiques, Amsterdam).

  

KARO

Gendang Sarunei

2 tambours/drums gendang, hautbois/oboe sarunei, 2 gongs.

1.                   Musique pour les fêtes Adat / Music for Adat festivals......................................................12’17

2.                   Musique de cérémonie avec une Guru Sibaso / Ceremonial music with a Guru Sibaso .......6’55”

BATAK TOBA / TOBA-BATAK

Gondang Sarune

6 tambours/6 drums taganing, hautbois/oboe sarune, 4 gongs, plaque de fer/metal plate hesek-hesek.

3.                   Gondang Bane Bulan ...........................................................................................................2’34”

4.                   Gondang Si Boru Uluan .......................................................................................................3’18”

5.                   Gondang « Pangelek-elek ni jujungan ro » .........................................................................7’47”

6.                   Gondang Marundur-undur ..................................................................................................5’02”

Gondang Hasapi

2 clarinettes/clarinets sarune etek, flûte/flute sulim, 2 luths/lutes hasapi, xylophone garantung, plaque de fer/metal plate hesek-hesek.

7.                   Gondang Debata Sori ..........................................................................................................2’11”

8.                   Gondang « Lahat-lahat ni horbo » ......................................................................................3’16”

9.                   Gondang Sikklan tali ............................................................................................................2’55”

10.               Gondang « Situan Gading »...............................................................................................4’25”

11.               Andung-andung parsirangan.............................................................................................6’19”

12.               Gondang Sigarar jambar ...................................................................................................3’47”

BATAK SIMALUNGUN / SIMALUNGUN-BATAK

Gonrang sipitu-pitu

7 tambours/drums gonrang, hautbois/oboe sarunei, 4 gongs.

13.               Imbou manibung................................................................................................................3’06”

14.               Boniala sahala gual ............................................................................................................1’56”

Gonrang sidua-dua

2 tambours (2 drums), hautbois (oboe), sarunei, 4 gongs.

15.               Sayur matua (musique de funérailles / funeral music).....................................................3’07”

16.               Haro-haro ...........................................................................................................................2’12”

Source : Musiques Des Batak