Kacapi

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Large kacapi indung , also kacapi parahu , with 18 strings

Kacapi , also kecapi , out of date kechapi , is a board zither that is played in the Sundanese music in the west of the Indonesian island of Java for singing or in a chamber music instrumental ensemble. The kacapi , together with the bamboo flute suling, accompanies the courtly singing style tembang sunda and forms the instrumental duo kacapi suling only with the flute . According to the shape of the sound box , a large "boat-shaped" kacapi parahu (also Indonesian kacapi indung , "mother kacapi", based on the leadership role in the ensemble), a higher-sounding, "smaller" kacapi rincik (also kacapi anak , "child- Zither ”, accompanying function) of the same shape and a flat kacapi siter with a trapezoidal box. The kacapi is the characteristic instrument of Sundanese music and its soft tones determine its lyrical quality. With the boat shape symbolized as a mythological ship of the soul, the kacapi transports the audience according to their imagination into the golden age of the western Javanese empire Pajajaran, which existed from the 14th to the 16th century. The Central Javanese equivalent of the kacapi is the zither celempung .

The instrument name, derived from Sanskrit , also denotes a boat-shaped lute played by Bugis and Macassars in South Sulawesi ( kacaping or kacapi ) and other lutes and bamboo zithers in similar spellings on the Malay Islands .

Origin and Distribution

Small kacapi rincik with 15 strings

The Javanese culture was formed from the amalgamation of an old Javanese animistic tradition with the Indian culture brought to Southeast Asia by Indian traders and colonists from South India in the first centuries AD. From the 15th century onwards, widespread oriental influences followed with Islamization. The process of Indianization took place from its beginnings in the 4th century BC. BC to the full development of Indian culture in the 6th century AD. The name kacapi goes back to Sanskrit kacchapi , a stringed instrument that is mentioned in Bharata Muni's work on the performing arts, Natyashastra , which was written around the turn of the century . Kacchapi and ghosaka were obviously two stringed instruments of secondary importance compared to the two main stringed instruments, the nine-string bow harp vipanci vina and the seven-string bow harp citra vina ( chitravina , today an alternative name for the young, South Indian long-necked lute gottuvadyam ). The Jaiminiya Brahmana from the 6th century BC contains the earliest written evidence of bow harps . Which belongs to the Samaveda . The word kacchapi already appears in the spelling kashyapi , which refers to a musical instrument used in the mahavrata ritual.

Images of bow harps disappeared in India shortly after the middle of the 1st millennium and were replaced by stick zithers with the generic name vina . The ancient Indian kacchapi , as mentioned in the Natyashastra , was probably a lute with a pear-shaped body. There are no figures that could support the type of instrument, but the origin of the word makes this conclusion likely. According to Curt Sachs (1915), Kacchapi is derived from Sanskrit kacca , which is related to Bengali kacchapa and Pali kacchaco and refers to the tree Cedrela tuna (family of mahogany plants ), from the wood of which the Indian sitar is still made today. In contrast, Emmie te Nijenhuis (1930) refers to the Greek influence on the ancient Indian empire Gandhara . A simple lute with three strings and a short neck, for which the term kacchapi seems to fit, is depicted on Gandhara reliefs at the turn of the times . The name kacchapi could have been chosen from Sanskrit kacchapa , “turtle”, corresponding to the meaning of the ancient Greek word for a plucked instrument, the lyre Χελώνη ( cheloni , literally “turtle”), as its sound box was made from the shell of turtles. Only the Indian instrument name was adapted to a Greek string instrument, but its design was not adopted, because no string instrument with this (or any other) name in India has a resonance body made of a turtle shell.

The Indonesian word kacapi is a derivation of the Indian name, which has been aligned in the regional language and, in addition to the Javanese box zither on Sumatra , denotes the bamboo zither canang kacapi of the Gayo in Aceh and the kacapi bambu of the Minangkabau . Without the addition of bambu for a tubular bamboo zither, kecapi ( kucapi, kacapi ) in the Minangkabau stands for a board zither with three to five strings tuned to the same height and a finger board with which one octave range can be grasped. This kecapi , which was probably imported from China, occasionally accompanies a certain singing style ( dendang ) together with the longitudinal flute saluang and the string lute rabab .

Variants of the instrument name kacapi also denote several different lute instruments. The Toba- Batak in Sumatra call a two-stringed lute with a narrow, pear-shaped body hasapi ; in the Karo-Batak the same instrument is called kulcapi , in the Simalungan husapi and in the Pakpak, both of which also belong to the Batak, and in the Minangkabau kucapi . The boat-shaped sounds in Sulawesi are kasapi, kucaping and kacapi . The Dayak on Borneo play the long four -stringed lute sape , the two-string Filipino boat lute kutiyapi is similarly long . Other lute instruments that have the word kacapi in their name are the Cambodian long-necked lute chapey dang veng and the Thai krajappi.

While the name for these stringed instruments probably came from India to the Malay Islands in the 1st millennium, this origin of the form applies at most to some of the lute instruments, but not to board zithers. The latter are unknown in India. In the 1st millennium, a type of stick zither that has now disappeared in India came to Southeast Asia (handed down as phin phia in northern Thailand and kse diev in Cambodia); the idiochord tubular bamboo zithers typical of Southeast Asia, on the other hand, have a Malay origin that goes back to the Stone Age. The different bamboo tube zithers include the single-string, beaten guntang on Bali and the multi-string, plucked sasando on the island of Roti . The third basic form of a zither is the board zither, in which the string plane runs parallel to a flat string support. Asiatic zithers appear for the first time archaeologically in tombs from the middle Zhou dynasty (around the 7th to 5th centuries BC) in China , but they must have been around the 12th century BC. Be known because the Chinese character from this time with the meaning "music" represents silk strings over a board. The oldest surviving form of a Chinese zither is the seamless guqin , which consists of a narrow, 120 centimeter long board, over that seven silk strings are stretched. Similarly, the larger old and museum today zither is se with 25 strings, which run over a footbridge. The slightly curved string level combines se with the commonly used today, East Asian Wölbbrettzithern guzheng in China, koto in Japan, gayageum , geomungo and ajaeng in Korea and đàn tranh in Vietnam. Starting with the 13-string koto with movable bridges and the 12-string gayageum , both of which have existed since the 8th century at the latest, the vaulted board zithers go back to the Chinese models.

The Hindu- Javanese kingdoms of Kediri and Singhasari ruled from the 11th century and, as the last Hindu empire - until the final takeover of power by the Muslim sultanates at the beginning of the 16th century - Majapahit in the east of the island. Reliefs at East Javanese temples show some musical instruments that had not been found before, including the small, banana-shaped metal slit drum kemanak and the dumbbell-shaped double gong réyong . On a relief at the East Javanese temple ( candi ) Jago (near Malang ) from the end of the 13th century, a rectangular, flat zither without a resonance box can be seen, which - as far as recognizable - is in several details from the celempung played today in central and eastern Java differs, but at least proves the use of board zithers. An illustration in Thomas Stamford Raffles The History of Java from 1817 shows a trapezoidal board zither, the strings of which are attached to the side of the string support. The strings therefore led down through holes in the string carrier and on to the lateral vertebrae, as is the case with today's kacapi . The flat body shown corresponds to the Chinese board zithers and not the deep-bellied Indonesian zithers kacapi, celempung and siter . The board zithers from China were apparently only changed after 1920 under European influence to their present appearance.

According to written sources, kacapi is very likely the oldest name for an Indonesian zither. A Sundanese palm leaf manuscript from 1518 entitled Sanghyang Siksakanda ng Karesian mentions the telling of epic stories ( pantun ) as an indirect reference to a zither, as it is known to be used to accompany the pantun lecture. Another Sundanese manuscript, believed to date from the 16th century, contains the word kacapi for a musical instrument whose shape is unclear. According to Wim van Zanten (2008), today's kacapi parahu emerged in the 19th century from the older kacapi pantun and the smaller kacapi rincik was added around 1930. The string instruments played in Javanese music are the kacapi, the zithers celempung and siter , as well as the stringed lutes rebab and tarawangsa .

Design

Tuning pegs of a kacapi indung

The kacapi parahu (Indonesian perahu , “boat”, in the narrower sense Prau , outrigger boat), also kacapi indung (“mother kacapi ”) has a body made of wooden boards with a flat, long rectangular top and long sides that are rounded at both ends in the shape of a boat are. A special type of wood is not required, woods growing in West Java such as Manglieta glauca (a magnolia plant , Indonesian manglid ), Cedrela febrifuga (synonym Toona sureni , a mahogany plant , Indonesian surén ) and Cananga odorata (Indonesian kenanga ). Certain types of wood, especially Cananga odorata and Aegiceras corniculatum (Indonesian kaboa ), which grow in mangrove forests , are assigned a magical meaning.

The total length is 135 to 150 centimeters, the width 24 to 28 centimeters and the average height of the ceiling above the base is 25 centimeters. The sound box ( wangkis , "belly") is glued together from several boards. In the past it was probably cut out of a block of wood, as shown by a long rectangular, flat zither of the Baduy, a small ethnic group in the province of Banten . The narrow sides are drawn up beyond the level of the ceiling. The curved ends are called gelung ("lock of hair"). After completion, the body is painted black-brown with shellac . The strings run from pins made of metal or wood over a wooden edge that serves as a saddle and over a series of hardwood bridges set up in a diagonal through a hole in the top to the wooden tuning pegs ( pureut ) on the underside. The strings are attached to the vertebrae from the underside through a 9 by 60 centimeter sound hole ( aweuhan ). The coarse tuning takes place on the handles of the tuning pegs, which are arranged in a row on the long side facing away from the player. The pyramid-shaped bars, called tumpang sari, kajang, susu (Indonesian, simple Sundanese "breasts") or inang ( standard Sundanese language "breasts", "wet nurse"), can be moved on the ceiling for fine tuning . The names of the components refer to the cultural significance of the kacapi , which is seen as a female instrument.

The kacapi indung usually has 18 brass strings, the identically shaped, but smaller and higher tuned kacapi rincik ( Javanese rincik , "small"), also kacapi anak (Indonesian "child zither") has 15 steel strings (motorcycle brake cables). The large kacapi was given the epithet indung ("mother") to distinguish it from the smaller zither developed around 1930. When both kacapi play together in the orchestra, indung means the instrument with the lower notes and rincik the one with the higher notes. In West Java, two angklung (shaking idiophones of different sizes made of bamboo) and two dogdog (single-headed cylinder drums of different lengths that accompany the réog ceremonial dance ) represent such an unequal-sized pair of “mother-child” instruments .

The highest string ( barang , more rarely tugu ) is located close to the musician, who is sitting cross- legged with the instrument across in front of him and plucks the strings with the thumb, index finger and middle finger of both hands. Only the celempung deviates from this common playing position for a board zither , the narrow side of which is aligned with the musician and whose strings are gripped with the hands over the long sides. A special zither, the kacapi pantun used to accompany pantun verses , has 11 to 15 strings. It is made of the soft, almost white wood from Alstonia scholaris (Indonesian pulai , Sundanese lamé ) and left in the natural wood color.

The kacapi siter is constructed differently , the body of which consists of a flat, rectangular box, typically 94 centimeters long. The width tapers from around 28 centimeters after a third of the length to around 18 centimeters. The 20 strings run from metal tuning screws on the wide transverse side over a sliding saddle and further over a diagonal row of bridges to their attachment points under the ceiling on the narrow transverse side. A sound hole is located on the floor in the middle under the strings.

Mood

The range of the kacapi indung is over three octaves . The number notation in Sundanese music ( degung ) begins with 1 (Sundanese hiji ) at the highest note on the scale and rises through 2 ( dua ), 3 ( tilu ), 4 ( opat ) to 5 ( lima ), the lowest note in the octave. This is the opposite of the Central Javanese numeric notation, which increases from the lowest note 1 to the highest note 7 on the theoretically seven-point pélog scale. The highest string 1 ( barang , also tugu ) is followed by strings 2 ( kenong ), 3 ( panelu ), 4 ( bem , less often galimer ), 5 ( galimer , less often singgul ) and the highest note of the next lower octave 6 ( barang ) . The 11th and 16th strings and the notes that they produce are called barang . The first string ( barang ) is rarely plucked. Some kacapi only have 16 or 17 strings, then the first string is called kenong (tone sequence of a 20-string kacapi to be heard ? / I ). Audio file / audio sample

The kacapi is tuned to the scales sléndro , sorog or pélog , the intervals of which are different between the five-note octave. The kacapi is always tuned to one of the three scales without mixing the pitches. The starting tone used for tuning is barang on the sixth string. This tone is adopted by the suling bamboo flute with six finger holes and about 62 centimeters in length, which interacts with the kacapi in several ensemble types . It corresponds roughly to f 1 (349 Hz ) for all three scales. The tuning of the other strings is done by playing typical melody sequences of the tembang Sunda repertoire, i.e. the classic West Javanese singing style. There are flutes with lengths between 60 and 65 centimeters, the height of the barang note on the flute varies accordingly, the pitch specifications therefore only refer to a 62 centimeter long flute used for tuning. The pélog tuning of an octave compared to the western tone sequence is roughly according to the arrangement of the strings:

1 barang (f 2 , 698 Hz), 2 kenong (e 2 , 659 Hz), 3 panelu (c 2 , 523 Hz), 4 bem (b ♭ 1 , 466 Hz), 5 galimer (a 1 , 440 Hz) and 6 barang (f 1 , 349 Hz).

Most of the pieces of music are performed in the pélog mood. A concert with pélog pieces begins in Bandung , changing to sorog in the middle section and to sléndro at the end . In Cianjur, west of Bandung, often only pieces in the pélog and sorog mood are played. To retune the instrument to sorog , the third string ( panelu ) is raised from approximately c 2 to d 2 , the other strings remain unchanged. For sléndro , the pitch of the third string ( panelu ) is lowered again: to a slightly higher c 2 than in the pélog tuning. String 1 and string 4 remain unchanged, but strings 2 and 5 are tuned lower. The tone sequence for sléndro is:

1 barang (f 2 ), 2 kenong (e 2 ♭ -), 3 panelu (c 2 ), 4 bem (b 1 ♭ ), 5 galimer (g 1 +) and 6 barang (f 1 ).

The intervals for the sléndro are approximately equidistant. In all three scales, barang and bem remain unchanged. While the kacapi is always tuned to one of the three main tone sequences ( surupan ), the singing voice and the two other musical instruments, the flute suling and the string lute rebab , can incorporate tones from a different scale in some pieces. The kacapi is therefore the decisive instrument for classifying a piece of music in one of the three scales.

Besides pélog, sorog and sléndro , other tone sequences were used in the past. The mandalungan mood corresponds to the tone sequence sorog , but begins with the tone panelu and the mataraman mood corresponds to the tone sequence pélog , which begins with the tone bem . In the 1920s and 1930s, a concert in Cianjur could begin with pieces of music in pélog , continued with sorog songs and concluded with mataraman pieces. A special role in the melody consequences of tembang Sunda comes to kempyung intervals called barang-bem, kenong-galimer and panelu-barang to that with just over 702 Hz slightly over a fifth are. Jaap Kunst , who in the 1920s was the first western ethnomusicologist to develop a theory of Sundanese moods, based on the pélog and sorog scales - more on metallophones than on the kacapi - fifth intervals together with Erich von Hornbostel (in the 1940s Years refuted) bubble quint theory .

Style of play

The musically leading kacapi indung generally sets the tempo with sparing chord progressions, it opens and connects the sung sequences ( kacapi indung solo audio sample ? / I ), the kacapi rincik enriches the tonal framework with intermediate tones ( kacapi indung and kacapi rincik audio sample ? / i ). Audio file / audio sample Audio file / audio sample

The various forms of kacapi used to be played almost exclusively by men. In many cases, making music in public appeared to be problematic, especially for married women. This was more likely to be accepted in a woman if her husband was also a musician. Nevertheless, some outstanding musicians are known who played kacapi or suling . Since the middle of the 20th century there have been efforts by the Indonesian government to promote women in music. This includes the establishment of the prestigious, courtly ensemble type gamelan degung , in which women also play a part. Women continue to perform predominantly as singers.

Tembang Sunda

The kacapi indung and the smaller kacapi rincik accompany a sung poem in the ensemble tembang Sunda with the bamboo flute suling and the two-stringed spiked violin rebab (name related to the oriental rabāb ). The word tembang in the lower Javanese language ( sekar in the Javanese standard language Kawi) denotes a purely vowel- recited Javanese form of verse; The tembang macapat verse form is particularly well known . The “Sundanese tembang” stands for a style of music based on the Javanese poem form pantun and for the ensemble belonging to it. Cianjuran is an older and less used name of the singing style, named after the western Javanese city of Cianjur. However, the tembang Sunda Cianjuran style is also cultivated in other regions of West Java. Tembang Sunda developed from the ancient art of reciting the epic tales carita pantun as a courtly art form, probably at the beginning of the 19th century. The oldest text genre in the tembang Sunda are the papantunan songs, so called because they formally correspond to the pantun narratives that are not metrically bound . It is said that the ruler of Cianjur, Dalem Pancaniti (r. 1834–1862) commissioned four of his court poets around 1840 to compose songs from individual episodes of well-known pantuns , which could be performed independently to accompany a kacapi , and thus had a decisive role in the Creation of a tembang Sunda repertoire contributed. Other very old tembang Sunda songs are called jejemplangan and rarancagan . They are played exclusively in pélog , the much later panambih songs ("added songs") are presented in a metric form, in all three moods and with an additional kacapi rincik . The older, free rhythmic mamaos style is distinguished from the modern, metric panambih style .

The verses of the tembang Sunda describe a nostalgic longing for the Hindu , west Javanese kingdom of Pajajaran, which existed from 1333 to 1579 and competed with the east Javanese kingdom of Majapahit . Its capital was Pakuan, which was near the present-day city of Bogor . Therefore, a performance of tembang Sunda begins with a short sentence or verse that recalls the golden age when the citizens lived in peace under a king who was an incarnation of the god Vishnu . A common, melancholy motif is a boat going out to sea. Opposite the dangerous sea are the mountains, which are considered places of spiritual power and which in the gunungan , the central figure of the shadow play wayang kulit, are symbolically connected to the gods. The stories are often about love, not about specific social problems. Although Javanese and Indonesian are more common in the region, the verses are only recited in the Sundanese language.

In panambih tembang sunda , the kacapi indung player plucks with the index finger and thumb of the right hand and with the middle finger and thumb of the left hand while using the left ring finger to mute the strings. The short strings played with the right hand do not need to be muted. The index finger of the right hand plays an interval of closely spaced notes and the right thumb adds a note between beats. The fingers of the left hand add syncopated patterns that correspond to the beats of the kendang barrel drum in gamelan degung , and end a musical phrase with a low note, which in gamelan degung is the task of the great gong goong aging . The strings are plucked with the tip of the thumb and with the nails of the fingers, often the index finger remains on the neighboring string after plucking a string with the tip. Because the lower strings of the kacapi sound relatively loud, they have to be muted at the same time as you pluck the next string. The non-metric mamaos style only plucks with both index fingers.

Since the 1950s, the smaller kacapi rincik has also been used in panambih tembang Sunda , which is played in the panambih style like the kacapi indung in the mamaos style, with the difference that with the kacapi indung the right index finger is plucked in the direction of the player and is plucked away from the smaller zither. A falling sequence of notes is easier to play. Strings are muted with the thumb of the right hand if necessary. The steady flow of certain tone sequences can occasionally be broken rhythmically by playing three notes instead of four. There are different ways of playing, with some playing two notes at the same time.

Pantun

A page from the Javanese manuscript Babad Pajajaran , a biography of the Sri Baduga Maharaja, known as Prabu Siliwangi ("King Siliwangi"). Copied in Sumedang in the 19th century. Javanese script ( aksara Jawa ).

In the pantun stories, the always male and often blind singer accompanies himself on a kacapi or, more rarely, a two-stringed box- necked lute tarawangsa , which is also a typical Sundanese instrument. The spoken chant, underlaid by a sequence of notes with little variation on the stringed instruments, sounds monotonous and is only occasionally interrupted by more melodic sequences. The palm leaf manuscript from 1518 proves the existence of pantun stories since the beginning of the 16th century, although it is not known whether they were always presented in the current way. The pantun story Lutung Kasarung ("The lost monkey", lutung is a small black monkey) contains many words that do not appear in modern Sundanese and instead few adoptions from Arabic or Dutch, which suggests that the folk tale, which was originally handed down orally, was very old closes. There is a Sundanese proverb: kawas pantun teu jeung kacapi , "like a pantun (-singer) without kacapi, " which refers to someone who gives advice to other people without following it himself. The saying shows the close connection between pantun and the kacapi , which has long been the standard accompaniment instrument of the long epic pantun verses.

Pantun stories are traditionally recited at Muslim prayers ( salat hajat ), family celebrations such as circumcision ceremonies and weddings, and at seasonal festivals (Thanksgiving). They also fulfill a function in magical incantations ( ngaruat , expulsion of malicious forces). In this case, a sacrifice is made in front of the singer and incense is lit, the performance lasts from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. The myths and legends of the Sundanese are passed on in the pantun stories. The Wawacan Sulanjana ("The Tale of Sulanjana") is one of the mythical stories . The main character named in the title is the son of the god Batara Guru . The work, passed down in several manuscripts, is about the Sundanese gods and in particular tells the myth of the origin of the rice plant. Another pantun , the Mundinglaya Dikusumah, tells of the initiation of the ancestors. It contains numerous episodes from the life of the great King Siliwangi (actually Sri Baduga Maharaja), who ruled from 1482 to 1521.

Kacapi suling

Concert of the group SambaSunda in May 2010 in Cologne with kacapi indah and kacapi rincik

Kacapi suling is an ensemble and the associated music style that corresponds to the panambih tembang Sunda without a singing voice. The style became popular in cities in the 20th century as an offshoot of the tembang Sunda and was particularly popular through music cassettes. Playing a flute and two or three zithers, with its evenly flowing character, is suitable as pleasantly inconspicuous background music, as a break filler in the radio or in the lobby of a hotel. Kacapi suling is rarely performed on the concert stage . The suling player has some freedom to improvise. If a kacapi indung and two kacapi rincik are involved, the second kacapi rincik follows the main melody octave apart with a fast offbeat rhythm.

One of the attempts at modernization in the 1980s was the replacement of one of the three zithers with a piano. Musically, there was no change in the recordings at that time, because the pianist took over the part of the kacapi rincik quite faithfully . Much more experimental is the popular group SambaSunda , which has been combining kacapi, suling and a female singing voice with various gamelan gongs and metallophones ( saron, bonang ) angklung and the drums kendang and djembé since the mid-1990s .

Kacapian

Kacapian , also kecapian , denotes different singing styles, which are accompanied by the flat kacapi siter and a number of other instruments such as biola ( violin ), gitar ( guitar ), tarawangsa (box string lute) and kendang (barrel drum) to the percussion instruments of a gamelan . In contrast to the courtly tembang sunda , kacapian is the style of simple people, which is played in house music and often by male street musicians. A kacapian ensemble also accompanies the kawih singing style, which is considered easy and entertaining . The kacapi is used melodically very virtuosic. The singing style kacapi kawih uses complex rhythmic patterns and represents a starting point for modern Sundanese pop music. The best-known representative of kacapian was Koko Koswara (also Mang Koko, 1915–1985), to whom the virtuoso playing style of the kacapi with fast tone sequences goes back. Only since the popularization of the kacapian did it seem appropriate for male singers to take on the vocal part that was previously reserved for women. Kacapian songs are usually performed in a sléndro mood, they are part of the village songs and accompany the joking performances of jenaka sunda ( jenaka , "humor"). The kacapi siter , who always retains the leading role in the ensemble, can also be played by women without restriction.

The rhymes of the kawih verses are complex, they have the form of rhyming pairs of lines ( sisindiran ) in which an allusion ( sindir ) to what is meant is given by similar-sounding words. This is done in the form of a single two-line line ( wawangsalan ) or in several pairs ( paparikan ). The first line of verse, which contains a description of nature, is followed by the second line on a specific topic.

Tarawangsa

The two-stringed box-necked lute bowed lost its function in the Javanese gamelan at the beginning of the 19th century to the stringed lute rebab , but it has an essential function in ritual music in West Java. In a Sundanese manuscript, believed to be from the 15th century, it is mentioned that the tarawangsa are played in a place where the gods live ( kahyangan ). In ceremonial music, the tarawangsa is rhythmically accompanied by a kacapi with a few chords. The traditional ceremonies ( upacara adat ) include pieces of music and songs with kacapi , performances with gamelan degung , specially choreographed dance forms and processions.

In the ormatan tarawangsa ceremony , respect is paid to the ancestors, the rice goddess Dewi Sri (Nyi Pohaci Sanghyang Asri) and Allah , asked for their blessings and thanked for the rice harvest. The accompanying zither is a seven-string kacapi tarawangsa with a narrow, flat body, which is rounded at the ends like a boat. All elements of the ritual have a symbolic meaning, which also includes the musical instruments. The two strings of the tarawangsa stand for the universal dualism, the seven strings of the kacapi symbolize the seven days of the week and the strings of both instruments together refer to the nine holy wali , walisongo , missionaries venerated in Indonesian Islam especially to Java. At the same time, the number nine stands for the nine months of pregnancy and for the 99 names of Allah . The ritual lasts all night.

In the Sumedang area (northeast of Bandung), the thanksgiving ceremony jentréng tarawangsa includes women's dances and sacrifices to the goddess Nyi Pohaci. The zither played to accompany the tarawangsa (or ngék-ngék ) is the kacapi jentréng . Both instruments have a body carved from a block of wood.

Gamelan setting

In the 1970s and 1980s there were changes in the cast of the large court ensemble gamelan degung . In the classical ensemble ( degung klasik ) two saron (high-pitched metallophone with 14 bronze sound plates ), bonang (humpback gongs in two rows), jengglong (six small, hanging humpback gongs), a goong (large hanging humpback gong), a suling (flute) and kendang (double-skinned barrel drum). This previously all-male ensemble, which used the classical repertoire, took on female singers and musicians and began to play easier entertainment songs. The new ensemble is called degung kawih , after the popular, light singing style kawih . The kacapi was added as a new instrument . Rhythmic innovations originate from the pop music style dangdut and from the West Javanese dance music jaipongan .

Baduy music

The Baduy are an ethnic group of a few thousand who live in a remote region in the south of the province of Banten and are considered the descendants of the oldest Sundanese population. For the Baduy, who cultivate a popular belief consisting of animism and Hinduism, the preservation of their own culture from external influences is a central requirement. The group is divided into “inner Baduy” who reject practically all modern achievements (such as means of transport, money, hardly any contact with strangers), and “outer Baduy” who live on the outer borders of the area. Her musical instruments include a small variant of the kacapi , the string lute tarawangsa (here rendo ), several sizes of bamboo flutes ( suling lamus, suling kumbang, élèt and tarawélét ) and a form of the bamboo vessel rattle angklung . All of the instruments appear in other Sundanese music as well.

The first recordings of Baduy music were probably made in 1956 in a broadcast studio in Jakarta . In the 1980s, Wim van Zanten conducted music ethnological field research with the Baduy. Many musical instruments have a white cross painted on them (sign of sacrifice, tumbal ), which means that they are used to communicate with gods and ancestors. With the exception of jew's harp karinding , only men are allowed to play musical instruments. The Baduy know the epic song carita pantun , in which the singer accompanies himself on a kacapi . Pantun chants are performed at the beginning of the rice planting, at harvest festivals, weddings, when moving into a new house and during cleaning rituals. The entire village community comes together on such occasions. The four named bamboo flutes are played solo, only the 62 centimeter long suling lamus with six finger holes can also be played with the kacapi , optionally with the participation of the strings.

It is said that the rice goddess Déwi Asri can be addressed with the kepaci . The angklung also serves this purpose . Rice pounding ( gendék ), in which a rhythm is created with pounders and wooden bowls without content , also has a ceremonial meaning . Kacapi , flutes, jew's harp and rhythmic rice pounding also occur with the inner Baduy.

Cultural meaning

Kacapi indung and kacapi rincik , covered

Male musicians who practice the tembang Sunda style consider the instrument to be their wife, which is why individual components are named after female body parts. The sound hole at the bottom, aweuhan , is understood as the vagina ( heunceut ). As with gamelan instruments , the kacapi standing on the floor may not be stepped on, this is considered pamali (Indonesian “ taboo ”) and the musician should take off his shoes before starting the game. If the musician removes the white or red cloth with which the kacapi is protected from dust during storage, this represents an act of symbolic marriage ( kawin , "wedding", also meaning "sexual union") He brings the kacapi to life by generating the sound . Looking at the kacapi as a woman means first of all a fundamental appreciation that other objects that are intended to be feminine also enjoy. For example, the rice donated by the rice goddess Dewi Sri is stored in many households in a ritual place in the kitchen or in a neighboring room where sacrifices are made to the goddess. The special consideration given to female ancestral spirits results from the common matrilocal residence rule . This positive female attribution also applies to other musical instruments for the predominantly Muslim population in West Java. In contrast, Muslims in the oriental countries usually do not know any gender attribution for musical instruments, which - if at all - are rated negatively.

On a mythical level, the kacapi is related to female deities and spirits. The instrument of a significant personality is given an honorary title, the title of the kacapi owned by Dalem Pancaniti (r. 1834–1863 over Cianjur) contained the honorary name of the rice goddess, Nyi Pohaci (roughly “outstanding”, “beautiful”). Pohaci are female deities associated with agriculture and housewife activities. When, according to a myth, the rice goddess died, rice, other plants and trees sprout from her dead body. Correspondingly, the kacapi can also be understood as a dead woman, from whose body sounds continually emerge. This view contradicts statements from the beginning of the 20th century, according to which the kacapi embodies the female demon Kunti ( kuntianak, pontianak ), which occurs in the Malaysian-Indonesian mythology. Kunti appears as a beautiful pale woman from the front, but has an ugly hole in the back and emerged from the spirit of a woman who died in childbed. How the negative association arose about which Jaap Kunst (1927) reports is unclear. Wim van Zanten (2008) suspects either that conservative Islamic circles wanted to express their aversion to music or that there is a double- faced conception of the otherworldly female powers, because pohaci can look ugly on some occasions. Accordingly, the kacapi can sometimes appear ugly and the musician then puts the instrument in the right relation to himself at the beginning of the game, so that tones emerge that ensure harmony, euphony and a certain drowsiness.

Tangkuban Perahu , an upside down boat

A particularly significant, mythical relationship arises from the boat shape of the kacapi , which led to the name kacapi parahu . In the Javanese myth, the boat appears as a soul ship with which the souls of the deceased travel to the afterlife. According to Sean William (2001, p. 4), whose study of Sundanese music refers to the kacapi in the title The Sound of the Ancestral Ship , the boat shape of the kacapi is a cultural symbol that takes the listener to another place in another Time to be shifted. The kacapi acts like a ship of the soul and transports the audience back to the paradise-like kingdom of Pajajaran.

The legend of Sangkuriang tells the formation of the volcanic mountain Tangkuban Perahu about 20 kilometers north of Bandung and the over 700 meters high basin, in the middle of which lies Bandung and which emerged from a volcanic lake that dried up around 20,000 years ago. Sangkuriang is a variant of the incest motif of the Oedipus story, in which the hero Sang Kuriang unintentionally kills his father and, after a long stray, meets his mother Dayang Sumbi again. She recognizes her son, but he does not believe that she is his mother and demands to marry her. The mother gives her son a seemingly impossible task to avert the wedding. May he build a large dam for a lake and a ship that floats on the lake in one night. When Sang Kuriang, who is endowed with magical powers, is about to complete his work, Dayang Sumbi uses a trick to simulate the approaching dawn: She stretches a white cloth in the east and makes a rooster crow. Having lost the wages of his work, the hero reacts angrily, destroys the dam and overturns the boat, which has since formed the broad ridge. In the story, the desire for incest turned the order of the world upside down and the correct cosmogonic order was reintroduced through the play of the kacapi associated with the mythical boat . The well-known legend was set to music in several Tembang Sunda songs. Music symbolizes social order, incest, on the other hand, is a symbol for the world that has fallen apart. The Sundanese word for incest, sumbang , can also mean “singing / making music incorrectly”.

Discography

  • Java - Tembang Sunda . Ensemble Kinkungan Seni Malati Ida from Bandung. Singing and conducting: Ida Widawati. Inedit, Maison des Cultures du Monde, Paris 1994
  • Indonesia - Java (Sunda). Ormatan Tarawangsa. Ritual music . Pupung Supena ( tarawangsa ), Tahya ( kacapi ). Ocora, Radio France, 2011

literature

  • Kachapi . In: Anthony Baines: Lexicon of Musical Instruments . JB Metzler, Stuttgart 2005, p. 142
  • Simon Cook: Guide to Sundanese Music. A Practical Introduction to Gamelan Saléndro / Pélog, Gamelan Dichtung, Panambih Tembang Sunda. (PDF) Bandung, July 1992
  • Margaret J. Kartomi: Kacapi (i) . In: Laurence Libin (Ed.): The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments . Volume 3, Oxford University Press, Oxford / New York 2014, pp. 94f
  • R. Anderson Sutton, Endo Suanda, Sean Williams: Java . In: Terry E. Miller, Sean Williams (Eds.): The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music . Volume 4. Southeast Asia . Garland, New York / London 1998, pp. 630-728
  • Sean William: The Sound of the Ancestral Ship: Highland Music of West Java . Oxford University Press, New York 2001
  • Wim van Zanten: The Poetry of Tembang Sunda . In: Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde , Volume 140, 1984, pp. 289-316
  • Wim van Zanten: The Tone Material of the Kacapi in Tembang Sunda in West Java . In: Ethnomusicology , Vol. 30, No. 1, Winter 1986, pp. 84-112
  • Wim van Zanten: The Marriage Relationship between Player and Kacapi Zither in West Java . In: Ethnomusicology Forum , Volume 17, No. 1 ( Sounds of Power : Musical Instruments and Gender) June 2008, pp. 41-65

Web links

Commons : Kacapi  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Fiorella Rispoli: To the West and India . In: East and West , Volume 55, No. 1/4, December 2005, pp. 243–264, here p. 258
  2. ↑ Walter Kaufmann : Old India. Music history in pictures . Volume II. Ancient Music. Delivery 8. Ed. Werner Bachmann. VEB Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1981, p. 35
  3. ^ Curt Sachs : The musical instruments of India and Indonesia . Association of Science Verlag de Gruyter, Berlin and Leipzig 1915, p. 123 f.
  4. ↑ Emmie te Nijenhuis: Dattilam. A Compendium of Ancient Indian Music. Ed .: K. Sambasiva Sastri, Trivandrum Sanskrit Series no.102. Trivandrum 1930, p. 83
  5. ↑ Gabriela Szabová: Musical Instruments and genres among the Minangkabau, West Sumatra. (PDF) Bachelor thesis. Palacký University , Olomouc 2008, pp. 43, 62
  6. ^ Artur Simon : The Terminology of Batak Instrumental Music in Northern Sumatra . (PDF) In: Yearbook for Traditional Music , Vol. 17, 1985, pp. 113–145, here pp. 114 f.
  7. ^ Artur Simon : Southeast Asia: Musical Syncretism and Cultural Identity . In: Fontes Artis Musicae , Volume 57, No. 1, January – March 2010, pp. 23–34, here p. 25
  8. ^ Alan R. Trasher: Zither, § 4: East and Southeast Asia . In: Laurence Libin (Ed.): The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments . Volume 5. Oxford University Press, Oxford / New York 2014, p. 385
  9. ↑ R. Anderson Sutton, Endo Suanda, Sean Williams: Java . In: Terry E. Miller, Sean Williams (Eds.): The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music . 1998, p. 632
  10. ^ Thomas Stamford Raffles : The History of Java . Volume 1, John Murray, London 1817 ( Internet Archive 1830 edition )
  11. ^ Jaap art , R. Goris: Hindoe-Javaansche muziekinstrumenten . Batavia, 1927; 2nd revised, English edition: Hindu-Javanese Musical Instruments. Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague 1968, p. 21 f.
  12. ↑ Wim van Zanten, 2008, p. 45f and fn. 4 on p. 61
  13. ↑ Wim van Zanten, 2008, p. 44
  14. ↑ Wim van Zanten, 1986, pp. 85-89
  15. ^ Wim van Zanten, 1986, p. 92
  16. ↑ Wim van Zanten, 1986, p. 100f
  17. ↑ Wim van Zanten, 2008, p. 46
  18. ↑ Wim van Zanten, 1984, pp. 290f, 298-302
  19. ↑ Simon Cook, 1992, pp. 88f
  20. ↑ Simon Cook, 1992, p. 95
  21. ↑ Simon Cook: Indonesia, § V, 1 (ii): The Sunda of West Java: Village music . In: Stanley Sadie (Ed.): The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Volume 12. Macmillan Publishers, London 2001, p. 336
  22. ↑ Indah Setiawati: Sundanese tale of divine ape hits theater . The Jakarta Post, May 20, 2012
  23. ↑ Wim van Zanten, 1984, p. 290
  24. ↑ Simon Cook, 1992, pp. 13, 97
  25. ↑ Bandung & Priangan Baheula - Instrumental Piano Kecapi Suling (Akoer Lah) .flv. YouTube video ( suling , two kacapi and piano)
  26. ^ Wim van Zanten: Musical Aspects of Popular Music and Pop Sunda in West Java . (PDF) In: Bart Barendregt (Ed.): Sonic Modernities in the Malay World. A History of Popular Music, Social Distinction and Novel Lifestyles (1930s – 2000s). Brill, Leiden / Boston 2014, pp. 323–352, here p. 333
  27. ↑ Kacapi Kawih - Isola 380 @ 35Kbps . Youtube video
  28. ↑ R. Anderson Sutton, Endo Suanda, Sean Williams: Java . In: Terry E. Miller, Sean Williams (Eds.): The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music , 1998, pp. 716f
  29. ↑ Margaret J. Kartomi: Music in Nineteenth Century Java: A precursor to the Twentieth Century. In: Journal of Southeast Asian Studies , Volume 21, No. 1, March 1990, pp. 1–34, here p. 13
  30. ↑ Tarawangsa Sunda . Youtube video (ritual music at a sacrificial ceremony)
  31. ^ Daniel Milán Cabrera: Booklet for the CD Indonesia - Java (Sunda) . Ormatan Tarawangsa, 2011
  32. ↑ Jentreng (Tarawangsa) Rancakalong, Sumedang. Youtube video
  33. ^ Sean Williams: Current Developments in Sundanese Popular Music. In: Asian Music , Volume 21, No. 1, Fall – Winter 1990, pp. 105–136, here p. 112
  34. ↑ R. Anderson Sutton, Endo Suanda, Sean Williams: Java. In: Terry E. Miller, Sean Williams (Eds.): The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, 1998 . P. 717
  35. ^ Wim van Zanten: Aspects of Baduy Music in its Sociocultural Context, with Special Reference to Singing and Angklung. In: Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde , Volume 151 (Performing Arts in Southeast Asia) 1995, pp. 516–544, here pp. 525, 529
  36. ^ Veronica Doubleday: The Frame Drum in the Middle East: Women, Musical Instruments and Power. In: Ethnomusicology , Volume 43, No. 1 Winter 1999, pp. 101-134, here p. 104
  37. ↑ Wim van Zanten, 2008, p. 51f
  38. ↑ Chris Ballard, Richard Bradley, Lise Nordenborg Myhre, Meredith Wilson: The Ship as Symbol in the Prehistory of Scandinavia and Southeast Asia. In: World Archeology , Volume 35, No. 3 ( Seascapes ) December 2003, pp. 385-403
  39. ↑ Wim van Zanten, pp. 56–58