Ogung

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Ogung doal , "little gong" of the Toba Batak. Tropical Museum , Amsterdam, before 1921.

Ogung ( Batak languages , "Gong") is a single humpback gong or a set of differently sized humpback gongs hanging vertically on a frame among the Batak in the north of the Indonesian island of Sumatra , especially among the Batak subgroups Toba, Pakpak and Mandailing. With the Toba, five musicians with four gongs and a serve idiophon ( hesek-hesek ) create an ostinate rhythm structure to accompany the drums used as melody instruments and the double reed instrument sarune . In the past, the ogung were used exclusively as sacred musical instruments that were played in rituals of the old Indonesian Batak religion and according to the traditional rules of society, since the middle of the 20th century ogung have also been used to accompany Christian songs in church services and in pop music.

Origin and Distribution

Ogung oloan , "large gong" of the Toba Batak, with handle. Tropical Museum, Amsterdam, before 1921

According to an 8th century Chinese source, gongs had been in use in China since the early 6th century ; an older archaeological find of a gong is dated to the Han period (206 BC - 220 AD). Gongs made their way to Southeast Asia from China. The type of humpback gongs that is exclusively suitable for use as a melody instrument has probably been around since the 9th / 10th. It spread from Myanmar to Thailand to the Malay Islands in the 19th century . The best known is the use of humpback gongs in the various ensembles known as gamelan in Indonesia, in which individual gongs, gong circles, metallophones , drums ( kendang ), flutes ( suling ), string instruments ( rebab ) and voices take part. Early forms of most Javanese and Balinese gamelan instruments were - according to archaeological, iconographic and literary sources - already in existence towards the end of the 1st millennium or the beginning of the 2nd millennium. In the old Javanese version of the Indian epic Ramayana , which was transferred from Sanskrit at this time , the word gong occurs together with other terms from the field of music.

The name ogung in the Batak languages ​​is derived from the Javanese and Indonesian word gong . Gong is the common name for a bronze surcharge idiophone throughout Sumatra , the pronunciation is only changed in some regions: with the Batak to ogung, gung or aguan , with the Minangkabau to agung, aguang or agong and in Aceh at the northern tip to gung . Similarly , the humpback gong bandai played in the Malaysian part of the island of Borneo goes back to the old Javanese word bendé . The overarching musical term, which is gondang with the Toba-Batak and gendang with the Karo-Batak , means "drum" (as in Indonesian kendang ), the ensemble with drums and gongs as well as the compositions played by this ensemble. Gondang or gendang , as a generic name for an instrumental ensemble, corresponds to the Javanese gamelan , a court ensemble type that is widespread in different line-ups.

Centuries ago, Brunei had become the most important production center for gongs in the Malay Archipelago before central Java established itself as the center of industrial gong production. From there, humpback gongs are delivered to the other islands, where, in addition to their musical use in traditional societies, they often also serve as revered ritual objects ( pusaka ) handed down from the ancestors and as ceremonial objects of exchange. No gongs were or are made in the Batak area. According to their owners, the existing gongs have been in the family for a long time. A Batak proverb confirms that the gongs have to come from far away: dao sitompa ogung, daoan ma ho, literally: “Far is the creator of the ogung , far you are”, meaning: “... so far you are from us. "In German one says accordingly:" Go where the pepper grows. "

Design and style of play

Probably before the Christian era in their settlement area around the Lake Toba immigrant in North Sumatra Batak are divided into six groups Toba, Karo, Simalungun, Pakpak, Angkola and Mandailing who developed a their own traditional music in addition to basic cultural similarities. The large, outdoors played instrumental ensembles gondang with the Toba, gendang with the Karo, gonrang with the Simalungun, genderang or gendang with the Pakpak and gordang or gondang boru with the Angkola and Mandailing differ according to the number, shape and size of the drums, Gongs and the double reed instrument producing a melody line serune (with the Toba) or sarunai (with the Karo, a cone oboe with a related name to the Arabic / Persian surnai ). According to their function and their instruments, these ensembles are distinguished by an addition to their name.

Toba

One of the five single-headed tubular drums taganing in the ensemble gondang sabangunan . Tropical Museum, Amsterdam, before 1921.
Double reed instrument sarune of the Toba Batak. Tropical Museum, Amsterdam, before 1936.

The traditional ceremonies of the Christianized Toba-Batak are based on old Indonesian beliefs and follow the rules of the adat (moral laws that are traced back to divine order and shape the entire society and culture). The ceremonial ensembles are called gondang sabangunan (“complete gondang set ”), gondang bolon (“large gondang ”) or, according to the melody-leading bowling oboe, gondan serune . They are indispensable for the official festivals and their music is considered incomplete according to the rules of the adat if the corresponding ceremonial dances ( tortor ) are not performed. The traditional performances of ceremonial music follow the adat ni gondang , i.e. the socio-cultural rules for performing gondang sabangunan and tortor . The interaction of musicians ( pargonsi ), ceremonial dancers ( panortor ) and hosts / organizers ( hasuhuton, suhut ) was for centuries determined solely by the rules of the adat .

The gondang sabangunan consists of a set of five differently tuned, single-headed tubular drums taganing (also tataganing ), which are hung almost vertically (slightly inclined towards the musician) in a row on a frame and beaten with sticks. The taganing player is the leader of the ensemble. Another drum is the large gordang bass drum , which hangs on the right-hand side on the same stand and is played by another musician. There are also one or two cone oboes sarune (also sarune bolon , "large sarune "), four ogung and, in special ensembles, a small double-headed barrel drum odap , which is used instead of a taganing when it comes to the worship of ancient Indonesian gods. A comparable cast can be found in Burmese hsaing waing . In addition to the ceremonial gondang music for outdoor performances, there is the secular ensemble gondang hasapi for the quieter music in closed rooms, which consists of a "small" sarune (also sarune etek ), two boat-shaped lutes hasapi , a xylophone guarantee , a serve idionphone ( Iron plate or beer bottle struck with a nail hesek-hesek ) and a flute sulim , i.e. made of less loud-sounding instruments.

The ogung group consists of four differently sized humpback gongs that have clearly distinguishable pitches, but are not exactly in tune. According to the ascending pitch, the gongs are called ogung oloan (“someone you have to obey”, from olo , “obey”, diameter 41 centimeters), ogung doal (also doal na godang , “parent doal ”, diameter 36 centimeters), ogung ihutan (from ihut , “to follow”, “to follow something”, diameter 38 centimeters) or pangalusi (“ answerer ”) and ogung panggora (“the caller”, from manggora , “to call”, diameter 35 centimeters), where the diameter the gongs are not clearly correlated with a pitch. The diameter of the lowest-sounding ogung oloan can be smaller than that of the higher ogung ihutan . For fine tuning, a black, resin-like mass ( puli ), which occurs in certain bird nests, is smeared into the central bulge. Oloan and ihutan hang vertically on their own frame and are struck open (with a long aftertaste), doal and panggora are steamed after being struck . The doal either hangs on a frame or vertically on the musician's knee. The panggora lies horizontally on the musician's thighs or hangs on a frame. In the latter case, the musician pulls him towards him in a horizontal position while playing. To steam, he presses the hanging doal against his chest while he grips the panggora with his free hand on the edge. The four ogung are usually played by three male musicians, more rarely by two or four. Mallets with a soft rubber head are used for all gongs.

In harmony, the gongs produce an interlocking rhythmic pattern that is repeated throughout the piece , with which the melody instruments sarune and taganing are supported in the background. This gong accompaniment is the same for all pieces and only differs in the tempos. The oluan produces a deep basic beat , which the ihutan doubles with two long-sounding beats. The two short beats of the panggora coincide with those of the ihutan , while the twice as fast beats of the doal lie hesek-hesek on the pauses in between and between the beats of the serving plate (or beer bottle) .

With almost every piece, the taganing player begins a rhythmic-melodic pattern and then changes to a regular beat sequence. The first beat he hits the "snare" drum anak ni taganing at the left end. The ogung group that now begins follows the pace set in this way . Once the introduction has been completed, the specific piece follows, in which either a continuous melody sequence consists of a series of symmetrical sub-units or, depending on the situation, narrow pitch intervals that change in length follow one another. The pitches of the gongs and drums are in a deliberate relationship to one another, but together they only produce an approximate tuning, because the drums cannot be exactly tuned either and their membrane tension changes while playing. The interval between the openly struck oloan and ihutan gongs is usually a minor or major third , and occasionally a second . During a recording in the late 1970s, gongs with the following pitches were used: oloan d, ihutan fis - , doal fis - and panggora gis. In other recordings the gongs were tuned slightly differently.

The drums have a melodic but not a rhythmic function. For the ceremonial dances , the rhythmic pattern produced by the two muted gongs doal and panggora is of particular emotional importance. The word manggora (“to call”) contains the context “to call people or ancestral spirits to the festival or to call back the tondi ('life soul ', 'invigorating power of an individual') to the sick”. This magic of music is expressed in the explanation of the name panggora : “the one who shouts or the one who scares people.” This implies the idea that the music helps to put someone into a trance or a mind obsession.

A ceremonial piece of gondang music is gondang somba-somba , which accompanies a dance that is part of every major adat festival. Somba means "adoration", "reverence". The veneration gesture can be directed to a god ( gondang somba-somba tu Amanta Debata, " gondang for the worship of the divine", formerly the ancient Indonesian supreme god of the Batak, Mula Jadi Na Bolon), to the leader ( Raja ) of the community or to the present guests. The dancing women and men stand in a fixed order in a circle and slowly move their arms and hands without changing their position. The successive phrases of the piece are based on the principle of musical heightening and strive for an emotional effect, which is why Artur Simon suspects that gondang somba-somba was supposed to put the dancers into a trance state earlier.

A gondang sabangunan is almost always played outdoors. One of the few occasions when the ceremonial gondang is allowed to occur in a house is at one of the ceremonies of a feast of the dead. When a man or woman of the Batak dies at an old age and leaves behind many offspring, the largest possible feast for the dead and later a reburial feast is held. The so honored deceased is laid out in a coffin carved from a tree trunk (a jackfruit tree ) in his house for seven days . Before the coffin is carried out of the house on the last day, the coffin-closing ceremony takes place, during which a gondang is played. Then the coffin is placed on a platform in front of the house, the grandchildren dance around the coffin and the ensemble plays from the gallery ( bonggar-bonggar ) of the house. After the sad pieces ( gondang ondas ) that have been played up to that point, there follows a piece of gondang saur matua , which is perceived as happy . The deceased is saur matua (" grow old") when all of his children are already married. He is honored with the piece, which is supposed to suppress the mourning shown so far, because of his many offspring. The placement of the ensemble on the gallery above the guests encouraged speculation that the musicians are symbolically assigned to the world of the gods. In the Bataker's worldview, the stilt house is the microcosmic equivalent of the three-part cosmogonic order (world of gods, banua ginjang = roof area; human world, banua tonga = living space; underworld, banua toru = space between the posts used as a cattle shed). However, the ensemble does not play from the gallery everywhere during this phase of the ceremony. Before the middle of the 20th century, gondang music could apparently also be performed for a deceased who was married but had no grandchildren. In this case, the musical performance was called gondang ni na punu (ceremony for the childless).

The gondang sabangunan served as the official ensemble in carrying out the ceremonies according to the adat in pre-Christian times for communication with the spirits and ancestors. An effect ( parsahataan ) was assigned to the game of the four ogung . Your music should ensure the fulfillment of an oracle or a successful sacrifice ceremony. During the Christianization of Toba in the second half of the 19th century, a gondang sabangunan used in this way was considered dangerous in the eyes of the missionaries, which is why the Protestant clergy, together with the Dutch colonial administration, enforced a complete ban on ancestor worship in 1897. In the 1920s this ban was relaxed and gondang performances were allowed to take place again on the condition that they no longer contained any elements of the old Indonesian beliefs, which from the Christian point of view are hasipelebeguan ("belief in spirits"). Gondang is now considered a part of traditional culture, but not of the ancient Batak religion, and is performed in connection with Christian festivals , in addition to ceremonies based on the adat . Gondang music may not appear in Protestant church services, but it may in the liturgy of the Catholic Church. The two Christian denominations differ considerably in their relationship to adat . New song compositions since the 1980s are based on gondang music and with the integration of gondang sabangunan into Catholic worship, old Indonesian rituals have been reinterpreted for the Christian faith. With the adoption of traditional cultural elements, the Batak follow a global trend of local Catholic communities after the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965). The four gongs were integrated into church music, although the imprecise pitches and rhythmic structures are not suitable for hymn-like singing. Today they function as a rhythmic background for Christian songs and also for pop music songs of the Toba-Batak.

Pakpak

The full ceremonial ensemble of Pakpak, constricting rank, consists of nine einfelligen cylinder drums, which are usually served by five players, and the ogung called set of four gongs pongpong, poi, takudep and panggora (also jurjur ). The nine different sized drums (of the siraja gemuruhguh ensemble) are called inangna, serbobna, tigana, menduai, menabil, menondati, tiltilana, onggil-onggil and menehtehi according to their function . A reduced set of five drums, genderang lima (also siraja kumarincing ), is played at funerals, weddings and other special occasions. Panggora and takudep are muted humpback gongs, poi is an open humpback gong and pongpong is an iron plate . If required, a gong game consisting of four to six flat gongs or metal plates struck against each other and a bowling oboe sarunei can be added. Gerantung is also the name of an ensemble with the flat gongs mentioned and with three ogung . The gerantung ensemble provides entertainment and dance accompaniment.

Traditional light music , which was played by individual amateurs to pass the time, for example with a small bamboo slit drum on the rice fields, the jew's harp genggong for young women or the xylophone kalondang with vertically suspended chimes , has now largely been replaced by ubiquitous, shallow pop music. In an ensemble with kalondang , a bowling oboe sarunei , the flat gongs gerantung , the ogung gong set and two small hand cymbals used to play. Such an ensemble accompanied the dances of unmarried young people at a pesta baik (“good festival”) and pesta muda-mudsi (“youth festival”). The musical tradition goes back to the cults of the old Indonesian Batak religion.

Mandailing

Bamboo tube zither ogung-ogung bulu of the Batak with four idiochord strings. Tropical Museum, Amsterdam, before 1936.

The gordang ensemble of the Muslim mandailing comes in three formations: as gordang sembilan with nine drums, as gordang lima with five drums and as gondang boru (“mother gondang ”) or gondang sidua-dua (also gondang dua ) for less important occasions a pair of small double-headed barrel drums. The ensemble with nine drums consists of two jangat (“cow skin”, largest drums), two kudong-kudong (“beginner”, beginning drum), two pandua-duai (also panulis, padua , “the second” that begins) , two patolu (also pangayak, "the third one" that begins or "the one that follows") and one enek-enek ("child", the smallest and last drum) together. In an ensemble with five drums, only one drum is used from each group. The ogung gong group belonging to this consists of two hanging hump gongs. The larger one is called ogung induk , also ogung dadaboru or ogung boru-boru and is considered the “female gong”. The slightly smaller humpback gong is the ogung jantan ("male gong") or ogung pangiring ("accompanying gong"). According to Muhammad Takari (2016), the pre-Islamic ceremonial ensemble with two drums consists of the drums gondang inang and gondang pangayakon, two ogung, a flute suling , a gong doal , a pair of cymbals tali sasayat and seven humpback gongs salempong .

The two gongs of the Mandailing, usually played in pairs, have a deeper rim than those of the Toba and Pakpak. They usually hang in a wooden frame or occasionally on the ceiling beam of a traditional stilt house and, as in the other ensembles, are played to the rhythmic accompaniment of the drums used as melodic instruments. Other melody instruments that produce a sustained tone are the cone oboe serunei , the single- reed instrument serunei ajang (also sahelot ) or the beaked flute singkadut .

Smaller ensembles perform with tubular bamboo zithers gondang buluh (“bamboo gondang ”). The gondang buluh has three (idiochorde) strings cut out of the top layer of the bamboo tube, which are lifted off by small wooden bridges placed underneath and struck with two sticks. The lowest string is called boru-boru ("female", "mother") and replaces the large gong ogung boru . The middle string mongmongan replaces a small gong of the same name. The string jantan ("male"), named after ogung jantan , sounds highest . The Toba have similar instruments called nengnong . The replacement of gongs by simple bamboo tubular zithers is reminiscent of the northern Philippines, where the music of the kolitong, played for private entertainment, is based on an ensemble with flat gongs gangsa, which is only used for ceremonial purposes .

Discography

  • Instrumental music of the Toba and Karo Batak. North Sumatra / Indonesia. Museum Collection Berlin 24/25. Double CD. National Museums in Berlin - Prussian Cultural Heritage, 1999. Artur Simon : Editor and text booklet
  • Music of Nias & North Sumatra. Hoho, Gendang Karo, Gondang Toba. ( Music of Indonesia, 4) Smithsonian / Folkways SF40420. 1992. Philip Yampolsky: Editor and text booklet

literature

  • Gini Gorlinski: Ogung . In: Laurence Libin (Ed.): The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments . Vol. 3, Oxford University Press, Oxford / New York 2014, p. 652
  • Mauly Purba: “Adat ni Gondang”: Rules and Structure of the “Gondang” Performance in Pre-Christian Toba Batak “Adat” Practice. In: Asian Music, Vol. 34, No. 1, Fall 2002 - Winter 2003, pp. 67-109
  • Henry Spiller: Focus: Gamelan Music of Indonesia. (= Focus on World Music Series ) Routledge, London 2008, pp. 16-21

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. a b Patricia Matusky: An Introduction to the Major Instruments and Forms of Traditional Malay Music. In: Asian Music , Vol. 16, No. 2, spring – summer 1985, pp. 121–182, here p. 126
  2. Margaret J. Kartomi, Maria Mendonça: Gamelan. I. South-east Asia. 1. History. In: Grove Music Online, 2001
  3. ^ Heinrich Simbriger : Gongs and gong games. International Archives for Ethnography, Volume 36. EJ Brill, Leiden 1939, p. 26
  4. ^ Charles Payson Gurley Scott: The Malayan Words in English . In: Journal of the American Oriental Society , Vol. 18, 1897, pp. 49-124, here p. 49
  5. Artur Simon: CD supplement, p. 13f
  6. ^ Artur Simon: Indonesia. IV Sumatra. 1. Batak. In: MGG Online , November 2016 ( Music in the past and present , subject part 4, 1996)
  7. Mauly Purba, 2003/2003, p. 70
  8. ^ Artur Simon: Indonesia. IV Sumatra. 1. Batak. a. Toba . In: MGG Online, November 2016
  9. Artur Simon: CD supplement, p. 14f
  10. Artur Simon: Supplement CD, p. 16
  11. Artur Simon: CD supplement, p. 29f
  12. Artur Simon: CD supplement, p. 24
  13. Artur Simon: Gondang, Gods and Ancestors. Religious Implications of Batak Ceremonial Music. In: Yearbook for Traditional Music, Vol. 25 ( Musical Processes in Asia and Oceania ) 1993, pp. 81-88, here p. 82
  14. Cf. Waldemar Stöhr: The old Indonesian religions. ( Handbook of Oriental Studies. Third section: Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. Second volume: Religions. Section 2) EJ Brill, Leiden / Cologne 1976, p. 76f
  15. Mauly Purba, 2002/2003, pp. 73f, 80
  16. Lothar Schreiner: Gondang music as a traditional figure of the old folk way of life. In: Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 126, No. 4, Leiden 1970, pp. 400–428, here p. 402
  17. Mauly Purba: Gondang Sabangunan among the Protestant Toba Batak People in the 1990s. In: Context: Journal of Music Research , Vol. 23, 2002, pp. 5–22, here p. 11f
  18. ^ Yoshiko Okazaki: Liturgical Music Among the Toba Batak People of North Sumatra: The Creation of a New Tradition. In: Crossroads: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Vol. 12, No. 2, 1998, pp. 55–74, here pp. 59f, 66
  19. Margaret J. Kartomi: Genderang . In: Grove Music Online , January 31, 2014
  20. Margaret J. Kartomi: Gerantung . In: Grove Music Online , January 31, 2014
  21. ^ Artur Simon: Indonesia. IV Sumatra. 1. Batak. d. Pakpak. In: MGG Online , November 2016
  22. ^ Artur Simon: The Terminology of Batak Instrumental Music in Northern Sumatra . In: Yearbook for Traditional Music, Vol. 17, 1985, pp. 113-145, here p. 134
  23. Muhammad Takari: Continuities and Changes North Sumatran Performing Arts. (Conference Paper) Universitas Sumatera Utara, Medan 2016, p. 3
  24. ^ Artur Simon: Indonesia. IV Sumatra. 1. Batak. e. Mandailing . In: MGG Online, November 2016
  25. Margaret J. Kartomi: Gondang Buluh . In: Grove Music Online , January 31, 2014