Characteristics of Indonesian Folk Songs

There exists a wide variety of musical forms in Indonesia. In the long process of historical development, Indonesia and China, India, Arabia and other countries in the political and economic. Music and culture and many other aspects of a relatively close exchange. After becoming a Dutch colony, the Dutch music culture penetrated and melted into the Indonesian culture. In addition, Indonesia itself is a multi-ethnic, multi-island country, a variety of historical reasons and cultural backgrounds make the Indonesian music culture has evolved into today's diverse situation. Mention of Indonesian music, people will quickly think of (Solo River), "ouch, mom", "looking in the mirror", "stars Sol" and other tropical ethnic flavor, beautiful and beautiful songs.

There exists a variety of musical forms in Indonesia. In the long process of historical development, Indonesia and China, India, Arabia and other countries in the political and economic, music and culture, and many other aspects of a relatively close exchange. After becoming a Dutch colony, the Dutch music culture penetrated and was integrated into Indonesian culture. In addition, Indonesia itself is a multi-ethnic, multi-island country, a variety of historical reasons and cultural backgrounds make the Indonesian music culture has evolved into today's diverse situation.

When it comes to Indonesian music, people will quickly think of "Solo River", "Ouch, Mom", "Looking in the Mirror", "Star Sol" and other songs full of tropical ethnic flavor, beautiful and beautiful. However, this is only a part of Indonesian music, and the most representative, the most representative of Indonesian traditional music and cultural characteristics of the world's largest influence on the music category is the Gamelan music, which was developed by the Central Java and popular in all of Java and Bali, a kind of music.

Gamelan - the Javanese word for Gamelan - mainly refers to percussion-based ensemble music, but also refers to all ensemble music and the bands that play it. Gamelan has a long history, with some of the instruments used by Gamelan bands inscribed on the reliefs of Buddhist temples as early as the 8th century AD. By the end of the 13th century to the beginning of the 16th century, Indonesia's Matar Pasir dynasty, large-scale Gamelan band instruments have been basically ready, and is divided into indoor and outdoor instrument combination of two forms. By the time of the Mataram dynasty after the 16th century, the two were gradually unified to form a fairly large-scale Gamelan band, and its music was used for the accompaniment of drama, dance, and shadow puppetry, as well as for various religious ceremonies. There are many Gamelan bands in Java and Bali, especially the spontaneous Gamelan bands of the folk people can be seen everywhere, and now it has not only become a symbol of Indonesian traditional music and culture, but also a window for the world to understand Indonesian music.

The earliest musical instrument in the Gamelan Band is the gong, the number of which has gradually developed from a single to several, and now the band has the following four categories of musical instruments, the first category: gongs, including the large gong, medium gong, small gong, kettle gongs, and the row of gongs. The second category: xylophone musical instruments, including xylophone, *** sound tube, metal xylophone. Category III:Orchestral instruments, including the lebab (the only bowed string instrument in the Gamelan band), the cherenpun (plucked string instrument), and the harp (wind instrument). The fourth category:Drum instruments, Gamelan bands use double-sided long drums, and in big bands usually two drums, small and large, the sound of the snare drum is heavier than the large drum, while the large drum is male and plays the lead role, and the snare drum is female and plays the supporting role.

Of the 13 instruments mentioned above, the first five in the first category are rhythmic instruments, which are used to divide the phrase commas in the ensemble, and the sixth instrument in the first category and all the instruments in the second and third categories are melodic instruments. The above instruments are necessary for large-scale Gamelan bands, in addition, there are some big bands and folk bands that occasionally add some auxiliary instruments, such as various kinds of clanging bells, cymbals, bamboo, wood or metal clapper boards, etc., however, the presence or absence of these auxiliary instruments does not have a great impact on the composition of the ensemble. In some countryside small bands, the preparation is more casual, but the gong and the metal lute are indispensable.

In the music played by the Gamelan band, there is a female or male vocal section, whose singing is soft and light, and which blends naturally with the sounds of the various instruments in a mesmerizing way.

Gamelan music is a kind of polyphonic music with branched voices. Anyone who has listened to Gamelan music will have such a feeling: Gamelan music is both complex and simple. Complex because it has multiple layers of sound, multiple independent melodic lines and a variety of interlocking rhythms, which is different from the Western music in the main harmony and polyphonic music, but also different from the Oriental countries of singing and playing in unison derived from the branched voice music. It is simple because the core melody of a grown-up piece of music seems to be fixed and unchanging, constantly cycling back and forth as if it had a beginning and no end.

Gamelan music uses two different scales, each of which has three types of "padet" (padet contains a variety of meanings such as tonality, range, melodic pattern, etc.), as shown in the table below:

Different padet expresses different specific contents, and is related to the time of day (i.e., the time of the playing time is constrained). For example, the music of the Padait "Nem" expresses happy feelings and is played from 9 to 12 in the evening. In this respect it is similar to the time theory of Indian "raga". Many Western scholars have studied these two scales in Gamelan music over the past hundred years, but the results are not consistent.

The structure of Gamelan music is cyclical in nature, with each musical passage repeated over and over again, and the sound of a large gong marking the end of the previous cyclical passage and the beginning of the next one, and the drummer of the orchestra seeming to have a commanding role, and without his hints to change the passage, it would go on and on indefinitely, which is related to the concept of reincarnation of Indonesian religion. This feature is related to the concept of "reincarnation" in Indonesian religion.

In addition, Gamelan music adopts a multiple-of-two meter, and every Gamelan piece has a prelude, which reveals the center of the piece with a certain degree of improvisation, and the length of the prelude is not regulated, and can be as long or as short as you want it to be. Usually, the prelude of Java's Gamelan is short, while Bali's Gamelan is longer.

Gamelan music in Indonesia by people from all walks of life, is the court aristocracy and folk people generally accepted a kind of music, especially in the folk, is an indispensable part of the daily life of the village residents, its emergence, development, and social life closely linked to the development of a hybrid with the theater, dance, a kind of art, suitable for all kinds of ceremonies, rituals, in order to demonstrate its majesty and power, and has a profound influence on religion. and has a profound influence on religion.

Gamelan music is popular throughout the island of Indonesia, because Gamelan music originated in Central Java, so what we have told is mainly Gamelan music in Central Java, other areas of Gamelan music in the structure, scale and other aspects of the Gamelan and Central Java Gamelan is largely the same, but in the band, playing style and playing skills of the band all over the world have their own unique color. Among the Gamelan music, the most representative are Java and Bali. However, there are also differences in the Gamelan music of the two islands.

The music of Bali is spirited, passionate, and at times almost boorish. Its Gamelan band plays at a very strong contrast of speed and intensity, and the music is very dramatic with sudden changes of speed, slowness, strength and weakness, sometimes like a rapid storm, and sometimes when the rain clears. Its Gamelan orchestra is dominated by metal or bamboo percussion instruments, and some bands don't even have orchestral instruments, and if they do, their sound is very unremarkable in the ensemble. Many of the instruments in the band are used in pairs, and the same two instruments have slight differences in their timbre, so that when the ensemble plays, the sound trembles and fluctuates, and the timbre is more varied. The music played by this kind of band is very loud and sounds quite gorgeous and brilliant. Its Gamelan music in the composition of more vocal inlay overlap to form the melody, mostly with the Peirog scale. Usually fast-paced, rough and lively style, its theater themes are mostly from folk tales, its music, rooted in the people's lives. The music of Java, on the other hand, is shown to be svelte and elegant, bordering on monotonous and bland. Java's Gamelan orchestra is also mainly percussion, but the role of orchestral instruments than the role of Bali's larger than the orchestral performance of the counterpoint layer in the ensemble layer is extremely prominent, some of the music is also a solo orchestral instrument for the introduction, therefore, the whole music sounds soft and delicate feeling. Because it originated from the court, the religious color is thicker, therefore, its composition style is elegant, slender, the scale is mostly used Slienro scale, the rhythm is also relatively slow, its drama is mostly based on the Indian epic "Mahabharata" and "Ramayana" story as the theme, loved by the people.

The reasons for the differences in music between Java and Bali are related to many factors such as its society, economy, culture and religion. Javanese society has gone through a long feudal system, in which the Gamelan band in Central Java was cultivated in the court of the Sultan, although it has been passed down to the folk for hundreds of years, but its nature is still characterized by court music, its form is also relatively complete and standardized. In Bali, when Indonesia became independent, it was still a collectively owned village society, and the residents of the village community invariably participated in all kinds of folk festivals and religious activities, so the performance of the Gamelan music inevitably took on the characteristics of the culture of the village community, with the spirit of collectivism and folk art style. The Javanese people believe in Islam, and although the religious rules have not prevented the development of their art, they have affected it to a certain extent. But to some extent, it has affected its style. The Balinese, on the other hand, practiced Hinduism and revered the arts, which may have contributed to the free development of its spirited and lively style.

The Gamelan music of Java and Bali is not only loved by the Indonesian people, but, at the same time, is gradually being recognized by the people of the world. Since the beginning of the 19th century, some western music scholars have been studying Gamelan music, which has become one of the most important fields of study in ethnomusicology in Europe and Japan. Some Indonesian art groups have also gone abroad to participate in the "Oriental Art Festival" organized by various countries, performing Gamelan music and showing its wonderful sound and unique musical instruments to the people of the world. Gamelan music, a unique Indonesian music, has not only made a great contribution to the development of Indonesian folk music and art, but also opened a transparent window for the world to understand Indonesia's traditional music and culture.