THE SCHOOL OF MUSIC MONASH UNIVERSITY AND THE
MUSEUM FOR INDONESIAN ARTS INC. presents
A SEMINAR ON THE ARTS OF
LAMPUNG
FO GUANG YUAN GALLERY, 141 Queen St, Melbourne
SATURDAY, 8th SEPTEMBER, 2012, 10-4pm
in conjunction with the Museum of Indonesian Arts’ Exhibition “Will You Dance at
my Wedding?” (5 September- 26 October)
Sigeh penguten dancers in Sukadana, eastern Lampung, April 2012. Photo credit: Karen
S.K. Thomas.
PROGRAM
WELCOME by Halina Nowicka of the Museum of Indonesian Arts and Margaret Kartomi of
the School of Music-Conservatorium, Monash University
10.15
Official Opening of the Seminar by the Indonesian Consul-General for
Victoria and Tasmania, Bp Irmawan Emir Wisnandar
PAPERS
Chair: Dr David Mitchell, Museum of Indonesian Arts
10.25
“The tapis textiles as status symbols at weddings in Lampung”
Ibu Irmawan Emir Wisnandar
10.40
“The Beauty and Meaning of the Palepai Ship-Cloths of Lampung”
Nani Hardjo Pollard
11.00
“The Sakura Masked Theatre in West Lampung”
Dr Karen Thomas
11.30
12.00
MORNING
TEA
“Improvisation and Vocal Style in a Performance of the Traditional
Lampung Welcome Song, ‘Pisa’an’”
Helen Catanchin
12.30
Performance of Sigeh Penguten, a traditional dance from eastern
Lampung, by Indija Mahjoeddin
1.00
LUNCH
Chair: Dr Joel Crotty, School of Music-Conservatorium, Monash University
2.00
“Lampung’s Official Traditional Popular Song Inangku Lampung”
Bronia Kornhauser
2.30
“Continuity and Aesthetic Developments in the Cetik Kipas Dance”
Indija Mahjoeddin
3.00
“Lampung’s Musical Symbol – the Gamolan in Historical and Social
Context”
Margaret Kartomi
3.30- 4.00
Discussion and video about Lampung arts
***
ABSTRACTS
1. Ibu Irmawan Emir Wisnandar , Indonesian Consulate-General for Victoria and
Tasmania
“The tapis textiles as status symbols at weddings in Lampung”
This talk about the designs and functions of Lampung’s tapis textiles is based on a display of
representative samples. Traditionally the tapis was a sacred status symbol worn only during
weddings and ceremonies to confer traditional titles of the highest class, such as family
members of the community elders and chiefs.
2. Nani Hardjo Pollard, The University of Melbourne
“The Beauty and Meaning of the Palepai Ship-Cloths of Lampung”
Based on a display of textiles, this paper discusses the history and functions of Lampung’s
ship-cloths (palepai), so-called because of their ship motives of ancient origins. As heirlooms
they are important ceremonial adjuncts in weddings and other traditional ceremonies. Up
until the 1920s, Lampung had a rich and varied weaving tradition using a supplementary
weft technique which enabled coloured silk or cotton threads to be superimposed on a
plainer cotton background. The most prominent was the palepai, ownership of which was
restricted to the Lampung aristocracy of the Kalianda Bay area. There were two types of
smaller cloths, known as tatibin and tampan, which could be owned and used by all levels of
Lampung society.
3. Karen Thomas, Independent Scholar, Melbourne
“The Sakura Masked Theatre in West Lampung”
The ancient masked theatre genre sakura of West Lampung and its related form tupping in
the south is normally performed by an all-male cast in ceremonial procession. The masks
with their intentionally deformed human and ogre-ish faces aim to hide the identity of the
actor in his efforts to repel threatening spirits from the community and to assist in the
cleansing of the village. At the same time, actors are charged with evoking benevolent
ancestral and nature spirits through noisy, amusing stunts to the accompaniment of rebana
rhythms and the music of the talo balak orchestra with the intention of protecting specific
individuals undergoing a transition of status, as in a wedding or other rites of passage.
4. Helen Catanchin, Monash University
“Improvisation and Vocal Style in a Performance of the traditional Lampung Welcome
Song, ‘Pisa’an’”
This paper discusses the improvisatory elements, vocal style, word-music relationships and
other stylistic aspects of a performance of the most popular song to welcome important
guests at domestic ceremonies in Lampung such as a tooth filings, circumcisions or
weddings, and formal government and commercial ceremonies.
5. Bronia Kornhauser, Monash University
“Lampung’s Official Traditional Popular Song Inangku Lampung”
The song “Inangku di Lampung” is a symbol of regional pride and as such enjoys enormous
popularity in Lampung, particularly in the coastal towns and villages of the province. The
cosmopolitan nature of the populations in those areas may be one of the reasons that the
majority of listeners readily embrace music from a variety of cultures, some songs even
becoming part of traditional repertoire. Advances in communications technology have also
been responsible for the infiltration of ostensibly foreign music styles and ideas into local
practice. However, at the point of reception of any so-called foreign music, listeners may
also need a familiar perspective from which to interpret and understand the music in order
to appreciate, accept and even popularise it. Such is the case with “Inangku di Lampung”
which, in the renditions that I have heard, sounds like a rock ballad, and which I have
therefore defined as a ‘traditional popular’ song. The combination of these two descriptors
may nevertheless be considered somewhat unusual when one interprets ‘popular music’ as
the relatively recent global phenomenon emanating from America (and often called ‘pop
music’), and ‘traditional music’ as the songs and instrumental pieces associated with local
culture and handed down, mostly via oral transmission, through the generations. This paper
will explore some of the ways in which a number of elements found in popular music
generally and in “Inangku di Lampung” in particular may be construed from a traditional
music perspective.
6. Indija Mahjoeddin, Monash University
"Continuity and Aesthetic Developments in Tari Cetik Kipas"
There is a well-known and frequently performed dance from Melinting, East Lampung often
referred to simply as Tari Melinting. In fact it is one of several Melinting dances and is more
correctly called Tari Cetik Kipas. This paper compares the original traditional/adat dance Tari
Cetik Kipas and its “modern creation”/kreasi baru counterpart, Tari Cetik Melinting based on
the findings of a project led by the current Ratu, Sultan Melinting, that reconstructed and
recorded two key performances demonstrating the presumed evolutionary history of the
dance, in forms originally performed in 1930 and 1965. The paper wlll discuss changes
evident in the movement vocabulary, choreography, accompaniment and costumes in a
dance that continues to evolve whilst arguably retaining a role comparable with its original
function.
7. Margaret Kartomi, Monash University
“Lampung’s Contemporary Musical Icon - the Gamolan - and its Historical and Social
Context”
The gamolan is a seven- or eight-key xylophone made of a specially resonant variety of
bamboo found deep in northwest Lampung’s forests. It is of considerable cultural interest on
three main counts: (i) its uniquely resonant, sweet sound when played by a pair of expert
musicians in a gong and drum ensemble (talo balok) (ii) its name – gamolan, which denoted a
single instrument in 14th century Java but later became the name of a whole Javanese
orchestra - the gamelan, from the mid-second millennium CE, and (iii) the fact that a similar
instrument is carved on the 9th century Mahayana-Buddhist Borobudur temple in nearby
Java, which suggests that the instrumental type is of great age. The first published mention
of the gamolan appears in the Indonesian Arts Society’s publication, Musical Instruments of
Indonesia, which contains a photo and description of a gamolan that I acquired in 1983 in
Liwa, northwest Lampung. Traditionally the instrument is played in ensemble at domestic
ceremonies such as circumcisions and weddings as well as religious and national day
celebrations. Since the mid-1990s its use has spread widely throughout the province as
thousands of Lampung’s school children learnt to play it as an extracurricular activity. At
the First International Seminar on the Gamolan in Bandar Lampung in September 2011 it was
declared Lampung’s official musical instrument, and it is now being patented as such. In
December 2011 the Indonesian Record Museum awarded a certificate to the Governor of
Lampung Drs Sjachroeddin ZP for presiding over a 25-hour marathon gamolan playing
festival when 25 groups of 25 school children played gamolan for 25 hours without a break.
Along with Lampung province’s famous textiles and traditional long fingernail and fan
dances, the gamolan is now recognised as an icon of Lampung’s identity
“Kain Palepai or Ship Cloths made with a supplementary weft technique are usually made of cotton
thread. These textiles are found in Krui in Lampung and Pasemah and Palembang in South Sumatra.
Why ship?
Apart from the trade and commerce which flourished in South East Asia, ships also symbolizes life’s
transitions which represent the life journey.
Ship cloths are also used in religious rituals.
Since the production of the cloth stopped, today ship cloths are highly prized by collectors”.