Sundanese Culture
Tanah Sunda has its own unique culture and language, both called Sundanese which is also used to call its people.
Wayang goleks (wooden puppets) are used by the Sundanese to tell the epic play "Mahabarata" and various other morality type plays.
Accompanying "The Mahabarata" is an orchestra called gamelan. The gamelan uses a five note scale as opposed to the seven-note western scale.
The musical arts of Sunda, which is an expression of the emotions of Sundanese culture, include some of the most beautiful sounds in the world. The "tembang sunda" with the kacapi (zither) and either suling (bamboo flute) or vocal accompaniment, and also the degung with its gamelan provide moments of rare musical beauty.
The Sundanese are also known for musical instruments called angklungs, which consist of a frame upon which hang several different lengths of hollow bamboo. Angklungs are played like handbells, with each instrument played to a different note.
Other cultural heritage of Sundanese are:
Dances :
ketuk tilu, tari merak (dance "peacock"), jaipongan (popular Sundanese social dance), tari topeng (mask dance), sisingaan, etc.
Tari Merak (Dance "Peacock")
Photo courtesy of LSS ITB
Sundanese Pupuh (Sundanese poetic meters):
Pupuh specify the number of lines in each verse as well as the ending syllables of each line
Pantun Sunda :
Pantun Sunda is a genre of Sundanese oral narative performance in which a solo storyteller recounts the glory of past kingdoms and the exploits of heroic figures.
Calung :
Calung is a humorous performance in which a group of 4 - 6 people led by a leader performing humorous conversation and in certain periods conducting musical performance using some peaces of angklung instruments with funy lyrics.
Sisindiran :
Sisindiran is an oral performance in which two groups of people reciprocally conducting humorous questions and answers performance using poetic meters; one group asks a question and the other group answers it (and the answer may include a question for the opposite group).
Tarling (guitar and flute music typical to Cirebon)
Sandiwara (opera)
Traditional humorous story: "Kabayan, the innocent man"
Foods and Beverages
Tanah Sunda has many typical foods. They, among others, are dodol Garut, tahu Sumedang (soybean typical to the town of Sumedang), oncom Bandung, peuyeum Bandung, tauco Cianjur, and soto Bandung.
Tanah Sunda also has famous drinks. They are, among others, bandrek (made of water, brown sugar, long thin chopped coconut, and ginger), bajigur (made of water, brown sugar, coconat juice, and pandan leaves), cendol, and sakoteng.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Culture
Monday, May 4, 2009
Ensembles
Bamboo Ensembles
The three main types of Sundanese bamboo ensembles are angklung, calung, and arumba. The exact features of each ensemble vary according to context, related instruments, and relative popularity. Generally speaking, bamboo instruments do not have a strong market in the recording industry. Angklung is a generic term for sets of tuned, shaken bamboo rattles. It is found in many other places in Indonesia, but its greatest variety occurs in Sunda. It can use many players of tuned, shaken rattles, a single tarompet (double-reed oboe) player, and a set of four drummers playing conical drums (dog-dog). Angklung rattles are played in interlocking patterns, usually with only one or two instruments played per person. The ensemble is used in Sundanese processions, sometimes with trance or acrobatics. Performed at life-cycle rituals and feasts (hajat), angklung is believed to maintain balance and harmony in the village. In its most modern incarnation, angklung is performed in schools as an aid to learning about music. Like those in angklung, the instruments of the calung ensemble are of bamboo, but each consists of several differently tuned tubes fixed onto a piece of bamboo; the player holds the instrument in his left hand and strikes it with a beater held in his right. The highest-pitched calung has the greatest number of tubes and the densest musical activity; the lowest-pitched, with two tubes, has the least. Calung is nearly always associated with earthy humor, and is played by men. Arumba refers to a set of diatonically tuned bamboo xylophones, often played by women. It is frequently joined by modern instruments, including a drum set, electric guitar, bass, and keyboards.
Zither Ensembles
The Sundanese zither (kacapi) often serves to represent Sundanese culture. It plays as either a solo or an ensemble instrument, associated with both villagers and aristocrats. The instrument may take the form of a boat in tembang Sunda, or the form of a board zither in kacapian. It is sometimes drastically modified to include more strings, electric and electronic devices, and various styles of playing. Pantun is a genre of Sundanese epic narrative, most often performed by a blind male vocalist who accompanies himself on the kacapi. The performance of pantun usually occurs as part of a ritual Sundanese feast, and can last for most of the night. Tembang Sunda is a type of sung poetry developed in the regency of Cianjur in the late 1800s. Its topics include Sundanese history, aspects of nature, mythology, romance, heroic figures, and tragedies. In performance, one or more singers are accompanied by an 18-string zither (kacapi), a smaller, 15-string zither (rincik), and a 6-hole end-blown bamboo flute (suling). Tembang Sunda is traditionally performed in the evenings for the descendents of the Sundanese aristocracy. Kacapi-suling developed during the 1970s as an instrumental offshoot of tembang Sunda, using the same instruments by without the vocalist. In a typical performance (still primarily in recordings, as kacapi-suling is rarely performed live), the kacapi player outlines a cyclic structure of a song and the suling player improvises a melody based on the original song from the tembang Sunda repertoire. Kacapian refers to a flashy style of playing a board zither, and it is known as one of the sources of Sundanese popular music. It can be accompanied by a wide variety of instruments, and can be played instrumentally or as the accompaniment to either a male or female vocalist.
Popular Music
For decades, the Sundanese have enjoyed performances of locally created popular music. In addition to nationally popular genres, such as dangdut and kroncong, the Sundanese have developed a unique regional style, pop Sunda. It began as a Sundanese musical imitation of American and European popular music played on Western band instruments, with performances in diatonic tuning and singing with a heavy, operatic vibrato. The language, Basa Sunda, was almost the only factor indigenous to the area. In the 1980s the Sundanese composer Nano Suratno reshaped pop Sunda to include performance in the pélog tuning system; he created a large number of hit songs that used traditional ensembles like gamelan degung, and successfuly blended pop music with Sundanese traditional music. Since that time, pop Sunda has come to re-incorporate Western rock and pop instrumentation, and local composers and performers have explored many genres of popular music, including reggae and rap.
