Ida Indawati Khouw, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
At weekends, rumah kawin (wedding halls) lining the roads in the Chinese peranakan areas of Tangerang (peranakan being the offspring of marriages between ethnic Chinese and those from other ethnic groups), such as Sewan, Kampung Melayu and Rawa Kucing, are filled with the music of energetic orchestras.
The music can be heard from quite a distance, thanks to the powerful sound systems, even though the halls are usually hidden behind houses or found in an open space covered with coarse grass, far from the main roads.
Only a few people will immediately recognize the sound of gambang kromong, a traditional Betawi music ensemble. The orchestra consists of the gambang (a xylophone-like instrument), kromong (a set of small gongs), tehyan (a Chinese string instrument), flute, a percussion set, gongs and kecrek (a metal string instrument). Western instruments including electric guitar, trumpet, clarinet, saxophone, electric keyboard and Hawaiian guitar are also played.
The singers, mostly female, perform pantun (lyrics written in Betawi dialects) with their shrill voices. They sing lagu sayur, the modern repertoire of gambang kromong.
Welcome to the jazz band of Betawi!
Members of the audience are allowed to dance with cokek dancers, and can also embrace and even kiss them.
Ethnomusicologist Philip Yampolsky said the texture of gambang kromong was similar to that of Javanese and Sundanese gamelan orchestras and also had echoes of the ""small-band jazz"" music popular in America and Europe in the 1920s and 1930s, not to mention the strong influence of Chinese music.
""Most lagu sayur were composed before World War Two. Jazz bands in Batavia (old Jakarta) were very popular on the radio and in recordings at that time,"" he said, adding that the older repertoire, the so-called lagu lama (old songs) in which the lyrics are written in Chinese, was now on the brink of extinction.
Yampolsky considers gambang kromong to be unique, because it reflects the mixture of the various ethnic groups in Batavia.
""It is a reflection of the 400 year-long melting of the Chinese, Sundanese and Batavian cultures,"" said Yampolsky, who conducted research on Betawi music between 1990 and 1999. The results of his research were recorded and released on compact disc.
Yampolsky, who is the program officer for media, the arts and culture at the Ford Foundation, said the gambang kromong first emerged in the 18th century, where it began as an ensemble for Chinese peranakan (from the Fujian area of China) in Batavia.
It is difficult to uncover the music's history as the oldest surviving information is contained in an article written by Phoa Kian Sioe in 1949 in Pantja Warna magazine.
Phoa, who said the ensemble was established in 1743, was unsure of the history himself -- as he put it ""the older generations once heard the story from their ancestors"". During those years, performances of the music were hosted by various Chinese kapitant (a leader of an ethnic group in Batavia).
History records that the ensembles then consisted of a combination of Chinese and Sundanese instruments including gambang. Therefore they were called orkes gambang (gambang orchestra).
""The term gambang kromong was introduced in 1880 after the emergence of new repertoires for the ensembles, using Sundanese instruments like the kromong, a small drum and gong,"" Yampolsky said.
Since then lagu sayur have become more and more popular, pushing aside lagu lama which are no longer considered a proper accompaniment for dancing. Another factor was the anti-Chinese sentiment during the rule of former president Soeharto.
Now, there are only two singers still able to perform the old repertoires. They are Ibu Masnah and Ncim Ating.
As part of its efforts to preserve the culture, starting last July the Ford Foundation began supporting the preservation of lagu lama through a training program led by the two elderly singers.
""Without this program, lagu lama would disappear following the deaths of the singers,"" Yampolsky said.
