This site requires Javascript to be turned on. Please enable Javascript and reload the page.

Song in the Sumatran Highlands

People: Fahmi

Stage Name: Fahmi
Other Names: Zulfahmi Sutan Mudo
Role: Tukang Rabab
Sex: Male
Time Frame: Contemporary Figure: active in 2004
Source: in person encounter in 2004
Born:
Died:
Place of Origin:
Place of Residence:
Year started performing:
Training:
Relationships to other performers:
Performances:

Performance: Recording Session, February 9, 2004

Songs composed:
Recordings:
Other notes:

This page has tags:

Contents of this tag:

This page is referenced by:

Performance: Recording Session, February 9, 2004 13 Rabab Darek at STSI image_header 2021-09-03T20:35:03+00:00 -0.458997,100.403908 02/09/2004
Date: February 9, 2004
Time: Daytime
Place: Sekolah Tinggi Seni Indonesia (STSI) Padang Panjang
Style: Rabab Darek
Occasion: Recording Session for DUE-Like Grant
Set up: The recording session took place in a classroom on campus. We were all seated on the floor.
Performers:
- Padendang: Yulimarnis
- Tukang Rabab: Zulfahmi Sutan Mudo
Audience: Irrelevant
Ethnographers: Jennifer, Hanefi
Notes:
Role: Tukang Rabab 9 This page explains the role of tukang rabab image_header 2021-03-01T20:23:52+00:00
Tukang rabab are people who play the rabab. The term "tukang" means "someone who has specialization in something," which in this case would be rabab. Here we are talking specifically about the rababa darek (the rabab from the darek region) which is used to accompany the same vocal repertoire as the saluang darek. To my knowledge this role has always been gendered male, like tukang saluang.

Historically, there are some examples of both a tukang saluang and a tukang rabab playing. Certainly, by the time I was present in West Sumatra in 1998, I never witnessed such a practice. Indeed, in all the years I've been interested in this repertoire I've only encountered one tukang rabab, Fahmi, at a recording session at STSI (now ISI) which was organized, in part, to document a declining practice. Clearly, something shifted in the performance practice that allowed saluang to become the dominant instrument. Was is an aesthetic preference, was it pragmatic as there were few tukang rabab to be found, a combination, or something else entirely?

The training for a tukang rabab would, I imagine, be similar to a tukang saluang, in that they needed to familiarize themselves with the repertoire, mastering hundreds of songs. They probably be learned in a similar process of observing and listening carefully, before attempting tunes themselves. Some, as Mardjani et. al.'s chart of performers suggest, acknowledged training under a more senior performer. See, for example, Nijon.

Historical Tukang Rabab
- Ismail Rajo Bujang
- Jahar Malin Marajo
- Mak Agam
- Mangkuto Mawi
- Nijon
- Samsu
Contemporary Tukang Rabab
- Fahmi

This page references:

Performance: Recording Session, February 9, 2004