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Song in the Sumatran Highlands

People: Mila

Stage Name: Mila.
Other Names: Karmila.
Role: Padendang.
Sex: Female.
Time Frame: Contemporary Figure
Source: personal encounter at a performance in 2003, then met again at Bofet Sianok in 2015.
Born:
Died:
Place of Origin: Kayutanam, but raised in Payokumbuah.
Place of Residence: Gantiang, in Kelurahan Daya Bangun, Payokumbuah.
Year started performing:
Training:
Relationships to other performers: Her father, Kasril, is a tukang saluang.
Performances:

Performance: Kampung Jambak, December 2, 2003.

Interviews: July 26, 2016.
Songs composed:
Recordings:
Other notes:

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Performance: Kampung Jambak, December 2, 2003 28 Malam Bagurau image_header 2021-09-03T19:58:57+00:00 -0.45938, 100.40413 12/02/2003
Date: December 2-3, 2003
Place: Kampung Jambak, Padang Panjang, just outside the gates of the institution now known as Institut Seni Indonesia (ISI)
Style: Saluang Klasik

Occasion: Halal-bihalal (which means asking for forgiveness), in this context a community gathering to celebrate Lebaran, the week or so of celebration following Ramadan, the month of fasting in the Islamic calendar. All households in the neighborhood received a letter of invitation, something similar to this one.

Performers:
- Padendang:
  - Erni Batu Balang (f), the senior singer
  - Meri Batu Balang (f)
  - Mila (f)
- Tukang Saluang: Mak Lenggang
- Janang: Martis
Set up: This performance took place on a temporary stage set on the side of the road, opposite the house pictured above. The stage involved a raised platform made of wood, some of it covered with loose carpets. There were plastic walls on three sides of the stage, sheltering the performers from the wind. The padendang sat on stage, each with an energy drink and a pillow on their laps. The event, like most saluang performances, was heavily amplified so the music could be heard clearly throughout the neighborhood. I have a note that as the evening wore on, the volume was adjusted to a more moderate level. Performers and audience members were also provided with refreshments.

Audience: I don't have notes about the size of the audience, but I did recognize a number of faculty members and student from ISI in attendance. Many faculty members live in this neighborhood and while affiliated with it, there were also unofficial ties with ISI as the tukang saluang and janang were faculty and staff at the institution. There were also several foreigners in attendance, two other men in addition to myself. The audience was mixed in terms of age, and a handful of kids were present at the beginning. As was typical, the audience chatted throughout the performance.

Performance Duration: Not documented. I recorded 22 songs in 1hr 15minutes.

Requests: Audience members delivered their requests to the janang, who announced the title of the song just heard, along with the title for the next song, who requested it, how much they paid, any special requests (such as a certain singer), and a pantun the requester might have offered.

Ethnographers: Jennifer.
Attendance: Not documented, aside from notes that I left before the end because I was cold.
Notes: Before this performance, I had only ever attended something at ISI when I was an exchange student in 1998-9. This was my first community event, very early on in my fieldwork. My notes are not as comprehensive as they are at later performances.

Follow the pathway below to see repertoire and interpretation of this performance.
Repertoire Songs are the central musical unit around which performances are oriented. There might be anywhere from thirty to fifty songs performed in one evening. Many contexts for performance allow for attendees to request specific songs (see Introduction to Performances for more details). Performers, therefore, need to be familiar with the songs in the repertoire (the body of songs attached to the genre), but just how many songs and which songs are included in that repertoire is debatable and fluid. The "core repertoire" (defined here loosely as those songs I tracked at performances) in 2016 was not the same as those I tracked in 2004, nor surely the same as the 1980s, as suggested by the Mardjani et al. research report. The songs that performers know and that attendees request have shifted over the years, though the requests also shift based on place: where performances happen and the places from which attendees at those performances come. The "Repertoire" and "Interpretation" pages for each performance reflect the specific repertoire at each performance. For example, the performance in Suayan: repertoire and interpretation.

Establishing a precise number of songs in the repertoire is next to impossible as the tradition is not static and there is regional variation. The estimates of the number of songs vary greatly. When I spoke with Mak Sawir back in January 2004, he estimated 860 songs (casual conversation, January 26, 2004, coffeeshop in Bukittinggi). When I asked Te E in July 2016, she furnished a list of 227 songs that she made (interview with Te E, Payokumbuah, July 25, 2016). Mak Lenggang, a full time professor at Institut Seni Indonesia and part-time saluang player, told me once there were hundreds of songs, 150 of which were Singgalang (interview/ casual conversation, Padang Panjang, July 27, 2015). My favorite answer to this question--"too many to count"-- was from Mila (interview, Payokumbuah, July 26, 2016). These widely varying numbers, then, reveal differences in the experiences of performers: how many years they have been active, who they studied and performed with, and in what places they lived and mostly performed. I would expect Mak Sawir, then at the height of his career, to know the most, and a more junior singer to know considerably fewer. I would expect a padendang active mostly in Agam to have mastered that regional repertoire more than the repertoire associated with Tanah Data. The very best singers--such as Mak Sawir and Te E--will know the most songs, at least from the saluang klasik repertoire. It is incumbent on professionals to be as familiar with as many songs as possible because audience members can request any number of songs. Usually, one of the several padendang sitting on a stage will know the song. Of course, the tukang saluang also needs to know it as the saluang always begins a song. Only rarely have I see experienced performers fumble, struggling to remember a tune.

The only performer who has so far shared a list of songs with me is Te E. When I interviewed Syamsimar in 2004, she had a list of 247 songs (which excluded new imports), though I was not able to save a copy of this list (interview with Syamsimar, Pariangan, September 24, 2004). What is interesting is who has made lists and why they did so. Here we have tried to track and count those songs encountered, whether in live performance, Te E's list, or the list produced in Mardjani et al.'s research report. For the latter, however, it does not replicate all 385 songs, because the report was on Dendang Minangkabau broadly speaking and not just the repertoire associated with saluang. I decided to extract all those titles that were clearly affiliated with the darek. I excluded those that had no indication of region or those that were affiliated with the rantau, as they are affiliated with other musical traditions and the songs may not have made their way into saluang repertoire. Also excluded from this list are the titles to songs encountered only on commercial recordings in my possession. That would add another 30 or so titles to the list.

In the following pages, we present different ways of organizing the repertoire, along with the repertoire that was represented at performances Jennifer witnessed.
People: Kasril
Stage Name:
Other Names:
Role: Padendang.
Sex: Male.
Time Frame: Contemporary Figure
Source: personal encounter in 2016 when interviewing his daughter.
Born:
Died:
Place of Origin:
Place of Residence: Daya Bangun, Payokumbuah.
Year started performing:
Training:
Relationships to other performers: Mila, the padendang, is his daughter.
Performances:
Interview: He was present when I interviewed Mila, and participated in the discussion.
Songs composed:
Recordings:
Other notes:

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