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• 1 2020-08-21T11:48:51+00:00 Song Texts 11 Introduction to song texts plain 2022-02-08T03:42:39+00:00

  Some performers and devotees consider the texts the window into the soul of the Minangkabau people. The content of texts, like other key forms of Minangkabau oral literature, deal with Minangkabau philosophy, morality, emotionality, and humor. They touch on a range of life and emotional experiences, from the depths of sadness to the teasing budding young romance. To the chagrin of some, they can even cover erotic sensitivity.  They are full of references to the natural world, reflecting the tenet of "alam takambang manjadi guru" (nature becomes the teacher). Infused with references to landmarks and places, the texts are also key to navigation of and existence in the Minangkabau homeland. In short, song texts offer an important window into Minangkabau worldviews, deliberately expressed to reflect plurality rather than universality, the contentious erotic texts case in point. 
  
  In saluang, the structure and delivery of texts is complex and subject to many variables. Yet the use of pantun, an important Minangkabau literary genre, has received little to no scholarly attention in English language literature compared with other forms of Minangkabau oral literature, such as the kaba (Johns 1958; Junus 1994; Phillips 1981; Suryadi 1993) or pantun found in other parts of the Malay World (Daillie 1988; Matusky 2004; Sim 1987; Thomas 1979; Weintraub 1994-5). The only sustained engagement with the texts of saluang are found in Sanday’s “Songs and the Performance of Desire” (2002). However, her analysis involves an ahistorical ethnographic present that does not take into account important gendered changes within the genre and her texts are only presented in English, not the original Minangkabau language.
  
  One of the most important features of song texts is that unlike popular song, including Minang pop, the texts are not firmly attached to specific melodies. Or, rather, specific tunes do not have fixed texts. In saluang, most texts are interchangeable between songs. Very few are affiliated with a specific song. The adoption of a text to a specific song may require adjustments to make the poetry fit the melodic structure. This includes two different techniques: 1) the insertion of vocables (syllables and words without lexical meaning in the context) or repetitions of particular phrases and lines.
  
  The texts, moreover, have an element of flexibility. Many of the texts are baku (frozen), meaning they are relatively standard in form, known by different singers, repeated, and sometimes event connected with a specific melody. Other texts are more spontaneous, created in the moment of performance. Some of these use predictable formulas used to create part of a text. Others--the most engaging for audiences--are those that are responsive to the performance context, referencing specific people, responding to audience requests, or addressing something about the context. Pak Ketua estimated about 80% of texts are pantun baku, about 20% are pantun spontanitas. 
  
  The following sections will break down the structure of pantun, the kinds of pantun, the use of metaphor, all illustrated through examples from performance and interviews.