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Song in the Sumatran Highlands

Resource: Sanday, 2002, "Songs and the Performance of Desire"

Sanday, Peggy. 2002. "Songs and the Performance of Desire" in Women at the Center: Life in a Modern Matriarchy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ. Press. 149-170.

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People: Gadih Suayan 16 Gadih Suayan was a well-known padendang. image_header 2021-03-19T12:25:29+00:00 -0.17798, 100.48907
Stage Name: Gadih Suayan (maiden/ young unmarried woman from Suayan): her stage name asserts a place affiliation with nagari Suayan. An obituary written by Saiful Hadi, a.k.a. Pak Ketua--his day job is a journalist--suggests that she acquired this name from fans. One can imagine when she started singing, she was known as the maiden from Suayan. As Saiful writes, this name "which she carried with her until end of her life, was more popular and known by fans of saluang klasik in Luak nan Tigo, West Sumatra, and moreover throughout Indonesia.”
Other Names: Kartini.
Role: Padendang.
Sex: Female.
Time Frame: Contemporary Figure.
Source: learned about Gadih Suayan by name through ethnography.
Born: @1959 (Sanday 2002:153)
Died: June 19, 2015.
Place of Origin: Suayan.
Place of Residence:
Year started performing: @1970s
Training:
Gadis Suayan...started attending performances when she was twelve or thirteen just to listen. She then studied with a saluang player by following him wherever he went just to listen. This man made her popular by including her in his group. (Sanday 2002:154)
Sanday does not provide details of who the tukang saluang was. It is interesting that her teacher was a tukang saluang rather than a padendang.

Trained: Eri Tamala, who is described as a "foster child." Its unclear whether this means literally or that it indicates a teacher-student relationship, or a little of both.
Performances: None. I never got to see her perform.
Songs composed: A number of Suayan titles, including "Suayan Anguih" (Hasnul Fikri, Syofiani Syofiani and Lolita Lestari 2017: 530).
Commercial Recordings: Many titles.
Other notes:
Sanday writes about Gadih Suayan in her chapter on saluang (2002). She writes how she was
One of [her] favorite female singers... because of her throaty voice and the passion with which she sings. She is about forty-three, wears her hair very short, smokes, and always dresses in pants. She was born in Suayan, a village near Payakumbuh, famous for four songs called the Four Suayan... Gadis Suayan has been married twice and is presently divorced from her second husband. She speaks of him withgreat sadness and longing. Much younger than she, he left her to live with his parents in a city in eastern Sumatra. She jokes with me about being sawah liek, that is, an arid rice field-the title of a famous song she will sing later in the evening about a woman who lies fallow, uncultivated and unfertilized because she has no man... (Sanday 2002:153)
Excerpts from her obituary:
For fans of saluang klasik the name “Gadih Suayan” is a very familiar name in their ears because the name ... raises the name of the nagari where she was born, which is known with dendang “Ratok Suayan", "Suayan Ampek Lenggek” [likely the tune referenced here as "Suayan Balenggek"] along with “Suayan Anguih” and lots of dendang klasik which were presented by her always get great praise from saluang fans, because indeed we recognize that the sound of this dendang maestro is difficult to find a match even now.
… there is not a young artist or a padendang which has the sound of the same caliber as her, moreover the level of memorization and understanding of these dendang klasik songs which have lots of kalorok, gumam, garinyiak, kadakuak, genggong, japuaik anta and cokoiak where the shrewdness of padendang play with anak suara.”
Eri Tamala, her foster child/ student, is quoted in the obituary as saying Gadih Suayan worked with younger singers to “share her knowledge.”
Her sound was excellent and her mastery of songs was perfect was a speciality of hers and there is not yet someone who can replace her position...

Her departure is a sign of uncertainty for the fans of the future of saluang klasik in the region of Luak Nan Tigo …. Because we see the development of saluang klasik recently is very worrying to us because a group of young padendang prefer songs that are accompanied by modern instruments, moreover a group of young padendang don’t know the klasik dendang at all and this will become the major work for all of us...
Resources:
- Saiful Hadi, "Gadih Suayan Tutup Usia"
- Hasnul Fikri, Syofiani Syofiani and Lolita Lestari, "Semiotic in Lyrics and Perception of Community of Nagari Suayan on Saluang Ratok Suayan Anguih"
- Sanday 2002
People: Nijon 12 Nijon was a tukang rabab. image_header 2021-05-08T14:28:39+00:00 -0.164466, 100.537014
Stage Name: Nijon.
Other Names:
Role: Tukang Rabab & Padendang, the rabab allowing a performer to play and sing.
Sex: Male.
Time Frame: Historical-contemporary Figure
Source: I heard about him during ethnography; he is also listed in Mardjani et. al.
Born: 1944.
Died: @1997 (Sanday 2002: 168).
Place of Origin: Sungai Talang
Place of Residence: Payokumbuah.
Year started performing:
Trained under the following tukang rabab:
- Mak Agam, from Magek
- Samsu, from Kubang
- Mangkuto Mawi, from Biaro
- Rajo Bujang, from Kamang
Relationships to other performers: He was the first husband of the padendang now known as Te E.
Performances:
Songs composed: According to Sanday, a number of songs about his kampung, Sungai Talang (2002). They are not, however, identified by title.
- Song: "Tigo Balai": identified by Pak Ketua as his compositions during performance of it at Sariak Laweh
Recordings:
Other notes: Like Ajis St. Sati, he also worked as a bendi driver.
Song Texts
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.
Gender of Padendang 8 Explores the gender shift within padendang image_header 2021-08-03T13:54:30+00:00
The sound of her voice, the feelings she expresses, and the haunting melody of the bamboo flute, following her in unison like a devoted lover, float through the night. Sometimes the emotion hangs heavily in the air drawing the heart to the sound. At these times, heads bow...It's about 2 A.M. The female singers, sitting in the Minangkabau way with legs to the side, face the by now mainly male audience on a low, open-air stage. Their heads are bowed so as not to lock eyes with the male gaze as they sing their innermost thoughts.. Field notes, 1997 Sanday 2002: 149
If one were to attend a saluang performance anytime in the last 20 to 30 years, one might assume that padendang have always been people who identify and are identified as women (a note about the use of gendered terms in this project) because men are infrequent participants, if not entirely absent, as vocalists during this time. Writing in 2002, Peggy Sanday, quoted above, writes of a world where it seems that padendang were always women, that the relationship between voice and saluang is a fundamentally gendered one. But it is important to know that the genre has not always been gendered in this way, where tukang saluang identify as men and the padendang identify as women. In the past, in the first half of the twentieth century, all performers identified as men. But even that statement obscures the true history. All the professional singers--those who sang in public, in front of crowds, and received fiscal payment for their services--were men. The singers we know about from the first half of the twentieth century are all men, probably because they were recognized as the professionals.

But there are stories--and even documentary evidence in the form of commercial 78 r.p.m. records--that illustrate women did sing: just not in public venues in front of audiences that included men. Adriyetti Amir, for examples, writes that it was common practice for women to sing "quatrains [i.e. pantun] while doing other work", explaining:
Usually women working in the paddy fields, whether planting or harvesting paddy [rice] sing sad, sarcastic, or erotic quatrains. They sing without the accompaniment of instruments. They sing to overcome tiredness. They are unpaid. They can exchange quatrains with almost anyone who passes near their working area; but usually they do not sing about people whom they respect, like their religious teacher, pangulu, or their matrilineal family's sumando .... (Amir 1995:31)
Amir continues to explain that men also sang in informal work contexts, but only "while relaxing during lunch and after the noon prayers (zohor). Sometimes they do bring along the saluang, then they will sing either quatrains [pantun] that are created spontaneously or quatrains that are commonly known" (Amir 1995:31). This information suggests that singing pantun was a common Minangkabau past time for both women and men. It is not clear, however, what songs were used, and if those tunes were affiliated with the genre of saluang we know today. I suspect there is cross-over in the repertoire, that the tunes are mutual. To be clear, in discussing the gender of padendang in saluang throughout this site, I am referring to the professionalized saluang scene, unless otherwise specified.
This issue about gender and performing in public has to be understood within the context of Minangkabau values, especially according to the principles of adat (complex set of cultural practices most frequently glossed as “custom” and “tradition”). In the past, it was considered entirely inappropriate for a woman to be out late at night in front of men, especially those who were not related to her. In the Minangkabau matrilineal system, a woman’s mamak, her maternal uncle, not her father, was tasked with policing and managing her morality, making sure no harm was done to the family reputation. Permission to depart from these mores should be granted by the mamak.
The first generation of professional female padendang were trailblazers, breaking the glass ceiling, at great risk to their person and to the reputation of themselves and their family. There are stories of these women being personally threatened with a gun, maintained by authorities, questioned and shunned. I even heard a story once of a woman being killed by a jealous husband. It’s very hard to fathom just how difficult it would have been for the first generation of women, the stigma they would have had to overcome, both amongst audiences at the time and within the broader society. Needless to say, these women would have been extremely talented and knowledgeable to be accepted within professional circuits, not just among audiences but especially among fellow performers. For the first generation of women, their participation was possible though one of two mechanisms: they sang under the disguise of presenting themselves as a man or they were supervised by a close male relative, either their mamak or their husband. For some, like Nurana, the economic gains--the possibility of making a livelihood--was the motivating factor.
This history of saluang is critically important. There is no other genre in West Sumatra to my knowledge in which women not only became equal participants as singers (participation as instrumentalist is entirely different) but actually came to thoroughly displace their male counterparts. Nobody wants to hear male padendang these days, which speaks more to why some pagurau are interested in saluang now compared with the past. Go here to follow that story.
Putting together this history is like being a detective, scouring what resources exist in the historical record, essentially research produced by people affiliated with Institut Seni Indonesia, and putting together pieces of the puzzle. The historical record is spotty, the information as complete as what is found in those records, amplified with ethnographic interviews with singers like Syamsimar, Mak Ajis, and Mak Sawir who were involved back then in 60s and have since passed, or the oldest generation participating today, like Te E who started singing in the 70s.
It’s a history that deserves to be better known. We share what we have come across here but welcome contributions to enhance the record: dates, stories, and especially photos.
Continue on in this path to read about the stories of the first professional female padendang.
Resources:
- Adriyetti Amir 1995
- Erlinda 1999
- Erlinda 2001
- Peggy Sanday 2002
Genre: Rabab Darek The rabab darek is a fiddle from the darek. It is used to accompany the same repertoire of songs as saluang darek, but it is extremely rare today. In 2015 and 2016, I heard no mention of its use. Historically, one might sometimes hear BOTH a saluang darek and a rabab darek accompanying padendang (see Sanday), but I have never witnessed this practice.

As an instrument, the rabab darek is a spike fiddle, like its Javanese counterpart. This means that a spike stretches from the base through the resonator and connects to the next. The rabab darek has a round, flatish wooden resonator body with an animal skin--probably goat--stretched over the resonator. The neck is a mix of wood and bamboo. There are two strings. On the instrument pictured here, purchased in 1999, they are from cotton. I am not sure if this has always been the case.