Papers (Part 1)

• Performing vs. Recording: The Sound of Modern Bali Citra Aryandari Indonesian Institute of the Arts, Yogyakarta

  This paper will discuss my personal experiences when conducting research in a traditional village ancient Balinese named Tenganan Pegringsingan. At the time I was very impressed with their ability to maintain the tradition since the11th century. The village was surrounded by beautiful sounds during ritual ceremony and I intend to record and not allowed for reasons that sacred rites are not properly recorded, even so we could always enjoy the sound during the ritual ceremony and it is recorded unconsciously. The memory of sound will always be played when the ceremony held.

  On the other hand modern Balinese through government program often hold music festivals, which eventually formed a uniform musical pattern, this happens because there is legitimation sounds pattern which is recorded with the latest technology and is used as a reference. and impoverishment of musical styles emerged.

  Based on Adorno’s point of view of Aesthetic Concepts of Aura I will compare, how memory is recorded in a performing vs sound recording associated with intertwined hegemony. This paper will use an interdisciplinary perspective to answer the anxieties that arise during the ethnography research.

• Sound-Matter of Cultural Memory: The Transmediatization of Cebuano Folk Dance Kuradang and Folk Song Alimukoy Jose S. Buenconsejo University of the Philippines

  The global marketing of Euro-American audio hardware in the first half of 20th century, such as the gramophone and commercial radio in the Philippines meant the immediate appropriation of local music and dance traditions, the repertories of which were either enriched or impoverished. The category "art music," the emergent taste of the Tagalog bourgeiosie, became possible when "classical" music training equipped composers to elevate folk music and dance such as kundiman, balitao, and danza Filipina as fodder to the nascant capitalist enterprises including sheet music industry. Unlike music repertories of the said genres, however, the appropriation of traditional dance rhythms as "software" commodities for these consumer household gadgets seemed to induce the reverse in that the complex, subtle patterned dance movements in live dance performance was reduced to "caricaturish" versions, a good example of which is Max Surban's "kuradang." Nonetheless, these contemporanized versions of tradition are convenient functional music objects--now disseminated through youTube--that are useful in celebratory rural events at present. Kuradang is even used since 2015 as a convenient social identity marker in local government-initiated street dancing in Bohol province. This paper argues that the durability of these traditions is remarkable and goes against the cultural grey out postulated by critics of globalization though to a certain extent the encroachment of foreign musical idioms into local soundscapes did hinder musical creativity. The case of Yoyoy Villame's nonsensical songs is instructive here. His initial appropriation of folksong "Alimukoy" (1971) was followed by the hilarious "Butsekik" and "Mutokoy" songs. At present this has degraded into vapid creations such as Lito Camo's Otso Otso electronic dance and Surban's "Gitik Gitik" song used in Khvan's surreal film "Howling Wilderness."

  I posit that the durability of traditions is maintained by the "recollective" cultural memory in the media (as agents), but at the same time heavily constrained by new, xenocentric, fashionable habits and trends that ironically limited the authochtonous musical innovations had these been left to find their own freedoms.

Papers (Part 2)

• Psychoacoustics and Beyond: Examining the Sonus of the Philippine National Anthem Rameses De Jesus University of the Philippines

  Psychoacoustics has helped us understand a great deal about the psychological and physiological processes associated with our perception and experience of sound; however, we have fewer discussions about the processes of the personal interpretation of sound. The interpretation of stimuli (whether visual, tactile, sonic, etc.) employs a great deal of subjectivity, along with the utilization of senses, employment of acquired related information or experience (e.g. aesthetic knowledge), capacities for evaluation (e.g. physiological/intellectual acuity), and the attributions, conjectures, or extrapolations being associated with the stimuli. National anthems are a particular case of sonic stimuli that elicit unique inward and outward responses from constituents and non-constituents, which raise points of interest for practitioners of various fields such as psychology, cultural anthropology, and music. For instance, let us consider how a national anthem comes to mean what it does, as we imbue it with individual and collective significance to be something that reflects identity and community, compels reverence from constituents, elicits or challenges laws, signifies pride and distinction, or symbolizes nationhood. The concept of sonus in yamomo’s (2018) framework of the Anthropology of Sound helps fill the gap in understanding the interpretation and meaning-creation of sound and music. The Philippine national anthem, embedded in its socio-political history and context, is examined as a case in this discussion.

• Radio Broadcasting and Colonial Power in the Dutch East Indies Vincent Kuitenbrouwer Universiteit van Amsterdam

  The advent of radio broadcasting had a big impact on the Dutch East Indies in the interwar years. The medium-wave station Nederlansch-Indische Omroep Maatschappij (NIROM) attracted many listeners from the archipelago with its combination of ‘Western’ and ‘Eastern’ programs. Considering this success, members of the contemporary Dutch colonial regime believed that the new medium could seriously influence power hierarchies and as a result radio was both celebrated and feared by them. This paper explores how the these ambivalent visions of radio broadcasting translated into attempts from the colonial administration to control broadcasts in order to protect and strengthen the status quo.

  Central to this paper are the archives of the Advisory Council of NIROM, that was responsible for monitoring and censoring radio broadcasts in the Dutch East Indies. By using them I will not only reveal the fundamental views on the societal impact of radio amongst colonial elites, but also reflect on the limits of their power. On the one hand there was censorship, that was aimed to prevent radio to undermine the colonial hierarchies. On the other hand radio amateurs, who organized in clubs, were quite influential in determining the programme of NIROM. Particular focus will be given to Indonesian agency and music broadcasts on the so-called ‘Eastern’ programme, both traditionalistic and modernistic styles. The members of the Advisory Council extensively discussed this topic, but the sources reveal a profound ambivalence.

• The Genealogy of Dutch Colonial Knowledge of Javanese Gamelans: A Reappraisal of Post-Colonial Approach Sri Margana University of Leiden

  The works of Jaap Kunst on the indigenous music in the Indian archipelago has opened the eyes of western scholars of the prolific nature of Asian traditional music instruments. After the publication of The Music of Java and his long involvement in the academic teaching in the University of Amsterdam he introduced the term ‘ethnomusicology’ as a new concept and the subject of music studies in western academic worlds. It lifted the Asian music instrument up to equally level with the western music instruments. The involvement of the Western scholars in compiling and studying indigenous arts and cultures of the colonized society during the colonial period has been examined narrowly from the post-colonial perspective. The western knowledge production of the colonial society was regarded as systematic movement of the western orientalism. However the case of Jaap Kunst exploration of Javanese music might be a peculiar case which raise question of the adequacy of the approach. The way Jaap Kunst building the connection with his subject of research and his indigenous counterparts is the subject of scrutiny. This paper will examine the genealogy of the Dutch colonial knowledge of Javanese gamelans with special reference to the Jaap Kunst academic endeavors and knowledge production. The overflowed correspondences by Jaap Kunst with his Javanese counterparts will be the main references employed in this study.

Abstract

Keywords

• Media
• Power
• Sound
• Theory