Music of Indonesia

Ethnomusicologist Philip Yampolsky must love a challenge. It was certainly nothing less to record the music of Indonesia, whose 13,000 islands cover an area the size of Europe. The population is one of the largest in the world, speaking almost 300 different languages.

"It wasn't a one-man show," he admitted. "I had many colleagues. I was the director, but I didn't do it all myself; it was a collaborative work."

"We're trying to give a picture, so people can get an idea of the extraordinary richness of what's out there."

The result was the 20 volume series, Music of Indonesia, which has been distilled into a single volume introduction, Discover Indonesia (Smithsonian Folkways), a disc that cherry picks from the collection. In making the selections, Yampolsky said, "we tried to choose selections to an audience who didn't know the music. In fact, the whole series is like that; we wanted to find material that would be attractive to open-minded, non-specialist listener."

There's certainly something intriguing about the gambang kromong music of "Stambul Bila," which sounds like a mad Dixieland jazz band adrift in the South China Sea, but the entire disc is a portal to another world. It offers an overview of regional styles, which don't overlap across the entire archipelago, according to Yampolsky. "Very few musics have an appeal across the country except national popular music and certain religious music. Everything else is regional, because it's sung in regional languages or it's identified with an ethnic group or geographical region."

It's possible that some of the music might not exist in a few years, Yampolsky said, given that "it's now mainly played by middle-aged and older people. Some of it doesn't interest young people much." But he also remained hopeful, since "it's hard to imagine that if you were going to have a wedding or funeral in your family that even the young would only play pop. It's more likely they'll go back to the traditional forms."

And while American popular music has a following in large cities like Jakarta, in rural areas, which make up most of Indonesia, local music does remain strong.

Yamplosky's own love affair with Indonesia began in the ‘70s when, as an ethnomusicology student in California, he began to play the gamelan, Indonesia's best-known music. In 1971 he traveled to the country for the first time, and since 1979 has spent a great deal of time there. The tracks that makes up the 20 CDs of the Music of Indonesia series were recorded over a period of seven years.

"Mr. Yampolsky is the acknowledged expert in the field," noted Sabah Habas Mustapha, the 3 Mustaphas 3 member whose three solo albums have been made in Indonesia. "The series covers a very wide range. You've got to treat them as a total experience. It helps to have a map in front of you, and read the sleeve notes, and imagine yourself into the situations. He's gone straight to the roots. It's a beautiful surprise."

Even Yampolsky himself was surprised by some of the things he put on tape, like "Kalimantan,' played by an ensemble on bamboo tubes, or the widespread use of strings, as on "Gandung Sia."

But although it's largely traditional music featured on the albums, Yampolsky insists this isn't an attempt to preserve it, because "no one can preserve music for somebody else. Only the people whose music it is can do that. We're trying to give a picture, so people can get an idea of the extraordinary richness of what's out there."

The series complete, and the sampler issued, Yampolsky is still in Indonesia, working in Jakarta as a program officer for the Ford Foundation. At present, he said, "I'm not doing any recording work, but when I have time, I probably will."

This article first appeared on sonicnet.com