Year 7, #7
18 May 2008 Dear Friends, On Sunday night, 18 May 2008, we had the 7th klenengan in the 7th fiscal year running. It was held at the home of Dr. Rahayu Supanggah in Benawa. It started at about 8:00 pm and lasted until 2:30 am. As is normal, there will be 11 klenengan in the year, with no klenengan in the fasting month (October this year) so there are four more klenengan in this fiscal year. The official organizer of gendhing this month was Pak Wakidjo. Each month we are now appointed someone to organize the 2-3 gendhing that are planned. They choose the gendhing and organize the notation—or mas Wakidi organizes the notation if necessary. Beyond the 2-3 gendhing they organize, the rest of the gendhing are unplanned as usual. This klenengan was a strange and interesting one. The mood at the beginning was incredibly somber. In only the space of only a few months Pujangga Laras has suffered the sudden and tragic loss of mas Midiyanto’s wife mbak Hendrati, the tragic accident that killed our driver and everyone in PL’s friend mas Joko Sambudiyanto, and the deaths of both sindhen Bu Munirah and Bu Dharti. As the klenengan started, Bu Tugini had an attack of vertigo and fainted. She had to be taken home by her husband, to the great worries of all—another Pujangga Laras sindhen in trouble was clearly the message. There were those in the community who were worried that some negative spiritual force had affected Pujangga Laras and needed to be exorcised. There were those simply depressed to think of how old all the musicians in the community were getting, and there were those there directly affected like Pak Mujiono whose wife had died not a day ago. There were those who felt that we had done a number of things “wrong” recently—criticisms of Pak Yadi for playing Laler Mengeng for the mulyararas last month when Bu Dharti was ill and mas Joko had just been in his accident. People (who asked specifically not to be named) explained that “mulyararas” was a request to the spirits around, and that if your request was as morose and sad as Laler Mengeng you were only asking for trouble. Not to mention that the gendhing went on to Ayak Tlutur and then sendhon tlutur. The gendhing should be more light and reflectively up-beat like Gambirsawit or Menyan Kobar or Wilujeng it was explained. People took this very seriously and those who told us made a special appointment to our house to talk to us about this the afternoon before the klenengan. Pak Panggah himself was also beating himself up (seriously—he was really upset) over having chosen “Pujangga Kingkin” as a gendhing last month. (Pujangga Laras referring to great and talented masters, in this case, of karawitan and Pujangga Kingin meaning “the masters are in tragedy/devastated”). So basically everyone was a mess. It was decided to hold a special Mulyararas in which I was told (at 10 pm that night right there) to contact the committee members of Pujangga Laras and) have them “manunggal rasa cipta” (be of one spirit) while the mulyararas was conducted. I was able to reach Barry and he was able to reach Anne I think, but that was all. The musicians held a mulyararas with the gendhing Gambirsawit, and a prologue speech by Bp. Darsono/vokal. After the mulyararas the atmosphere COMPLETELY and immediately changed. Everyone brightened up, and seemed uplifted and relieved. It was clearly what the community needed. The next klenengan will be sometime in late June. —Kitsie Emerson, Solo/Jakarta Acara Gendhing
Musicians Attending
Audience:
BudgetWe spent Rp. 6,770,000 or $740 (Rp. 9150= $1). |
