ダンドゥットの成立と発展(I):近代演劇の成立とオルケス・ムラユ

Abstract

The origin of dangdut, the most popular music in Indonesia, is said to be musik Melayu, which was played by orkes Melayu in the 1950s. But it has not been clarified how musik Melayu, which was only played in the Malay Peninsula, the east coast of Sumatera, and West Kalimantan, became popular and firmly established in Jawa, particularly in Batavia before the 1950s. This paper highlights the change and development of orkes Melayu in the late 19th century and early decades of the 20th century through the development of bangsawan and Komedi Stamboel, pre-modern theatre in Indonesia and Malaysia. In the late 19th century, bangsawan was not widely popular among the Javanese in Jawa because of its high Malay language and musik Melayu. But in the early 20th century, musik Melayu began to spread among Javanese people through Komedi Stamboel and other troupes which imitated the style of Komedi Stamboel. Under these conditions, samrah Betawi, which was greatly influenced by bangsawan, was formed at Batavia in 1918. Because Malay language called Melayu Betawi had been used as a common language among the inhabitants of Batavia, it was relatively easy for them to accept and enjoy Malay theatre and music. Musik samrah played in samrah Betawi was also influenced by musik Melayu in terms of the composition of musical instruments, scale and rhythm. The characteristic of musik samrah was the use of the harmonium, a typical Indian musical instrument, as a result of which musik samrah was often called orkes harmonium. It is likely that this orkes harmonium was the same as orkes Melayu which was often called orkes harmonium in the 1930s.