ダンドゥットの成立と発展(II) : オルケス・ムラユの発展とムラユ音楽

Abstract

It is largely agreed that the origin of dangdut, the most popular music in Indonesia, is musik Melayu. This paper highlights the changes and development of this musik Melayu, which was played by orkes Melayu in 1950-65. In 1951-54, Malayan films were so popular in Indonesia that the music in these films, especially P. Ramlee's songs, were favorites with Indonesian people and many orkes (musical groups) imitated and played P. Ramlee's songs. The most popular orkes Melayu at that time were Orkes Melayu Sinar Medan and Orkes Melayu Kenangan. In 1954-58, Orkes Melayu Bukit Siguntang reached the peak of its popularity, through such popular singers as Hasnah Tahar, Nur'ain, and Suhaimi. They combined diverse musical influences, including Indian and Latin music, with musik Melayu and composed songs that differed from the previous orkes Melayu. By 1959, Orkes Melayu Bukit Siguntang had declined in popularity under the onslaught of rock 'n' roll, although Serodja, a solemn Melayu song sung by Said Effendi, was a big hit in 1959-60. In the development of the concept of "Indonesia" following the "sumpah pemuda" (youth oath) of 1928, polemic about how a new Indonesian culture should be created, arose among intellectuals. This polemic was known as "polemik kebudayaan (Culture Polemic)." Kroncong was regarded as national music (musik nasional) because kroncong songs were composed and sung to encourage the Indonesian people during the war of Independence. But the popularity of kroncong had declined by 1954. Musik Melayu was then popular, but musik Melayu was not regarded as national music. Rather, it was thought of as a lower form than other kinds of music and as one type of ethnic music in Indonesia. The term Melayu had been used to indicate Indonesia, as in Bahasa Melayu (Bahasa Indonesia). But the term Melayu in musik Melayu referred to one of the ethnic groups in Indonesia. Orkes Melayu was called orkes Harmonium before the 1950s. But the name was changed to orkes Melayu because its musical style was largely influenced by Malay (Melayu) film songs. Sukarno criticized rock 'n' roll in his speech of 17th August 1959 as decadent and culture-imperialistic. In this leftwing political atmosphere, western culture like rock 'n' roll and film was restricted. In its place, Minangkabau (West Sumatera) songs became popular in 1960 as a good model of Indonesian national culture. Under these conditions, Orkes Kelana Ria was formed in 1962 and released a remarkable first album entitled "Kafilah." Ellya Agus, one of the singers of this orkes, sang several Indian-influenced Melayu songs. Orkes Melayu had usually utilized gendang besides violin, piano, acoordion, clarinet, contrabass, guitar, and trumpet. But Orkes Kelana Ria utilized suling and gendang, two indispensable musical instruments for dangdut, for the first time. However, these songs by Ellya Agus were banned under the stronger leftwing political atmosphere, together with other young bands like Kose Bersaudara, because of the strong Indian and western influence displayed.