7 minute read
Hunting for Sound in Tana Humba
Sound Hunting at Tana Humba
Ata Ratu is playing Jungga - Dir. PMM
Advertisement
Maybe many of us are not familiar with the name of a place on Nusantara called Tana Humba. However, when we hear the name Sumba Island, we will immediately understand this beautiful and exotic island from this group of islands in East Nusa Tenggara Province. Yes, Tana Humba is the name for Sumba Island for the natives there. In addition to having natural beauty, the island covering an area of 10,710 square kilometers holds a cultural wealth in the form of unique sounds that can hardly be found anywhere in the world.
The sounds here are not just sounds without meaning, but sounds that contain aesthetic values and even magical-spiritual values for the people of Sumba Island. The sound blends into the joints of the life of the Tana Humba community, becoming part of the daily life of the community. The most common term to describe these sounds is “traditional music”.
Traditional music in Sumba (and its surroundings) emphasizes the beauty of vocal and lyrical elements more than the harmonization of sounds from instruments or musical instruments. This condition -- could be -- is the cause of the scarcity of musical instruments typical of the island of Sumba. This situation attracted the attention of musician Ivan Nestorman to form a Sound Hunting Team which aims to get to know each other more closely and at the same time record the sounds of Sumbanese musical instruments, so that the rich culture of Tana Humba can be better recognized by the wider community, especially the younger generation.
Dungga - Dir. PMM
First Hunt: Dungga, Dungga Roro and Dungga Kapoha
The hunt begins with finding and meeting the sound maestro on the island of Sumba. The first maestro met was Ndara Katoda, a dungga player with more than fifty years of familiarity with the Marapu musical instrument. To the Sound Hunting Team, he explained and demonstrated the use of dungga which turned out to have various variants of forms and how to play it. Ndara Katoda shows three musical instruments that he usually plays, namely dungga, dungga roro, and dungga kapoha.
Organologically, dungga, dungga roro, and dungga kapoha can be classified as chordophone musical instruments, which produce sound from the vibration of strings or strings being plucked or swiped. To produce a louder sound, these vibrations are captured and echoed by a kind of resonance tube that is attached to the instrument body.
Ndara Katoda explains and demonstrates the musical instrument he always plays. First, this maestro showed his skill in singing while playing dungga roro. This musical instrument is elongated like a bow made of medium-sized bamboo with a length of approximately one meter. In this bamboo, one string is stretched and tied to a small piece of bamboo that can be rotated to get the desired tone frequency. At the bottom there is a coconut shell which functions as a resonance tube which is covered with animal skin. The way to sound dungga roro is to swipe the strings over the coconut shell with a small bow. While singing voicing Sumbanese lyrics, Ndara Katoda sandwiches a bamboo stick between her thumb and index finger, while her index, middle and ring fingers alternately press the strings on the bamboo stalks. The sound produced is in line with the song he sings. Meanwhile, the left hand holds a small bow which is used to rub the lower part of the bamboo stalk adjacent to the resonance shell.
Ndara Katoda then plucked the dungga. At first glance, this instrument is similar to a ukulele with three strings, but the way to play it is not held in the hands of a guitar or ukulele. Dungga is played by holding it against the musicians, and the strings on the dungga are plucked with the left and right thumbs to produce a
Dungga’s face
- Dir. PMM
Harmony between generations-
rhythmic tone, as if inviting the listener to dance. The Soundhunting Team couldn’t help to move their heads, nodding to the maestro’s rhythm.
The last musical instrument is the dungga kapoha. In contrast to dungga, which invites listeners to have fun and dance, dungga cathode is usually played to sing sad or melancholic songs. In size and shape, this instrument is similar to the dungga roro, but there are very striking differences. First, it is not made of bamboo, but of solid wood that is shaped lengthwise and slightly curved like a bow. Second, the position of the resonant tube is inverted and not closed, so it resembles a dipper to take water. And third, this is the most unique, namely the position of playing dungga kapoha is the opposite of dungga roro, where the right hand plays the role of plucking the strings and the left hand plays the role of pressing the strings on the wooden stick to produce high and low notes.
Not only that, the Sound Hunting Team was also amazed by the placement of the resonant tube, which was opened and closed by loosening and tightening the players’ grips, while plucking the strings. Ndara Katoda explained that this was done to obtain variations in the high and low frequencies of the tone and color of the voice. The existence of Dungga Kapoha is indeed very special. Besides the unique way of playing it, Ndara Katoda’s dungga kapoha is actually the only dungga kapoha left on Sumba Island. Ndara explained that he got the instrument from his father, who is also a dungga player.
Ndara Katoda explained that hhe could no longer make dungga kapoha. In addition to the time-consuming manufacturing process, the materials used are very difficult to obtain, especially for the manufacture of resonance tubes. The tube is not made from coconut shells, but from a kind of forest gourd which is now rarely found on Sumba Island. Even so, Ndara hopes that one day there will be a younger generation who will learn and revitalize the musical instrument inherited from their parents.
Ndara Katoda is demonstrating how to play Dungga Kapoha -
Ivan Nestorman (right), a musician from Flores, is researching sounds from Sumba
Hearing sad songs accompanied by dungga kapoha, also knowing its existence which is almost extinct, makes our hearts feel sad.
Second Hunt: Jungga
Next, we visited the residence of Ata Ratu, the only female maestro of Jungga on Sumba Island. The poems sung to Jungga’s accompaniment contain various messages, also invite listeners to preserve Sumba’s customs and culture. Just like dungga, jungga can also be classified as a chordophone musical instrument. At first glance, this instrument is similar to a guitar or ukulele, having a resonant tube that attaches to the body of the instrument with four strings running across it.
Jungga, known by the people of East Sumba, was adapted from the traditional juk musical instrument from Sabu, a small island in the south of the East Nusa Tenggara archipelago. Cultural exchanges and marriages between the people of Sumba and Sabu played a role in introducing the juk musical instrument in Sumba, even though it was known by another name, namely jungga. The instrument was then commonly used by the people of Sumba to accompany song lyrics to traditional Marapu ritual activities, such as weddings and death to liven up the atmosphere.
Hunting Results: Unique Sounds and the Future of Sumba’s Music
From this sound hunting in Tana Humba, it was found that the unique sound of Sumba, that the musical instrument that accompanies the singing turns out to have a unique role. The sound of a musical instrument is not in the form of harmonizing tones in the form of an accord (as in the Western version of the guitar), but rather on a unisono accompaniment, which sounds in tune with the vocal tone that is sung. In addition, the limited availability of raw materials makes musical instrument makers in Sumba look for alternatives, such as jungga strings that were previously made using horsetail hair, now can be made from motorcycle clutch cable. The reason is, besides being easier to get, the sound produced is also louder. Here we can find that the limited availability of raw materials should not be a constraint.
The efforts of the Sound Hunting Team from Southern Indonesia in taking notes, recording, and archiving the treasures of traditional music certainly have a major impact on the protection, development and use of traditional music. The younger generation should not miss it.
