Indra Swara | |
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Background information | |
Origin | Mexico City, Mexico |
Genres | Gamelan |
Years active | 2002–present |
Website | www |
Indra Swara [1] (Gamelan Indra Swara) is a group promoting Indonesian art and culture in Mexico. [2] It was created in December 2002 and it is mostly made up of young Mexicans, enthusiasts of Asian arts and particularly those of Indonesia. Some of its members have had the opportunity to study directly in the islands of Java and Bali through the Darmasiswa Scholarship program offered by the Indonesian government.
Its foundation dates back to the spring of 2002, when its founder, Fitra Ismu Kusumo [3] had just arrived in Mexico. Seeing that the gamelan of the Indonesian Embassy was not used as such, but was merely a decorative object on display, along with former Darmasiswas Miguel Piñeda and Carolina Malgarego decided to seize the opportunity and use the Javanese slendro owned by the Embassy.
During the summer of that year, other Darmasiswa grantees returned from Indonesia: Ilse Peralta and Shawn Callahan (American). Shawn, Fitra, Miguel, Carolina and Ilse had known each other since 2000 while in Indonesia. Ilse Peralta returns to Mexico with the idea of forming an Indonesian art and culture group which she calls "Majapahit", [4] based on her Balinese dance studies; while Fitra Ismu keeps the concept of gamelan and making use of the gamelan at the Embassy, he invites the music schools in Mexico City (Escuela Nacional de Música, Escuela Superior de Música and Conservatorio Nacional de Música (Mexico), extending this invitation to their students to learn how to play the gamelan together as a group. At that time, Emilio Esteban, Zianya Nandayapa, Iván Flores Morán, Jorge Vazquez, Olinka Flores, Yarandari and other young people joined to learn how to play the gamelan. In that same summer of 2002, the gamelan group Indra Swara was founded at the Indonesian Embassy in Mexico. [5]
The main objective of the group is to provide a space to publicize and promote, in Mexico and its surroundings, the ancient art and culture of Indonesia through a musical group of gamelan orchestra. [6] [7] It isn’t until 2005 that the group manages to get its own gamelan. Since March 2003 Fitra Ismu manages to raise enough money for the purchase of a gamelan and its freight from Java Indonesia to Mexico City. This is achieved, of course, with the administrative support of the Indonesian Embassy in Mexico, making use of the facilities available to its diplomatic corps.
In February 2007 under the direction of Emilio Esteban, the group managed to release its first album, [8] which was considered a great achievement for the group. Likewise, performances including both music and sendra tari (theater with gamelan and traditional dance) were staged with the unconditional support of Camilo García and Katherine Ziggler (Kate Asmara), both former Darmasiswas for the period 2004-2008.
Between the winter of 2009 and the spring of 2011, under the coordination of Fitra Ismu, the Javanese gamelan instruments were taught in a music school; this was done at the Centro Cultural Ollin Yoliztli, and the opportunity was provided by one of the Center's directors, Mr. Francisco Becerra Maza. Those who taught the gamelan classes were Esteban Gonzales, Huitzilin Sanchez and Fitra Ismu, borrowing the Surakartan style pelog slendro Javanese gamelan from the Indonesian embassy in Mexico. The gamelan teaching program at this school had to be stopped due to lack of sponsor.
Indra Swara has benefited from the advice of two dance and music teachers: Balinese dancer and ethnomusicologist Bapak I Nyoman Wenten and Javanese ethnomusicologist Bapak Joko Walujo, both masters of Indonesian art at the California Institute of the Arts (CALARTS) in Los Angeles, California. In 2003, 2005 and 2014 they visited Mexico to teach short courses and give presentations. Likewise, Jody Diamond, composer and artist in residence at Harvard University has visited Mexico to give gamelan courses. As regards traditional dance, the group has had the advice of teacher Irawati Durban Ardjo, specialist in the Sundanese style (West Java), who visited Mexico in 2005. [9] [10]
In 2014 the Indra Swara Group forms a new division that includes its gamelan degung set which it calls Gamelan Barudak, since a team member, Daniel Milán, [11] returns to Mexico in 2014 after almost 5 years of learning the art of gamelan degung in West Java, Indonesia. In that same year, the first Indonesian shadow puppet play (wayang kulit) was also presented and the special division for presenting puppet plays was created. [12] [13] [14] Since then, Indra Swara has been expanding, and in addition to promoting the gamelan / music and dance (which had been doing before), also begins to promote the art of Indonesian puppets. [15]
In 2015 the Mexican percussionist group Tambuco, with 4 Grammy Award nominations, borrowed the gamelan from Indra Swara (its degung Barudak gamelan ensemble) to present the work of Lou Harrison "Threnody for Carlos Chávez" within the framework of the Historic Center Festival in Mexico City during the spring of 2015, for the same reason that at that time it was the only set of gamelan degung in Latin America. [16] [17] [18] [19] [20]
Likewise, a very famous jazz group from Indonesia, Krakatau, during its visit to participate in the 2008 Festival Internacional Cervantino in Guanajuato, through its director, Dwiki Dharmawan, gave Indra Swara several traditional Indonesian instruments. In 2012 the group of musicians from the Mangkunegaran Palace court also visited Mexico for their participation in the 2012 Cervantino Festival and the musicians presented Indra Swara with various shadow puppets, fabrics and equipment for shadow puppet presentations (Wayang kulit). [21]
In 2003, Fitra Ismu began working at the Indonesian Embassy in Mexico as an assistant to the cultural attaché of that diplomatic corps, which greatly facilitated the movement of the group especially to seek and hold events with the support of the Embassy as part of the country's cultural promotion strategy in Mexico. In 2004 Emilio Esteban returned from Indonesia (after having left with the Darmasiswa scholarship program) and in 2005 the gamelan pelog instruments belonging to the group arrived from Indonesia. A regeneration of the group took place, in which Emilio Esteban became director of the group (2005-2013) and Fitra Ismu remained as founder and, using his position in the Embassy (where he worked until 2012) he also serves as promoter for the group (from 2005 to date).
Number | Director | From | To |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Fitra Ismu Kusumo | August 2002 | August 2005 |
2 | Emilio Esteban Gonzáles Alfonzo | August 2005 | July 2013 |
3 | Luis Alberto León Santillan | July 2013 | July 2014 |
4 | Tomasz Matlingiewicz (artistic dir.) | Oct. 2013 | April 2014 |
5 | Lourdes Noemí Nava Jiménez | July 2014 | March 27, 2015 |
6 | Fitra Ismu Kusumo | March 27, 2015 | to date |
7 | Brandon Hubert Yu (artistic dir.) | August 17, 2017 | to date |
Indra swara originated with a Javanese slendro Javanese gamelan set from Indonesia, and since 2002 and over time it has been acquiring more materials from Indonesia with the main idea of promoting Indonesia in Mexico and amongst Spanish speakers. Since its foundation, Indra Swara has acquired several traditional Indonesian instruments such as Hasapi, gendang melayu/Kendang, various types of flutes/suling, Rebab, Kacapi and some Sasando. Currently, the divisions (conformation) of the group are:
Indra Swara started to acquire puppets since 2007, and by 2010 it was possible for them to buy a box of Javanese shadow puppets containing 180 characters; although this box is still in Indonesia due to lack of funds to bring it to Mexico. [26] Since 2014, the gamelan and dance music presentations have been expanded to incorporate Indonesian puppet art, [27] both shadow puppets (Wayang kulit) [28] and wooden puppets (Wayang golek). [29] This strategy has been effective because since 2014 Mexicans have had the opportunity to learn more about Indonesia through these puppet shows, [30] and in addition, this has given the group more opportunities to present themselves in front of the public. Indra Swara intends to create more divisions and concepts of art presentation, [31] [32] since more and more innovation and creativity is required to promote the art and culture of Indonesia in the Spanish-speaking world. [33] One of the efforts of the Indra Swara group to promote the Indonesian art of puppetry has been through the donation [34] [35] of several puppets to the puppet museums of Mexico, such as the Puppet History Museum in Estado de Mexico and the Casa del Títere Museum in Puebla. In addition, Fitra Ismu, during the period 2005-2007, had already served as facilitator for donations made by the Indonesian Embassy in Mexico to several institutions in Mexico, including the National Museum of Cultures in Mexico City. [36] [37] [38] [39]
The following books (written by Fitra Ismu using his own versions of the traditional stories) are used as material that serves as the basis for the group’s puppet shows or storytelling performances:
Gamelan is the traditional ensemble music of the Javanese, Sundanese, and Balinese peoples of Indonesia, made up predominantly of percussive instruments. The most common instruments used are metallophones and a set of hand-drums called kendang, which keep the beat. The kemanak, a banana-shaped idiophone, and the gangsa, another metallophone, are also commonly used gamelan instruments on Bali. Other notable instruments include xylophones, bamboo flutes, a bowed string instrument called a rebab, and a zither-like instrument called a siter, used in Javanese gamelan. Additionally, vocalists may be featured, being referred to as sindhen for females or gerong for males.
Gamelan degung is a form of Sundanese musical ensemble that uses a subset of modified gamelan instruments with a particular mode of degung scale. The instruments are manufactured under local conditions in towns in West Java such as Bogor and Bandung. Degung music is often played at public gatherings in West Java, such as at local elections, as well as many other events. There is international interest in degung as well among communities in other countries interested in Indonesian and gamelan music.
West Java is an Indonesian province on the western part of the island of Java, with its provincial capital in Bandung. West Java is bordered by the province of Banten and the country's capital region of Jakarta to the west, the Java Sea to the north, the province of Central Java to the east and the Indian Ocean to the south. With Banten, this province is the native homeland of the Sundanese people, the second-largest ethnic group in Indonesia.
Central Java is a province of Indonesia, located in the middle of the island of Java. Its administrative capital is Semarang. It is bordered by West Java in the west, the Indian Ocean and the Special Region of Yogyakarta in the south, East Java in the east, and the Java Sea in the north. It has a total area of 33,750.37 km2, with a population of 36,516,035 at the 2020 Census making it the third-most populous province in both Java and Indonesia after West Java and East Java. The official population estimate in mid-2023 was 37,608,336 The province also includes a number of offshore islands, including the island of Nusakambangan in the south, and the Karimun Jawa Islands in the Java Sea.
Wayang is a traditional form of puppet theatre play originating from the Indonesian island of Java. Wayang refers to the entire dramatic show. Sometimes the leather puppet itself is referred to as wayang. Performances of wayang puppet theatre are accompanied by a gamelan orchestra in Java, and by gender wayang in Bali. The dramatic stories depict mythologies, such as episodes from the Hindu epics the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, as well as local adaptations of cultural legends. Traditionally, a wayang is played out in a ritualized midnight-to-dawn show by a dalang, an artist and spiritual leader; people watch the show from both sides of the screen.
The culture of Indonesia has been shaped by the interplay of indigenous customs and diverse foreign influences. With over 1,300 distinct ethnic groups, including significant Austronesian and Melanesian cultures, contributing to its rich traditions, languages, and customs, Indonesia is a melting pot of diversity. Positioned along ancient trade routes between the Far East, South Asia, and the Middle East, the country has absorbed cultural practices influenced by Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Islam, and Christianity. These influences have created a complex cultural tapestry that often differs from the original indigenous cultures.
The Music of Java embraces a wide variety of styles, both traditional and contemporary, reflecting the diversity of the island and its lengthy history. Apart from traditional forms that maintain connections to musical styles many centuries old, there are also many unique styles and conventions which combine elements from many other regional influences, including those of neighbouring Asian cultures and European colonial forms.
Shadow play, also known as shadow puppetry, is an ancient form of storytelling and entertainment which uses flat articulated cut-out figures which are held between a source of light and a translucent screen or scrim. The cut-out shapes of the puppets sometimes include translucent color or other types of detailing. Various effects can be achieved by moving both the puppets and the light source. A skilled puppeteer can make the figures appear to walk, dance, fight, nod and laugh.
Yogyakarta is the capital city of the Special Region of Yogyakarta in Indonesia, in the south-central part of the island of Java. As the only Indonesian royal city still ruled by a monarchy, Yogyakarta is regarded as an important centre for classical Javanese fine arts and culture such as ballet, batik textiles, drama, literature, music, poetry, silversmithing, visual arts, and wayang puppetry. Renowned as a centre of Indonesian education, Yogyakarta is home to a large student population and dozens of schools and universities, including Gadjah Mada University, the country's largest institute of higher education and one of its most prestigious.
Wayang wong, also known as wayang orang, is a type of classical Javanese and Balinese dance theatrical performance with themes taken from episodes of the Ramayāna or Mahabharāta. Performances are stylised, reflecting Javanese court culture:
Wayang wong dance drama in the central Javanese Kraton of Yogyakarta represents the epitome of Javanese aesthetic unity. It is total theatre involving dance, drama, music, visual arts, language, and literature. A highly cultured sense of formality permeates every aspect of its presentation.
Gamelan, although Indonesia is its origin place, is found outside of that country. There are forms of gamelan that have developed outside Indonesia, such as American gamelan and Malay Gamelan in Malaysia.
Semar is a character in Javanese mythology who frequently appears in wayang shadow plays. He is one of the punokawan (clowns) but is divine and very wise. He is the dhanyang of Java, and is regarded by some as the most sacred figure of the wayang set. He is said to be the god Sang Hyang Ismaya in human form.
The Sonobudoyo Museum is a Javanese history and culture museum and library in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The museum contains the most complete collection of Javanese artifacts, after the National Museum in Jakarta. In addition to ceramics of the Neolithic era and bronze sculptures from the 8th century, the museum also includes collections of wayang, various ancient weapons, and Javanese masks.
The Wayang Museum is a museum dedicated to Javan wayang puppetry. The museum is located in Kota Tua, Jakarta, Indonesia. It is one of several museums and galleries facing Fatahillah Square, which include the Jakarta History Museum, Fine Art and Ceramic Museum, and Kota Post Office art gallery.
The nations of Indonesia and Mexico established diplomatic relations in 1953. Both nations view their counterpart as strategic partners in each other's regions; Indonesia in Southeast Asia and Mexico in Latin America. Both nations are mutual members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, Forum of East Asia-Latin America Cooperation, Group of 15, G20, MIKTA, United Nations, and the World Trade Organization.
Wayang kulit is a traditional form of shadow puppetry originally found in the cultures of Java and Bali in Indonesia. In a wayang kulit performance, the puppet figures are rear-projected on a taut linen screen with a coconut oil light. The dalang manipulates carved leather figures between the lamp and the screen to bring the shadows to life. The narratives of wayang kulit often have to do with the major theme of good vs. evil.
It is quite difficult to define Indonesian art, since the country is immensely diverse. The sprawling archipelago nation consists of 17,000 islands. Around 922 of those permanently inhabited, by over 1,300 ethnic groups, which speak more than 700 living languages.
Fitra Ismu Kusumo is a promoter of Indonesian art and Culture in Mexico, since 2002 and founder of Indra Swara, introducing Indonesia through Gamelan, Indonesian traditional dances and also through its puppeteering art. As a researcher his area of specialty is Muslims and Islam in Mexico and Latin America.
Indonesian theatre is a type of art in the form of drama performances that are staged on a stage, with a distinct Indonesian nuance or background. In general, theatre is an art that emphasizes the performing arts that are displayed in front of a large crowd. In other words, theater is a form of visualisation of a drama that is staged on the stage and watched by the audience. Indonesian theatre includes the performing arts of traditional theater and modern theatre located in the territory of Indonesia. Some examples of Indonesian theater are Arja, Wayang, Wayang wong, Lenong, Ludruk, Janger, Randai and others. Theatre in Indonesia can also be referred to as regional or ethnic theatre, because it originates and develops from 1,300 ethnic cultures in Indonesia.
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