Pencak silat ('the art of self defence') is a contemporary umbrella term used in Indonesia and Malaysia and other parts of Southeast Asia to designate the hundreds of traditional and modern martial art genres that are performed either solo or as a duel, and with or without musical accompaniment. The two components of the term designate the two parts of the one pencak silat genre: pencak, a performance art, and silat, a fighting and self defence art, with the latter sometimes involving the use of weapons such as a sword or dagger. The forms are associated with a range of local legends, religious concepts and philosophies, religions, and systems of customary law (adat), and are components of traditional education. This article explores traditional and modern forms of Pencak silat of the Suku Mamak in Riau, in which the collaborative roles of musicians, musical instruments and other participants are analysed. The article argues that the modern stateappropriated forms have developed in similar fashion throughout the Indonesian archipelago.

No abstract

No abstract

A music performance may be defined as the live presentation of a music event by musicians and other participants or stakeholders at a given time and place, usually in the presence of an audience. The concept of music performativity, on the other hand, includes not only the artist's/artists' production of sounds and movements, persona (stage presence), competence, approach, and style, but also influential factors such as the acoustics and style of the venue, the arrangement of the stage or arena, audience seating, the lighting, and the contributions of the director, technicians, backup artists, make-up artists, event organizers, entrepreneurs, audience, and patrons; indeed everyone involved in the process of bringing a performance to fruition. This article discusses the recent rise of thinking about performativity by interdisciplinary scholars, performers, music scholars, and performer-scholars, and proposes a comprehensive four-level methodology for research into music performativity. After investigating performative concepts such as persona, competence, interaction, improvisatory practices, cueing, and related attributes such as musicality, talent, and giftedness, the article discusses the factors of intersubjectivity (or group bonding), entrainment or groove, and reception. Finally, a case study exemplifies the proposed methodology, including how the members of a competent or accomplished Acehnese-Indonesian song-dance group communicate while performing, how their persona and intersubjective bonding affects the way they rehearse, cue, and perform their strenuous body percussion sounds, movements and songs with nearperfectly synchronous entrainment, tone colour and intonation, and how they interact with each other and the audience.

After word had spread that a reyog performance was to take place one morning late in 1971, the inhabitants of several villages gathered outdoors around a shaded spot in D6sa Mangkujayan (near Ponorogo, East Java), where a small g a m e l a n ensemble was being set up.The moment the music began, an exhilarating atmosphere was created, the reedy penetrating tone of the shawm (slompr^t) shifting its melodic figurations over a pulsating pattern of sound created by kettles { k e n o n g ) , suspended gongs ( k e m p u l ) , a small drum (t i p u n g ) and several three-tube, Ponorogo-style, bamboo a n gklung decorated in red and white. A very large drum (k e n d a n g P o n o r o g o ) worked with the slomprdt to give an element of continual musical variety in contrast to the regular rhythm and melody provided by the rest of the ensemble.The musical prologue ended with a curtain of musical silence.1Probably most members of the audience, who had come in anticipa tion of several hours of entertainment and spectacle, had forgotten, if indeed they had ever been wholly aware of, the full meaning of this art form of ancient origins.Seven dramatic scenes were to be presented by the r6yog performers, marked off from one another by silence.No particular plot would be enacted.But the masked and unmasked charac ters about to appear were well known to the audience through many p r e vious performances and through the associated r6yog legend, the various forms of which are known collectively today as the "Babad Kediri" or nBabad R6yog Ponorogo.M Moreover, a certain continuity of dramatic content would be apparent throughout, especially in the climactic sixth scene, in which the great pageant figure Barong would appear.Despite the largely secularized and depoliticized nature of the performance the audience expected to witness, they had already begun * 1 *1 have spelled some of the Javanese names of dances and musical pieces in their modern Indonesian form in accord with the way in which these names were passed on to me during my recent visits to Ponorogo. 1Musical form is determined by both silence and sound. This is especially striking in the case of a reyog performance, where musical pieces which together form a dramatic unity are clearly delineated from each other by silence. This is quite different from the almost unbroken musical continuity of an all-night wayang (puppet theater) performance.The 86to respond to the occasion with steadily increasing excitement, aware of the undertones of mysticism, sexuality, humor, and politics still inherent in the present-day concept of r6yog Ponorogo.The role of the audience was not only to watch but also to contribute to the occasion by emitting blood-curdling yells, sardonic ululations, humorous com ments, and the like.The men in the audience were also ready to p a r ticipate in long passages of dor (rhythmic chanting), helping to engen der and maintain an atmosphere of high emotional excitement.After a short introduction on the kendang and slomprSt, the whole ensemble entered to play t...