05:00 pm
Dedy Hernawan Composition, Suling, Tarawangsa
Devi Anggitaningrum Kacapi
Muhammad Gilang Assadillah Kendang
Gamelan degung with a modern twist! Playing contemporary and traditional compositions, the ensemble Simpay Paranatas from West Java fills the Konzerthaus with the meditative sounds of traditional instruments from the Indonesian islands. In doing so, Simpay Paranatas hearkens back to centuries of traditional religious ceremonies and courtly rituals of Indonesia. One of its characteristic instruments is the tarawangsa – a two-stringed chordophone, one of whose strings is played with a round bow, the other only plucked. Like no other instrument, the tarawangsa represents the music and culture of Indonesia; it has even produced its own musical form. Another common formation is the duo of the zither-like kacapi and the Indonesian bamboo flute suling, with its gentle and characteristic sonic colours. Simpay Paranatas is the smallest possible form of a gamelan orchestra, a “gamelan degung”; it brings the rich musical history of Indonesia and its vibrant heritage to the Konzerthaus Berlin!
Since 2010, Simpay Paranatas has dedicated itself to the performance, research and training in karawitan, the musical tradition of Java, a form of Indonesian ensemble music also encompassing gamelan degung. The tradition of karawitan is deeply rooted in Sundanese culture, including instrumental music with percussion, bamboo flutes and string instruments as well as vocal music. Its enchanting melodies and rhythmic patterns impressed Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, who discovered gamelan music for the first time during the Paris World Fair in 1889. In 2019, Simpay Paranatas performed on the original instruments used by the gamelan orchestra that played in Paris in 1889, commemorating the 130th anniversary of this event.
At home in Sumedang in West Java, the musicians of Simpay Paranatas can be heard regularly outside of Indonesia, e.g. in France. The ensemble’s director, Dedy Hernawan, is particularly interested in cooperation and joint projects with ensembles representing other musical traditions; the most recent being the French wind quintet Le Concert Impromptu in 2023. Simpay Paranatas thus pursues the goal of preserving and refreshing the rich musical tradition of karawitan, making it accessible to younger generations and other cultures, and raising enthusiasm for the beauty, complexity and diversity of Sundanese musical culture.
The composer, musician and pedagogue Dedy Hernawan (b. 1972) plays several traditional gamelan instruments, including the bamboo flute suling, the string instrument rebab and the famous string instrument tarawangsa. Since graduating with a degree in music pedagogy from the Indonesian University of Pedagogy, he has passed on his profound musical knowledge as a teacher and by working on educational concepts. Hernawan’s compositions have been performed at numerous festivals in Indonesia as well as in Berlin at the festival transonic, at the Donaueschingen Music Days, at the Oversteek Festival in Utrecht by the Ensemble Gending and in Madrid by the Ensemble Neopercusión. Dedy Hernawan is the chairman of the association supporting Simpay Paranatas, for whose performances he composes and arranges, and the founder of an international gamelan festival in Sumedang, Indonesia.
The 24-year-old musician and dancer Devi Anggitaningrum trained in traditional dance at the Institute of Dance Raga Sawirahma, where she worked with the choreographer Ade Dida Nurinra. At the same time, as part of the activities of Simpay Paranatas, she received lessons from Dedy Hernawan in composition, gamelan instruments and the string instrument tarawangsa. In 2023, she completed a degree in music pedagogy at the Indonesian University of Pedagogy in Bandung. Even while still a student, Anggitaningrum won numerous prizes at dance and music competitions. Together with Simpay Paranatas, she performed with the wind quintet Le Concert Impromptu in Jakarta, commemorating the 70-year anniversary of diplomatic relations between Indonesia and France. In this constellation, she also participated in a tour of France in 2023 and was a guest teacher at the French School in Jakarta. In 2022, Devi Anggitaningrum played Harry Roesli’s song “Sekar Jepun” at the festival Infinite Gamelan in Bandung, combining the sounds of gamelan and prog rock.
Muhammad Gilang Assadillah was born in Sumedang in 1999. Within Simpay Paranatas, he plays the zither kacapi and kendang, a set of Indonesian barrel drums, among other instruments. He graduated from the Institute of Indonesian Arts and Culture in Bandung, where he majored in music pedagogy. Since 2017, he has been the director of the tanji ensemble Giri Indah Putra. Tanji is a West Javanese musical tradition using western (wind) instruments and combining them with the scales and instruments of Sundanese music. Assadillah thus combines the music of his homeland with western influences in his work. In 2023, Muhammad Gilang Assadillah was part of the “Tour de France” which Simpay Paranatas undertook together with the French wind quintet Le Concert Impromptu.