Sounds And Music

Behold the greatest masterpiece on the screen of Space and Time:A wonderful world; but no lovely sights were there no light, no stars to see were there no night. It would be dead were there no soul, no stir; of revolving, rotating planets, of sailing clouds, flowing water, waving trees, of crawling, fluttering, breathing life. It would be cold were there no warmth, or dull were there no forms, no shapes, no colors, scents and fragrances.  And having created this work of art, the Creator still added another master’s stroke of delightful sounds to break the silence of the world.

Hear the delightful sounds of water murmuring, gurgling, babbling in a brook or splashing, rushing, roaring in a river; of fallen leaves, the golden paddy, Alang-Alang (sedge) rustling and trees whispering, sighing in the wind; the patter on the roof, the merry song of frogs and children playing in the rain. 

Listen to a Tekukur (wood-pigeon) calling, high up in a tree and one senses the vastness and stillness of the sky.

Hear the breeze-like sound of cicadas (Uir-Uir) and one is transported to the country and the woods.

The “croak” of a frog, the “tuit” of the night-bird, the “thud” of a fruit falling off its branch, or a gecko “firing” into some eternity, makes one feel something of the essence of the night. 

Then hear such wonderful sounds as simple and natural as the crackle and the sizzle in a frying pan, or water dripping musically into a basin, of chiseling marble or chopping meat, a horse walking or trotting through a lonely road; the chimes of a clock or church bells, a lovely voice through a telephone, … 

Only artists create music out of sounds, – others produce a hell of noises. How eloquent music is. It is even more eloquent then speech. Really, music must be made up of lyrics in sounds.

Hearing  Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, we would be inspired to march bravely to the end unable to surrender. We would desperately fall in love with Porgy’s Bess, though she’s such a liquor guzzling slut in Gershwin’s opera and weep with Bach for someone who even isn’t a brother, a father or a son of us in his Matthaus Passion. 

Poetry must be music translated into verse, a painting must be music in line and colors. The gending (Javanese Music) sounds like coming from some celestial abode, borne on the deepest awe-inspiring gong, as if to pervade our being and the world. And how fascinating is even a recitative of a dalang  (puppeteer) or a qori(ah) who recites the Koran. 

Yet, no less wonderful are such little pieces as a prelude of Chopin, or a sunny, carefree, play-full sonatine, or songs some people refer to as Pop music or hiburan. All the same, they perform them with no less feeling than opera artists. 

Our Pesinden (a singing woman) sings as beautiful as the Lorelei; even old men would feel like young again and they make husbands forget about their wives. The Kecapi-Suling (the flute and zither) sounds so heart-rending, one would contract heartache. 

These little pieces certainly are as wonderful as the best of symphonies, opera’s or oratorios. They’re as wonderful as a cricket’s chirping to the nightingale’s song, or as falling Sawah  (wet rice-field) water to the Niagara Falls, or as a firefly to the dazzling sun.

Indonesia Times, May 27, 1987 

Note: 

Feast your ears on sounds and music, but I warn you: To listen too much would be as hellish as forcing oneself to eat more when one has had enough. Hearing music very badly performed or out of tune would be as awful as eating food without salt. While forcing oneself to enjoy a piece of music one doesn’t like, would be very agonizing.