Search - Various Artists :: Music of Indonesia, Vol. 16: Music from the Southeast : Sumbawa, Sumba, Timor)

This is number 16 in the Smithsonian Folkways series that proves that there is much more to the music of Indonesia than simply gamelan. In this series, musicologist Philip Yampolsky studies the small islands in the southeast, often known as Lesser Sunda. The songs from Sumbawa feature vocals accompanied by violin. These popular folk songs, sung and played with a lot of ornamentation and energy, are from an older repertoire called biola rawa Mbojo; traditional tunes, they relate a sailor's difficult journey and the woman he left behind, and a prince's journey to his lover. From eastern Sumba, the rough, wiry sound of plucked lutes called jungga are accompanied by singers who wail their songs in a way that will sound a bit bluesy to the western ear. There are also two excerpts of funeral pieces from this island performed by a small gong ensemble. Tracks from Timor, the largest of the islands in southeast Indonesia, include a gong ensemble, singers and dancers performing a circle dance, and some exuberant string bands of fiddle, and a lead and rhythm guitar, sometimes accompanied by a singer. These are robust pieces, pushing the single chord of the guitar with incessant energy. As always with this series, the liner notes are extensive and include geographical, historical, musical and cultural information in abundance. --Louis Gibson