Depok, Indonesia - While many young people form bands to play top 40 songs, a group of students from the University of Indonesia School of Humanities in Depok, West Java, gather each week in a small classroom to practice the unique arumba.
Every Thursday, the students dedicate an hour off from their busy schedules to appreciate their cultural heritage. Arumba, an abbreviation for alunan rumpun bambu, is a percussion ensemble from West Java which comprises bamboo instruments, including angklung and ccompaniment gambang – a bamboo bass and bongo that sets rhythmic variation to the melodic arrangement.
Arumba was originally developed in Bandung to reduce the size of the famous angklung orchestra, which traditionally requires up to 30 musicians. Arumba meanwhile can be played with only six people.
Compared to angklung, which is widely recognized as one of the most famous Sundanese musical genres, arumba hasn’t achieved the same level of popularity. Arumba isn’t familiar to many, particularly the younger generations.
The arumba program has been part of the UI curriculum since 2006, led by Sundanese instructor Riuh Gumilang, who patiently teaches his students to play each arumba instrument.
While it is not difficult to play, arumba usually takes months for students to master.
The university now has more than five arumba groups that are often asked to perform for campus events. This includes a group of international students studying Indonesian language and culture. Their repertoire varies from folk songs such as “Alusi au” (from North Sumatra) and “Yamko Rambe Yamko” (from Papua), to pop songs originally performed by Indonesian singers and bands such as the late Chrisye and Nidji.
This extra-curricular activity has been received positively by students. It has even provided arumba club members with opportunities to study abroad and join international conferences under various scholarship programs.
One band, Gemilang, will take part in an international symposium in Taiwan later this month. Ghamal is set to participate in a student exchange program in Singapore for six months, and Gita is set to study in France for a year with the support of Beasiswa Unggulan, a scholarship program sponsored by the National Education Ministry.
Kang Riuh hopes more young Indonesians will continue to preserve their cultural heritage through the arumba. Riuh also provides lessons to Japanese women, some of whom have bought their own instruments. Riuh says foreigners are more interested in playing arumba than Indonesians.
“It’s sad when our people don’t appreciate our own culture,” he said.
But Riuh is optimistic about preserving the tradition though his enthusiastic students. He believes that his students will continue promoting arumba to the world for a bright future as an intangible element ig the world’s cultural heritage.
Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com
