Chapter II Literature Review and Theoretical Framework
Chapter II
Literature Review and Theoretical Framework
This chapter explains the literature review and the theoretical framework
which I used in doing my final project.
2. 1 Literature Review
In this section, I try to review several articles about angklungs in order
to find the gaps between what people have done in explaining angklung and
what I have improved in my product.
Little of books explaining angklung make it a bit difficult for both
domestic people and foreigners to know more about angklung. Many people
know angklung, but it does not mean they know the history about angklung.
Johanes (2011), in his article on the internet, Angklung is recognized by
UNESCO as world cultural heritage, explained about what angklung is. He
said that angklung is one of Indonesian traditional musical instruments made
of bamboo tubes. It is originated from West Java and this musical instrument
has become popular among the world. Therefore, on November 16th 2010, in
Nairobi, Kenya, UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization) recognized and endorsed angklung as a piece of
Indonesian heritage. However, this article does not explain angklung in more
details for its space as an article is not big enough. He also did not put enough
pictures to show what angklung is like.
In fact, angklung were already known well in international
community. It is proven by the data given by Syafii (2009) in his book about
angklung. He wrote the biography of Udjo Ngalagena (one of angklung
innovators). He also mentioned several countries which were already visited
by Udjo and his team, Saung Angklung Udjo in order to do cultural missions.
He made his book livelier by putting some pictures of Udjo and his
performance. However, by only telling the biography of Udjo is not enough
to explain angklung’s history, angklung’s types, the way of making angklung,
and also the way of playing angklung correctly which become my main
concern of this project.
Masunah (2003) explained that angklung is a traditional musical
instrument made of bamboo which is played by shaking. In addition, she also
explained that angklung is not only found in West Java, but also in several
regions. Besides angklung from West Java, she mentioned angklung
Banyuwangi and angklung Bali in her book. However, angklung which is
originally from Bali and Banyuwangi are different with angklung from West
Java. In Bali, angklung refers to a set of gamelan which consists of mostly
four-bladed musical instruments. On the other hand, angklung Banyuwangi
refers to an orchestra which consists of several traditional musical
instruments like gambang, suling, and kendang. This book generally tells
about angklung in West Java with its function and stories. Mostly, she tells
about the traditional angklung. Even though this book contents are good and
complete enough, this book is not sold freely in the bookstores. It only could
be found in several campuses‟ libraries. Thus, it is rather difficult for other
people who interested to know about angklung and wanted to read the book.
Knowing the types of angklung are not enough since angklung has its
own function. Wiramihardja (2011) explained in his article on the internet
that there are several functions of angklung based on its original. He said that
because most native people of West Java are farmers, angklung in West Java
had an important role in several ritual ceremonies like seren taun, ngurebkeun
pare, and panenan. In Bali, people used to play angklung in Pengaben (a kind
of cremation) ceremony. In Ponorogo, angklung was usually used in
accompanying Bersih Desa ceremony. Besides, in Sumenep, Madura,
angklung was used in pageant, or any procession. However, in this article,
angklung in West Java which become my main concern are not deeply
explained.
In another article, Hutari (2009) explained that angklung is made of
three bamboo tubes which are hung together and played by shaking the
instrument. In addition, he also explained that there are several kinds of
angklung in West java, those are angklung baduy, angklung dogdog lojor,
angklung gubrak, angklung badeng, angklung buncis, angklung bungko, and
angklung soetigna. This information is more complete than Johanes‟ article.
Furthermore, Hutari also added some information about the history of
angklung in his article. In the past, people usually played angklung to attract
Nyai Pohaci, the Goddes of Fertility, to come down to earth and bless their
rice fields. From that time, angklung has become a musical instrument that is
usually played by common people. Unfortunately, this article is not
completed by pictures of each type of angklung that may attract more people
to read and also make people understand more the difference among each
type of angklung.
Another article that I reviewed is about Daeng Sutigna, a figure of
angklung innovator. A website, called Angklung Web Institute (AWI) in
2005, post an e-book about angklung. This book entitled Buku Daeng
Sutigna. In this book, the author tried to expose Daeng Sutigna who has been
known as angklung innovator. He developed diatonic angklung. AWI also
said that Daeng Sutigna has changed the perception of angklung that it was
just a simple musical instrument played by street buskers to attract people‟s
attraction into musical instrument that could be effectively taught in class. For
his prestige in his innovation, he got Satyalancana Kebudayaan award from
ex-president of Indonesia, Soeharto. Even though this book is good enough in
explaining about Daeng Sutigna, yet the author only talked about Daeng
Sutigna that makes it less complete. Moreover, this book is presented in
electronic media version. Thus, it makes the book less practical to be read by
people.
In addition, Shaleh (n.d) in his article on the internet also added some
information about Daeng. Daeng was born in Garut, May 13th 1908 and
passed away in 1984. At the beginning, Daeng introduced diatonic angklung
only for boy scouts in Kuningan, then angklung became one of the extra
curriculum in that school. From these articles, I can conclude that Daeng
Sutigna was the one who developed diatonic angklung which become the
model of modern angklung. Even though Shaleh already put the picture of
angklung and also the picture of Daeng Sutigna, his way of delivering it is too
simple so that the curiosity of readers are not fulfilled .
Team Andriwongso.com (2007) in an online article stated that several
media had published the claim of batik as Malaysian heritage. In this article,
the author tried to ask people to preserve angklung. Thus, according to the
author, in preventing other countries to claim our culture artefact as their
own, the government has registered angklung and batik as Indonesian
heritage to UNESCO after approving keris and puppets as Indonesian
heritage. On the other hand, Johanes (2011) wrote in his article that UNESCO
had approved angklung as Indonesian heritage in November 2010. However,
less of picture made the article become less attractive. Besides, this article is
also delivered in Bahasa Indonesia, so that the foreigners have difficulty to
understand the content.
By collecting some information about angklung, I found the gap that it
was quite difficult to find books about angklung. Most articles about
angklung were easier to find through the internet. Meanwhile, article on the
internet is not practical enough to be read. Moreover, some articles that
consists the history of angklung were written in Bahasa Indonesia, this may
make difficulty for foreigners to understand it. Although one of the articles
above told about the types of angklung, it did not clearly elaborate each type
of it for the small space of an article usually has. In addition, less pictures of
angklung in most articles make it less attractive for the people to read the
article.
As a result, I wrote a book entitled “Angklung: the Story behind the
Harmony” which consists the history of angklung, the types of it, and also the
instructions of how to play and make it. Similar with the e-book entitled Buku
Daeng Sutigna, I explained the history of angklung and also the figures
behind it. Also almost similar with Hutari in his article that I also wanted to
explain the types of angklung. However, by making this product in English, I
could fill the gap that this book would help foreigners to find out more about
angklung. Considering the larger spaces that book have, I was freely
elaborating the types of angklung more. Furthermore, this book would be
more attractive if I put pictures of each angklung type and also the picture of
the figures.
2. 2 Theoretical Framework
This section explains about the theoretical framework that I used to
make the book. In making the book entitled “Angklung: the Story behind the
Harmony”, I needed some theories to guide me keep in the correct way of
writing. So, people can understand the information that I wanted to deliver
through this book. There are several theories that I used in making this
project. Those theories would be explained below.
1. Theory of history and story
As my purpose of my final project is to introduce the history of
angklung and its story, I would explain a little bit about both words‟
definition. The word „history‟ refers to the events of the „past‟. On the other
hand, the word „story‟ refers to „fiction‟. This is the main difference between
the two words (Aron, 2011). In my project, I wrote the history of angklung by
telling its stories.
2. Theory of harmony
Based on Oxford dictionary, “harmony” means pleasing combination
of musical notes. A good music is the one that has good harmony. In listening
music, people can feel its harmony. By putting the word „harmony‟ in my
project as the title, I try to tell the readers that angklung has a beautiful
harmony when it is played along with others musical instrument.
3. Theory of culture and preservation
“Culture is defined as the shared patterns of behaviors and
interactions, cognitive constructs, and affective understanding that are learned
through a process of socialization. These shared patterns identify the
members of a culture group while also distinguishing those of another group”
explained CARLA (Center for Research on Language Acquisition) (2012).
By knowing a culture, we can also recognize an identity of a group or a
country. Meanwhile, preservation means the deliberate act of keeping cultural
heritage from the present for the future (David, 1985). In my project, I am
trying to introduce and preserve one of Indonesian culture named angklung.
Angklung has a beautiful harmony which can represent the people of
Indonesia who live in harmony.
4. Theory of good writing
Since I decided to make a book, I have to consider the elements of
good writing. There are 5 elements of good writing according to Steele
(2010) those are purpose, audience, clarity, unity, and coherence. Meanwhile,
Houston (as cited in Purnamasari, 2011) said that there are three mains
general elements of writing that should be concerned by the author. Those are
subject, purpose, and audience.
There are two things which are similar that need to be concerned in
these theories; purpose and audience. However, subject that refers to thing
that is generally explained in the book is also important to be considered.
Houston said that there are three kinds of purpose, those are to inform, to
describe, and to persuade the readers. In this project, my purpose is to inform
the readers about angklung. Besides, I also have to concern about the
audience, and my target audience are foreigners.
In addition, Denis (2012) wrote in his article that the first thing which
is needed in writing is the idea. After that, we should let ourselves to write it
on the paper and then try to find the agent to publish the book. At last, come
up with a good name is necessary to be done. Here, I came up with a book
entitled “ANGKLUNG: the story behind the harmony” which was considered
as a good name because it is different and unique.
5. Theory of “you-attitude”
Locker (as cited in Shelby, 1995) said, "you-attitude is a style of
writing which looks at things from the reader's point of view, emphasizing
what the reader wants to know, respecting the reader's intelligence, and
protecting the reader's ego". This is important to respect the readers‟ feeling;
thus, I would use this theory in writing this book. For example, rather than
write “After knowing about the history of angklung, now I can easily
determine the difference of each angklung types”, it is better to write “You
can easily differentiate angklung by each type by knowing its history and
looking at the pictures.” This is because when I put the word “you”, it may
make the readers feel include in the conversation with the author.
Moreover, Narayanaswarni (2010) said in her article on the internet
that that author should be able to tell the benefit of their products to the reader
by seeing it from the reader‟s point of view. So, I can conclude that writing
sentences helped by you-attitude theory would make the book is better.
Therefore, the readers are expected to read the book with pleasure.
6. Theory of writing book
A good book is that the book which put the information in a good
order. In her article, Clairewait (2012) said that there are five simple steps to
start writing. Those are deciding the subject, doing some brainstorming,
finding the data and facts, arranging the ideas, and start writing all the
contents. I interpreted this theory as if the subject was angklung. Thus, I
decided what should be included in the book by doing brainstorming. After
that, I collected the data. In order to make people know where angklung from
was, I wrote the stories including the myths about Dewi Sri and its relation
with angklung. Moreover, I also wrote about angklung types along with its
location where it found to tell about angklung deeper to the readers. Then, in
order to overcome readers‟ curiosity in how to make angklung, I include a
chapter where all the steps needed in making angklung were briefly
explained. As additional information, I also wrote a chapter where the steps
of how to play angklung correctly were discussed along with its pictures.
In addition, Mubarok (2011) said in his book that there are 9
successful steps to write a book: first, explore the theme; second, decide the
title; third, make the outline; fourth, collect the facts; fifth, prove the facts;
sixth, interpret the data; seventh, update the data; eight, make a deadline;
ninth, prepare for the publishing. In my project, I had to explain first what my
subject is by telling about angklung from its history. Then, I tell the reader
about the types of angklung. After that, I explain about how to make and play
angklung. In addition, I also include several pictures of angklung and told
where the angklung originated from. By following this theory, I avoid the
jumping information and the readers are expected to enjoy the content of the
book where some pictures are also included.
7. Theory of writing style
In making a book that has a purpose to inform the readers, especially
in this book, there are several writing styles that should be used. In this book,
I used narrative, descriptive, and procedure writing styles.
a. Narrative text in delivering the history of angklung. Narrative is a kind of
text which elaborates a story with several emotions included. Suwarna
(2012) said in his book that narrative is a story about someone or
something when the author includes his happiness or sadness into it.
Based on the theory, it can be concluded that narrative text is appropriate
to be used in telling a story of something. In my book, there is a part
where the story and the myths of angklung are explained. So, I used this
writing style to tell the story of angklung and Nyai Pohaci, for example:
All people were worried. They did everything to
please Nyai Pohaci by holding karinding
performance, suling performance, and giving sesajen
(kind of sacrifice).
b. Descriptive text in delivering the information about the types of
angklung. Descriptive text is used by the writer to describe a concrete or
abstract object and consists of two components; identification and
description (Siahaan, 2008). “Descriptive text is one type of text which
shows characteristics of something by creating bright impression of a
place, person, or an event so that the readers can feel the particular
feeling of what has been described through the sentences “ Ahmad (as
cited in Purnama, 2011) said. In explaining the types of angklung; both
traditional and modern angklung, the clarity of the dictions are much
needed. Moreover, it should be delivered in good text order. By
considering this theory, I used descriptive text in delivering the chapter
“Traditional Angklung” and “Modern Angklung”. For example:
Angklung is musical instrument made of bamboo. To
play a song with it, you need to shake it in harmony
with other musical instruments or with another
angklung. It is one of Indonesian heritage which has
been known in almost all over the world.
c. Procedure text in delivering the instruction of how to make angklung and
how to play angklung. Siahaan also says in his book that procedure text
is a written that describes how something is made or done through
several steps. In this kind of text, there are several components: goal,
material, steps, and re-orientation. In the book, there are chapters where
the steps of making and playing angklung are explained. Based on the
theory, process text is the appropriate genre to be used in those chapters.
For example:
1. Hold angklung’s upper frame with your left hand
by griping upside or downside, while your right
hand is on the bottom side of angklung frame.
Then, shake it with your right wrist while your left
hand stays still.
2. Remember, the higher tube is on your right side,
and the lower one is on your left side.
8. Audience
I also had to consider the readers of the book. Thompson (as cited
in Rozimela, 2007) said that a good author should always consider about
the readers. He should know about what the reader would expect from his
book. He should be able to predict the content of the book which readers
may need. Thus, I wrote the information that covers all about angklung
such as the history of angklung, the kinds of angklung, and the instruction
of how to make and play angklung. This book I wrote in English since I
am trying to introduce angklung to foreigners as Indonesian heritage.
According to Webster's New World College Dictionary, foreigner is any
person regarded as an outsider or stranger.