HARMONIA : Journal of Arts Research and Education 14 (1) (2014): 65-71 p-ISSN 1411-5115 Available online at http://journal.unnes.ac.id/nju/index.php/harmonia e-ISSN 2355-3820 Permalink/DOIhttp://dx.doi.org/10.15294/harmonia.v14i1.2851

THE LESUNG MUSIC IN THE OF LEDOK BLORA

Suharto* Siti Aesijah** *Music Department, State University, Jl. Sekaran Campus Gunungpati Semarang, E-mail: [email protected] **Music Department, Semarang State University, Jl. Sekaran Campus Gunungpati Semarang, Indonesia E-mail: [email protected]

Received: Januari 2013. Accepted: Februari 2014. Published: Maret 2014

Abstract

This research aims to identify in order to preserve traditional art lesung music in Blora Regency. This research use ethnomusicology approach. The subject of research is Blora people who still play lesung music as an expression of social and cultural activities in the community. The setting of the research took place in Ledok village. The technique of collecting data is observation and interview. The validity of data uses triangulation techniques. The data collected was analyzed with interactive type of Miles and Huberman. The result of research shows that the form of lesung music uses simple rhythms with elements of rhythm, melody, and harmony. Harmony in music is from the rhythmic beats of polyphonic arranged. This kind of music at first had any functions for the purposes of ritual, entertainment, welcoming guests, harvesting/offerings, a sign of the eclipse. Today, it serves as a means of musical entertainment at the village greeting, social inte- raction, and tourism. There is a shift of function due to the mindset of the people and the swift technology advances. Lesung music needs a modification in its presentation by adding songs and games. Another art element like dance can be added to make the show more interesting to be enjoyed.

© 2014 Sendratasik FBS UNNES

Keywords: lesung music; functions of arts; ethnomusicology

INTRODUCTION lesung (Meita, 1992: 1-2). At first, this tradi- tional art grew and thrived in the midst of The music of lesung is one of the tra- agrarian societies since most of the people ditional arts that flourishes along with the relied on agriculture for living. Pounding expression of gratitude over the bountiful rice was a daily activity done by agricul- rice harvest. This art with different terms tural societies since it is the only way that can be found in various parts of the archi- could be used to separate rice grains from pelago. The name adjusts of the local lan- the chaff to be rice. While pounding rice, guage, such as gejog lesung in Yogyakar- the people played music with lesung so ta, kothekan lesung in Blora, ale tunjang in that it produced music called lesung music, Aceh, etc. or music kothekan. It is called kothekan be- The music of lesung is a traditional cause it produces music that bleeps klotak- music with the instrument or tool of alu and klotek.

65 66 HARMONIA : Journal of Arts Research and Education 14 (1) (2014): 65-71

In the past, the sound of lesung was world creation of art works with sophis- heard when one of the residents had khajat ticated techniques and simultaneously be (duwe gawe), such as mantu, mbesan (mar- followed the more reasonable aesthetical riage), circumcision, kaul and others. The foundation as well. sound of lesung was beaten hard and con- The young generation leaves a tra- tinuously as a signal that khajatan would ditional music that his ancestors owned start. It was at the time shortly after poun- for a long time due to their lack of under- ding the rice to be the raw material of tra- standing about the traditional music, par- ditional food for local people jenang. Les- ticularly the meaning contained in it. They ung could also be seen during the harvest consider traditional music is an ancient or season, when citizens together mashed the underdeveloped music that does not cor- grain into rice respond to the period. Heard from the distance, its voice This circumstance is what happen to was only “thok-thek-thok thok thek-thok- the existence of lesung music in the villa- dug”. It was the sound of alu – a tool of ge of Ledok, a village located in Sambong, wood shaped like a long stick, which a part of Blora Regency. At the top of its strucks regularly against a big wood made fame, the music could only be played in like a boat called lesung. Nowadays, les- certain places and certain times anyway. ung is not used anymore to grind rice, but Lesung music that uses the lesung instru- it is used as a traditional art that is usual- ment that is approximately 3 to 4 meters ly played by women since once the grind in large has specific meanings and symbols rice with lesung was done by the women. from both the property and the type of The existence of lesung is still preserved play. Therefore, the reason of this certainty as a traditional art. The art is in the alu’s that lesung music played in certain places voice strucking against lesung sequential- in the village was that the length of lesung ly. The lesung musicians are around five symbolized the owner. to six people. To reproduce the variations This music continued its existence of setting, the sound of lesung can be com- along with the rice pounding activities bined with traditional songs, which are and the rice consumption needs. Nevert- performed in a group. There is a group of heless, the music of lesung which is played people singing or nembang while dancing. by more than one person certainly has a There is also a group of dancing people, specific function which makes the music bending their body while certainly swir- survive in the decades, similarly with the ling as if dancing with complete instruments that are used, like a large les- accompaniment. ung and alu. The result is a patterned mu- Today, this traditional music is inc- sic and the type of songs can be interpreted reasingly suffering more day; the extinc- that the public has a sense of music in ac- tion of the musical tradition in the era of cordance with their musical experience. cultural transformation of agricultural so- It cannot be denied that technologi- cieties to the semi-industrial era is due to a cal advances, shifts in culture, and the con- lack of opportunity of this genre to exist as cepts of social life due to the advances in it used to be a part of the community sup- information technology affect the existen- porters (Bramantyo, 2000: 103). Traditional ce of the music of lesung from time to time. music used to be a pride in the communi- The progress of the civilization of the Le- ty; now begins to be abandoned. dok in the way of rice producing According to Bramantyo, to revive ranging from planting rice to the final pro- and develop traditional music that owns cess of producing rice causes a fluctuation a future perspective needs to be a formal of lesung music condition. The younger transmission and an execution of large- generation has never watched this kind of scale research programs in an integrated music. It has been very rare to do such ac- continuity. This process will encourage the tivity like rice pounding, to be replaceable Suharto & Siti Aesijah, The Lesung Music in The Village of Ledok Blora Regency 67 by more modern grain grinder machines. lysis is using an interactive model of Milles In 1985 Education and Culture Mi- and Huberman by not leaving the frame- nistry conducted a research and recorded work of ethnomusicology as its approach. some lesung music in some areas in Indo- The validity of the data uses the triangula- nesia; in Central and the tion technique, from methods and sources. name is lesung, ale tunjang in Aceh, alu’ ga- Ethnomusicology is a research appro- ling in West Kalimantan, and the name of ach by understanding the concept of music kareku kandei and kareku necu in West Nusa from the creating community. The resear- Tenggara. Furthermore, Astono (2002) stu- cher is able to study how to feel, play, and died on the background of music creation express like the owner of the music does. of lesung (from historical side), organology The study of music in the context of cultu- (viewed by the karawitan), the social cultu- re according to Merriam (1964) known as ral aspects (of the Javanese culture) with the tripated model for the study of ethno- the focus of Lesung Banarata. musicology could be examined from 3 le- Aesijah’s research (2007) on the sym- vels, namely (1) the concepts about music, bolic meaning and expression of kotekan (2) the behaviour of music both from the music in the village of Ledok illustrates players and the music connoisseur, and (3) that some of the functions of music has the sound of the music itself. Thus, the stu- been left by the villagers. The function of dy of ethnomusicology in this research is the music like at the moment of sun or not out of these three aspects in analyzing moon eclipse and offerings stated on the the data. research are now difficult to find. The existence of traditional music in RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Indonesia is on the wane. The existence of the traditional arts, including music that is Setting in Ledok Village usually embedded in social and cultural Ledok village is a village in the area activities of the community began to disap- of Sambong subdistrict, Blora Regency. Its pear along with the loss of local social cul- territory is divided into several sections, tural activities were also abandoned. As a like forest, plantation, farms and settle- system, the function of art is not just in its ments; with an area of approximately 10 use, but it ought to be explained as somet- km2. To reach the village, the transporta- hing which can be donated to a particular tion of a good four-wheeled vehicle or a one in a system. The art is developed and motorcycle is mostly taken in a fairly good standardized through social tradition arts road condition. of a society (Rohidi, 1993; Triyanto, 1993; The village is inhabited by 3392 Suparlan, 1983). people in 2013, most of who have an occu- The purpose this paper writing is to pation as a farmer (287 people), peasants present the result study, namely (1) ) the (163), civil servants (57) and many more. function of lesung music for social-cultural The interesting part of this is that most of life of the Ledok society, and (2) musical the people get income from a traditional concepts of existing lesung in the village of mining petroleum. This is derived from Ledok in the area of Sambong subdistrict the mining wells as the legacy of Nether- Blora Regency. lands colonial in the land of Perhutani fo- rests. Therefore, Ledok is actually a very METHOD rich village, especially in its potential of natural resources, from agriculture, forests This research used a qualitative ap- to petroleum. Agriculture and plantation proach with textual and contextual study sectors produce approximately 50 hectares within the scope of ethnomusicology. The of sugar cane plants that is super in quali- data collecting technique is an observation, ty as an ingredient of making sugar. This interview, and document studies. The ana- plant is the result of the cooperation bet- 68 HARMONIA : Journal of Arts Research and Education 14 (1) (2014): 65-71 ween the government of the village with offering ceremony to Dewi Sri, or Sedekah the investors from outside of the region, Bumi, at the time of the procession and live and this sector has absorbed many labors music performance would rather use ba- both from within and outside of the re- rong, or kuda kepang. Lesung music is rarely gion as well. From forestry sector, Ledok used for offerings in traditional oil drilling has good quality forests. Some consist of anymore. natural plants from the Ledok region, like The performance of lesung music is kepoh, forest bamboo, adiantum, and tales. far from the social life, and only involves a Every day in the paved streets of the villa- very limited group of society and not bin- ge, trucks pass carrying the good ding. It means this lesung music no longer oils derived from the wells owned by Per- belongs to a cultural system of the village tamina, or from the traditional miners. community of Ledok anymore. Once, in any social event, or entertainment always Art Life Archives poses such lesung music, like at the mo- Recently, some groups of music, like ment of sun or moon eclipse, offerings, en- karawitan, keroncong, solo organ, and tayub tertainment to release tiredness after rice are emerging. Among those kinds of mu- pounding, and codes of such events that sic, karawitan is the most favorable; then, are occuring in the village. It means wit- solo organ is in the second place. These hout lesung music, all social cultural acti- two kinds of music are exist since it is still vities of the village community of Ledok considered to be functional and readily keep running normally. Thus, the music of accepted in all social strata and age, and lesung, which incidentally is already diffi- in the social life of their culture, while the cult to find both musical instruments (le- music of lesung is played by older genera- sung) and the performance, is no longer a tion that the average age is over 65, and part of the cultural system that is important the number of players is decreasing. The to the people. As a system, the function of moment of performing is only to comme- art is not just in its use, but it ought to be morate certain events, such as welcoming explained as something which can be don- special guests, the activity of clean village ated to a particular one in a system. The (bersih desa), the independence day, the in- art is developed and standardized through vitation to the district, or subdistrict, while social tradition arts of a society (Parsons, daily artistic activities unfortunately are 1951; Rondhi, 2002; Triyanto, 1994; Rohidi, not held. 1993). The life of art that used to be lesung Thus, the existence of lesung music music, or acoustic karawitan has never been will gradually be extinct by itself if the le- heard faintly again. The most prominent sung music is considered inessential and one is the sound of electronic music from no longer relevant to the life of the com- the loudspeakers in the celebration at the munity supporters. This situation has been corners of the village. going on in other rural areas in Blora Re- gency, in which the difficulty of finding le- The functions of lesung music for the life of sung equipment almost owned by middle- the Ledok villagers class people is also such a problem. This The function of art is divided into six situation is already caused by the function sections, namely the function of personal, of nutu (pounding the rice) traditionally society (social), physical, religious, edu- turning to rice mill machine which is con- cation, and economic (Setiawan, 2012). In sidered more efficient and cheaper. Not Ledok community, lesung music currently only that, the technology of modern arts, no longer serves as a means of religious or like solo organ, takes any part to push the ritual both personal and social. The utiliza- existence of lesung music down. tion of music performance is more spon- The existence of the group of lesung taneous as a special guest welcoming. An music founded by Sisworo, a public rela- Suharto & Siti Aesijah, The Lesung Music in The Village of Ledok Blora Regency 69 tion of Cepu International Heritage Club is more interested in modern music types (CIHC) in the village of Ledok is concerned. that are considered more attractive. Lesung Six players of lesung have been very old, music is considered outdated and does not and two members that usually play music meet their artistic needs him this global suffer from stroke. The efforts of cultural era. inheritance is running very slow. In addi- tion, the difficulties of transferring know- ledge and skill of the old players, and lack of the interest of the young generation to- ward this kind of music bring the existence in a bad situation.

Figure 2. Three Lesung Players from Village of Ledok

Rhythm Some patterns of rhythm that is played are Kang Nganten, Sekar Lempang, and Bluluk Ceblok. The examples of rhythm Figure 1. Lesung Players at Ledok pattern can be seen in the Figure 3, Figure 4 and Figure 5. The Musicality of Lesung Music in the Vil- lage of Ledok To The number of players of the group DT and the name of lesung music players have not changed for decades causing the game DW character and musicality of his music has not changed. Moreover, they are the older TT generation who had never attended special Figure 3. Rhythm Pattern of Kang Nganten education namely music. Minimal musical experience of the players cause the game patterns, melodies and harmonies are very limited. Western diatonic musical influen- TO ces are virtually untouched by them. The music of lesung is a kind of music performance with main instruments of les- DW ung and alu/antan. The performance in the village of Ledok is shown by 3 to 4 people playing lesung. This art is very simple both TT in musical forms and the appearance of players, but the sound resulted from the lesung pounded is quite beautiful. Unfortunately, the simplicity of this Figure 4. Rhythm Pattern of Sekar Lempang music does not interest the younger ge- neration to learn. The younger generation 70 HARMONIA : Journal of Arts Research and Education 14 (1) (2014): 65-71

In the definition of diatonic music, TO harmony is called sound adjustment caus- ed by the combination of tones in a certain size that sound together. According to DW Banoe (2003: 180), harmony relates closely to chord. In the music of lesung the harmo- ny is in the rhythm without tones. If so, the TT sound harmony is actually caused by the Figure 5. Rhythm Pattern of Bluluk shift of the intensity of the sound, not to- Ceblok nes, while the frequencies are dealing with Notes: the tones. A tone has the size of frequen- TO: Tunggu Omah cy measured how much vibration or wave DT: Duduk Tengah within a second. DW: Duduk Wingking Kang Nganten and Sekar Lempang are TT: Titir examples of simple songs that are always played them since decades. The songs use Rhythm patterns such as Kang a Javanese pentatonic scale. They are gene- Nganten, Bluluk Ceblok, Sekar Lempang rally just simple songs as an introduction are always played from time to time wit- (bowo), then they continue to play an os- hout changing any variation. However, tinato in accordance with the rhythm pat- actually the rhythm patterns is exist with tern name. Once again, the game will stop the background creation of each process. until the collision of rhythm is occurred In addition, the background also has a (tumbuk). specific meaning although the meaning is no longer considered important to the CONCLUSIONS people’s lives. Meaning that it became symbols that does not fully apply to social Recently, lesung music in the villa- and cultural life of the village community ge of Ledok is no longer a cultural system Ledok that affect the social cultural life of the so- The complementarities of life are ciety. This is due to the function of lesung manifested in their play. The types of music that originally functioned as a part players with musical parts such as Tung- of social cultural life of the society, such gu Omah, Duduk Tengah, Duduk Wing- as merti desa, a sign of eclipse, a signal of king, and Titir are examples of parts of the significant events, entertainment in com- music performance. In Javanese culture memoration of the important days, now concept in the village of Ledok, functions turning to limited use. The Lesung perfor- of the family members is very important mances nowadays are only for incidental in maintaining family harmony. If any of ceremonial occasions. them deviate the family life will be dis- The performance of lesung music is rupted. It is the symbolic meaning in the considered old-fashioned for the young lesung music game in the village. generation since the musical system is very simple. This simplicity makes the young Melody and Harmony generation is reluctant to learn it for there Melody played in the music of lesung is an electronic music that becomes more is simply a short introduction of the lesung interesting. In addition, the mindset of with a vowel sound. An examples of a me- people has turned to leave the ritual func- lody below that serves as bowo are Kang tions, such as a sign of solar eclipses, a sig- Nganten and Sekar Lempang. Suharto & Siti Aesijah, The Lesung Music in The Village of Ledok Blora Regency 71 nal to call people, and marriage. Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan. The potential is that the village has (1985). Ensiklopedi Musik Indonesia become the ‘brand’ of the existence of le- A-E. Jakarta : Peroyek Penelitian dan sung music although the existence was Pencatatan Daerah. not the same as two decades ago. Lesung Koentjaraningrat. (1984). Kebudayaan Jawa. music is recently only presented in certain Jakarta: PT. 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