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Raden Machjar Angga Koesoemadinata (often written as Kusumadinata, Kusumahdinata, Kusumah Dinata, Anggakusumadinata; known as Pak Machjar or Pak Mahyar ; b. Sumedang, 7 December 1902, d. Bandung, 9 April 1979) is a Sundanese music composer and an Indonesian Musicologist, specializing in pelog and salendro. He invented the Sundanese solfage system da mi na ti la and the Sundanese 17-tone model.
[edit] BiographyAmong the Sundanese people, Pak Machjar is widely known as a Sundanese composer. He wrote Sundanese traditional songs; Lemah Cai (Our Native Land), Dewi Sartika, Sinom Puspasari, among others. He was also a playwright and director of Sundanese music-dramas called 'Rinenggasari'; Sarkam-Sarkim, Satan Mindo Wahyu Revelation (Satan Personification as Divine Revelation), among others. As a music theorist, he formulated Sundanese solfage system da mi na ti la, and he wrote many theorerical publications on Sundanese music; Ilmu Seni Raras (Our Musical Art) (1969), Ringkesan Pangawikan Rinenggaswara (An outline of music theory) (1950), among others. His long life research and experiment on tone and scale system brought him with his 17 –tone model Sundanese tuning and scale system (1950), in which one octave consists of 17 equal intervals of 70 10/17 cents. This model has a complete tones and can be used for all Sundanese (and also Western) tuning-scales system. (In a footnote, Weintraub (2001) mentions it is highly probable that Pak Machjar was aware of theories of 17-tone systems which had been developed for Persian art music, but another source close to Pak Machjar is more certain if he was not aware of the presence of other tonal system in the world other than western monochromatic 12 tonal scale, as he had no access to world literature on ethno-musicology). Pak Machjar’s knowledge on the Sundanese pelog and salendro music system had been acquired since his youth by learning to play the gamelan, rebab and by learning how to sing Sundanese tunes from Sundanese master musicians and singers (Pak Etjen Basara, Pak Sura, Pak Natadiredjo, Pak Sai, Pak Idi, Pak Oetje, among others). He was introduced to science and western music theory when he was at the school for teachers (Kweekschool and Hogere Kweekaschool) in Sumedang West Java, where he started his research on frequency measurement of sounds from gamelan instruments and Sundanese singings. In 1923, he created the Sundanese solfege system da mi na ti la and he wrote a book of Sundanese music theory, entitled Elmuning Kawih Sunda (Science of Sundanese music). After completed HKS, he worked as a teacher (1924-1932) while he continued his research on the theory of Sundanese music. Among important periods in his career was his meeting with Mr. Jaap Kunst, a Dutch ethnomusicologist, between 1927-1929, who was conducting research on musical instruments in Java and Bali. Some exchange of knowledge occurred here, where from their collaboration, they jointly wrote published articles. He was often cited in Jaap Kunst’s famous publication, De Toonkunst van Java (1934). During this period he obtained a better understanding on the frequencies of gamelan and of vocal sounds and he started to perform frequency measurements using a monochord, and he converted these frequency intervals into a logarithmic musical scale, using the concept of interval cents from Ellis (1884) and Hornbostel (1920) and music rule from Reiner. In 1933, he was commissioned by the colonial government to form a Sundanese music education system for all-indigenous schools in West Java. After the independence of Indonesia, from 1945 until 1947, he taught science, history and English for high school teachers in Bandung. Then, the rest of his professional career was mainly as an expert for Department of Culture West Java in Bandung. He was also an adjunct lecturer at the Conservatory Karawitan Surakarta, Central Java (1953-1959). In 1958 (to 1959) he was appointed as the director of and Conservatory Karawitan in Bandung. [edit] Gamelan Ki PembayunIn 1969 sponsored by the Government Tourism Industry in West Java headed by RA Sjukur Kesuma Dharma, Pak Machjar created a gamelan named Ki Pembayun (means the first-born), which is the biggest ever bronz gamelan in Indonesia. This gamelan was devoted to demonstrate Pak Machjar’s theory of 17-tone model tuning and scale system. Ki Pembayun was prepared for a Ramayana international festival in Pandaan, Central Java in 1971, but it never been played out side the rehearsal because it was too difficult to play. Learning new ways of playing the instrument requires time and dedication. It is very unfortunate that subsequently Ki Pembayun disappeared (lost). The only few photographs and some recordings of the gamelan that survived may only be those that was taken and recorded by Dr. Margaret Kartomi, professor of music at Monash University, Australia. [edit] References
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