Street-Style Siter Playing and Regional Urban Identity
Authors : Rohan Iyer
Pages : 244-261
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Publication Date : 2020-10-01
Article Type : Research
Abstract :This is a study of Central Javanese street-style siteran music (ensemble formed around a central zither) performed by ngamen (buskers). I transcribe and analyse an excerpt of an interpretation of a classic piece of Central Javanese art music to illustrate the musical differences between gamelan siter playing and street-style siter playing. I then discuss how musical specificities of, and repertoire choice by, ngamen are connected to issues of urbanisation and regionalisation in Central Java. This study demonstrates how gamelan musicians and ngamen operate within different interpretative frameworks based on performance context. I argue that this results in an inexhaustible variety of music making outside gamelan circles where ngamen are allowed to express their regionalised urban musical identity. This paper contributes to the scholarship on a genre of Central Javanese music marginalised by the gamelan, by using techniques of transcription and analysis to address pertinent sociocultural topics.Keywords : siteran, nyemar, transcription, urbanizaiton