Tanjidor Music

Syarifah Hana Alhaddad
Artikel oleh : Syarifah Hana Alhaddad
Foto oleh : Indonesia Kreatif
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There is no better and memorable way to narrate a story by playing music. For generations, music has been an effective tool in bringing about not only melodies to the ears of the majority but the historical and artistic values that comes within it. And although the current popular music is heard in a very different system, current music can never really be detached from their ‘ancestors’. 

This is to say that even the music we hear now are descendants of traditional or classical music. Musik Tanjidor, is categorised as one of those ‘ancestor music’. Not only is it a part of Indonesia’s traditional music, it literally is the music of our ancestors. To be exact, it is the music of the Betawi tribe, popularly played in groups using clarinets, trombone, saxophone, drums, piston and cymbals. Then again, this music wasn’t originally created by the Betawi people. It was inherited by the people from Bekasi and Karawang from the Portugese during the colonialism era. Due to the closeness of the geographical area between the two cities and Jakarta, the music was soon brought to Jakarta and further developed by the Betawi tribe. As a result, the music produced was vastly different since its origin to Indonesia. 

This music that used to be played regularly around the city are now only popular amongst the indigenous people of Betawi, which overtime depletes in players willing to be a part of the Tanjidor group. This is exactly the kind of change that is happening as modernity grows. We forget that there can be no such modernity without these traditional roots. 

No form of art can be completely original, inspiration are drawn from various places and are motivated by our traditional counterparts whether directly or indirectly. So it would be a waste to not preserve our traditional music that makes up the world we grew to love today.

 

References:

http://www.indonesiakaya.com/kanal/detail/tanjidor

http://www.jakarta.go.id/web/encyclopedia/detail/3135/Tanjidor 


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