Javanese poetry (
poetryPoetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
in the
JavaneseJavanese language is the language of the people in the central and eastern parts of the island of Java, in Indonesia. In addition, there are also some pockets of Javanese speakers in the northern coast of western Java...
or especially the
Kawi languageKawi is a literary and prose language from the islands of Java, Bali, and Lombok, based on Old Javanese, language with a sizable vocabulary of Sanskrit loanwords...
; Low Javanese:
tembang; High Javanese:
sekar) is traditionally recited in song form. The standard forms are divided into three types,
sekar ageng,
sekar madya, and
tembang macapat. All three types follow strict rules of poetic construction. These forms are highly influential in Javanese
gamelanA gamelan is a musical ensemble from Indonesia, typically from the islands of Bali or Java, featuring a variety of instruments such as metallophones, xylophones, drums and gongs; bamboo flutes, bowed and plucked strings. Vocalists may also be included....
.
The most sacred are the
sekar ageng (Low Javanese:
tembang gedhé; "great songs").
Javanese poetry (
poetryPoetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
in the
JavaneseJavanese language is the language of the people in the central and eastern parts of the island of Java, in Indonesia. In addition, there are also some pockets of Javanese speakers in the northern coast of western Java...
or especially the
Kawi languageKawi is a literary and prose language from the islands of Java, Bali, and Lombok, based on Old Javanese, language with a sizable vocabulary of Sanskrit loanwords...
; Low Javanese:
tembang; High Javanese:
sekar) is traditionally recited in song form. The standard forms are divided into three types,
sekar ageng,
sekar madya, and
tembang macapat. All three types follow strict rules of poetic construction. These forms are highly influential in Javanese
gamelanA gamelan is a musical ensemble from Indonesia, typically from the islands of Bali or Java, featuring a variety of instruments such as metallophones, xylophones, drums and gongs; bamboo flutes, bowed and plucked strings. Vocalists may also be included....
.
Sekar ageng
The most sacred are the
sekar ageng (Low Javanese:
tembang gedhé; "great songs"). These were traditionally held to be the most ancient of the forms, but
Jaap KunstJaap Kunst was a Dutch ethnomusicologist, particularly associated with the study of gamelan music of Indonesia...
believed that the indigenous forms represented an older tradition. The ancient forms of these, known as
kakawinKakawin are long narrative poems composed in Old Javanese, also called "Kawi", written in verse form with rhythms and metres derived from Sanskrit literature. Poets used a formalized literary language, rather than the vernacular...
, use meters from
Indian poetryLiterature in Sanskrit begins with the Vedas, and continues with the Sanskrit Epics of Iron Age India; the golden age of Classical Sanskrit literature dates to late Antiquity . Literary production saw a late bloom in the 11th century before declining after 1100 AD...
, specifying the number of
syllableA syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. For example, the word water is composed of two syllables: wa and ter. A syllable is typically made up of a syllable nucleus with optional initial and final margins .Syllables are often considered the phonological "building...
s in each line, their
vowel lengthIn linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a vowel sound. Often the chroneme, or the "longness", acts like a consonant, and may etymologically be one such as in Australian English...
, and the location of
caesurathumb|100px|An example of a caesura in modern western music notation.In meter, caesura is a term to denote an audible pause that breaks up a line of verse. In most cases, caesura is indicated by punctuation marks which cause a pause in speech: a comma, a semicolon, a full stop, a dash, etc...
e. Exactly how this ancient form sounded when sung is hard to know, as the modern form has been influenced by
gamelanA gamelan is a musical ensemble from Indonesia, typically from the islands of Bali or Java, featuring a variety of instruments such as metallophones, xylophones, drums and gongs; bamboo flutes, bowed and plucked strings. Vocalists may also be included....
structures. It may have resembled modern Indian or
BaliBali is an Indonesian island located at the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands, lying between Java to the west and Lombok to the east. It is one of the country's 33 provinces with the provincial capital at Denpasar towards the south of the island....
nese
chantChant is the rhythmic speaking or singing of words or sounds, often primarily on one or two pitches called reciting tones. Chants may range from a simple melody involving a limited set of notes to highly complex musical structures, often including a great deal of repetition of musical subphrases,...
.
The modern form of sekar ageng are always in stanzas of four lines, and the number of syllables in each (
lampah) is fixed and divided into parts (
pedhotan) by caesurae. (Vowel length is no longer distinguished.) These indications are ordinarily indicated with the form; for example, sekar ageng
Bongsa patra, lampah 17, pedhotan 4,6,7. According to Padmasasustra, there are 44 types of sekar ageng used in
SurakartaSurakarta is an Indonesian city of approximately 500,000 people located in Central Java.- Name :Surakarta is also known by the name "Solo". "Surakarta" is used in formal and official contexts. The city has a similar name with the neighboring district of "Kartasura", where the previous capital of...
.
A sekar ageng is sometimes used as a type of
bukaThe buka is the short introduction to pieces of gamelan. It is also called the bubuka or bubuka opaq-opaq....
(song introduction) known as a
bawa. It is sung solo, or may be supported by the
gendérA gendér is a type of metallophone used in Balinese and Javanese gamelan music. It consists of 10 to 14 tuned metal bars suspended over a tuned resonator of bamboo or metal, which are tapped with a mallet made of wooden disks or a padded wooden disk . Each key is a note of a different pitch, often...
. Only the first line is used in the introduction, and the rest may follow in the actual
gendhingThe gendhing is a class of gendhing structures used in Javanese gamelan music. Gendhing can also used to refer to gamelan compositions in general....
. Martopangrawit believes that this began only in the late 19th century, at the time of Paku Buwana IX (r. 1861-93).
Sekar madya and tembang macapat
Sekar madya (Low Javanese:
Tembang tengahan; "middle songs") are supposed to lie between the other two genres, but there is no agreement about which genres are considered sekar madya and which are
tembang macapat (old orthography:
machapat). Both of these, in contrast to sekar ageng, use varying number of lines of varying length, but always in a specific form. Furthermore, the vowel sound of the final syllable must match a specific pattern (note that this is different from
syllable rimeIn the study of phonology in linguistics, the rime or rhyme of a syllable consists of a nucleus and an optional coda. It is the part of the syllable used in poetic rhyme, and the part that is lengthened or stressed when a person elongates or stresses a word in speech.The rime is usually the...
, as consonants that follow, if any, do not have to match). The pattern of the length of lines is known as
guru wilangan,
guru pètungan, or
guru wichalan, while the pattern of vowels is known as
dhongdhing or
guru lagu. In the schemes below, the number represents the guru wilangan, while the letter is the guru lagu of the corresponding line.
In addition to these formal structures, each of these forms has a specific mood. The typical use is indicated after the form for many of the structures below.
Padmasustra listed 11 types of sekar madya forms used in Surakarta. Many of them, however, are no longer used. The ones in modern use are:
- Juru demung: 8A, 8U, 8U, 8A, 8U, 8A, 8U
- Wirangrong: 8I, 8O, 10U, 6I, 7A, 8A
- Balabah: 12A, 3É, 12A, 3Á, 12A, 3Á
Two meters were classified as macapat forms in the past, but are now considered sekar madya:
- Megatruh (or Duduk wuluh): 12U, 8I, 8U, 8I, 8O
- Gambuh: 7U, 10U, 12I, 8U, 8O (there are a number of variants of this form)
The common macapat forms are:
- Dhangdhang gula: 10I, 10A, 8É(O), 7U, 9I, 7A, 6U, 8A, 12I, 7A; neutral character, used especially for introducing another poem
- Sinom: 8A, 8I, 8A, 8I, 7I, 8U, 7A, 8I, 12A; didactic poems
- Asmarandana: 8I, 8A, 8O(É), 8A, 7A, 8U, 8A; love poems
- Kinanthi: 8U, 8I, 8A, 8I, 8A, 8I; love poems
- Pangkur: 8A, 11I, 8U, 7A, 12U, 8A, 8I; violent passions or fighting
- Durma: 12A, 7I, 6A, 7A, 8I, 5A, 7I; violent passions or fighting
- Mijil: 10I, 6O, 10É, 10I, 6I, 6U; love poems
- Mas kumambang: 12I, 6A, 8I, 8A; longing or homesickness
- Puchung: 12U, 6A, 8I, 12A; neutral character, used for riddles
As an example, consider the following Kinanthi verse, a stanza from the Serat Centhini:
- Ki Jayèngraga agupuh
- anggamel rebab respati
- rebabé langkung prayoga
- watangan pinonthang gadhing
- kosok pinatra pinrada
- batok jamangan balenggin
These forms are the basis of
kidungKidung is a form of Old Javanese poetry. They differ from kakawin in that they use Javanese meters instead of imported Sanskrit ones, and mostly appeared later. The subject matter is based on historical events. Like kakawin, they later became an important source of inspiration for pictorial art...
poetry.
The text for these songs is frequently used in works for the gamelan, frequently sung by the
gerongGerong is the Javanese verb meaning "to sing in a chorus." Penggerong is the proper name of a member of the chorus, but often the word gerong is used to refer to the unison male chorus that sings with the gamelan. The chorus or the melody may also be called the gerongan.The gerong generally sings...
. Indeed, many modern gendhing share common macapat texts, especially Kinanthi, fit into their individual melodic pattern.
SumarsamSumarsam is a Javanese musician and scholar of the gamelan.-Life:Sumarsam was born in Dander, Bojonegoro, East Java, Indonesia. He first performed gamelan at the age of seven. He began his formal gamelan education in 1961 at the Konservatori Karawitan Indonesia in Surakarta...
believes that the singing of these forms led to the development of the early gendhing gerong, in the mid-19th century. Wayang performances make use of the
MahabharataThe Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India, the other being the . The epic is part of the Hindu itihāsa , and forms an important part of Hindu mythology....
and
RamayanaThe Ramayana is an ancient Sanskrit epic. It is attributed to the Hindu sage Valmiki and forms an important part of the Hindu canon . The Ramayana is one of the two great epics of India, the other being Mahabharata...
in macapat form, created in the 18th and 19th centuries.