SOUNDING ISLAM IN CONTEMPORARY INDONESIA: The Transformation of Javanese Tembang

Syaifudin Zuhri

Abstract


This article examines the relationship between sound and religion focusing on mediated religion and the transformation of sonic sensation. It studies a Javanese children’s song (tembang dolanan) called Ilir-Ilir (Javanese pronunciation: [iler iler]) which is an example of a Javanese song bearing a deep philosophy, richness of interpretations, and modes of presentation. Examining the Javanese song Ilir-ilir, this paper examines the two dimensions of the song and the transformation of tembang dolanan into the Islamic ones through the meaning-making and sonic dimension to generate Islamic sensation. The analysis goes beyond the textual tradition -in case of the song i.e., lyrics and textual dimension of the song- as looking at the interpretation of the song and the sonic atmosphere of sound. The article further argues that the transformation Javanese Ilir-ilir delivers an important insight of relationship between sound and religion as to which sound contributes to the making of religious sensation and reverberates the mediated religion through sensational form.

Keywords


Ilir-Ilir; Tembang; auditory sense; sound; mediatisation

Full Text:

PDF

References


Ahmed, Shahab. What Is Islam? The Importance of Being Islamic. Princenton: Princeton University Press, 2015.

Appadurai, Arjun. Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996.

Arps, Bernard. “Tembang in Two Traditions: Performance and Interpretation of Javanese Literature.†1992. Ph.D Dissertation Rijkuniversiteit Leiden, n.d.

Asad, Talal. The Idea of an Anthropology of Islam. Washington DC: Centre for Contemporary Arab Studies, 1986.

Barendregt, Bart, and Wim van Zanten. “Popular Music in Indonesia Since 1998, in Particular Fusion, Indie and Islamic Music on Video Compact Discs and the Internet.†Yearbook for Traditional Music 34 (2002): 67–114.

Beatty, Andrew. Varieties of Javanese Religion. An Anthropological Account. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

Bruinessen, Martin van. Contemporary Developments in Indonesian Islam: Explaining “Conservative Turn.†Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2013.

———. “Saints, Politicians and Sufi Bureaucrats: Mysticism And Politics In Indonesia’s New Order.†In Sufism and the “Modern†in Islam, edited by Martin van Bruinessen and Julia D. Howell, 92–112. London: I. B. Tauris, 2007.

Chodjim, Achmad. Mistik Dan Makrifat Sunan Kalijaga. Jakarta: Serambi Ilmu Semesta, 2003.

Daniels, Timothy. Islamic Spectrum in Java. Farnham: Ashgate, 2009.

David, Ann R. “Sacralising the City: Sound, Space and Performance in Hindu Ritual Practices in London.†Culture and Religion 13, no. 4 (December 1, 2012): 449–467.

Effendy, Bahtiar. Islam Dan Negara: Transformasi Pemikiran Dan Praktek Politik Islam Di Indonesia. Jakarta: Paramadina, 1998.

Eisenlohr, Patrick. Sounding Islam: Voice, Media, and Sonic Atmospheres in an Indian Ocean World. California: University of California Press, 2018.

———. “Technologies of the Spirit: Devotional Islam, Sound Reproduction and the Dialectics of Mediation and Immediacy in Mauritius.†Anthropological Theory 9, no. 3 (2009): 273–296.

Geertz, Clifford. The Religion of Java. University of Chicago Press, 1976.

Guillot, Claude, and Henri Chambert-Loir. “Indonesia.†In Ziarah & Wali Di Dunia Islam, edited by Claude Guillot and Henri Chambert-Loir, 333–360. Jakarta: Serambi & EFEO, n.d.

Hasan, Noorhaidi. “The Making of Public Islam: Piety, Agency, and Commodification on the Landscape of the Indonesian Public Sphere.†Contemporary Islam 3, no. 3 (October 24, 2009): 229–250.

Hernawan, Bambang, and Munawar Holil. “Nini Towong and Environmental Preservation: Manuscript Review.†IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science 469, no. 1 (2020).

Hirschkind, Charles. The Ethical Soundscape: Cassettes and Islamic Counterpublics. New York: Columbia University Press, 2009.

Howell, Julia Day. “Sufism and the Indonesian Islamic Revival.†The Journal of Asian Studies 60, no. 3 (August 2001): 701–729.

Jouili, Jeanette S., and Annelies Moors. “Introtuction: Islamic Sounds and the Politics of Listening.†Anthropological Quarterly 87, no. 4 (2014): 977–988.

Keane, Webb. “The Evidence of the Senses and the Materiality of Religion.†The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 14 (2008): s110–s127.

Lord, Albert B. The Singer of Tales. New York: Atheneum, 1976.

Meyer, Birgit, ed. “Aesthetic Formations: Media, Religion, and the Senses.†In Aesthetic Formations: Media, Religion, and the Senses. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.

———. “Media and the Senses in the Making of Religious Experience: An Introduction.†Material Religion 4, no. 2 (2008): 124–135.

———. “Mediation and Immediacy: Sensational Forms, Semiotic Ideologies and the Question of the Medium.†Social Anthropology 19, no. 1 (2011): 23–39.

Muazu, Rahina. “Qur’an Recitation and the Nudity of the Female Voice in Nigeria.†Ph.D Thesis, Freie University of Berlin, 2019.

Nakamura, Mitsuo. The Crescent Arises Over the Banyan Tree: A Study of the Muhammadiyah Movement in a Central Javanese Town c. 1910-2010. 2nd Enlarg. Singapore: ISEAS, 2012.

Notosudirdjo, Franki S. “Kyai Kanjeng: Islam and the Search for National Music in Indonesia.†The World of Music 45, no. 2 (2003): 39–52.

Orsi, Robert A. Between Heaven and Earth: The Religious Worlds People Make and the Scholars Who Study Them. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005.

Overbeck, H. Javaansche Meisjesspelen En Kinderliedjes: Beschrijving Der Spelen, Javaansche Liederteksten, Vertaling. Afl. 4. Jokjakarta: Java-Instituut, 1938.

Purwadi. Dakwah Sunan Kalijaga; Penyebaran Agama Islam Di Jawa Berbasi Kultural. Yogyakarta: Pustaka Pelajar, 2004.

Ras, J.J. “Introduction.†In Javanese Literature since Independence: An Anthology, edited by J.J. Ras. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1979.

Rasmussen, Anne. “Performing Religious Politics: Islamic Musical Arts in Indonesia.†In Music and Conflict, edited by John Morgan O’Connell and Salwa el-Shawan Castelo-Branco, 155–176. Springfield: University of Illinois Press, 2010.

———. Women, the Recited Qur’an, and Islamic Music in Indonesia. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010.

Ricklefs, Merle C. Polarising Javanese Society: Islamic and Other Visions, c. 1830-1930. Leiden: KITLV Press, 2007.

Robson, Stuart, and Singgih Wibisono. Javanese-English Dictionary. Hong Kong: Periplus Editions, 2022.

Salam, Solichin. Sekitar Wali Sanga. Kudus: Menara Kudus, 1963.

Schafer, R. Murray. The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World. Vermont: Inner Traditions/Bear, 1993.

Schulz, Dorothea E. “A Fractured Soundscape of the Divine: Female ‘Preachers’, Radio Sermons and Religious Place-Making in Urban Mali.†In Prayer in the City: The Making of Muslim Sacred Places and Urban Life, edited by Patrick Desplat and Dorothea Elisabeth Schulz, 239–264. Piscataway NJ: Transcript Verlag, 2012.

Sumarsam. Gamelan; Interaksi Budaya Dan Perkembangan Musikal Di Jawa. Yogyakarta: Pustaka Pelajar, 2003.

Sunarwoto. “Contesting Religious Authority: A Study on Dakwah Radio in Surakarta, Indonesia.†Ph.D Thesis, Tilburg University, 2015.

Tamimi Arab, P. “Amplifying Islam: Pluralism, Secularism, and Religious Sounds in The Netherlands.†PhD Thesis, University Utrecht, 2015.

Totilawati. “Nini Ţowok.†In Javanese Literature since Independence: An Anthology, edited by J.J. Ras. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1979.

Triyono, Bramantyo. Lagu Dolanan Anak. Yogyakarta: Yayasan Untuk Indonesia, 2000.

Wahjono, Parwatri. Laporan Penelitian Ni Thowok; Dolanan Anak-Anak, Sebuah Bentuk Teater Jawa; Kajian Folklorik Dan Sastra’. Universitas Indonesia: Jakarta, 1988.

Weiner, Isaac. Religion Out Loud: Religious Sound, Public Space, and American Pluralism. New York: New York University Press, 2013.

De Witte, Marleen. “Accra’s Sounds and Sacred Spaces.†International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 32, no. 3 (September 1, 2008): 690–709.

Woodward, Mark. Islam in Java: Normative Piety and Mysticism in the Sultanate of Yogyakarta. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1989.

Zuhri, Syaifudin. Wali Pitu and Muslim Pilgrimage in Bali, Indonesia: Inventing a Sacred Tradition. Leiden University Press, 2022.




DOI: 10.15642/JIIS.2022.16.1.197-222

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Bookmark and Share


Indexed by:

    

Creative Commons License

View My Stats

Journal of Indonesian Islam (ISSN 1978-6301 and E-ISSN 2355-6994) is published by the Postgraduate Program (PPs) and the Institute for the Study of Religion and Society (LSAS), State Islamic University (UIN) of Sunan Ampel Surabaya.

Journal of Indonesian Islam by http://jiis.uinsby.ac.id/index.php/JIIs/index is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Copyright ©2020 State Islamic University (UIN) of Sunan Ampel Surabaya. Powered by Public Knowledge Project OJS.