Indra Swara
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Indra Swara (Gamelan Indra Swara) is a group promoting
Indonesian art It is quite difficult to define Indonesian art, since the country is immensely diverse. The sprawling archipelago nation consists of 17.000 islands. Around 922 of those permanently inhabited, by over 1,300 ethnic groups, which speak more than 700 ...
and culture in
Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
. It was created in December 2002 and it is mostly made up of young Mexicans, enthusiasts of Asian arts and particularly those of
Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
. Some of its members have had the opportunity to study directly in the islands of
Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...
and
Bali Bali () is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nu ...
through the Darmasiswa Scholarship program offered by the Indonesian government.


Origins

Its foundation dates back to the Spring of 2002, when its founder, Fitra Ismu Kusumo had just arrived in Mexico. Seeing that the
gamelan Gamelan () ( jv, ꦒꦩꦼꦭꦤ꧀, su, ᮌᮙᮨᮜᮔ᮪, ban, ᬕᬫᭂᬮᬦ᭄) is the traditional ensemble music of the Javanese, Sundanese, and Balinese peoples of Indonesia, made up predominantly of percussive instruments. T ...
of the Indonesian Embassy was not used as such, but was merely a decorative object on display, along with former Darmasiswas Miguel Piñeda and Carolina Malgarego decided to seize the opportunity and use the Javanese slendro owned by the Embassy. During the Summer of that year, other Darmasiswa grantees returned from Indonesia: Ilse Peralta and Shawn Callahan (American). Shawn, Fitra, Miguel, Carolina and Ilse had known each other since 2000 while in Indonesia. Ilse Peralta returns to Mexico with the idea of forming an Indonesian art and culture group which she calls "Majapahit", based on her
Balinese dance Balinese dance ( id, Tarian Bali; ban, ᬇᬕᬾᬮᬦ᭄​ᬩᬮᬶ) is an ancient dance tradition that is part of the religious and artistic expression among the Balinese people of Bali island, Indonesia. Balinese dance is dynamic, angula ...
studies; while Fitra Ismu keeps the concept of gamelan and making use of the gamelan at the Embassy, he invites the music schools in Mexico City (Escuela Nacional de Música, Escuela Superior de Música and
Conservatorio Nacional de Música (Mexico) The Conservatorio Nacional de Música (''National Conservatory of Music'', in Spanish) is a music conservatory located in the Polanco neighborhood of Mexico City, Federal District, Mexico. History The Conservatory was founded on July 1, 1866, b ...
, extending this invitation to their students to learn how to play the gamelan together as a group. At that time, Emilio Esteban, Zianya Nandayapa, Iván Flores Morán, Jorge Vazquez, Olinka Flores, Yarandari and other young people joined to learn how to play the gamelan. In that same Summer of 2002, the gamelan group Indra Swara was founded at the Indonesian Embassy in Mexico .


Trajectory

The main objective of the group is to provide a space to publicize and promote, in Mexico and its surroundings, the ancient art and culture of Indonesia through a musical group of gamelan orchestra. It isn’t until 2005 that the group manages to get its own gamelan. Since March 2003 Fitra Ismu manages to raise enough money for the purchase of a gamelan and its freight from Java Indonesia to
Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...
. This is achieved, of course, with the administrative support of the Indonesian Embassy in
Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
, making use of the facilities available to its diplomatic corps. In February 2007 under the direction of Emilio Esteban, the group managed to release its first album, which was considered a great achievement for the group. Likewise, performances including both music and sendra tari (theater with gamelan and traditional dance) were staged with the unconditional support of Camilo García and Katherine Ziggler (Kate Asmara), both former Darmasiswas for the period 2004-2008. Between the winter of 2009 and the spring of 2011, under the coordination of Fitra Ismu, the Javanese gamelan instruments were taught in a music school; this was done at the Centro Cultural Ollin Yoliztli, and the opportunity was provided by one of the Center's directors, Mr. Francisco Becerra Maza. Those who taught the gamelan classes were Esteban Gonzales, Huitzilin Sanchez and Fitra Ismu, borrowing the Surakartan style pelog slendro Javanese gamelan from the Indonesian embassy in Mexico. The gamelan teaching program at this school had to be stopped due to lack of sponsor. Indra Swara has benefited from the advice of two dance and music teachers: Balinese dancer and ethnomusicologist Bapak I Nyoman Wenten and Javanese ethnomusicologist Bapak Joko Walujo, both masters of Indonesian art at the
California Institute of the Arts The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a private art university in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for students of both ...
(CALARTS) in
Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
,
California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
. In 2003, 2005 and 2014 they visited Mexico to teach short courses and give presentations. Likewise,
Jody Diamond Jody Diamond (born Pasadena, California, April 23, 1953) is an American composer, performer, writer, publisher, editor, and educator. She specializes in traditional and new music for Indonesian gamelan and is active internationally as a scholar, ...
, composer and artist in residence at
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
has visited Mexico to give gamelan courses. As regards traditional dance, the group has had the advice of teacher Irawati Durban Ardjo, specialist in the Sundanese style (West Java), who visited Mexico in 2005. In 2014 the Indra Swara Group forms a new division that includes its
gamelan degung ''Gamelan degung'' is a form of Sundanese musical ensemble that uses a subset of modified gamelan instruments with a particular mode of ''degung'' scale. The instruments are manufactured under local conditions in towns in West Java such as Bogo ...
set which it calls Gamelan Barudak, since a team member, Daniel Milán, returns to Mexico in 2014 after almost 5 years of learning the art of gamelan degung in West Java, Indonesia. In that same year, the first Indonesian shadow puppet play ( wayang kulit) was also presented and the special division for presenting puppet plays was created. Since then, Indra Swara has been expanding, and in addition to promoting the gamelan / music and dance (which had been doing before), also begins to promote the art of Indonesian puppets. In 2015 the Mexican percussionist group
Tambuco Tambuco is a Mexican contemporary classical percussion group which has been nominated three times for awards including Best Classical Album. It was founded in 1993. The group consists of four percussionists: Ricardo Gallardo, Alfredo Bringas, Ra ...
, with 4
Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...
nominations, borrowed the gamelan from Indra Swara (its
degung ''Gamelan degung'' is a form of Sundanese musical ensemble that uses a subset of modified gamelan instruments with a particular mode of ''degung'' scale. The instruments are manufactured under local conditions in towns in West Java such as Bogo ...
Barudak gamelan ensemble) to present the work of
Lou Harrison Lou Silver Harrison (May 14, 1917 – February 2, 2003) was an American composer, music critic, music theorist, painter, and creator of unique musical instruments. Harrison initially wrote in a dissonant, ultramodernist style similar to his form ...
"Threnody for
Carlos Chávez Carlos Antonio de Padua Chávez y Ramírez (13 June 1899 – 2 August 1978) was a Mexican composer, conductor, music theorist, educator, journalist, and founder and director of the Mexican Symphonic Orchestra. He was influenced by nativ ...
" within the framework of the Historic Center Festival in Mexico City during the Spring of 2015, for the same reason that at that time it was the only set of gamelan degung in Latin America. Likewise, a very famous jazz group from Indonesia,
Krakatau Krakatoa (), also transcribed (), is a caldera in the Sunda Strait between the islands of Java and Sumatra in the Indonesian province of Lampung. The caldera is part of a volcanic island group (Krakatoa archipelago) comprising four islands. T ...
, during its visit to participate in the 2008
Festival Internacional Cervantino The Festival Internacional Cervantino (FIC), popularly known as ''El Cervantino'', is a festival which takes place each fall in the city of Guanajuato, located in central Mexico. The festival originates from the mid 20th century, when short play ...
in
Guanajuato Guanajuato (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Guanajuato ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Guanajuato), is one of the 32 states that make up the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 46 municipalities and its capital city i ...
, through its director, Dwiki Dharmawan, gave Indra Swara several traditional Indonesian instruments. In 2012 the group of musicians from the
Mangkunegaran Palace The Pura Mangkunegaran (, ) is a palace complex in the city of Surakarta, Central Java, Indonesia. It is the official palace and residence of the Duke of Mangkunegara and his family. The palace complex is one of the centers of Javanese culture and ...
court also visited Mexico for their participation in the 2012
Cervantino Festival The Festival Internacional Cervantino (FIC), popularly known as ''El Cervantino'', is a festival which takes place each fall in the city of Guanajuato, located in central Mexico. The festival originates from the mid 20th century, when short play ...
and the musicians presented Indra Swara with various shadow puppets, fabrics and equipment for shadow puppet presentations ( Wayang kulit) In 2003, Fitra Ismu began working at the Indonesian Embassy in Mexico as an assistant to the cultural attaché of that diplomatic corps, which greatly facilitated the movement of the group especially to seek and hold events with the support of the Embassy as part of the country's cultural promotion strategy in Mexico. In 2004 Emilio Esteban returned from Indonesia (after having left with the Darmasiswa scholarship program) and in 2005 the gamelan pelog instruments belonging to the group arrived from Indonesia. A regeneration of the group took place, in which Emilio Esteban became director of the group (2005-2013) and Fitra Ismu remained as founder and, using his position in the Embassy (where he worked until 2012) he also serves as promoter for the group (from 2005 to date).


Divisions and group conformation

Indra swara originated with a Javanese slendro Javanese gamelan set from Indonesia, and since 2002 and over time it has been acquiring more materials from Indonesia with the main idea of promoting Indonesia in Mexico and amongst Spanish speakers. Since its foundation, Indra Swara has acquired several traditional Indonesian instruments such as
Hasapi Hasapi, also written as kacapi, hapitan, and kulcapi, is a two-stringed lute played by the Batak people of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The plucked instrument was used for Zere Tzere (also spelled ''Tsere'', ''Tzeirei'', ''Zere'', ''Zeire' ...
, gendang melayu/
Kendang Kendang or Gendang ( jv, ꦏꦼꦤ꧀ꦝꦁ, translit=Kendhang, su, ᮊᮨᮔ᮪ᮓᮀ, translit=Kendang, ban, ᬓᬾᬦ᭄ᬤᬂ, translit=Kendang, Tausug/Bajau Maranao: ''Gandang'', Bugis: ''Gendrang'' and Makassar: ''Gandrang'' or ''Ganra ...
, various types of flutes/
suling The suling or seruling (Sundanese: ) is a musical instrument of the Sundanese people in western Java, Indonesia. It is used in the Degung ensemble. Bamboo ring flute can also be found in Southeast Asian, especially in Brunei, Indonesia, Mala ...
,
Rebab The ''rebab'' ( ar, ربابة, ''rabāba'', variously spelled ''rebap'', ''rubob'', ''rebeb'', ''rababa'', ''rabeba'', ''robab'', ''rubab'', ''rebob'', etc) is the name of several related string instruments that independently spread via I ...
,
Kacapi The kacapi ( su, ᮊᮎᮕᮤ) is a traditional zither of Sundanese people in Indonesia. This musical instrument is similiar to Chinese , Japanese ''koto'', the Mongolian , the Korean , the Vietnamese and the Kazakh jetigen The jetigen ( kk ...
and some
Sasando The sasando, also called ''sasandu'' from Sandu or Sanu, is a tube zither, a harp-like traditional music string instrument native to Rote Island of East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. The name ''sasando'' is derived from the Rote dialect word ”sasa ...
. Currently, the divisions (conformation) of the group are: * the
Pelog Pelog ( su, ᮕᮦᮜᮧᮌ᮪, translit=Pélog /pelog/, jv, ꦥꦺꦭꦺꦴꦒ꧀, ban, ᬧᬾᬮᭀᬕ᭄, translit=Pélog /pelok/) is one of the essential tuning systems used in gamelan instruments that has heptatonic scale. The other, ...
Javanese Gamelan Humo del Tiempo (Gamelan Nyi Asep Mangsa), and since 2014, the division of * Gamelan Barudak Indra Swara started to acquire puppets since 2007, and by 2010 it was possible for them to buy a box of Javanese shadow puppets containing 180 characters; although this box is still in Indonesia due to lack of funds to bring it to Mexico. Since 2014, the gamelan and dance music presentations have been expanded to incorporate Indonesian puppet art, both shadow puppets ( Wayang kulit) and wooden puppets (
Wayang golek ''Wayang golek'' (Sundanese: ) is one of the traditional Sundanese puppet arts from West Java, Indonesia. in contrast to the wayang art on other area of Java island that use leather in the production of wayang, wayang golek is a wayang art mad ...
). This strategy has been effective because since 2014 Mexicans have had the opportunity to learn more about Indonesia through these puppet shows, and in addition, this has given the group more opportunities to present themselves in front of the public. Indra Swara intends to create more divisions and concepts of art presentation, since more and more innovation and creativity is required to promote the art and culture of Indonesia in the Spanish-speaking world. One of the efforts of the Indra Swara group to promote the Indonesian art of puppetry has been through the donation of several puppets to the puppet museums of Mexico, such as the Puppet History Museum in Estado de Mexico and the Casa del Títere Museum in Puebla. In addition, Fitra Ismu, during the period 2005-2007, had already served as facilitator for donations made by the Indonesian Embassy in Mexico to several institutions in Mexico, including the National Museum of Cultures in Mexico City.


Books

The following books (written by Fitra Ismu using his own versions of the traditional stories) are used as material that serves as the basis for the group’s puppet shows or storytelling performances: * Flor de Humildad (Javanese history of the
Ramayana The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th ...
) * La Bufanda Roja-Cuentos Folkloricos de Indonesia (Folkloric Tales of Indonesia)


TV reports

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References

{{authority control Mexican musical groups Mexican puppeteers Indonesian culture * UNIMA Puppet theaters Theatre companies in Mexico *Gamelan Sundanese music Javanese culture