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13 "Only If a Man Can Kill a Buffalo with One Blow Can He Play a Rapa 'i Pasè " The Frame Drum as a Symbol of Male Identity Rapa’i Culture The largest kind of frame drum in Aceh is the great rapa’i Pasè, with a skin head and heavy wooden body of up to a meter or more in upper diameter and up to thirtytwo centimeters in body length.1 The name is believed to derive from the Pasai (Ac. Pasè) district of North Aceh, where the first known Muslim kingdom in Southeast Asia—Samudera Pasai—was founded in the late thirteenth century.2 Venerated as family heirlooms and associated with supernatural energy, adat, Islam, state political power, the historical greatness of Aceh, and male-human strength, the rapa’i Pasè was traditionally played in ensembles with the singing of improvised texts at lifecycle and religious feasts and in intervillage competitions and served as a signaling agent between villages in Pidie, Bireuen, and North Aceh. Because such strength and energy are required to play a rapa’i Pasè, it is said that only a man who can kill a buffalo with one sharp blow can do so, for he must produce a sound that reverberates like thunder, and it can carry as far as ten kilometers away.3 Besides the rapa’i Pasè, Acehnese men play several other variants of the frame drum and the tambourine (i.e., frame drums with jingles attached). All of them are known generically as the rapa’i, though some variants are also known as rabana in southeastern and southwestern areas.4 The main Acehnese variants of the frame drum are differentiated from one another by name and approximate size, as shown in table 13.1 (see also figs. 13.2–13.6). Kartomi_Text.indd 316 6/15/12 2:29 PM 13. “Kill a Buffalo with One Blow” 317 The rapa’i family of musical instruments occurs in a large number of artistic genres, both secular and religious. In the secular genres, between eight and twenty men play a single rapa’i each, while one or two play in a vocal and/or instrumental ensemble, with double the number played in competitions between two groups. In Sufi-style religious genres such as rapa’i dabôh, sixty or more men of a village and surrounding areas may take part. In group performances usually one or several rapa’i musicians repeatedly play a simple rhythm, mainly focusing on the downbeats, while another (or another group) plays more-complex, interlocking rhythms, focusing on a syncopated rhythmic commentary. The latter are called the rapa’i tingkah (interlocking rapa’i) players. This chapter demonstrates the ways in which the ergology (making) and morphology of the variants of the rapa’i relate to its performance practice, the genres in which it is used, the cultural memory, and the sense of Acehnese cultural identity among its makers, performers, and audiences. It begins by considering the defining and distinctive elements of the Acehnese sense of identity in its connection to rapa’i. It also discusses the loss of thousands of rapa’i Pasè (which are by far the most valuable of the frame-drum types) during Aceh’s recent armed conflict (1976–2005) and considers the attempts by Indonesian governments to appropriate, secularize, and aestheticize rapa’i and other forms of the traditional arts, and the various elite and nonelite views of identity.5 Due to limited space, other rapa’i genres that are named after their accompanying performance style and song content such as rapa’i kisah (storytelling rapa’i) and rapa’i hajat (Ar. “(Muslim) message rapa’i”) will not be discussed, nor will the organological variants of the frame drums of the Tamiang Malay, Aneuk Jamèe/Pasisir Malay, and Gayo musico-lingual groups in Aceh.6 Table 13.1 The main variants of the Acehnese rapa’i Instrument type Size Rapa’i Pasè Large to very large (70 cm to 1.3 m in diameter   and 18–32 cm in body length) Rapa’i dabôh Medium-large size (ca. 48–50 cm x 12 cm) Rapa’i geurimpheng Medium size (ca. 35–38 cm x 8–10 cm) Rapa’i pulot Rapai geleng Medium size (ca. 38 cm x 10 cm). Medium size (ca. 35 cm x 8 cm) Dap, dab, or rapa’i aneuk/tingkah Tiny (6–8 cm x 4 cm) Kartomi_Text.indd 317 6/15/12 2:29 PM [3.133...

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