Musical Journeys in Sumatra

Chapter 10. From Singkil to Natal: Sikambang, a Malay-Portuguese Song-Dance Genre

10 From Singkil to Natal Sikambang, a Malay-Portuguese Song-Dance Genre The dominant musico-lingual subgroup along Sumatra’s northwest coast between Singkil and Natal is called the Pasisir Melayu (Coastal Malay) or Sumando. This group inhabits the Pasisir coast, a narrow strip of land between the ports of Singkil and Natal along Sumatra’s mid-northwest coast and including the former twin-court town of Barus (see map 10.1).1 Mainly comprising fisherfolk, sailors, small traders, and descendants of aristocrats whose wealth was made from the local camphor and benzoin trade, these sea-oriented Muslims keep themselves culturally and lingually separate from their land-bound Batak Christian and Muslim neighbors who live between the pasisir area and the foothills of the Great Dividing Range to the east. However, the genealogies of the rulers of Barus’s former twin courts—the Raja di Hulu (upstream ruler) and the Raja di Hilir (downstream ruler) in the ancient town of Barus—specify that their ancestors were a mix of Malay, Minangkabau, and Batak, and that their kings possessed considerable cultural power till their demise in the nineteenth century.2 The royal Asal Barus Chronicle also reported that royal life events were celebrated with a mix of “Batak, Malay, Arab, Hindu, and Islamic traditions” (adat Batak, adat Melayu, adat Arab, adat Hindu dan adat Islam; Drakard [1988] 2003, 161), thus stressing the town’s cosmopolitan character. In colonial times, the two palaces promoted their local artistic pursuits, requiring groups of village artists to perform the sikambang and other genres on the outskirts of the palaces Kartomi_Text.indd 221 6/15/12 2:29 PM 222 part iii. north sumatra as contributions to a raja installation or other royal events, sometimes with Dutch administrators invited, and village men sang sikambang kapri songs and danced with itinerant troupes of female joget singer-dancers for their entertainment (102-year-old Bp. Tamar Sinaga, pers. comm., Bottot, 1981). This chapter analyses and contextualizes the two main musical genres performed at northwest-coastal Sumatran weddings and baby thanksgivings between Singkil and Natal, the: lagu sikambang asli (original sikambang songs) and lagu sikambang kapri (sikambang songs with violin, harmony, and couples dancing).3 It investigates the vocal style of the sikambang asli songs and how the harmonically generated violin accompaniment is blended with the Malay vocal style and frame-drum part in the sikambang kapri songs, as in some other hybrid genres in Southeast Asia (such as kroncong and dendang sayang).4 It also hypothesizes that the genre’s harmonic eleMap 10.1 The Pasisir area of western North Sumatra (shaded area) Kartomi_Text.indd 222 6/15/12 2:29 PM 10. From Singkil to Natal 223 ments and use of the violin are derived from Malay-Portuguese contact during the Portuguese colonial era in Southeast Asia (1511–1641).5 The pasisir asli genre, believed to be the older of the two, is associated with local ceremonial adat (custom) and veneration of the ancestral and nature spirits. Sikambang asli songs are sung by storytellers as they recount parts of this and other legends in talibun or gurindam Barus poetic form, by semiprofessional singers of ceremonial lullabies and laments (ratap), and by sea shamans (pawang laui’), who sing requests for protection from the sea or land spirits, call the wind, or simply express the feelings of lonely or frightened fisherfolk on boats at sea.6 The sikambang kapri song texts derive from the main local legend, “Sikambang,” named after a mermaid-angel who has a beautiful voice and brought the prototypical sikambang song down to earth. Sikambang kapri songs are sung by a vocalist with a violin (biola) player and two or more frame-drum (gandang) players (see fig. 10.1). They usually accompany couples dances such as tari saputangan (kerchief dance) and tari slendang (shawl dance), the latter shown in figure 10.2.7 The song texts, musical style, and performance context are similar to dendang sayang (love song) and other harmonized Malay songs found throughout the Malay-speaking world, scattered as they are over the coastal areas of Figure 10.1 A gandang player and a singer, Bottot, 1981 Kartomi_Text.indd 223 6/15/12 2:29 PM 224 part iii. north sumatra Sumatra, Malaya, and many other islands of the Indonesian archipelago. However, sikambang kapri has its own pasisir identity, based on its incorporation of elements of the local, pre-Muslim musical style...