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Writer's pictureAstrid Wangsagirindra Pudjastawa

Some Views About Tembang Macapat Malang

Updated: Nov 21, 2020

As described in the general sense of the macapat song. Macapat Malang was originally used in small communities who live in rural areas and big cities. At certain times the small communities in the Malang area gather and form a circle in the middle of which the tumpeng is placed. A Syahman / ceremony leader leads the ceremony by singing praises which in its development is now known as Macapat Malang.

The manuscript notes about the oldest Malang Macapat Song are in the legacy of Mbah Brama, an old puppeteer from the slopes of Mount Semeru who was the umpteenth generation of the Tengger community. Because of its function as a compliment in the past, the song Macapat Malang was rarely written. In the past, Malang Macapat Tembang was an oral/oral tradition that tended to be conveyed by word of mouth. Because of its nature that is read together as praises, in the Macapat Malang song, we will find several choir accents, namely singing together, for example, "Aoooa" or "Aom" as a characteristic of derivatives of Sanskrit poetry which are indeed the ones existed in the years 1000-1500 remembering the song Macapat Malang was brought by the descendants of people from Tengger who were fugitives from Majapahit.




Social Function

The Macapat Malang song is one type of song besides Gedhe, Middle Song and Prayer. Macapat song, which is also called tembang cilik, is thought to have existed since the Majapahit era, King Prabu Brawijaya VII in 1478 developed in the Demak era and the following era. The spread of this song to the eastern region from Java (Central Java and East Java) to Bali and to the goods area to Sunda. This can be justified because until now in Bali, Java and Sunda there are still macapat songs and there are still many similarities both in terms of function, song names and rules of the game.

"Kuna" books such as "Srikandhi Meguru manah" "Centhini", "Wulangreh", "Wedhatama", "Tripama", "Serat Yusuf", "Serat Anabiya" are Javanese literary works written in the form of Macapat songs. Cakepan contains sanepa, paribasan, wangsalan, purwakanthi and parikan which are characteristic of Eastern (Javanese) literature and at the same time show the beauty of language. More than that fairy tales, stories, and history are also contained in the macapat song, which in this case is the standard language for character education and the teachings of the main attitude of practice. This kind of fiber is usually read for the purpose of spending the whole night awake. These requirements include a baby selapanan ceremony (on the 35th day from birth), circumcision, building a house, thanksgiving, and voting. The book is read in the macapat waosan pattern. This type of macapat focuses on reading with the following characteristics: (1) simple and cengkok singing; (2) Wiledan uses a maximum of three notes; (3) Articulation (kedal) must be clear; (4) Breathing is regulated according to the content of the sentence; (5) Not breaking words; (6) The barrel must be correct; and (7) The tone must be correct.

There are seven characteristics that call the term “Lagu Winengku Sastra” which means that in reading book/serat with the macapat waosan pattern “literature” is more important than “the song”, The following are examples of the text of the song macapat waosan, taken from the book “Yusuf” containing some of the text described above.

1. About the One Godliness - Verse 1 of the Tembang Asmaradana among others, reads “Ingsun hamiwiti muji yang nebut nama hyang suksma kang paring murah ing dunya mangke” - Verse 5 Tembang Asmaradana among others, reads “Kawruhana dununge wong urip iki lamun benjang”

2. Teaching to get along Verse 6 Tembang Macapat Mijil “Kudu andhap asor” “Tumungkulo yen di pundekani”

3. Teachings to strive for life Verse 7 Tembang Macapat Sinom “Perawana wong lowok doro” “Isih cilik njaluk rabi” “Adange neng mergosono”

4. The cengkok beauty “Batangen cangkriman ingwang…….” “Kaki dhalang yen mati dha tan pini kul “

5. Simple Song Tembang Macapat Gambuh Pelog


Structural Characteristics

Macapat songs have certain rules so it is very easy to distinguish between macapat songs and other songs, or macapat songs from one another. The structural characteristics here refer to the physical structure of the tembang macapat which includes gatra numbers, guru wilangan, guru lagu or dhong-dhing, on and pupuh. What is meant by gatra is mentioning the line in each tembang, teacher wilangan is the number of syllables on each line, the teacher of the chants or the dhong-dhing of the letters at the end of the gatra, what is meant by is a collection of tembang sentences that end with a function (point), while the pupuh is a collection of macapat songs consisting of several on, for more details can be seen in the following table.



The musical development of Malang Macapat Song

In people's lives, the macapat song develops in line with the life of the music world, namely since the era of Paku Buwana X, contemporary Mangkunegara IV. This development lies in the function and tembang (musical taste) following the needs and does not change its structural characteristics except for macapat in the form of ura-ura. These developments include: (1) Macapat in the form of ura-ura; (2) Macapat in a bawa form; (3) Macapat in the form of a palaran; (4) Macapat in its larasmadya form; (5) Macapat in the form of andhegan gending; (6) Macapat in the form of a sulukan; (7) Macapat in gending form. One of the artists in Malang who contributed to the development of Malang Macapat Song music is Ki Sumantri. Some of his works rely on the Macapat song which is then processed into various forms as depicted from number 1 to number 7. The Full Papper can be access on: 10.5281/zenodo.4163841

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