Tag Archive for: Traditional music.

Art is one of the elements of human culture in general which is an expression of the creativity of the culture itself. Culture-based creativity is a reflection or uniqueness of a nation’s identity. However, in the current era of globalization, traditional arts are increasingly being abandoned by the public. Based on the data released by jabarprov.go.id about West Java arts’ status state that there are several traditional arts that are almost extinct and there will be an increasing number of traditional arts that follow extinction. One of the reasons is that the current generation is more interested in popular music than traditional music or in other words they are not sufficiently concerned about their own culture. This is also because many think that traditional art is outdated. Not only experiencing extinction, several Indonesian traditional arts have also been claimed by other countries. Quoting from kompas.com (2010) in his article entitled “Angklung Will Become a World Cultural Heritage” which also discussed where angklung as a traditional art from Indonesia was claimed by another country which infuriated the Indonesian people, and after the debate between Indonesia and Malaysia. Angklung then was registered as an Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) of Indonesia at UNESCO in November 2010. In order to actively participate in preserving and maintaining the existence of angklung in society, RagamLaras came up with an innovation for angklung, where the RagamLaras angklung has 15 scales that can play both pentatonic and diatonic notes in one angklung ensemble. It is hoped that it can provide a new presentation for the performing arts of angklung and open space for creativity for traditional artists, as well as spreading the public awareness, especially the younger generation, to get to know and preserve the nation’s culture better.