Musician promotes traditional music

Yogyakarta - Time now for a glance at the past and some Indonesian soul music. On the streets of Bantul, in the exotic climes of Indonesia, a 112-year-old musician plays her Javanese xylophone. In an age where today‘s mobile phones chime the latest pop tunes, the elderly music maker lives on. She‘s the last bastion in efforts to preserve the dying tradition of an ancient city.

Hadisono Rukinem is 112. She walks the streets of Bantul in Yogyakarta, playing her ancient Javanese xylophone called the gender.

Her walks, take her, almost daily, through her Kuroboyo village in Bantul. Here, hundreds of miles south of Jakarta, she performs for any and all, relishing with pure delight the sounds emerging from her instrument and earning a little money to support herself.

Her husband, a puppeteer, has been dead more than 50 years.

And during all those years she‘s earned her keep as a busker. She plies the streets of her village and others nearby. On a good day, when she‘s feeling well, she makes as much as a dollar, playing her gender.

The mellow tones from Hadisono‘s gender float gently through the pastoral villages of the Javanese countryside. The sound draws people to come closer.

The Javanese gamelan has softer and slower tones, more melodious than its Balinese counterpart.

The old lady continues to strike chords on the traditional pentatonic instrument. The gender is an important component of the Javanese gamelan, the music of Indonesia, usually heard at shadow puppet plays. Editor:Liu Fang

Source: http://www.cctv.com (September 07, 2008)

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