A legacy of love and music
Gamelan
musician and composer Jack Body, 70, a major and enthusiastic promoter of
Indonesian arts, died last Sunday (10 May) in his homeland New Zealand.
His
great interest was in using music to cross cultures and create international friendships.
He
had long suffered from lung cancer, which till recently was in remission. He continued to compose. Poems of
Love and War incorporating Javanese themes was judged the best classical
album in the 2014 NZ Music Awards.
Shortly
before he passed away he was presented with a festschrift of more than 100
contributions simply titled Jack. He is survived by his long-time partner, linguist
Yono Soekarno, originally from Bandar Lampung in Sumatra.
Jack
Body first encountered Indonesian culture in the early 1970s when exploring the
world as a young musician of great promise.
He
had already graduated with a masters degree from Auckland University and with a
prestigious arts fellowship went to study in Cologne and at the Institute of
Sonology at Utrecht.
Then
he took the long way home wandering through Europe and Southeast Asia with his
mind and microphone open. The last stop was Indonesia.
“I
was an innocent abroad and I knew next to nothing about the country,” he told The Jakarta Post seven years ago. At the
time he’d just returned from two visits to Yogyakarta to record the palace
guards playing at the kraton.
“I'd already been to India and was intrigued
by the music I'd heard in the streets and villages.
“But
Indonesia was quite different. By comparison I found India to be harsh. In
Indonesia I started recording the sounds I heard the way other people take
photographs of their travels.
“I
followed my ears. I recorded birds, animals, street sounds, music. I was
fascinated by the fantastic richness of the culture. I liked the way people
took things easily. They couldn't be bothered to get hot and bothered.
“What
attracted me most? The sensuality.”
He
taught at the Akademi Musik Indonesia [now Institut Seni Indonesia – Indonesian
Arts Institute] in Yogyakarta for two years. Back home he joined the NZ School
of Music in Wellington where he became an associate professor.
His
compositions covered all genres, from chamber music through to themes for television
soap operas.
A
few days before the composer passed away he was awarded the Arts Foundation of NZ Icon Award Whakamana Hiranga, limited
to a living circle of just 20 artists.
At the presentation in a Wellington hospice the Foundation said Jack was a prolific world-class composer
with a global reach.
The citation continued: ‘The impact of his artistic life on NZ is profound.
Jack has given so much to audiences, local and international composers,
musicians and students. The Arts Foundation is honoured that Jack has accepted
the Award and proud to have him as the first composer to be named an Icon, and
the first Laureate to also receive an Icon Award.’
Professor
Body’s works have been performed in the United States, Holland and many other
countries. He was also a widely exhibited photographer. His specialty has been
cross-cultural compositions and experimental electro- acoustics.
In 2000, to celebrate 25 years of gamelan in
NZ, he co-organised BEAT, an International Gamelan Festival with over 100
overseas participants. He was also artistic director of the Asia-Pacific
Festivals and Conferences in 1984, 1992 and 2007.
In
all his pursuits he set out to embed the music of Asia, and Indonesia in
particular, in multicultural NZ. His success is measured by a vast collection of
awards, including a NZ Order of Merit.
To help promote Indonesian culture he collected a
Javanese gamelan for his university and named it Padhang Moncar. Tien
Soeharto, the late wife of the late Indonesian president Soeharto is believed
to have donated the instruments. The School also has a Balinese gamelan,
Taniwha Jaya.
In his compositions Professor
Body integrated other musical cultures as in Campur
Sari for Javanese musician and
string quartet, and Polish Dances, for clarinet and Javanese gamelan.
He
organized residencies in Wellington for Indonesian artists including,
Agus Supriawan and Dody Ekagustdiman [both from West Java], Rafiloza bin Rafii
from Minangkabau and Wayan Yudane from Bali.
Wayan
said his friend was at the center of the music community because
of his lifelong support for young composers and immigrants “like me”.
“He had a way of collaborating that was quite different
from other composers, especially western composers.
“Jack would never isolate himself as a composer
but was really open to finding something new, finding a friend and putting it
all together in a way that everything and everyone was given equal value. He had a great warmth and heart for Indonesia.”
Budi
Putra who directs the Javanese gamelan is also on the local staff of the
Indonesian Embassy. He said:
“Although
Jack was a great artist he never boasted of his achievements. He taught, he motivated,
he worked tirelessly. He inspired.
“He
was always just ‘Jack’. He dealt with
everyone in the same way and was always polite. Despite his illness he continued
to think about the continuity of gamelan music in NZ, right to the last seconds
of his life.
“We
will continue to develop the gamelan as he wished and play at his funeral.”
Composer
Michael Asmara said he was inspired to set up the Contemporary Music Festival
in Yogyakarta after being introduced to a NZ composers’ workshop by Professor
Body.
“I
felt Jack was just like the Javanese,” he said. “Yoga was his second home. The
way he spoke and acted was very halus [refined
and sensitive], and sometimes going round and round. He looked so excited when
he played. His patterns and forms,
rhythms and tempo were inspired by Indonesia, but he also introduced other
ideas.
“His
music will never die.”
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(First published in The Jakarta Post 12 May 2015)
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