Dayung Sampan

Melody alternating between the recorder and the barred mallet instrument

This particular type of arrangement was a first for me, having heard some of the traditional Indonesian instruments like the angklung, kulintang, and, very rarely, gamelan ensemble music. A bit of research and many listening excerpts from YouTube were needed for me to get a grasp of how I could best depict the characteristics of Indonesian gamelan music without causing too much offence to the musicians of this country.

My first experience of this song was when I heard the Mandarin adaptation of this song, sung by the amazingly dulcet voice of Taiwanese singer, Teresa Teng. That version has a permanent place in my mind, so even though I tried to include more Indonesian elements in my arrangement, I kept some of the trills played by the recorder from the Mandarin version of this song.

The reason why I chose to have the melody alternate between 2 instruments is because I know how difficult it is for many students to play the low C note on the recorder, and my objective is to remove as many unnecessary hurdles that lie between their playing the song as far as possible. For the students who don’t struggle with this elusive low C, it is possible for the entire melody to be played with just the recorder alone. However, I thought that sharing the melody between 2 instruments encourage the students to learn about teamwork, and to actively listen to their peers while they are playing.

For the visuals, I included the white jasmine flower as the national flower of Indonesia. In the background are some elements of Javanese architecture as well.

I hope students have an enjoyable time using the different versions of this video to learn more about Indonesian music and culture, as well as hone their musical techniques on the respective instruments.