Bengawan Solo
- Solo River of Java
...........While Bengawan Solo flows slowly to the sea, Gesang's melody found it way to our hearts............
- Solo River of Java
...........While Bengawan Solo flows slowly to the sea, Gesang's melody found it way to our hearts............
"Any one came from Indonesia ?" Pan Xiuqiong, standing on the stage,
browsed among the 1000 over Chinese audient and asked.
No Chinese in Tawau Town wants to be known of being
migrated from Indonesia, at least not in front the public in an occasion
like this. It was a bitter past in Indonesia that they tried to forget.
After a short silent, a church group leader among the audient talked out
loud to Pan "Yes, we have many came from Indonesia"
"Indonesia has a beautiful river, Solo River. Tonight I am going to sing for you 梭羅河之戀 (Romance over the Solo River)".
With her deep and low female voice she sang to us "梭羅河之戀 " The Mandarin Chinese version of "Bengawan Solo".
梭羅河之戀 made her well-known as a hit in 1960-1970 in Malaysia. I was a student then and Pan was about 10 years my senior. We were of the same age group of the last century. Tonight (2009) she appear personally in front of us on the stage, and recaptures the hearts of many elderly who once grew up under the melody of her song first broadcast over the radios in the 1960s. Today at age of 70 over, her low vocal is as magnetic as in 1960s. We called her the “Queen of Alto”低音歌后潘秀瓊.
歌曲：梭羅河之戀 Bengawan Solo 所屬專輯：百代千禧世紀精選系列 演唱者： 潘秀瓊 Pan Xiuqiong http://www.xiami.com/song/1769605408?comefrom=sogou 我愛梭羅河，美麗像畫一樣， |
Pan Xiuqiong 潘秀瓊 Poon Sow Keng
Pan Xiuqiong was born in Macau and grew up in Malaysia and Singapore. At 8 Year-old she was the second in a children's singing competition. At twelve-year-old she went on stage and at the age of eighteen, she became a singer.
Her peak period was between 1957 to 1967. Her best songs were launched during that period.Pan's voice is low and often give listeners an unexpected turn in the song. This is her most prominent feature.
At that time in the 1950s and 1960s, EMI has very few South East Asian singer like Pan. Pan's selections on songs with tropical Southeast Asia flavor it is a great wonderful contribution to her song lovers.
Bengawan Solo was one of the favorite tropical Asian team in those decades. Many Malaysian came to know about a beatiful Bali Island through Pan's song 峇厘島 (Bali) .
Pan XiuQiong is known among Malaysian Chinese as the “Queen of Alto”低音歌后潘秀瓊. She popularized two Indonesian songs :
1) 峇厘島 (Bali)
2) 梭羅河之戀 (Bengawan Solo).
Pan XiuQiong is known among Malaysian Chinese as the “Queen of Alto”低音歌后潘秀瓊. She popularized two Indonesian songs :
1) 峇厘島 (Bali)
2) 梭羅河之戀 (Bengawan Solo).
In 2009 she gave a concert in the hall of Calvary Church in Tawau Town. I was among the thousand audian that night.
Gesang Martohartono
October 1, 1917 - May 20, 2010
Age 92
Gesang Martohartono was born in Surakarta, Central Java, October 1, 1917 and RIP in the same town May 20, 2010 at the age of 92 years.
Gesang was a Keroncong singer and songwriter from Indonesia. Known as the "Maestro Keroncong Indonesia" (Master of Indonesian Keroncong Music). Self-made musician, yet in the decades following, his "Bengawan Solo" became internationally well-known. However he was less known except among the Indonesian and old generation of Japanese.
Gesang's name as a boy was Sutadi. The young and weak Sutadi was often sick at home while his brother Mas Yaid was fond of outdoor sports like football. After a serious fever that almost took his life, the father, Martodihardjo, decided to replaced his old name Sutadi with a new name Gesang. In Java language, "Gesang" mean "Long Life". His father made a right choice of this new appropriate name for him.
Gesang lived a healthy life to the extend that he made his last recording "Bengawan Solo" at the age of 85 in year 2002. Making him one of the oldest recording singers in Asia. Gesang went on to leave for another 8 years to Rest-In-Peace in 2010 at the age of 92.
Could not read and write musical notation, the young man composed "Bengawan Solo" in his mind and play out the melody on a bamboo flute. At first he sang the song at local wedding parties and social functions. One day a local radio station asked him to broadcast his song, this mark the beginning of "Bengawan Solo" nationwide popularity.
This Indonesian song 'Bengawan Solo' lyric has been translated into more then 10 languages (including English, Chinese, and Japanese). This is the story the song trying to tell :
"Bengawan Solo, this is a song of your history. People have been fascinated with this great river since ancient times, Around the source of the Solo River, there are a thousand mountains, and the river flows all the way to the sea. There are always many merchants on board ships going up and down the river. These ships also show your history."
While the lyric has been translated from the orignal Indonesian to more than 10 languages, the melody of Bengawan Solo by now has been disfused in hundreds of musical team around the world.
Indonesian classic kroncong composer Gesang Martohartono lived at Village Road Bedoyo Kemlayan, Serengan, Solo City with nephew and his family, having previously lived in Surakarta in 1984 for 20 years. He has split with his wife in 1962 choosing to live alone. He did not have children.
The Indonesian called him Mbah Gesang (Uncle Gesang)
Some of Mbah Gesang songs:
1) Keroncong Wheel World,
2) Red Bridge,
3) farewell (Indonesian version popularized by Broery Pesulima),
4) Caping Mount,
5) Aja Lamis,
6) Keroncong the orphanage, and
7) Handkerchief
Bengawan Solo
歌手： Gesang / Waldjinah
Gesang - Keroncong Asli
Bengawan Solo.mp3 (7.1MB)
Gesang recorded his voice at age of 85 years in a tape titled
Original Keroncong Gesang produced by PT Gema Nada Pertiwi (GMP) Jakarta,
September 2002.
Bengawan SoloSang by the original composer Gesang Martohartono Original wording composed by Gesang Martohartono in 1940: Bengawan Solo, riwayat mu ini Sedari dulu, jadi perhatian insani Music kemarau, tak berapa airmu Di musim hujan air meluap sampai jauh Chorus: Mata airmu dari Solo, Terkurung gunung seribu Air mengalir sampai jauh Akhirnya kelaut Itu perahu, riwayatnya dulu Kaum pedagang selalu Naik itu perahu |
Statue of Gesang Martohartono
In the city of Solo, Gesang Martohartono's bronze status looks over the gently flowing Bengawan Solo (Solo River).
This is the statue of the famous Indonesian singer-songwriter Gesang, composed the celebrated Indonesian melody "Bengawan Solo" during World War II -- when the country was under Japanese occupation.
In Tokyo, Nobuo Ikegami, age 90 by now, recalls the tune. "This song always set my mind at ease. I memorized the melody as local residents crooned the tune so often."
Ikegami serves as vice president of the "Japan Gesang Fund Association" which promoted the erection of a statue for Gesang.
Together with other Japanese veterans the "Japan Gesang Fund Association" erected Gesang' s statue in October 1991 as a token of their appreciation.
Statue of a local Indonesian singer from former Japanese conquerors........ the story must be more then just a melody from a river.
After that 2009 evening with Pan's Chinese version Bengawan Solo, I began to Google for detail of the source of this melody.
Most Chinese lover of Bengawan Lovers like me thought the song must be an old Indonesian Folk song. Result from Google gave to my surprise, the song writer Gesang Martohartomo is very much alive and still singing. A melody that I love so much in the 1970s, where as only until 2009 (30 years later) that I learned of it original composer still living and singing at his home town beside the Solo River yet unknown to the Chinese. The Chinese Bengawan Solo lovers owe much to the credibility of Gesang. (Thanks to Internet and Google)
In 1940 the young, destitute and untrained singer Geseng composed this song on a bamboo flute and began to sing it at local functions and gatherings in his hometown of Surakarta.
In 1942, Japanese troops entered Indonesia, Bengawan Solo captured their hearts.
In 1945 Second World War ended. The Japanese, who occupied Indonesia during World War II, brought the song with them to Japan after returning from the war. Back in Japan the lyrics translated to Japanese and gained great popularity after various singers such as Toshi Matsuda released recorded versions of it which became best-sellers. The song has become almost synonymous with the perception of Indonesian music in Japan.
In 1991, a group of appreciative Japanese war veterans of "Japan Gesang Fund Association" arranged for a statue of Martohartono to be erected in a park in Surakarta.
歌手： 美空ひばり Hibari Misora 所属专辑：《HIBARI SINGS FOLK SONGS AROUND THE WORLD》 ブンガワン・ソロ Bengawan Solo in Japanese Hibari Misora 美空ひばり is a well-known enka singer in Japan.Her voice encapsulate the emotional pulse of Japan. She sing folk style (yuri) koboshi (wavering) and Latin and jazz |
In 1999 ?, a Dutch author Rudy Kausbroek, 70, was giving a lecture at Waseda University, Japan on his bitter experience at the Si Rengo Rengo camp, Indonesia during World War 2.
After Rudy Kausbroek finished his lecture, an elderly Japanese man approached him:
"I was your camp commander...If you have a grudge against the Japanese, hit me in the face first." The Japanese old man said to him in Indonesian language.
That Japanese old man is non other then Ikegami the former commander of the detainment camp for Dutch civilians in the remote village of Si Rengo Rengo in Indonesia. The one who responsible for the bitter experience of Rudy Kausbroek 50 over years ago. The packed audience in the University hall froze in silence.
"No," Kausbroek, the author, quietly replied in Indonesian.
"Really?" Ikegami, the former commander asked in Indonesian
"No. He did not do any evil deeds toward us." Kausbroek turned to the audience and told them.
This historic encounter took place in Tokyo Sept. 11, 1999 ?. Ikegami and Kausbroek met for the first time in 53 years after the War ended.
Kausbroke was visiting Tokyo to mark his book' s publication in Japanese and lecture in a University hall where this former prisoner-of-war was met by his prison-commander.
It was in the final days of the war.
Kausbroek, who was born and grew up in Sumatra, was detained at the camp for about three years as a teenager along with his Dutch father.
Ikegami was a Japanese university student-turned-officer and served as commander of a detainment camp for Dutch civilians in the remote village of Si Rengo Rengo in Sumatra.
After the conflict ended, Ikegami was detained as a war crime suspect because of his position as camp commander but was eventually released thanks to a witness, the late Dutch journalist Albert Besnard.
Ikegami told Kyodo News :
"I never expected to meet a former Dutch detainee more than half a century after the war.
"When I was appointed camp commander, I was prepared to give up my life at any time. Regrettably, scores of detainees died at the camp while I was the commander."
News Source : Kyodo News 1999
OUTSIDE A DETAINMENT CAMP - where the soft flowing river inspired a melody
FROM A DETAINMENT CAMP - where this melody brought out to the rest of the world
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