The Mawlid Reading Tradition as the Selawatan Pesantren and Its Structural Transformation to the Variety of Musical Performance Forms in Yogyakarta Special Province

Indrawan, Andre (2012) The Mawlid Reading Tradition as the Selawatan Pesantren and Its Structural Transformation to the Variety of Musical Performance Forms in Yogyakarta Special Province. In: Artikel dari Warisan Nusantara 2, 18-19 Desember 2012, Semarang.

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Abstract

This study discuses the selawatan pesantren genre as an Islamic music which is performed in some events of religious tradition of several traditional Islamic boarding school, known as the pesantren, in Yogyakarta Special Province. The discussion focused on musical structure and its general characteristic which is then compared to some forms of other musical performing arts that are recognized as the selawatan, in other locations outside of the pesantren environment. This study also investigates why almost all Islamic performing art characteristics in Yogyakarta can be traced back to the selwatan pesantren. Another question is why the selawatan as a musical art cannot be disobeyed from the phenomena of Islamic law interpretation concerning music. In order to solve its research problems this study utilizes theoretical reconstruction of ethno-musicological method through interdisciplinary approaches of historical, anthropological, analytical musicology, and Islamic speculative studies. This study concludes that based on the use of the mawlid Arabic texts as its main repertoire, the selawatan that are practiced within, and outside of, the traditional pesantren, is obviously an Indonesian representation of the mawlid musical traditions. The selawatan pesantren type has inspired other new musical genres out sides the pesantren. Even though some types of the selawatan also involve dances, body movements and other theatrical elements, these should be considered secondary as an accompaniment to the musically reading performance of the selawatan texts. Finally, through speculative consideration, it can be concluded that the performance of selawatan pesantren as well as its variants outside the pesantren complex is an interpretation phenomenon of the Islamic principle.

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