The Marriage Relationship between

Player and Kacapi Zither in West Java

Wim van Zanten
The kacapi zither is a significant instrument of West Java (Sunda). I elaborate on the
relationship between player and instrument, described as a marriage, by looking at the
way the instrument is described and played by Sundanese informants, and its
associations as reflected in myth, ritual and poetry. The marriage metaphor emphasises
the correct and harmonious relationship between the sexes*lawful union instead of
incest*and between a ruler and his realm. I also expand on earlier formulated ideas
that the Sundanese arts represent female aspects of human communication.
I argue that gender issues cannot be reduced to fixed male-female dichotomies. This
becomes clear if we look at gender-reversal issues like male performers performing female
roles and vice versa, a common phenomenon in Indonesia. Similarly, musical
instruments are not just male or female, but may be classified as such by their
relationship with players. Structuralists say that the element of structure is not a thing,
but a relation. Studying these systems of relations may supply information on the issue of
gender that is still not abundant in ethnomusicological works.
Keywords: West Java; Marriage Relationship; Gender; Kacapi; Zither; Tembang Sunda
Cianjuran
The kacapi is a type of board zither played in West Java, and it is a significant
instrument of the region (see Figure 1).
1
In this article I focus on gender to explain
and evaluate the instruments relationship with the player, and I also discuss relevant
aspects of its cultural meaning as a female object. Using material I collected some
Wim van Zanten was a staff member in the Department of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology,
Leiden University, from 19712007 and did ethnomusicological fieldwork in Malawi (196971) and Indonesia
(from 1976 to the present). Most of his publications are based on this fieldwork and some are about
methodological issues in anthropology and ethnomusicology, including statistics for the social sciences.
Presently he is preparing a book about the music of the Baduy minority group in West Java and also a second
book on Tembang Sunda Cianjuran music from West Java, both accompanied by film and audio CDs. For more
information, see http://www.xs4all.nl/wvzant27/. Correspondence to: Wim van Zanten, Noordeinde 63, 2445
XB Aarlanderveen, the Netherlands. E-mail: Wim.van.Zanten@xs4all.nl
ISSN 1741-1912 (print)/ISSN 1741-1920 (online)/08/010041-25
# 2008 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/17411910801972933
Ethnomusicology Forum
Vol. 17, No. 1, June 2008, pp. 4165
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time ago, in the 1980s (see van Zanten 1989, especially chapter V), I elaborate on
local concepts referring to a marriage between an instrument and player. Beyond this,
I consider aspects of gendered roles in social and artistic life. Gender issues cannot be
reduced to fixed male-female dichotomies. This becomes clear if we look at gender-
reversal issues like male performers performing female roles and vice versa, a
common phenomenon in Indonesia. On a general level, I have already argued (van
Zanten 1989, 192 and 1994, 867) that the Sundanese arts represent female aspects of
human communication, an idea that has been taken up by Sean Williams in her
analysis of gender in Sundanese music (Williams 1998, 81). Overall, consideration of
the relationship between a player and musical instrument has led me to pursue
meaning in myth, ritual and poetry as well as in the history of performance practice.
There are several types of kacapi in West Java, used in different kinds of music
which include Tembang Sunda Cianjuran (accompanied sung poetry), pantun epics,
2
and popular and experimental music. The kacapi players are almost always male,
since in this area most musical instruments are traditionally played by men.
As an instrument the kacapi has many female associations. Players respectfully
associate its parts with a womans body, referring to her belly, breasts, hair-curls and
vagina. The oral and written literature also links the kacapi with the rice goddess,
Dewi Sri, and various female spirits. The character of these spirits may be good,
ambivalent or apparently demonic.
Figure 1 Map of West Java with Bandung, Cianjur*where the Tembang Sunda
Cianjuran music originated*and the Baduy area (Kanekes). Adapted from a map by
Hans Borkent, from van Zanten 1989, xiii.
42 W. van Zanten
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The relationship between the player and his kacapi is described as a marriage.
From this marriage the music is created. When there is no proper relationship
between player and instrument, the music will be out of tune: sumbang, which is also
the word for incest. In West Java the marriage metaphor is not used solely in a
musical setting, but is more widely applied to relationships with precious objects. My
main argument is that musical instruments are not just male or female, but may be
classified as such by their relationship with players. Structuralists say that the element
of structure is not a thing, but a relation. Studying these systems of relations may
supply information on the issue of gender that is still not abundant in
ethnomusicological works.
Description of the Kacapi Zithers
There are several kinds of kacapi. Two are used in Tembang Sunda Cianjuran music:
the large kacapi indung (mother zither) and a small zither known as kacapi rincik or
kacapi anak (child zither). They accompany the solo singing by a female or male
vocalist, together with a bamboo flute (suling) and, in some songs, a two-string
bowed lute (rebab). The large zither may also be called the boat zither (kacapi
parahu), referring to its shape; see Figure 2. A smaller instrument of a similar shape,
Figure 2 Players of kacapi indung (Dede Suparman), suling bamboo ute (Endang
Sukandar) and kacapi rincik (Ade Suwandi) in concert, Bandung, 2 April 2005.
Ethnomusicology Forum 43
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kacapi pantun, is used by a bard to accompany himself when reciting a pantun epic
story. A flat kacapi siter is used in the kacapian music that was popular from the 1950s
to the 1980s; see Figure 3. The different kacapi zithers, but mainly the flat siter, are
also used in experimental music.
In this article I shall concentrate on the large zither (kacapi indung) as used in the
Tembang Sunda Cianjuran music. I mainly gathered information on its construction
from three players who were rated among the best instrument-makers in Bandung:
Ajan Warjan, Uding Ruswandhi and Uking Sukri. Of these, my main informant was
Uking Sukri, whose history as a musician is discussed below. There is no consensus
on terminology among the Sundanese. Further, new instruments are being
constructed, based on existing instruments. Other names for the kacapi zithers and
their parts may, for instance, be found in Ensiklopedi Sunda (2000, kacapi) and
Soepandi (1995 [1988]).
The total length of the large zither, kacapi indung, is about 135150 cm, and the
width is 2428 cm. The soundbox tapers in shape and the elongated resonance hole
underneath is about 960 cm. Most kacapi indung have 18 single brass strings, with
the highest note produced by the string nearest to the player. In contrast, the small
kacapi rincik has 15 steel strings, the zither used to accompany pantun epics has 1115
strings and the flat zither (siter) has 20. Each string has a movable bridge of pyramidal
shape (tumpang sari, inang, or susu). There is also a fixed bridge, common to all
strings. All Sundanese zithers have the unusual characteristic that the strings
disappear through a small hole in the soundboard, at one side of the movable bridges.
The wood used for the soundbox of the two kacapi used in Tembang Sunda
Cianjuran may come from various trees still found in the forests of West Java; the
most commonly mentioned trees were manglid, suren and kananga. The soundbox is
Figure 3 Flat kacapi siter (above) and kacapi pantun made of white lame wood of the
Baduy area (Kanekes).
44 W. van Zanten
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usually built from several parts glued and nailed together, but in former times it
seems to have been cut from a solid block of wood, as in the Baduy
3
peoples kacapi
pantun made of plain white lame wood; see Figure 3 (see also Sukanda-Tessier 1977,
105 and van Zanten 1989, 108, photo 23). The small pyramidal bridges are made
from a reasonably hard wood, such as manglid, kaboa or camphor wood. After
completion the kacapi indung and kacapi rincik are varnished black-brown with
shellac. This dark colour distinguishes these zithers from the white kacapi pantun,
and also provides a visual contrast with the yellow colour of the brass strings and the
metallic colour of the steel strings.
Some of these woods*the fragrant kananga wood and kaboa wood*are said to
have magical powers (see also Falk 1978, 60). According to Uking Sukri, people in the
area south of Garut believe that a piece of kaboa wood protects a person travelling in
the forest. Hitting the ground three times with a stick of kaboa wood is said to attract
tigers and panthers, who will come to the aid of someone in trouble. These animals
are supposed to be the incarnations of the forefathers (see also Geise 1952, 46, 60, 62,
16571; Pleyte 1907, 31; 1910, 1325, 13742; Rosidi 1984a, 5). I heard that kaboa
wood is hard to get. A male human guardian protects the sacred place where it grows
(also helped by the animals), and permission to cut kaboa wood is granted only to
those who have practised asceticism.
Notes on the Historical Development of the Instrument
The kacapi pantun is almost certainly the oldest Sundanese zither.
4
Tembang Sunda
Cianjuran music developed from pantun storytelling around 1840, and the kacapi was
used right away to accompany these Cianjuran songs. The kacapi rincik appeared in
the Cianjuran music around 1930 (used in metric songs) and the flat kacapi siter was
introduced into Sundanese music at about the same time, influenced by Western
zithers.
5
Little is known about the detailed history of the kacapi. Several South-East Asian
stringed instruments are called kacapi, or some related name. They are almost
invariably bowed or plucked lutes, and thus very different from the Sundanese kacapi
zithers (for instance, see Yampolsky 199199, vols 13, 15, 20, and Hastanto and
Sedyawati 199799, vols 2, 3, 4). According to Pleytes work from 1907, the older
pantun bards used a zither with six or seven brass strings, whereas their younger
colleagues increased the number to 11, 14, or 15 so as to be able to pluck all songs on
the instrument (Pleyte 1907, 267).
My research with players, especially older men from Cianjur, shows that within
living memory the kacapi indung has normally had 18 strings. However, there are
variations to this, and ideas about the number of strings help us to understand the
relationship between the instrument and player. Two photographs in the 1921 article
by Jaap Kunst and R. T. A. Wiranatakoesoema show instruments with 16 and 18
strings respectively (1921, opposite 234), and two players interviewed in Cianjur used
kacapi with 17 strings. One player explained that adding one (player) to 17 (strings)
Ethnomusicology Forum 45
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makes the ideal number 18. Similarly, I was told that the standard 18 strings were
necessary to obtain the ideal number 20: 18 (strings) plus one (kacapi) plus one
(player). Both explanations about the ideal number of strings stressed the holistic
unity of player and instrument. This also seems to support the marriage metaphor.
From the given evidence I conclude that the kacapi indung developed from the
kacapi pantun in the nineteenth century. The adjective indung (mother) came into
use after the smaller kacapi rincik appeared around 1930. In pairs of musical
instruments, which include the two kacapi used in Tembang Sunda Cianjuran, the
adjective mother (indung) indicates the instrument with the lowest tone(s), and
small (leutik; Javanese: rincik) or child (anak) indicates the one with the highest
tone(s). Other examples of such Sundanese musical instrument pairs are to be found
in the sets of angklung idiophones and the dogdog drums, which also use these
relational ideas. The relationship between the mother zither and child zither
presents another aspect of the female identity of the kacapi.
Gender Roles and Instrumental Performance
In West Java, as in most other parts of Indonesia, instrumental performers are almost
invariably men. Sundanese women are sometimes very good instrumentalists, but
they seldom perform as such in public. For some women it has been difficult to
perform in public after getting married. If the husband was a musician himself, this
public appearance would be less problematic.
However, there have also been the exceptional female instrumentalists, like Ibu Haji
Siti Rokayah (191581), who played the suling and kacapi very well and performed in
public. She could also recite the pantun stories and accompany herself on a kacapi,
which is almost without exception done by a male bard. Well-known vocalists like
Tati Saleh (19442006) and Euis Komariah (born 1949) were trained as all-round
musicians at the music schools (KOKAR)
6
and they could also play instruments.
Figure 4 shows them in their group, Dewi Pramanik, which includes another singer/
instrumentalist, Enah Sukaenah (born 1941). These women occasionally performed
the instrumental kacapi-suling genre, and they are shown practising for a
performance in Jakarta for Indonesian Independence Day. In the 1990s Bandung
radio started to employ a female kacapi rincik player, Rohayani, who had finished her
studies at the Bandung conservatory.
Since the 1950s the Indonesian government has encouraged women to take part in
music in many ways. This has been successful in many parts of Indonesia, where
women now play an important role as performers. In West Java an important
development has been the appearance of the gamelan orchestras, mainly the
prestigious gamelan degung, played by women since about 1970. However, in these
the kendang (drum) and the suling are still mostly played by men.
In West Java women play instruments in certain local traditions. Endo Suanda
mentions that women play instruments in the orchestra of the topeng mask dances
near Cirebon, but only after they have learned to sing and dance. There, women do
46 W. van Zanten
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not start by learning to play the simplest instruments, as boys do. Also, according to
Endo Suanda, women never play the kendang, which is considered the most
important instrument in this genre (a link between men and drums already noted for
the gamelan degung). In general, we can say that these days women rarely play the
kendang outside the academy. This situation makes an interesting comparison with
an old pantun text in which women and girls are explicitly mentioned as playing
drums (Jacobs and Meijer 1891, 174). However, one important instrument, the
gender metallophone, is played only by women, and according to one of the myths
this seems to be a very old tradition (Suanda 1985, 923). Another instrument for
women occurs in Baduy culture: although instruments are mostly played by men,
Baduy women do play the karinding (mouth harp).
The music with which we are mainly concerned, Tembang Sunda Cianjuran, is very
prestigious. It originated in Cianjur, around the Regent and his retinue in the first
half of the nineteenth century, and it is still very much a kind of music for the upper
and middle strata of society. In the beginning, the vocalists (male and female)
cultivated their musicianship as an art rather than as a means of livelihood (Tran
Van Khe 1982, 712), but the male instrumentalists were at least partially
professionals, playing in recompense for a meal.
Nowadays similar social patterns apply: in general, vocalists come from the upper
class and instrumentalists are middle-class. Since the 1930s the role of the radio has
Figure 4 Three well-known female vocalists of the music group Dewi Pramanik, who
also play instruments: Taty Saleh (vocals and kacapi rincik), Enah Sukaenah on suling, and
Euis Komariah on kacapi indung. They were practising for a performance by this womens
group (Cianjuran ibu-ibu) in Jakarta on Independence Day. Bandung, 15 August 1981.
Ethnomusicology Forum 47
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been very important for developing several kinds of music, including Tembang Sunda
Cianjuran. Today there are still amateur groups, but many musicians, both vocalists
and instrumentalists, perform for payment at weddings and other ceremonial
occasions, and in hotel lobbies.
Although in West Java women are rarely professional instrumentalists, they do sing
in public, and increasingly so since the beginning of the twentieth century (see van
Zanten 1989, 4251). From the end of the 1950s to 1965 the position of the female
singer (sinden, pasinden) in the orchestra accompanying the rod-puppet theatre
(wayang golek) became ever more important, and the subject of some controversy.
During intervals in the storytelling, professional female vocalists would sing the latest
popular songs on request. Some, like the famous Upit Sarimanah and Titim Fatimah,
would sit on a table on stage*much higher than the puppeteer and the other
musicians*and their salary became much higher than that of the puppeteer. At that
time the female singers songs were more valued than the wayang story: The wayang
performance was only considered the frame that gave the possibility for the female
singer to sing (Rosidi 1984b, 150).
7
Weintraub notes that in this period around 1960
singers also moved their bodies and danced onstage in ways that men found sexually
provocative (2004, 58). The intoxicating singing and erotic self-presentation of
female vocalists sometimes led to sexual encounters with members of the audience,
but Weintraub remarks that a marriage between the puppeteer and his female singer
would allow the puppeteer to control the sindens sexuality, restricting her availability
to hosts or guests (2004, 61). The increasing popularity of female vocalists caused
concern among the puppeteers who, at their first (partially state-controlled)
puppeteer convention in Bandung in 1964, strove to establish minimum training
standards for dalang in the future (Brandon 1967, 214) and regulate the role of the
female singers, so the puppeteer and female singer should have the same status:
The discourse of crisis surrounding the sinden and written prescriptions to regulate
her conduct were state-sponsored attempts to construct a certain kind of gendered
social relation, specifically, one in which women could not be symbolically more
prominent than men. They [female vocalists] were important and valued only
insofar as they could be placed within the framework of a social order. (Weintraub
2004, 74)
This situation reveals the potential tensions existing between male and female
professional performers in West Java. Similarly, in the Tembang Sunda Cianjuran
music of today the role of female singers is also much larger than it used to be at the
beginning of the twentieth century. The male instrumentalists usually earn less than
the female singer, who is often the artistic leader. Although for major performances
there also are male singers, the female singer is the host on the stage when
performing Tembang Sunda Cianjuran (Williams 1998, 77).
The prominence of female singers leads us to another, more generalised, level of
gendered meaning. I have argued that the Sundanese arts represent female aspects of
human communication (van Zanten 1994). To the Sundanese, music often evokes
48 W. van Zanten
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feelings of sadness, melancholy, and*generally*emotions. Emotional feelings
should not be expressed too overtly in daily life. That is considered to be bad
behaviour, especially for men. However, a musical setting gives the opportunity to
communicate these feelings. The Sundanese describe themselves as good-humoured
and cheerful in daily life. The sad*and, more generally, the emotional*feelings are
mainly communicated in a musical setting. Most singing is done by women, and the
sounds of two instruments are specifically compared to the voice of a woman: the
rebab (lute) and karinding (mouth harp). Apparently women are nowadays felt to be
the best mediators in this communication process concerning matters ineffable,
whereas the mundane business of daily life is controlled by men (van Zanten 1994,
867). Created by male musicians, the female instrumental sounds of the kacapi are
part of this aesthetic realm. It is therefore hardly surprising to find the kacapi treated
as a female object in the hands of a male musician.
Weiss (1993) offers an interesting analysis of female gender metallophone playing
in Central Javanese gamelans. She argues that the female style of playing is full of
ornaments (kembangan), whereas the male style is less ornamented. This is an
important reason for puppeteers to prefer being accompanied by female rather than
male gender players. She explains this by mentioning that Javanese men, and to some
extent women, believe that women do not possess the ability to behave in a refined
manner (Weiss 1993, 26). Furthermore, she says one could argue that it is precisely
because women do not have to be alus [refined] that they are highly valued as gender
players (1993, 43). This supports my argument that, while emotional feelings should
not be expressed in daily life, which is a world with many male characteristics, they
are appreciated in the performing arts, a world with many female characteristics. The
more expressive, unrestrained (not alus) behaviour of women makes them less fit for
a pronounced role in ruling daily life. At the same time these female qualities of not
being restrained but expressive are considered very fit for the performing arts.
8
Finally, another cultural tradition links with these arguments about gendered roles:
the relationship between classificatory elder and younger brothers. In most
Indonesian cultures the elderyounger relation is very important. The rulers of the
state, those with worldly power, are the younger brothers of ascetics and advisers
with spiritual power. In discussing the social structure of the Baduy group, Berthe
mentions that . . . the principal characteristic of the elder is femininity; that of the
younger, in contrast, is masculinity (1965, 222).
9
Asceticism, the reflective and
interpretive aspects of the arts, belongs typically to the elder, and Berthes remark
confirms that the arts are an essentially feminine domain of communication.
Two Prominent Kacapi Indung Players
Before coming to my main topic, the marriage relationship between the kacapi zither
and its human player, it is necessary to describe the player in a little more detail. I
shall now give short life histories of two male professional kacapi indung players
Ethnomusicology Forum 49
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employed by the radio: Uking Sukri, from an older generation and now deceased, and
Dede Suparman, who is pictured in Figure 2.
Uking Sukri (192594) was raised in a middle-class family in Bandung. His father
worked in the building trade as a carpenter, metalworker and bricklayer. Both his
father and mother liked solo singing (macapat) and pantun storytelling. Uking Sukri
attended six years of primary school and two years of technical school (ambacht-
school), where he also learned carpentry and metalwork. In addition, he went to an
Islamic school (pesantren) for one year. His interest in music dated from an early age.
At the age of 6 he started to attend musical performances, and while at primary
school he learned the cipher notation for music developed by Machjar A.
Kusumadinata. He soon learned to play the kacapi from someone living in his
neighbourhood, and at the age of 10 he won a local singing contest for which the
prize was a bicycle. At 15 he was accepted as kacapi rincik player by the music group
Rengganis that included the famous kacapi player O. Tarya (himself a pupil of the
famous Uce). From O. Tarya he learned to improve his playing of kacapi indung,
kacapi rincik and suling.
Uking Sukri did not immediately become a professional musician. Before the
Second World War he worked as a technician, and then, during the war, in a bakery.
During the colonial war against the Dutch he became a freedom fighter, while
working again as a technician. In 1953, aged around 28, he joined the Tembang Sunda
Cianjuran musicians of Radio Bandung (RRI Bandung) and started his professional
career as a musician. Initially he played the kacapi rincik, with O. Tarya playing the
kacapi indung, and he also played in the RRI gamelan degung orchestra. In 1966 O.
Tarya died and Uking Sukri became the kacapi indung player in his place. Eventually,
from 197084, he was leader of the RRI group for Tembang Sunda Cianjuran music.
During this period he made several overseas trips to perform in Europe. He started to
learn some English, and managed to find his way in France, the Netherlands,
England, and a few other countries.
Uking Sukri was an all-round musician, and he stressed the central importance of
singing in Tembang Sunda Cianjuran music. He always told his students that
everyone had first to learn the vocal part of the songs, otherwise you could not
accompany the vocalists properly. With his encouragement and training, two younger
women in his family became notable vocalists in the Cianjuran style. One, Euis
Kartini, the child of his first wife, died in 1972 at the age of 28, by which time she was
employed as a vocalist at the radio. His second wife, Nenden Asyani, was also a
member of the Cianjuran group at the radio, and their daughter, Fitri, won the all-
Sundanese singing contest (pasanggiri DAMAS) in 1996, two years after Uking Sukris
death. (For further information on Uking Sukri, see Sukanda 1996 and van Zanten
1989, 53, 6061.)
Dede Suparman was born around 1960. His father was the well-known rebab player
Dacep Eddi (192590), also a technician who owned a small factory in Bandung as he
could not live exclusively as a musician. Like other musicians of his generation, Dacep
Eddi played several instruments. He took part in the Tembang Sunda radio group and
50 W. van Zanten
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joined Uking Sukri a few times on overseas tours as both a kacapi rincik and rebab
player. He taught his son Dede Suparman to play musical instruments, including the
rebab.
Dede Suparman spent a few years at university but decided to take up a musical
career. He joined the radio group in the 1980s and became the major kacapi indung
player around 1990, after playing the kacapi rincik for some time*the usual path for
kacapi players. Like the other musicians at the radio, Dede Suparman produced many
commercial audio-cassettes and made a few overseas trips with Tembang Sunda
Cianjuran groups. He has been able to live in a simple middle-class way from his
music-making. Around 1993 he and the other instrumentalists of the radio recorded
and broadcast instrumental versions of Japanese-like songs in the high sorog tone
system. Around 2002 they started another experiment by playing the rubato songs
(mamaos) of the Tembang Sunda Cianjuran repertoire for instrumental kacapi-suling
ensemble, of which a few CDs are now available on the market.
Whereas Uking Sukri and Dede Suparman learned to play outside the formal
system of music schools and conservatories, this is becoming rarer. In the 1980s the
radio started to ask musicians for formal diplomas. For this reason the radio suling
player Endang Sukandar enrolled as a student of the conservatory when he was
already famous. Despite these changes, kacapi players like Uking Sukri, Dede
Suparman*and members of the younger generation that followed them*have all
been immersed in a musical culture that stresses reverence for their instrument
within a relationship that is likened to marriage.
Kacapi Players and Marriage to their Instrument
Men playing Tembang Sunda Cianjuran music describe their instrument as a woman,
their wife (istri, bojo, pamajikan). She should be handled with care, and after playing
the kacapi is covered with a cloth to protect it and keep it free of dust. When the
kacapi player takes away the cloth covering his instrument, he may be said to marry
(kawin, ngawin) his instrument, bringing it to life and creating sound. Similarly the
sugar palm is commonly described as the sugar-tappers wife (Pleyte 1905, 13748;
1913, 5471). There are also parallels in the mythical marriage relationship between
the king and female celestial beings, as discussed below.
The marriage relationship with the kacapi is called kawin. In both Indonesian and
Sundanese languages, this common word used for marrying may also signify sexual
intercourse (licit or illicit). Another commonly used term for to marry is nikah*
from Arabic*denoting the legal marriage relation between husband and wife. A man
and a woman may have been married in the sense of having sexual intercourse
(kawin), without being legally married (nikah). In refined Sundanese and polite
Indonesian it is better to use nikah for marrying, if you want to avoid the possible
sexual meaning of the word kawin. For the symbolic marriage of a player with the
kacapi the word kawin is used, as it really also refers to sexual intercourse and the
procreation of music.
Ethnomusicology Forum 51
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On a general level of analysis we need to point out that in West Java many female
objects and beings have a positive value. Customs and beliefs pertaining to the rice
goddess, Dewi Sri, persist beside the more recently introduced male-focused
ideologies of Islam, which began to reach Java in the fourteenth century. Sean
Williams explains that many homes (especially rural ones) have a ritual place in or
near the kitchen for storing rice and making offerings to the rice goddess. Marriage is
normally matrilocal (bridegroom going to the brides household), with the result that
special attention is paid to female ancestral spirits. In the traditional marriage
ceremony the bridegroom asks permission to enter his brides home, and the home is
essentially a female domain (Williams 1998, drawing on Wessing 1978 and 1997).
Parts of the kacapi are named after, or associated with, the parts of a womans body
(see Figure 5). Some alternative terms specifically refer to this. The board to which
the strings are attached is her belly (wangkis). The pyramidal bridges (tumpang sari)
on which the strings rest are her breasts (inang or susu). The two sides of the kacapi
that end in a curl are knots of hair on top of her head (gelung). The resonance hole in
the bottom of the soundbox (aweuhan) is her vagina (heunceut). This female
designation applies to the other instruments of Tembang Sunda music as well. For
instance, the small air hole in the mouth piece of the bamboo flute is called heunceut
careuh, the vagina of a kind of civet cat (Ensiklopedi Sunda 2000, 271; van Zanten
1989, 105).
It has already been mentioned that there are many different terms for the same
thing in Sundanese music. Sean Williams (personal communication, 2007)
commented that she heard her kacapi teacher Rukruk Rukmana referring to a kacapi
bridge as a clitoris, and that this was confirmed by a Sundanese woman present
during this discussion. Thus, according to Rukruk, playing the kacapi leads to the
experience of musical-sexual climax for the player and the instrument. Asked about
the breasts of the kacapi, he pointed to the tuning pegs on the front side (pureut).
My own findings show that words for breast, inang (refined Sundanese) and susu
(ordinary Sundanese) are applied to the bridges of both the kacapi and the rebab.
10
The major issue here is not the lack of consensus, but the fact that both descriptions
indicate parts of the female body.
The famous Cianjuran flute player of the 1970s and 1980s, Burhan Sukarma, called
his best flute kameumeut, meaning darling, sweetheart or precious object, and Sean
Williams has reported that she repeatedly heard players of the bamboo flute referring
to their instrument as a wife (Williams 1998, 78; 2001, 177; also see van Zanten
1989, 105). It is interesting to compare this sexual symbolism and the positive
connotations of musical instruments in West Java to the situation in the Muslim
Middle East where, according to Doubleday, sexual symbolism is not commonly
applied to musical instruments, and when applied, its connotations are usually
negative (Doubleday 1999, 104).
It is taboo (pamali) to step over a kacapi, and shoes should be taken off when
playing, rules which also apply to the instruments of the gamelan ensemble.
Moestapas work from 1913 shows that boys were not allowed to step over the
52 W. van Zanten
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loom*a precious artefact belonging to the domain of women*and they were
warned that they might become impotent if they did so (Moestapa 1946[1913], 16).
This rule is reversed when a boy marries, as he then has to step onto a part of the
loom before entering his wifes house, a custom still observed today. I have never
heard the kacapi players talking in these terms about their instrument. However the
Figure 5 Diagram of the kacapi indung indicating its female parts.
Ethnomusicology Forum 53
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whole point of the marriage of a kacapi player with his instrument is that from this
marriage the music is created, and the player should certainly not become impotent.
In West Java, and elsewhere in Indonesia, wedding ceremonies entail bathing with
water containing flowers. In the past disciples of Cianjuran music were also initiated
with a blessing from the teacher (guru), which involved some ceremony, such as a
bathe in the river or in water containing flowers. In the early 1980s only one or two of
my elder informants mentioned that they had been initiated in this way, so this
ceremony seems to have fallen into disuse. However, these links with wedding ritual
are significant, and they show that playing the kacapi is associated with a sanctified
relationship between the two sexes. It should be pointed out that the essence of the
players marriage to the kacapi is not that the player is a man and that the kacapi is
seen as a female object. It is rather the marriage relationship that should be stressed.
This is illustrated by the experiences of Sean Williams, when she did her research on
Tembang Sunda Cianjuran in Bandung, West Java, in 1988.
Williams had recently moved into a house and began to have trouble with the light
bulbs going on and off all the time (Williams 1990, 1038 and 2001, 21216; van
Zanten 2002a, 9456). The problem was blamed on the spirits in her house, who were
assumed to be unsure of her status as a white (and potentially Dutch) person in an
all-Sundanese neighbourhood. Her kacapi teacher, Rukruk Rukmana, suggested
holding a ritual including a meal (Indonesian: selamatan; Sundanese: hajat). The
servant was instructed to collect water from the homes of each neighbour in the four
directions, and to place the four samples together in a single bowl, as happens at
wedding ceremonies. A ceremonial rice dish was prepared and placed near Williamss
kacapi, together with other offerings and incense. She was ordered to bathe carefully
and put on new clothing, before the ceremony and again the next morning, using the
blossom-water.
During the second part of the two-hour ceremony she had to sit in front of the
kacapi with both palms placed on top of the strings. The musician and ritual expert,
Pa Toto (not Williamss teacher) placed a handkerchief on her hands, placed his over
hers, and said a long prayer. He later confirmed that the spirit had been concerned
about her motives for moving into that particular house and for attempting to learn
Cianjuran music, and that he had reassured the spirit. The lighting problem partially
cleared, and Williams learned how to play Cianjuran music and finished her doctoral
thesis about it.
This ceremony was a combination of several things, including the marriage
(Indonesian: perkawinan; Sundanese kawinan, pangkawinan) to the kacapi. After-
wards her kacapi teacher, Rukruk Rukmana, mentioned that he himself, like most
younger players, had never been married to the kacapi by someone else, but rather
had enacted his marriage directly with the kacapi. However, Willamss ceremony was
considered a marriage, and Rukruk Rukmana explained that when the player was a
woman, the kacapi becomes a man (Williams 1990, 1078). Herewith he beautifully
illustrated that the important thing is the relationship between player and instrument.
As the instrumentalists are (mostly) men, they will describe their instrument as their
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wife. If the player is a woman, the kacapi will necessarily become her husband,
because from this relationship, or marriage, the music is created. Structural
anthropologists refer to this as a transformation. The ethnographic content of the
two poles changes:
Player : kacapi :: male : female
Player : kacapi :: female : male
This type of logical transformation, whereby the structure*the marriage relation in
this case*remains the same, can frequently be observed between neighbouring
ethnic groups (see, for instance, Leach 1973, 4951 and 1976, 624). It demonstrates
the socially constructed nature of reality.
11
Williamss experiences are a confirmation of the complexities of gender relations
between (women) researchers and the participants of the researched group as
described by Diamond and Moisala (2000). Beverley Diamond describes her own
position:
Currently I am really struck by the power of recent emphases on performativity as
it relates to gender and music. Approaches that essentialize dichotomies of male
and female distress me a lot although I recognize that we still need descriptions and
critiques of how these dichotomies have been enacted in various societies.
(Diamond and Moisala 2000, 7)
Williamss marriage to her kacapi shows that, indeed, the dichotomies should not be
essentialised: a kacapi is only female if the player is a man. As Williams herself points
out, the marriage relation remains, but the instrument now belongs to the male
category (1998, 83 fn 8).
Connections with Female Deities and Spirits
In the realm of myth and spirituality, kacapi zithers exhibit many significant
connections with female deities and spirits. These support a female identity for the
instrument on the symbolic level of gendered meaning.
Just as gamelan ensembles are ceremonially given an honorific title, the kacapi of an
important person may carry a title. An informant in Cianjur mentioned that the title
of the kacapi belonging to Dalem Pancaniti (regent of Cianjur 183463) was Nyi
Pohaci Guling Putih. The first part of this title, Nyi Pohaci, is given to the rice
goddess Sri (or rather Asri in West Java, meaning excellent, beautiful). Pohaci is a
class of female deities closely related to agriculture, weaving, and generally to all kinds
of womens activities. For example, there are formulas which address the sugar palm
as Nyi Pohaci Mayat sariran sadana: the female deity (pohaci) whose body is
gradually reaching maturity (Pleyte 1905, 13748; 1913, 5471, specifically 56).
The myths tell us that when the rice goddess (here entitled Nyi Pohaci Sanghyang
Sri) died, life in the form of rice, the sugar palm, the coconut palm, and other plants,
sprouted from her dead body. It is therefore not surprising that one Cianjuran kacapi
Ethnomusicology Forum 55
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player described the kacapi to me as a dead woman, explaining that the instrument
should be played with visual concentration, as if contemplating a corpse. The myth
shows life sprouting from a dead body: similarly, sound is created again and again
from the body of the kacapi.
Some assocations of the kacapi with female spirits are negative or ambivalent.
Kunst reports that in the early twentieth century some people considered that the
kacapi resembled a female demon or evil spirit (kunti) who is very beautiful seen from
the front, but who has an awful hole in her back (Kunst 1973, 370). Other related
terms for this class of female spirits are kuntianak and pontianak (see Hidding 1935,
39; Moestapa 1946, 25; Pleyte 1905, 67, 12836 and 1910, 1425). A kuntianak is an
evil spirit of a woman who died when she was pregnant or during the delivery of a
child. Hellwig (2006, 86 fn 3) mentions that a kunti (or in Javanese sundel bolong) was
during her life always working as a prostitute. Apart from the fact that the kunti is a
female spirit, it seems to me that the character of the kacapi, as formulated by my
informants, does not correspond well with such an analogy. By contrast, a kacapi is
played when it is quiet, peaceful, and cool. It may be that Kunst gathered this
demonic association from fundamentalist Islamic groups, who do not like
instrumental music (see also Kunst and Wiranatakoesoema 1921, 237), and it could
be significant that in early Islamic culture stringed instruments were especially
condemned, as opposed to the frame drum or the flute (Shiloah 1995, 1617, 634).
Alternatively, Kunsts description may indicate the two-sided character of female
chthonic creatures such as the pohaci and heavenly nymphs (widadari). Hidding
identifies the pohaci as almost the same class as these heavenly nymphs, who are often
married to a king (Hidding 1929, 3658; see also Dowson 1972, 356). One myth
describes how the king captured a widadari nymph while she was bathing; he took
away her clothes and forced her to marry him. In the epic pantun story as recited by
Sajin, this capture of the widadari by the king is described (van Zanten 1989, 956):
Like the big firefly departing
Like the small firefly arriving
Such are the heavenly nymphs (widadari) when they come down to bathe
Where the rainbow touches the deeper part of the river
Their foreheads shine brightly
The crops of the fields, ready for harvesting, look fine
[. . .]
The divine creatures (sangiang) were to be watched
By the reigning king
And the nobles who pay tribute to him
The heavenly ones with their beautiful clothes were caught.
Jordaan mentions that the widadari often suffered from bodily defects, such as skin
diseases (1984, 100104; 1987, 1256; see Bayan (n.d.) for a Sundanese version of
such a story). Their disease can be interpreted as a metaphor for the disrupted
relationship between a king and his subjects. After establishing the proper relation-
ship, the disease disappears.
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According to the Sundanese, though the widadari or pohaci may sometimes look
ugly, they have a good character. This is the association of the kacapi players: the
kacapi itself is an inert object*dead*and maybe ugly (with a hole in its back, like a
kunti). The player should bring his instrument to life, establishing the right
relationship with it. Beautiful music is produced through marrying it, that is, by
playing properly on the instrument. The really important part of the kacapi is its
inner form, the music it produces. Like the disappearance of the (skin) disease once
the proper relation is established between the king and his subjects, playing the kacapi
properly may be described as a catharsis. When hearing Cianjuran music people
should find the right balance in their life, find harmony again. People often say that
through hearing the music you should become sleepy, or so relaxed that you even fall
asleep. In 2003 I recorded a song text from the Baduy singer Raida that demonstrates
this: Many female singers are good / It feels as if you are put to sleep / Especially
when it is enjoyable.
The Wrong Relationship: Incest
Earlier I mentioned the myth of the rice goddess, Nyi Pohaci Sanghyang Sri, and her
necessary death and rebirth. The myth tells us that she had to die because her foster
father, the most important god Batara Guru, fell in love with her. The other gods
decided that Sri had to die, rather than risk an incestuous relationship with him. She
was buried in the earth, and many important plants sprouted from her body, as
mentioned above. These plants, especially rice, were all important for human beings.
The act of her burial established the correct and proper marriage of the rice goddess
to the earth. The Baduy people still perform the ritual of the engagement of Dewi
Asri (Sri, the goddess) with the earth (Paratiwi) the night before rice is planted, and
in 1992 I attended such a ceremony (van Zanten 1995, 5325, 544). In this, the female
rice goddess is prepared for marriage with the male earth (the classification of earth
as male in Baduy cosmology being notable as a rare phenomenon). This myth of the
rebirth of the rice goddess teaches that the right kind of relationship leads to the
creation of valuable assets (particularly rice), whereas the wrong type of relationship,
incest, leads to death.
Another relevant strand of mythological gendered meaning concerns associations
with the boat. The shape of the kacapi is compared to a boat, as indicated in the name
kacapi parahu. The boat is very important in the cognitive system of Indonesian
cultures, standing for the ancestral ship, and it also plays an important role in the
cognitive system of the Sundanese (for instance, see texts about boats in Tembang
Sunda Cianjuran songs in van Zanten 1989, App. A, Nos. 6, 11, 20). Williams used
this metaphor of the kacapi as an ancestral ship in the title of her book: The Sound of
the Ancestral Ship (2001). In the well-known legend of Sang Kuriang, a kind of
Oedipus story, the idea of the boat provides another association with correct or
incestuous relationships and music. This story appears in several Cianjuran song
texts.
Ethnomusicology Forum 57
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The hero Sang Kuriang is the product of a marriage between a woman, Dayang
Sumbi, and a dog, Si Tumang. One day the boy Sang Kuriang went hunting with his
dog, Si Tumang. When the dog did not obey his orders he got very annoyed and
killed it, not knowing it was his father. When his mother discovered this, she hit him
on the head, wounding him, and then chased him away from home. After many years
Sang Kuriang met his mother again and, not recognizing her, fell in love with her. She
recognized him from the scar on his head, and told him who she was. But he did not
believe her and begged her to marry him. At last she agreed on the seemingly
impossible condition that in a single night he would build a dam to form a large lake
and also create a boat to go on it. Sang Kuriang had mastered magical powers during
his wanderings, and when it seemed that he would complete his task before daybreak,
his mother tricked him by spreading a white cloth in the east and letting a cock crow.
Enraged, he threw the boat away and Dayang Sumbi fled, pursued by her furious son.
It is said that the boat is still lying upside down, about 20 km north of Bandung
where a flat mountain-top in the complex of the Tangkuban Parahu (boat turned
upside down) resembles that form. In this story, the upside-down boat may be seen
as a symbol for upsetting or reversing the social order by breaking the incest rule.
Similarly, the kacapi parahu (boat-zither) may be seen as a symbol of the social and
cosmic order. Playing the kacapi becomes an explanation and a representation of this
order.
One Sundanese word for playing or singing out of tune is sumbang, which also
means incest. It stresses the point that music is a metaphor for the social order. It is
also given in the pantun text, where the gong symbolizes the king (or queen): The
pelog gong is out of tune. A false [out-of-tune] gong is at risk of being stolen. The
means to beat the enemy will not fail if [it is] in good order [but it] will go down if
out of tune (Pleyte 1912, 316). I recorded exactly the same text sung by the Baduy
bard Sajin in 1977 (van Zanten 1989, cassette tape, No. 1).
Similarly, there is a well-known verse about a flute that is out of tune: How about
the flute? / The flute is just out of tune / What about me? / I am just confused.
12
Here, an out-of-tune (silung) instrument (the flute: suling) is again associated with
disorder or confusion, albeit on an individual level. This verse is frequently used by
male vocalists in Tembang Sunda Cianjuran, to be sung in the interlude of a metric
song. These metric songs are in principle only sung by female vocalists and the male
singer will use the instrumental interlude of the song for his intrusion. This
disruption of the musical order is seen as an indication that the intrusive male
singer is in love with either the female singer or another woman (van Zanten 1994,
8990).
13
This often leads to much laughter in the audience, as the erotic overtones
hint at a possible extramarital sexual relationship that contravenes the social order.
Gender Role Reversal in West Javanese Performance Contexts
While taboos against incest have considerable power, Sundanese and Javanese culture
exhibit an openness to gender role reversal as practised in the arts. Such phenomena
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can frequently be observed in Java: male dancers portraying female characters, female
dancers portraying Arjuna (the major, male hero of the Mahabharata stories) in the
danced form of wayang stories (wayang wong), and the performative enactments of
transvestites (banci). Timmer (2005, 479) describes the she-man dancer Didik Nini
Thowong (a male body dressed as a female), and presents his comments from an
interview (2005, 489):
Men can behave much more sensual than women can do in a womans role. It is, he
thinks, culturally more accepted that men behave in a super-female way in dance,
because this is seen as an assumed role. With women this is rather seen as an
extension of her own person.
This observation is confirmed by Suanda (2005), who describes how in 19646, as a
gamelan player, he accompanied two male singers singing the female part (sinden
laki-laki). They used falsetto voice and according to Suanda the quality of their voice
was very similar to a female one. However, the audience would know that these were
male performers, because they would be announced as such. Also a singer would
occasionally not use the falsetto, but would sing with his (masculine) chest voice. The
performance (singing and moving the body) of the sinden laki-laki was mostly
experienced as more expressive than that of a female singer. Because there were no
Figure 6 Transvestite (banci) in the role of a clown in a sisingaan and benjang procession:
s/he is wearing a mask and looks in a mirror. Ujungberung, Bandung, 29 October 1990.
Ethnomusicology Forum 59
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romantic implications, the performance of the sinden laki-laki was less personal and
he could concentrate more on the performative aspects than a female sinden (Suanda
2005, 1245). However, for women performing a male role in a play there would be
no such exaggeration of the male character; it would be enough to look exactly like a
man (2005, 129).
This argument is apparently supported by something I observed in a street
procession for a circumcision of boys in Bandung. Entertaining the people, and
making a play on the fluidity of gender roles, a male transvestite clown (banci)
typically exaggerated the female aspects of his movements. Wearing a mask and
looking in a mirror, he drew attention to his female persona (Figure 6). Hence we
could say that in the Sundanese arts transgendered performers stress the female
rather than the male aspects of their characters. This links with my general point
about the Sundanese arts as a female domain of communication.
Conclusions
In West Java most instruments are played by men. They marry their instruments to
create music. Players describe their instrument as their precious wife, who needs
handling with care. This attitude of intimacy and protectiveness seems to imply a
positive view of women. The marriage metaphor emphasises the correct and
harmonious relationship between the sexes*lawful union instead of incest*and
between a ruler and his realm. The kacapi also embodies the symbolism of a boat,
thus representing the correct social order, just as well-tuned music reflects this.
The kacapi zithers are connected with pre-Islamic female deities related to
agriculture, weaving and all kinds of womens activities, and they have other links
with the spiritual and supernatural realm. The kacapi of an important person may
carry a title given to a supernatural female, Nyi Pohaci. Along with other instruments
(also classed as female) the kacapi is played in ceremonies for the rice goddess, whose
marriage to the earth produces essential food for human beings. In pantun epics and
Cianjuran sung poetry the zither accompanies texts which refer to supernatural
beings, both male and female. Precious wood with magical properties may be used in
making these instruments. Rituals connected with playing this instrument use the
magical symbolism of water, flowers and the cardinal directions that are also
employed in wedding ceremonies.
Seen as an inert object, the kacapi needs to be brought to life by its player. This
implies that the active principle is embodied in the male instrumentalist, marrying
his wife to create music. But all this does not mean that women play a passive role in
music-making. On the contrary, these days most vocalists are women, and they are
the ones who are the host on the stage when performing Tembang Sunda Cianjuran.
The performance stage is an increasingly feminized place, just as the house is ritually
female, Williams remarked (1998, 77).
In West Java it would be very improbable to hear the relationship between a
woman player and her kacapi described as a homosexual relationship. While the
60 W. van Zanten
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instrument has female associations and parts named after the female body, the
heterosexual relationship between player and instrument is always maintained, as
demonstrated in the experience of Sean Williams.
I have described the music of West Java, and in particular Tembang Sunda
Cianjuran, as a female form of communication. In daily life the sound of power has
many male characteristics, but in the performing arts the female aspects are
predominant. The quality of life is best when there is harmony, and the music will
sound best when there is a proper marriage between the male and the female aspects.
The sounds of power will then be balanced and the music will not be out of tune.
Acknowledgements
Veronica Doubleday was very encouraging and helpful in the process of expanding
my ideas on the marriage relationship between player and the kacapi zither and on
the Sundanese performing arts as a female form of communication. In her gentle way
she forced me several times to re-think the issues involved and thus contributed
substantially to the nal result. Sean Williams critically read through an earlier
version of this article. I am very grateful for her comments that made me formulate
several parts in a better way.
Notes
[1] West Java, including the present-day provinces of Banten en Jawa Barat (West Java), is also
called Sunda and it is the homeland of the about 3540 million Sundanese people that form
the second largest ethnic group, after the Javanese, in Indonesia. In West Java, including
Jakarta and Banten, the total number of inhabitants was 52 million in 2000 (Biro Pusat
Statistik 2000).
[2] All terms are given in the Sundanese language, unless otherwise indicated. I occasionally refer
to Sundanese speech levels such as rened (lemes) and ordinary/common speech (kasar).
Note that in Sunda pantun indicates epic stories, and not the four-line verses as in other
parts of Indonesia.
[3] The Baduy are a minority group of about 7500 people in western Java, speaking Sundanese,
but different from the surrounding Sundanese in many other socio-cultural aspects. See van
Zanten 1995.
[4] Pantun epic storytelling*in which the kacapi is used for accompaniment*is mentioned in a
1518 Sundanese manuscript written on palm leaves, although there is no reference to the
zither itself (Atja and Danasasmita 1981, 14, 40). The word kacapi appears in another Old
Sundanese manuscript, probably dating from the sixteenth century; from this text it seems
clear that the kacapi is a musical instrument, but not necessarily a zither (Noorduyn and
Teeuw 2006, 19, 40, 230, 234, 368).
[5] See further details on the historical development in van Zanten (1989, 213; 1993, 14950).
There are many commercial recordings of the Cianjuran music and also of the instrumental
form kacapi-suling, with the kacapi indung and kacapi rincik. The kacapi pantun may, for
instance, be heard on the demonstration cassette tape (No. 1: from Baduy area; No. 2: from
eastern Bandung region) with my book, van Zanten 1989, and on CD 3 (No. 22: southern
Bandung region) by Hastanto and Sedyawati (199799). A recording of a jentreng (kacapi
pantun) may be found on CD 1 (No. 1: from the Sumedang region) by Hastanto and
Ethnomusicology Forum 61
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Sedyawati 199799. There are quite a few commercial cassettes with kacapian music. An
excerpt may be heard on the Demonstration cassette tape (No. 10) with my book, van
Zanten 1989. Experimental kacapi playing may be heard on the CD Asmat Dream, Nos. 15
(Diamond and Polansky 1989).
[6] KOKAR is an abbreviation of Konservatori Karawitan, conservatory of Indonesian music
(and dance).
[7] The original Indonesian is: Pertunjukan wayang hanya dianggap sebagai wadah yang
memberi kemungkinan kepada pasinden untuk menyanyi.
[8] Rasmussen (2001, 55, fn 16) reports that a South Sumatran male felt women were, in fact,
much better than men at artistic endeavors, especially dance and music. This is consistent
with what I found in West Sumatra for the saluang jo dendang music of the Minangkabau:
These days, women vocalists play an important role in expressing these different feelings
through their creative use of the song texts. The erotic texts, in particular, offer the
opportunity for expressing feelings that are difcult to talk about in daily life (van Zanten
2002b, lm at 03:41 and documentation book p.16).
[9] The original French is . . . la substance de lane ait pour attribut principale la feminite, celle
du cadet au contraire, la virilite.
[10] Many written sources support this: Ensiklopedi Sunda 2000; Soepandi 1995 [1988], 99100;
Satjadibrata 1944 and Coolsma 1884.
[11] Another example of a structural transformation is the relation between high notes and lower
notes in Bali and West Java. The Sundanese associate low notes with rened characters
(lemes) and high social status and high notes with simple, coarse, unrened (kasar)
characters with lower social status; see van Zanten 1989, 1168 and 1994, 812. In the
Balinese wayang this rened-unrened relationship is reversed, according to Vonck (1997,
88): The two highest pitches of the octave (dang and ding) are perceived as manis [rened],
especially suited to the accompaniment of rened wayang characters. The two lower pitches
(dong and deng) are perceived as keras [coarse, unrened], especially suited to the
accompaniment of strong and coarse wayang characters. The middle pitch (dung) nally
is perceived as sedeng, i.e. neither being manis nor keras. In other words, the ambitus, which
is an octave lled in by ve pitches, is divided into two opposite parts, with a neutral pitch in
between.
[12] Kuma suling, kuma suling / Suling teh ngan silung bae / Kuma kuring, kuma kuring / Kuring
teh ngan bingung bae.
[13] See also Williams (2001, 9092 and especially 237 n10) about the interactions between a
female singer and a male person, usually present at the performance, by singing certain lyrics.
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