Keroncong Music: Definition, History and Characteristics

Keroncong music is a genre that is quite famous until now. This music genre is believed to have originated from Portugal. In Indonesia, there were quite a lot of keroncong musicians in the 20th century, ranging from the upper class, foreigners to natives.

Definition of Keroncong Music

Keroncong is defined as a genre of music that mixes regional musical instruments and colonial music brought by the Portuguese. The characteristic of keroncong music is that it mainly has ukulele and violin as its identity.

In Indonesia, keroncong music is a hybrid music, a genre resulting from a cross between western and eastern and even local musical instruments. The musical influence is inherent to this day in the use of pop music.

A Brief History of Keroncong Music

Historically, the origin of keroncong comes from the Portuguese in the 16th century. In its own country, keroncong was called fado. At first, fado was often performed by negro slaves living in West Africa.

Over time, fado developed into urban music, often used to accompany Portuguese dances. One of them is the Moresco dance. This dance, influenced by Islamic culture, was a special entertainment for the court.

Malacca is where keroncong music was first played in the archipelago from the Indian region, which was then played back by laborers from Maluku. When the influence of Portuguese music began to subside in Indonesia in the 17th century. Keroncong music survived because the local community participated in preserving it. Then the next development, there are more musical instruments in Indonesia, one of which is gamelan and flute which are often collaborated in keroncong music arrangements. And in the 19th century, the keroncong music genre grew in popularity, including in Malaysia until 1960.

Figure

There are many keroncong musicians in Indonesia, one of them is Gesang Martohartono who is known as the maestro of Indonesian keroncong and a musical figure with his song Bengawan Solo.
There are also Ismail Marzuki, Waljinah, Waljinah, Mus Mulayadi, Kusbini, Kartina Dahari, and many more.

Character of Keroncong Music

The name "Kroncong" probably comes from the emerging sound of the Cak Cuk-type ukulele called kerincing, as heard in the background of the musical rhythms created by the instruments played on or off beat. These background rhythms are faster-paced than the often slow vocals or melody, and are usually created by two ukuleles, a cello, a guitar and a bass.

Keroncong music is the instruments, especially the ukelele, interlocking like instruments in a gamelan orchestra, and certainly the Indonesian musical tradition has been applied to European instrumental orchestras. Previously, musicians also used a Portuguese instrument called the cavaquinho, a four-string instrument that looks like a guitar; however, the cavaquinho was later modified into the prounga, a low-pitched 3-string instrument, and the macina, a high-pitched 4-string instrument.

Characteristics of Keroncong Music

The characteristics of keroncong music are:

• 4/4 time signature
• Song lyrics or song verses consist of seven sentences. Each lyric consists of 4 bars or beats so that the total number is 28 bars or beats.
• The 3rd sentence has an instrumental interlude of 2 bars to 4 bars.
• In the 4th sentence of the song there is always accompaniment
• Has a ukulele instrument that plays a very important role.
• The original keroncong song instrument consists of 7, namely bass, cello, violin, flute or flute, melody guitar, ukulele and chak.
• The use of harmony elements is very limited so that there is no improvisation.
• Modern keroncong music has grown in terms of its instruments.

Until now, keroncong music continues to grow in Indonesia. The number of musical instruments that have sprung up is an interesting collaboration. However, the characteristics of keroncong music itself remain distinctive.