Keroncong

The roots of kroncong date back to the 16th century when sailors brought Portuguese instruments and melodies to Indonesia. These imported elements were absorbed by the local mixed-race Lusophones, who developed an urban music that came to be associated with lower-class rogues called buaya (crocodile).

As happens in most cases this music, originally the domain of unsavory elements, was eventually assimilated by the respectable segments of society, and it is considered rather stodgy and old-fashioned by today's youths. Indeed, on first hearing kroncong one may wonder how it could ever have been considered déclassé . The ensemble typically consists of plucked string instruments ( kroncong is the name of a ukelele-like instrument), a flute, and a female singer. Over the steadily plucked arpeggios that provide the harmonic backdrop, the singer croons languidly of love, yearning, sadness, and the beauty of the countryside, as the flute flits up and down the scales in free-improvisational flight.

Although the instruments and the singing style are clearly descended from European origins, the chord progression takes the Western ear by surprise and provides an unsettling, ethereal flavor to the songs. The langgam jawa , a regional variant, has an even more local character with its use of Javanese gamelan scales.

When a traveler visiting Java, in Central Java or in Jakarta, sometimes he / she hears a music with special beat , it's so melodious, romantic. The music instruments are western but played in a special way which can not be found in any other part of the world.

One of the famous song is Bengawan Solo (River Solo), composed by Solonese senior artist Mr. GESANG. Bengawan Solo is not heard only in Solo or Indonesia, but its popularity has crossed the border to other countries of South East Asia & Japan . This is " The classic" of Kroncong music . Nowadays , Kroncong still has its valuable place in the world of music entertainment performed in front of the audience, in the television & radio.