Movies & Music

Indonesian traditional music performance involving 5182 people playing 'angklung', has been managed successfully in Washington DC, USA on Saturday, July 9, 2011 and broke the world record registered by the Guinness World Records.

Angklung ensemble participants/ Photo: Dayna Smith

It has been great that the musical instrument angklung has been internationally recognized by UNESCO since November 11 last year. Referring to the world's recognition, the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia (KBRI, ed.) in Washington DC held a cultural diplomacy that was to invite as many people to play angklung together at the same time. The main purpose of this show was to obtain a new world record for the category of the highest number of angklung players in one performance (The Largest Angklung Ensemble).

The world record in angklung performance, eventually paid off and has been officially recorded by the Guinness World Records as the traditional Indonesian music concert involving thousands of people playing the angklung has been managed successfully in Washington DC, USA on last Saturday, July 9, 2011.

As a highlight of the Festival of Indonesia which was managed by the Indonesian Embassy in Washington DC in cooperation with the Capital Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM), that afternoon the Sundanese traditional musical instruments made ​​of bamboo were played by more than 5100 people. The event was held at the northern field of the Washington Monument, which is only a few blocks from the White House.

The central figure in this world record-breaking was Daeng Udjo, son of the Indonesian angklung legend, Mang Udjo. The 46-year old man was accidentally brought specially from Indonesia in order to create the new history. He was also responsible for completing the manufacture of more than 5 thousand angklungs which were distributed to all participants that day. When interviewed, Daeng Udjo said, "I spent one and a half months for making thousands of angklung in Bandung."

Event Poster/ Photo: KBRI Washington DC

Before the show began, Daeng Udjo trained the players of various ages and nations for half an hour. How the training applied by Daeng Udjo looked quite unique and practical. Only with one hand, he gave the signal. Previously, the distributed angklungs to thousands of participants were already marked in the form of a fist in various formations.

In addition to the hand-coding image formation, those angklungs were also named with the names of the Indonesian islands. For example Kalimantan, Java, Sumatera, Bali and Sulawesi. Thus, when Daeng Udjo yelled the word of 'Sumatra', just the angklungs marked 'Sumatra' were played. ''I just use the code name of the islands to roll and ensure that all tones are equally distributed,'' said Daeng Udjo.

Furthermore Udjo used more of his hand formations for commanding those 'sudden' angklung players. Once the music starts playing, many people seemed fascinated with the uniqueness of the music. One of them was Donald Hess (62), who had registered as a participant through the Indonesian Embassy's website.

Donald admitted that it was the first time for him to see the angklung and hold it by himself. The man from Virginia said he was happy because he could directly play the tunes with thousands of other participants. ''This instrument is quite simple, but it surely can unite people,'' Donald commented.

There was other opinions such as from Lissie New, a woman from Peru who claimed to get interested in the sound produced by the bamboo musical instrument. As she passed around the venue, she was immediately interested and decided to join. 'Sudden' participants like Lissie were what made the number of participants rose sharply when the event started.

Enthusiastically following the rhythmTo gather thousands of people, the Indonesian Embassy had opened registrations for two months before the date of July 9, 2011. Unfortunately, the effort turned out to be less effective. Because, based on the description of the committee, up to one hour before the event started, the number of participants had only reached 1900 people. In fact, the target set was 5000 people! This had also made Daeng Udjo worried that they could not break the world record.

Fortunately, as the rehearsal began, the typical sound of angklung surely attracted people's attention. In the rehearsal that was done by playing the song John Denver's Country Road and Home on the Range popularized by Bing Crosby, thousands of people came by to join.

Before the participants entered the event area, the committee distributed the angklungs. In addition the committee also distributed to participants Balinese udhengs for male participants and batik shawls for the women participants.

At exactly 17:15 local time the record-breaking was created. A total of three songs played with angklung were We Are the World, Country Road, and Home on the Range. The strains of the angklung sounded increasingly harmonious when overlaid by Elfa's Singers voice. When accompanying Elfa's Singers then the Guinness World Records was made, as the world record angklung performance with most players (The Largest Angklung Ensemble) that reached exactly 5182 people!

Obtaining the World Record/ Photo: KBRI Washington DC

Besides Elfa's Singers, the committee also brought Balawan, Sherina Munaf, and Denada in order to enliven the Festival of Indonesia. Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia for the United States, Dino Patti Djalal, stated that the record-breaking was a form of Indonesia's appreciation for multi-culturalism. In addition, the event was also held to introduce the richness culture of Indonesia. One of which was the angklung that been defined by UNESCO as a world's cultural heritage.

The Ambassador who is also the second son of Hasjim Djalal, an Indonesian expert on international marine law, affirmed that for conducting the event of this big, the Indonesian Embassy did not spend much money. But Dino refused to mention the exact budget spent on the overall cost. He only added that the Indonesian Embassy has got a lot of support from the BKPM and the Indonesian Ministry of Culture and Tourism. (From various sources) (ms)