‘Tarling’ Star from Early Age

KOMPAS/ABDULLAH FIKRI ASHRI

Uun Kurniasih

More than half of the lifetime of Uun Kurniasih, 60, has been dedicated to tarling, a portmanteau of guitar and flute. She plays classic and modern tarling as well as preaches. Uun is like tarling, living among change.

Uun offered us tape, fermented sticky rice, when we visited her house in Kedungjaya village, Kedawung district, Cirebon regency, West Java, on Thursday (16/8/2018). The delicacy was a gift from residents when she performed a day earlier in Wangunharja village, next to Bakung village.

Uun is the star of tarling — a folk art in the coastal area of Indramayu and Cirebon — that is still loved among fans. Until now, the mother of two and the grandmother of six is still paid to perform.

People still love her. “Starting from Aug. 24 through Sept., I will perform Nada and Dakwah [songs and preaching],” said the leader of Kurnia Nada group.

Nada and Dakwah is a program by a Muslim cleric that also performs religious songs. In that event, the lyrics of the tarling songs are replaced with lyrics from religious songs. The song “Sumpah Suci”, for example, uses the lyrics from the song “Rukun Islam”. It still uses Cirebon language.

“Normally, I perform four songs. The audience is massive, no smaller than the audience of the tarling. They are around the whole soccer field. Nada and Dakwah is as old as I am,” Uun said, smiling. Uun has performed for this event for seven years with two other singers. They not only perform in Cirebon, but also in places as far as Tegal, Central Java.

“When performing Nada and Dakwah, the audience still calls me Ratminah,” she said.

Ratminah is a character in the tarling drama Baridin-Ratminah. It is one of the legendary dramas in Indramayu-Cirebon. Uun, who first acted in the drama in the mid-1970s, is considered the most successful to play the character Ratminah, the daughter of a wealthy and arrogant family who finally falls in love with Baridin, a poor guy. At that time, Uun was still a teenager.

Since an early age

Uun joined tarling for the first time in 1971 when she was 13 years old. She was the singer in the group founded by her parent, Kumbang Pinancar, in Majalengka. At that time, there were only three groups in Cirebon and surrounding cities, including her hometown Ampel village, Ligung district, Majalengka.

Her clear and high voice impressed the audience instantly. She performed from one kampung to another in Majalengka for the tarling. The stage quickly helped make her the star.

Her career got even brighter when she moved to Cirebon to study the art of tarling, which used to consist of classic songs and dramas. She joined the group Putra Sengkala, run by artist Abdul Adjib, who later married Uun.

Instantly, she became the star of tarling. She became the real star when playing Ratminah. Every time she was on stage, the audience shouted her name. “The stage is never empty. My life is on the stage. I usually sleep under the stage. Yet, we never accept orders in the daytime because I have to go to school,” she said.

KOMPAS/ABDULLAH FIKRI ASHRI

Uun Kurniasih

That year, the stage was only tables or even piles of straw. The loudspeaker was a single Toa speaker. The singer was barefoot. Although it was very modest, the group had performed in Banten and Central Java cities.

At that time, for a single show, she earned Rp 3,000 (20 US cents). The price of gold was Rp 500 per gram. So, she could buy 6 grams of gold from a single show. “Sometime, I forgot where I put and stored the gold. I was not sad because I could buy more. Today, a singer is paid Rp 500,000 or almost equal to the price of a gram of gold,” she said.

Due to the tight schedule, sometime she feels bored. “When a customer canceled the booking, we were happy because we could have a break. Otherwise, when would we have a holiday? Yet, we keep going and thank God,” she said.

\'Tarling\' banner

When she married Adjib in 1974, they struggled to maintain the tarling. At that time, artists from Indramayu massively modified the show in 1980s. Many artists played the tarling on the grand stage using electronic loudspeakers or a sound system. The musical instruments used to be guitar, flute, tambourine and gong. Then, they added bass and electronic organ. Then came the era of tarling-dangdut with louder sounds.

“Like it or not, we have to follow. We tried to maintain the traditional one, but the audience wanted dangdut to be included,” she said. Yet, Uun and Adjib still maintained the tarling.

Dangdut was performed in the afternoon while tarling with the drama was at night. Through drama and tarling with Cirebon language consisting of folklore, such as poverty, migrant workers and daily issues, the show became a form of entertainment and moral guidance.

“So, we brought two banners: a dangdut banner for the afternoon and tarling for the night,” she added.

With the adaptation, Uun and Adjib and dozens of other group members could survive and remain popular. On the other hand, tarling could still survive. Several tarling songs popularized by Uun are “Warung Pojok” and “Bandara Soekarno-Hatta”.

Although she is popular, Uun is not picky in taking orders. As long as there is time, she will come to perform. “Once, we came to perform at a party where the food was sayur asem [sour vegetable soup] and ikan asin [salted fish]. We also helped to push an old car that was trapped on a damaged road in Indramayu,” said Uun, who once performed on four stages in a day.

She also frequently performs at Taman Ismail Marzuki and Taman Mini Indonesia Indah in Jakarta. Before the downfall of president Soeharto, Uun performed at the State Palace on Aug. 17. Some recording studios in Jakarta also hired her several times.

After the 2000s, requests for shows have declined.

“I feel bored at home. Several times, people asked me to join politics. But I declined. I don’t have the knowledge,” she said.

Now, in her old age, Uun still accepts requests for performances once a while despite the emergence of new artists. She hopes one of her granddaughters will follow in her steps. “I am old already. For me, the important thing is to see that tarling still exists,” she said.

Uun is like the tarling – living with change. She is open to new things but does not leave her genuine character. She is still known as Ratminah, the character in the tarling story, when other artists of her generation are no longer active. She is the true star of tarling.

(Budi Suwarna)