Odong-Odong: Songs of the Pakpak of North Sumatra Indonesia

The term odong-odong is simply translated as “song’, nyanyian, in Tindi Radja Manik’s Pakpak-Dairi-Dictionary, without further specification.  But according to Oloan Tumangger’s publication on Pakpak-Dairi culture odong-odong refers specifically to the songs sung by men working in the solitude of the jungle when they collect forest products. Tumangger finds odong-odong very attractive because of their poetic qualities, often expressing pent-up feelings of sadness and disappointment in love or life. They may be performed either by a solo singer or in a choir and are not accompanied by instrumental music (Tumangger 1999:88).

In Moore’s thesis the term odong-odong is said to refer to one of the two main singing styles used in Pakpak Culture. It is characteristic for loud singing and is performed exclusively by men working in the forest (Moore 1985:6). The singing of these songs while collecting incense (kemenjen) or other forest products serves to stay in contact with other workers and helps to combat the singer’s feras and feelings of loneliness (Moore 1985:36).

Most songs in odong odong style are in free metre and are sung with much ornamentation (Moore 1985:104,117). Singers of these songs use characterisctic poetic and/or melodic formulae that distinguish them from other traditional songs. Poetic formulae that distinguish them from other traditional songs.Poetic formulae telling of the despair and the sad fate of the singer may accompanied by long, melodically structured “sighs” or “cries” (Moore 1985:107), similar to those used in the laments that are mainly sung by women.

Poetic formulae used in songs that are sung during incense collecting (ende-ende kemenjen) often refer to work in the jungle and its natural phenomena. The following example quoted from Moore’s thesis refers to birds that live among the kemenjen trees (Moore 1985:111-113) :

Ku dok ngen nai kalak dilo-dilo, kepeken kiung I babo dahan, nina le. 

I thought it was a person who called, but it was the kiung bird on the top branch.

(The kiung is a small, gregarious bird of the starling family (Moore 1985:111)

Note: the expression nina le is an example of the More or less meaningless vocables that are frequently used in Pakpak-Dairi songs to fill the poetic and/or melodic line.

Understandably, poetic formulae may also express” the preoccupation of the singer swith their economic wellbeing”:

Mersodip mono tendimu

Teka mbelgah harga kemenjen.

Let your spirit pray

That the price of kemenjen will rise high

(Phd.Tesis L.Moore.1981,Monash University,Melbourne,article by Clara Brakel-Papenhuyzen)

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