Why you hear this Indonesian song everywhere | Bengawan Solo

Bahasa Indonesia subtitles are available! (Ada subtitle Bahasa Indonesia!). Bengawan Solo is a song that you can hear everywhere in Asia, watch this video to learn about the little known history of this song by Indonesian Kroncong musician Gesang Martohartono.

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Written, Directed and Edited by Bondan Syamsu (IG: @bondansyamsu)
Narrated by Sei Violette ( @seiviolette ).

CREDITS
Originally Based on "Bengawan Solo: How an Indonesian folk song became the post-WWII Asian Zeitgeist" by Bondan Syamsu

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Becker, J. (1975). Kroncong, Indonesian Popular Music. Asian Music, 7(1), 14. doi:10.2307/833923

Kartomi, M. (1998). The Pan-East/Southeast Asian and National Indonesian Song Bengawan Solo and Its Javanese Composer. Yearbook for Traditional Music, 30, 85. doi:10.2307/768555

Steele, P. (2012). Memorializing Colonialism: Images of the Japanese Occupation of Indonesia in Japanese Popular Theatre. Asian Theatre

Imperial Japan Map Credits:
David Rumsey Map Collection, David Rumsey Map Center, Stanford Libraries.

MUSIC (Order of Appearance)
Bengawan Solo - Gesang Martohartono (Kroncong Asli)
Bengawan Solo - Rebecca Pan (Hong Kong)
ブンガワン・ソロ - Toshi Matsuda (Film Version)
Beunga Van Solo - Aok Sokunkanha (Cambodia)
Bengawan Solo (Nederbeat) - Young Savages (Netherlands)
Soulful - Nicolas Boscovic
Memory in Time - Tom Fox
Waroom huil je toch Nonah Manis (Dutch East Indies)
Bengawan Solo in Original Keroncong Duet - Gesang Martohartono, Asti Dewi Christiana
Farewell Broadmoor (Piano Improvisation) Tom Fox
Bengawan Solo in Pop Bossa Nova - Hendri Rotinsulu
ブンガワン・ソロ - Toshi Matsuda (Original)
Love on the Solo River - Pan Xiuqiong (Singapore)
Quizás, quizás, quizás - Bobby Capo
Quizás, quizás, quizás - Nat King Cole
Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps - Doris Day
The Girl From Ipanema - Frank Sinatra, Antônio Carlos Jobim
Bengawan Solo - Chan Yung Yung

FILMS SHOWN (Order of Appearance)
River Solo Flows (1951) Dir. Kon Ichikawa (In the intro)
Stray Dog (1949) Dir. Akira Kurosawa
The Quiet Duel (1949) Dir. Akira Kurosawa
An Autumn Afternoon (1962) Dir. Yasujiro Ozu
In the Mood for Love (2000) Dir. Wong Kar-wai

THANK YOU TO OUR PATRONS
OFFICIAL SPONSORS
Sei Violette
In my element

PATRONS
Jordan Walters
Andhika Pielaat
Zed Orchard
Umi Hoshii

Keywords:
Video Essay, Bengawan Solo, Gesang Martohartono, Kroncong Music, Indonesia History, Indonesia Culture, Colonization, Music History, Southeast Asia, Pan-Asian Identity

#Gesang #bengawansolo #videoessay #indonesiahistory #indonesiamusic #southeastasia

DISCLAIMER
The use of film scenes and music in this video is fair use for commentary, criticism and analysis. I do not own the rights to any of the footage shown. All rights go to the copyright owners and no infringement is intended.

All Images & historical footage are sourced from Wikimedia Commons, Internet Archive, Google & Youtube. All rights belong to the respective license holders. This video is fair use and for educational purposes.

A special thanks to @potolawas on Instagram for some of the photos!

[broadlyspecific]

Bahasa Indonesia subtitles are available! (Ada subtitle Bahasa Indonesia!). Thank you for watching, consider subscribing as well! This is my first time editing a video of this sort using After Effects, so the quality is a work-in-progress! Also, Sei Violette, the narrator, is British and she did her best trying to pronounce all the foreign and local words so definitely give her a round of applause! Please do comment if you have read the original website article in the past! Finally, if you have more to add about the history of Indonesia or the song, please do comment. We try to keep it digestible for the video so we probably missed a lot of history! Thank you again for watching!
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-Bondan Syamsu

[notusneo]

As Indonesian this is actually the first time hearing that Bengawan Solo has mulitple version overseas

[wawanmuldiantoro]

Wow.. As an Indonesian, I didn't know the song was this popular and has many versions. I agree the melody has a hint of colonialism, nostalgic, mellow and a bit sad.

[LeeJcc]

I'm from Singapore, and thank you so much for explaining how this song has become so meaningful to the ASEAN countries and Japan.

[xy]

I'm from Paraguay, and an enthusiast of Indonesian culture. I love kroncong, being Bengawan Solo one of my favorite songs, as well as Waktu Potong Padi and quite a few others. So good to know about the history of Bengawan Solo! Terima kasih!

[seiviolette]

Hey all! I'm the narrator of this video, Sei Violette! ^^ Some people seem to think I'm AI, so I just wanted to assure you that I am real! xD Enjoy the video!

[robbygeosandi]

Much respect for pronouncing "Java" as "Jawa" as it is in Bahasa Indonesia. This is a great breakdown, I learned a lot as Indonesian myself. Thank you!

[kilanspeaks]

I’m glad that you didn’t translate “Bengawan Solo” to Bengawan Solo River, because the word bengawan (Javanese: ꦧꦼꦔꦮꦤ꧀) itself means “river” but specifically a large one. Unfortunately, despite the popularity of his song, Gesang didn’t really become “wealthy” as you might have it. Thank you for this important history lesson, especially for East and Southeast Asian nations.

[thireachreth]

As a Cambodian, I've heard this song ever since I was little. Didn't know about its history and origin until now. Much love to Indonesia for such a beautiful song 🇰🇭 ❤ 🇮🇩

[humnaset]

In early 2000's I took a classical vocal lesson from a soprano in Jakarta. My vocal teacher has massive colletions of songs from various composers. One of her collection is a compilation book of world's greatest songs. The book contains famous songs from around the world, and as you can guess it, Bengawan Solo is in that book, and it's the only one from Indonesia

[dzakydanendra]

This song is still remembered in its city of origin, solo, as the departure tune in stations all across solo, everytime i went there and heard the tune, i always feel the sense of nationalism and pride of what my ancestors have done to reach the independence of our country.

[shadowtrooper]

I always thought as a Singaporean that Bengawan Solo was just a popular bakery brand. Now I know how important this name and its song is especially its rich history and associations with WW2.

[Fadzi]

The reverse of this would be "Kopi Dangdut", a song that some Indonesians would consider as "quintessentially Indonesian" and a "dangdut classic" but is in fact an adaptation of the Venezuelan song Moliendo Café.

[satriyanto]

tanah air is a specific phrase. In Indonesia language, there are some phrases would shift its meaning from its root words.
Like Tanah = Soil, and Air = Water.
but as a phrase, Tanah Air means Homeland.

You can't simply translate Tanah Air separatedly and turn it into "Soil" and "Water". Because this is an "idiomatic phrase". It may consisted of two words, but it has one meaning as a unique unit, which means "homeland".

Another example of idiomatic phrase in Indonesia is
Buah = Fruit
Bibir = Lips
Buah Bibir = An Object to be gossipped.

[sadmochineko]

from singapore! i feel like we all know this tune but never the history, so im glad i came across this video

[kkhalifah]

In the late 80s, the Sultan of Selangor's palace in Shah Alam used to play this tune to mark the hour. As a high school kid I grew up listening to it, not even knowing what it was until I grew up many years later.

[netllcn]

This song is also very popular in China. Its Chinese version is titled as "美丽的梭罗河" (literally it means "beautiful Solo river"")

[norctwofoursixzeroone]

2:32 Gesang was born in Surakarta. This is another name for the city of "Solo
The first Japanese restaurant in Jakarta is "Kikugawa", owned by an ex-Japanese soldier who married locally. His other restaurant was "Bengawan Solo" in Japan.

[taxol]

This is similar to the song Tian Mimi which was popularized by the late Teresa Teng. The original song tittled Dayung Sampan, was actually from Banten province in Indonesia.

[darwinqpenaflorida]

In the Philippines, Bengawan Solo was the first Indonesian song to played in Calabarzon including myself, although there is no Filipino version of this song, the song became popular in Calamba City, because I played that on YouTube since 2018

I started as Indonesian culture enthusiast way back in 2022 when President Bongbong Marcos’ state visit to Indonesia and since then, Indonesia is always on my mind even I’m a Filipino myself, live in Calamba City so I updated news about Indonesia, watching anything Indonesia on documentary and listening Indonesian songs including this one, so that I dreamed to visit Indonesia someday, plus I learned Bahasa Indonesia on my own on Language App, Duolingo and Indonesianpod101

With all my heart, I hope to see you in Indonesia soon and I will be waiting for you 😊😊

Love, Mr. Darwin Penaflorida from Calamba City, Laguna in the Philippines 🇵🇭💕🇮🇩