Selawatan (Islamic religious chants) performing arts is basically a representation of mawlid’s books reading in which the original presentation is still practiced in traditional Islamic schools. The Islamic school’s selawatan model was also practiced by the Islamic school subculture society outside the school complex. Although the effects of pop culture can not be denied, but the basic structure of Islamic school’s selawatan still survives because it still refers to the original text.
"The Islamic school’s selawatan can be categorized as music art. In addition to the selawatan melody, the religious musical dimensions of selawatan are also reflected in the reading of selawatan’s prayers and history verses," Drs Andre Indrawan, M. Hum., M.Mus.St., L. Mus. A., said while defending his dissertation entitled Selawatan on Traditional Islamic School’s Cultures and Subcultures, Studies of 'Mawlid's Religious Musical Representation Tradition and Its Transformation in the Province of Yogyakarta Special Region, on Friday (15/10) at the Graduate School of UGM.
Present as the examiner in the doctorate promotion was Prof. Dr. Timbul Haryono, M.Sc. (Head of study program/Examiner of S-3 Assessment of Performing Arts and Fine Arts), Prof. Dr. Djoko Suryo, M.A. (Promoter), Prof.. Dr. Syamsul Hadi, S.U., M.A. (Promoter), Prof. Dr. Victor Ganap, M.Ed. (Examiner), Dr. M. Agus Burhan, M. Hum. (Examiner) and Dr. H. Abdul Mustaqim, M.A. (Examiner).
Andre explained, the musical reading always had monotonous tendency in the sense that it always drifts toward the center tone even though it is sung with fluctuative melodic improvisations within the constraints of tajwid (Koran reading’s rules). Although the selawatan songs using secular melodies filled by normative tonal leaps, repetitive melodic phrases that are influenced by the processing of words indicate a monotonous tendency which is the nature of religious melodies. “Data from the Department of Culture showed that almost all the Islamic performing arts can be categorized as selawatan because the non-selawatan type also calls itself or at least reflect as selawatan," said Andre who is also professor of Department of Music, Faculty of Art performance of ISI Yogyakarta.
The relationship characteristics between the Islamic school’s selawatan with its variants can be seen in the dominance of Islamic influences and local effects. The closer the presence of the non-Islamic school’s Islamic performing arts to the culture of the Islamic school, the Islamic contents are less and vice versa. "So it can be concluded that the musical reflection in the form of action is positive on the pros and cons interpretation of music in Islamic law," said the man born in Bandung, May 10, 1961.
The selawatan samples studied in this Islamic school’s selawatan include two variants, namely Simthuddurrar in commemoration of Asyura Day at Pondok Pesantren Al Munawwir, Bantul, and Kyai Nur Iman commemoration on hall of Jami’s Mosque, Mlangi, Sleman, and Dzibaiyah in the students’s weekly show and the annual Muharoman commemoration at Al Munawwir Islamic school. The variant samples of non-Islamic school’s selawatan are recorded at several research sites in the city of Yogyakarta, Bantul, Sleman and Gunung Kidul.
In the examination, Andre managed to graduate cum laude.