Indonesian Youth Congress

When he lived in Jakarta, Soepratman read an essay from Timbul magazine. The essay author challenged Indonesian music experts to compose a future Indonesian national anthem. Soepratman – who was also a musician – felt challenged, and started composing. In 1924, the song was completed during his time in Bandung and entitled "Indonesia".

In 1928, youths from across Indonesia held the first Indonesian Youth Congress, an official meeting to push for the independence of the nation. Upon hearing about the efforts, young reporter Wage Rudolf Soepratman contacted the organizers of Congress with the intention of reporting the story, but they requested that he not publish the story from fear of Dutch colonial authorities. The organizers wanted to avoid suspicion so that the Dutch would not ban the event. Supratman promised them this, and the organizers allowed him free access to the event. Supratman was inspired by the meetings and intended to play the song for the conference. After receiving encouragement from the conference leader Sugondo Djojopuspito, Soepratman played the song on the violin, hoping that it would someday become their national anthem. Soepratman first performed Indonesia on the violin on 28 October 1928 during the Second Indonesian Youth Congress.^[6] He kept the script to himself because he felt that it was not the appropriate time to announce it.^[7]

Distribution

Following the Second Youth Congress, the text of Indonesia was distributed by many political and student organisations. The press also played a key role in the publication of the song. On 7 November 1928, the Soeloeh Ra'jat Indonesia daily published the words to the song. This was followed by the Sin Po Chinese weekly on 10 November.^[8] In 1929, Wage Rudolf Supratman changed the title of his song to "Indonesia Raya" and appended the phrase "national anthem of Indonesia" below it, but the text of the song did not change. Soepratman personally printed and distributed copies of the song with its new title through pamphlets. All one thousand copies of the manuscript were sold within a short amount of time to his friends and family.^[9]

That same year, the prominent Indonesian businessman and record executive Tio Tek Hong contacted Supratman; the two agreed to issue the first records of the anthem, with Supratman retaining copyright over it.^[10][11] The new records were extremely popular, but in 1930 the Dutch colonial authorities placed a ban on the song and confiscated all remaining unsold records.^[12]

A businessman friend of his, Yo Kim Tjan, also expressed interest in recording "Indonesia Raya". With Soepratman's consent, Yo created a copy of the song on a gramophone record overseas to obtain the best sound quality with the intention of bringing the copy back to Indonesia. However, before Yo was able to do so, Dutch colonial authorities had imposed a ban on the song. Yo was unable to bring the original back but was able to bring home a copy. According to Yo, Soepratman had also given him the rights to sell record copies of "Indonesia Raya" through his store Toko Populair.^[13]

Orchestration

Initially, there had been no orchestral version of the anthem. Thus in 1950, The Indonesian Government made an appeal to Jozef Cleber to compose a symphonic rendition of "Indonesia Raya".^[14]

Cleber at the time had been among the 46 people of the Cosmopolitan Orchestra, under direction of Yvon Baarspul, sent by the Netherlands government to help the Indonesian government for its own music development in Jakarta. "Jos" Cleber was an experienced arranger not only of western songs but also for Indonesian pop songs such as Di Bawah Sinar Bulan Purnama and Rangkaian Melati.

Indonesia Raya was recorded under Cleber's direction on a newly acquired Phillips recorder in early 1951 with musicians from all three radio orchestras of RRI Jakarta and the tape was played for President Sukarno's approval. Sukarno found the performance too frilly and asked for something like the red and white Indonesian flag, and in the grave tempo of the Dutch anthem Wilhelmus. Cleber considered this last impossible, though he discerned some of the character of the Marseillaise in the tune and made a second arrangement marked maestoso con bravura as a compromise. This met Sukarno's approval, but he requested that the climax be prepared by a grazioso ("Liefelijk") section. This final version of the anthem remained in use for 47 years.

The arrangement starts with a Tutti of strings and trumpets (in Verse A) that represents a brave and an elegant sound, and in the middle of the song (in Verse B) is played smoothly by strings, and finally (in Verse C) comes another Tutti of strings and trumpets, together with the timpani, snare drums and cymbals, giving it a brave sound fitting for a national anthem that was respected by the people.^[15]

Ownership

In 1951, ownership of the copyright to "Indonesia Raya" came into question. President Sukarno ordered a search for the rightful heir to Soepratman.^[16] By law, Supratman was the copyright holder of "Indonesia Raya" as its composer. After Soepratman's death in 1938, ownership of the rights to his works fell upon the designated heirs, his four surviving sisters. However, because "Indonesia Raya" was officially adopted as the national anthem of Indonesia on 17 August 1945, the work became the property of the state. In addition, the name of "Wage Rudolf Supratman" must be listed as its creator.^[17]

As a national anthem, copies of "Indonesia Raya" cannot be circulated as merchandise to be sold. Consequently, the government had the obligation to obtain all the rights to distribute the song, including the original recording, from Yo Kim Tjan. In 1958, the government obtained the sole right to "Indonesia Raya" from Soepratman's family.^[18] The following year, Yo handed the original record of the song to the Indonesian government. With the recommendation of the Department of Education, the government also rewarded Soepratman's sisters with 250,000 Indonesian rupiah each on 31 May 1960.^[19]