"Indonesia Maharddhika" (indoneˈsia mahardˈḍika; Independent Indonesia) is a song by Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

n progressive rock

Progressive rock

Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...

 band Gipsy, consisting of Chrisye

Chrisye

Chrismansyah Rahadi , better known by his stage name Chrisye , was an Indonesian progressive-pop singer and song writer of mixed Chinese-Indonesian descent. He was born in Jakarta on 16 September 1949, and died there on 30 March 2007 following a long battle with lung cancer. He recorded 21 solo...

, Keenan Nasution, Oding Nasution, Roni Harahap, and Abadi Soesman, together with Guruh Sukarnoputra

Guruh Sukarnoputra

Muhammad Guruh Irianto Sukarnoputra is a member of Indonesia's People's Representative Council and an artist. He is the youngest son of Indonesia's first president, Sukarno with his third wife, Fatmawati....

. It was released in 1976

1976 in music

-January–February:*January 5 – Former Beatles road manager Mal Evans is shot dead by Los Angeles police after refusing to drop what police only later determine is an air rifle....

 on the album Guruh Gipsy

Guruh Gipsy

Guruh Gipsy is a 1976 Indonesian studio album released by Guruh Sukarnoputra in collaboration with the band Gipsy, consisting of Keenan Nasution, Chrisye, Roni Harahap, and Oding Nasution. Mixing modern instruments with traditional Javanese and Balinese music styles, it is now considered a landmark...

with the names of its contributors hidden in the bilingual lyrics. In 2009, Rolling Stone Indonesia selected it as the 59th best Indonesian song of all time.

Recording

The lyrics and melody to "Indonesia Maharddhika" were written in Guruh Sukarnoputra's house in South Jakarta

South Jakarta

South Jakarta is a city within Jakarta Special District, Indonesia. It had a population of 2,057,080 at the 2010 Census, and is the third most populous among the five cities of Jakarta, after East Jakarta and West Jakarta...

 1975 by Guruh Sukarnoputra and Roni Harahap. Seeing Guruh struggling to compose a melody, Roni played the introduction to KC and the Sunshine Band

KC and the Sunshine Band

KC and the Sunshine Band is an American musical group. Founded in 1973 in Miami, Florida, their style has included funk, R&B, and disco. Their most well known songs include the disco hits "That's the Way ", " Shake Your Booty", "I'm Your Boogie Man", "Keep It Comin' Love", "Get Down Tonight", "Give...

's "That's the Way (I Like It)

That's the Way (I Like It)

"That's the Way " is a song written by H.W. Casey and Richard Finch, and recorded and released in 1975 by KC and the Sunshine Band for their eponymous second album...

" with the accentuation

Accent (music)

In music, an accent is an emphasis placed on a particular note,either as a result of its context or specifically indicated by an accent mark.Accents contribute to the articulation and prosody of a performance of a musical phrase....

 reversed. Pleased, Guruh wrote some lyrics, drawing inspiration from Rangga Warsita

Rangga Warsita

Raden Ngabehi Rangga Warsita was a Javanese poet. He was born into a famous literary family in Surakarta, in Central Java, the Yasadipura family. People regarded him as the last Javanese poet....

's poems.

When recording, Guruh played the gendér

Gendér

A gendér is a type of metallophone used in Balinese and Javanese gamelan music. It consists of 10 to 14 tuned metal bars suspended over a tuned resonator of bamboo or metal, which are tapped with a mallet made of wooden disks or a padded wooden disk . Each key is a note of a different pitch, often...

 and piano. Chrisye

Chrisye

Chrismansyah Rahadi , better known by his stage name Chrisye , was an Indonesian progressive-pop singer and song writer of mixed Chinese-Indonesian descent. He was born in Jakarta on 16 September 1949, and died there on 30 March 2007 following a long battle with lung cancer. He recorded 21 solo...

 and Keenan Nasution provided vocals, with Chrisye also playing the bass

Bass (instrument)

Bass describes musical instruments that produce tones in the low-pitched range. They belong to different families of instruments and can cover a wide range of musical roles...

 and Keenan playing the drum

Drum

The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...

s. Roni played the piano, Oding Nasution was on guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

, and Abadi Soesman on synthesizers. The Hutauruk Sisters provided female backing vocals.

Lyrics

The lyrics to "Indonesia Maharddhika" are a mix of Balinese

Balinese language

Balinese or simply Bali is a Malayo-Polynesian language spoken by 3.3 million people on the Indonesian island of Bali, as well as northern Nusa Penida, western Lombok and eastern Java...

 and Indonesian

Indonesian language

Indonesian is the official language of Indonesia. Indonesian is a normative form of the Riau Islands dialect of Malay, an Austronesian language which has been used as a lingua franca in the Indonesian archipelago for centuries....

.

While writing the lyrics to "Indonesia Maharddhika", Guruh Sukarnoputra decided to hide the names of the six contributors to Guruh Gipsy: Oding (Nasution), Chris(ye), Kinan (Keenan Nasution), Roni (Harahap), Abadi (Soesman), and Guruh (Sukarnoputra). Shown below is the name Abadi in the lyrics (which can be heard above). The initials of the name is indicated in bold.

Original	Translation
Aku dengar deru jiwa Bagai badai mahaghora Di nusantara raya	I hear the roaring of souls Like the mahagora storm In the grand archipelago

Release and reception

"Indonesia Maharddhika" was released as the lead track of Guruh Gipsy

Guruh Gipsy

Guruh Gipsy is a 1976 Indonesian studio album released by Guruh Sukarnoputra in collaboration with the band Gipsy, consisting of Keenan Nasution, Chrisye, Roni Harahap, and Oding Nasution. Mixing modern instruments with traditional Javanese and Balinese music styles, it is now considered a landmark...

in 1976.
"Indonesia Maharddhika" was well received. In December 2009, "Indonesia Maharddhika" was selected by Rolling Stone Indonesia as the 59th best Indonesian song of all time.