(b Jakarta, 1936). Indonesian composer. She grew up in the Sultanate of Langkat in Binjai, Sumatra, which was renowned for its appreciation of Western classical music. Unusually for an Indonesian woman, Kamal trained in Europe, studying the piano and composition with Badings at the Amsterdam Conservatory, then attending the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris and the Rome Conservatory. Returning to Indonesia in 1967, she joined Frans Haryadi and Jaya Suprana at the forefront of Indonesian contemporary music during the Suharto regime. In 1969 she was commissioned to write the work for percussion ensemble Dari Celah-celah Kehidupan (‘From the Spaces of Life’). Pentatonic gamelan music began to influence Kamal's works in the 1950s and 60s, as in the ballet suite Gunung Agung (“Mount Agung’, 1963–70). Inspired by the call to prayer, she began to incorporate elements of Islamic culture into her music in 1974. These dual influences have caused her to move away from tonal music. Her religious experiences in Mecca are reflected in the piano piece Menara Mesjid Nabawi (‘The Minaret of the Nabawi Mosque’), in which she transcends her preoccupation with sophisticated playing technique, attempting instead to find a musical language appropriate to her expressive needs. While echoes and silences attest to her economy of material, the soft, long-flowing unaccompanied melodies recall the Islamic call to prayer. One of the most prolific of Indonesian composers, she has written music for opera, ballet and film as well as orchestral, chamber and choral works. Performances of her works in Europe and Asia have often involved the ensemble of two pianos and traditional percussion instruments that she founded to perform her works.
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