(b Wonogiri, Java, 30 April 1909; d Surakarta, Java, 14 Sept 1993). Central Javanese Pesindhčn (female singer with gamelan), dancer, teacher and batik designer. Called Jaikem as a child, she was brought by Prince Mangkunegara VII to his palace in Surakarta in about 1920 to study vocal music with Mas Ajeng Retnaningsih and dance with Radčn Ngabči Harjosasmoyo, Radčn Ngabči Atmosutagnyo and Radčn Ngabči Atmosakseno. She married Mangkunegara VII in 1926. As an employee of the palace, she was granted the name Mardusari and a series of court titles, including Ngabči (hence her nickname, Bu Bči) and in 1987, Tumenggung. She taught and recorded at the Konservatori Karawitan Indonesia from 1950–61. In 1957 she established a music and dance school called Penyuarga (Penyuara Gamelan) with the help of two prominent musicians in Surakarta, Sutarman and Prawotosaputro. The leading singer and dancer in the Mangkunegaran palace, she was particularly acclaimed in the genres of langen driyan (all-female dance-opera), temembangan (classical sung poetry) and wayang kulit (shadow puppet theatre); she also composed her own vocal cčngkok (melodic patterns) and wangsalan (two-line vocal texts). Her vocal style was marked by intelligence, deep feeling and elegant simplicity. She made frequent broadcasts, also recording for Columbia (1928–37), the Mangkunegaran palace, Indra Foux and Lokananta (1957–8, 1975), Radio Republik Indonesia Surakarta, Kusuma Recording, Irama Jakarta (1958), UCLA (1957), Akademi Seni Karawitan Indonesia in Surakarta and the American Society for Eastern Arts in Berkeley, California, where she taught in 1974. The Indonesian government awarded her a prize for artistic creation and service to the arts from the Department of Hankam Kowilhan II in 1976 and the highest award for art, Piagam Wijayakusuma, in 1961.
T.S. Suparno: Laporan penelitian sindenan andegan Nyi Bei Mardusari [Report on research: vocal melodies for andhegan composed by Nyi Bči Mardusari] (Surakarta, 1985)
T.S. Suparno: Dokumentasi wangsalan susunan Nyi Bei Mardusari: laporan penelitian [Documentation of the wangsalan of Nyi Bči Mardusari: report on research] (Surakarta, 1986)
Data ibu Nyai Tumenggung Mardusari, ed. Sekolah Menengah Karawitan Indonesia Negeri Surakarta (Surakarta, 1988)
A. Siregar: ‘Nyai Mardusari Swarawati’, Empu penata gendhing [Expert artists of gamelan music] (Yogyakarta, 1990), 109–13
N.B. Mardusari: Kidung kandhasanyata [Sung epic narrative: speaking of truth] (Surakarta, 1991) [written in 1925]
P. Kitley: ‘Portrait of an Artist: Nyai Tumenggung Mardusari’, Textile Museum Journal, xxxi (1992), 97–108
SUSAN PRATT WALTON