Melodi Misi: Translating the Missionary Life of Joseph Kam into Contextual Program Music in Maluku
Keywords:
Program Music, Missionary Narrative, Joseph Kam, Contextual Theology, Music and HistoriographyAbstract
This study aims to interpret and translate the historical-spiritual narrative of Joseph Kam, a Dutch missionary in Maluku, into a structured programmatic musical composition titled Melodi Misi. The research addresses the need to explore alternative mediums for presenting church history in a way that is affective, contextual, and communicative, especially for contemporary audiences. Using a qualitative artistic approach, the study employed narrative analysis and historiographic interpretation combined with compositional experimentation. Data were drawn from biographical sources, historical documents, and ethnomusicological references related to Maluku’s local culture. The main findings show that Joseph Kam’s life journey—his early years in the Netherlands, missionary transition, and ministerial work in Maluku—can be musically expressed through three narrative-based sections. The composition integrates minor motifs, dynamic contrasts, and traditional Malukan instruments (such as tifa and totobuang) to represent emotional, theological, and cultural dimensions of Kam’s mission. This work illustrates how music can function as an affective-historical medium, bridging individual spirituality with collective memory. The research contributes to interdisciplinary scholarship by connecting historiography, theology, and music composition into a cohesive artistic model. It offers pedagogical implications for contextual church history education and expands the creative possibilities in character-based program music. The originality of this study lies in its methodology for translating non-musical religious narratives into sonic forms, which remains underexplored in both musicology and religious studies.
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