Sijobang - the singing of a poetic narrative about the legendary hero
Anggun Nan Tungga - is a form of popular entertainment in the area
around Payakumbuh, in the highlands of West Sumatra. Although the story
exists as a written text, it is best known locally as drama and sung
narrative, and it is its character as an oral performance that forms the
subject of this book. Nigel Phillips begins by setting sijobang in its
cultural and literary context, and then goes on to describe the social
background and training of the paid storytellers who perform the
narrative. He presents a summary of the story, and discusses its
transient, fragmentary and unstandardized form. Transcriptions and
translations of two recorded performances follow, leading into a
description of sijobang's main linguistic and literary features.
Finally, Dr Phillips examines in some detail the extent to which
performances vary from one occasion to another, and what connection this
may have with the storyteller's degree of experience.