Keroncong

Keroncong is an Indonesian popular music tradition centred on small plucked-string ensembles and nostalgic, romantic song. Its core is the interlocking pair of ukulele-like instruments called cak and cuk, supported by guitar, violin, flute, pizzicato cello and double bass. The style descends from Portuguese folk music brought to the archipelago in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and refashioned in the port communities of Java, especially Jakarta's Tugu district and Solo. Songs typically address love, longing and homeland, delivered in a refined, crooning manner over slow to moderate dance rhythms, with langgam jawa and stambul forms extending the repertoire into regional languages.