ABSTRACT
This article describes and analyses two of the sitting song-dances, ratéb meuseukat, which is performed by women, and rapa'i geleng, which is performed by men. It describes a male rapa'i geleng performance with drawings and photographs and delineates some of the distinctive male postures, movement sequences and body percussion techniques. Both the female and the male rows tend to sing lyrics to the same or similar melodies, ranging from tetratonic to heptatonic tone systems, with some in Arabic-sounding modes. The male artists aim for a stronger, more boisterous, athletic, 'masculine' effect, and alternate their singing, dancing and body percussion with episodes of rapa'i frame drum playing, which is Aceh's main musical symbol of masculinity. The men are more likely to offer a religious interpretation of their experience, with some saying that their repeated head-turning movements and driving rapa'i rhythms make them feel joyous, even transported out of themselves in a Sufi Muslim manner.
