At a party celebrating the onset of the new millennium two years ago in Jakarta, 13 youngsters in the Gambus Balasyik orchestra, which uses special instruments like the gambus, a six-stringed instrument of Arabic origin, played Arabic songs to the accompaniment of drums, a keyboard, the `ud guitar and a number of marawis drums.

One of their songs, Weileiwah, was brought to a crescendo in the way a flamenco guitarist plays the farruca: sl