All PT Petrokimia Gresik employees (PG) must have memorized the Petrokimia Gresik march. This song titled "Bekerja Membangun Bangsa" must be sung at the beginning of monthly routine ceremony, budgetary meetings, innovation conventions, and other company activities. The aim is to arouse the enthusiasm of all Petrokimia Gresik people to do their best, and benefit the company, the nation and the country.
Song composer and arranger Musafir Isfanhari revealed that the birth of Petrokimia Gresik march was inspired by Galatama Petrokimia Putra football club which became champions in Indonesian League in 2002. This man who had received education at the Indonesian Music School and Indonesian Music Academy in Yogyakarta in 1962, was indeed one of the initiators in composing Petrokimia Gresik march.
"Di bawah kibaran sang merah putih kami siap berbakti. Mengabdi kepada pertiwi membangun negeri. Dinaungi semangat Tridharma kami siap bekerja. Mengabdi kepada negara membangun bangsa. Petrokimia... Petrokimia Jaya dan Sentosa. Abdikan diri pada negara membangun bangsa”. Mr. Isfanhari, the name he is familiar with, recounts the verse from Petrokimia Gresik march, all of which began with the conversation with his friends after practicing in a vocal group.
"I was a vocal group trainer at PT Petrokimia Gresik from 1989 to 2000. Around 1995, when I was resting after rehearsal, I asked fellow friends. Did Petrokimia Gresik already has a song march? When I asked the question, immediately, everyone was shocked. It turned out that a company as big as PG at that time did not have a march song. In fact, its football club, Petrokimia Putra, at that time already had a march song, "said Musafir Isfanhari.
From all of those inspirations, Isfanhari immediately tried to arrange verses of PG march song. For him, to make the song arrangement did not require a long time. On the contrary, composing the poem took quite a long time, because of each verse written in the song had to be related with company’s vision and mission.
"So the appearance of Petrokimia Gresik march was inspired by the football club coached by PG, then the song became available until now," he said.
The name of Musafir Isfanhari is no stranger to the history of Indonesian music. The man born in Malang, 73 years ago was once awarded by Cipta Karya from President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) in 2015. Isfanhari also received an award from President Director of PT Petrokimia Gresik, Rahmad Pribadi during the 47th PG Anniversary ceremony at Tri Dharma Stadium (10/07/2019).
Not only a songwriter, Musafir Isfanhari is also an arranger. The most famous song he ever arranged was the song 'Jasamu Guru'.
Isfanhari's love for music began with his mother. She told me that every afternoon after he had recited, his was always invited by his mother to practice singing. From there Isfanhari began to know music even wider.
"My mother was a Qur’an teacher, but after Isha prayers finished, she always invited me to sing," he said
Isfanhari was better known to the public with keroncong genre music. However, he pursued classical music. This began when he was creating a song about Family Planning around the 1970s. The song won the race at the national level keroncong song copyright held in Surabaya in 1979. */Hartono
