Malay Culture and Society
Malay Culture and Society Essay “Malaysian Music” Tounsi Marwa MH101062 Malaysian music Music is an art that is complementary and touches to the culture of a country. As for example Malaysian music that summarize all different culture in Malaysia like Indians Malay and Chinese. In this article I will try to list and describe different types of Malaysian music. As known, Malaysian music is classified by three or more different types such as folk, classic , popular and contemporary. Nobat and Maklong are two kinds of Folk and classic Malaysian music that were developed before colonization.
However other races such as Chinese and Indian has their own music and varieties. Folk Music Because of its location. Malaysian traditional music has been influenced by the culture around it like for example Indonesian music, indian and their music. As all music Malaysian music is derived from what we call “ percussion instruments” such as drums according to Wikipedia there is 14 types of traditional drums and often there are other instruments made of natural materials . You can find traditional Music in malay celebrations. In east Malaysia, in ceremonies of funerals and weddings they use gong-based music such as agung and kulintag.
Kelantan and terenganu malay are associated and influenced by south china sea area and that’s make them different from people from the west cost of Malaya. the real habitants of Malaya are used to divert as a group named Ketak which are specialized in swift and rhythmic music. In other hand some of Malaysian traditional music is developed from Arabic music and dance also. Second race in Malaysia in term of population is Chinese race , and they have their own culture and ofcourse their own type of music; the modern Chinese orchestra. It is a mix of western traditional Chinese musical instruments.
Even though, its mixture repose of imported music from other parts of ASIA like for example Hong Kong. However some of the Chinese orchestra play malay folk with different local composer. The most famous Malaysian compsers are Saw Boon Kiat and Chew Hee Chiat. But the new modern Chinese music is derived from pop music. Third I will try to explain and develop more ideas about Indian Music. It Is completely combined with religious traditions. The Indian music in Malaysia is compsed of two important parts; first one is Carnatic Music and second one is Hindustani Music.
The type of music that influence Indian music in Malaya is Carnatic music since the most of indian Malaysian are Tamils which their origins is from south of india. The diffence between the two types of music is that the Hindustani is more “lyric-oriented” and the Carnatic “emphasises musical structure”. The classical indian music that you find in malaysia is same to the original one that’s mean that indian music was sitting so far from culture influence. it has one important role is to clarify the soul. The Carnatic music is composed of two important element; first raaga second taala.
It is combination of scale of notes and time-measures. Malaysian from Indian origins are the one who perform and study classic or traditional music. Also almost productions are related to drama instrumental ensemble, vocal music and dance. There is one famous kind of music name is Bhangra is a famous Punjabi music and it influence many others Malaysian music and all this success of Punjabi music was after the born of new Malaysian music group named Gold Kartz. Since 1998, in Sarawak, a world music festival has been held annually in there, it is an open festival.
Some Malaysian ethnic group participate in the festival such as Akar Umbi which was the first group to play in such international festival. Malaysian music has been developed throw the years and observes a grow in term of music varieties and new music trends and affected by “an urban elite hip to jazz fusion and fringe music “. And this because of returning students from western countries like Europe and America. Pop music Music pop scene of Malaysia has been promoted from traditional asli music that was popular since 20’s of the last century by Bangsawan troupes. The troupes are influenced by indian opera. They were known as wayang Pasir.
This group try to illustrate stories from different groups and cultures as for example western Islamic and others. In their shows and their play they use fitted clothes for each theme or story and all musicians are local form Malaysia, Indonesia or Philippine. In their show and performances they use fitted clothes for each story and the musicians are almost local. Contemporary Music the exchange of contemporary music between Malaysia Indonesia, Singapore and Brunei is being more often and popular because all this countries speak same language which is malay language. We can take Sitti Nurhaliza as example since she is famous in 4 countries . ou can also find orchestras in Malaysia . it is noted that there is only one famous malaysian orchestra comparable to other different nations in terms of techniques. This orchestra is based on Kuala Lumpur Malaysian philharmonic orchestra. It has been founded by the ministry of culture, arts and tourism in Kuala Lumpur. It is composed of a small group of about 30 full time musicians. There is another orchestra established in Kuala Lumpur which is “Orkestra Kuala Lumpur” their collection is a mix of pop music in same time they perform some serious music in their concerts .
If anyone want to make a research about Malaysian modern and traditional music he has to write a long paper or even a long book since its music is very rich and varied in terms of types and differences between culture inside same country. So in this paper I tried to make a briefing about different component of Malaysian music . Refrences 1. http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Music_of_Malaysia 2. Minni K. Ang. (2002). Introduction to malay music. Malayisa : Musicmall Conservatoire Productions.
