Malaysian contemporary music
Malaysian contemporary music is an artistic phenomenon within Malaysia that has its roots in the 1980s with pioneer composers like Valerie Ross. However, little information about that period exists in written sources. The genre gained visibility and momentum only in the new millennium due to the internet phenomenon, and in 2002 in particular, when the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra programmed several works by Malaysian composers, namely Chong Kee Yong's Echoed Dream, Sunetra Fernando's 'Wayang' and Tazul Izan Tajuddin's Sebuah Tenunan III. They represent the first local commissions by a professional symphony orchestra in the country. Interest in orchestral music by Malaysian composers grew and when the orchestra held its first Forum For Malaysian Composers in 2003 the event was a triumph for the local music scene.
Background
The MPO forum brought together six talented young composers, Ahmad Muriz Che Rose, Chong Kee Yong, Vivian Chua, Johan Othman, Tay Poh Gek and Adeline Wong, from around the country and abroad, to Kuala Lumpur, to compose music for the orchestra. Spread over two years, the forum introduced six new compositions for chamber orchestra and four for full orchestra. Chong Kee Yong, who had won numerous awards in Europe, emerged as the winner of the forum and won the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra International Composers Award 2004 with his symphony work The Starry Night's Ripples. The Forum was also a success from the audience standpoint, as all concerts were well attended and enthusiastically received by the music-going public as well as by the media.The success of the Forum is a key factor in raising the profile on Malaysian contemporary music in Malaysia, although the composers who participated, as well as a number of others who were not represented, have been composing music in this medium for a number of years, the majority of their output having been premiered abroad.
That is to say, this does not mean that there was no activity in the field prior to the Forum, only that such efforts were not highly visible or organised. Information on serious composition in the 1980s through to the 1990s by composers such as Tazul Tajuddin, Dr Valerie Ross, Razak Abdul Aziz is only now slowly becoming available, although a comprehensive survey of the pre-millennium period is still in need.
As cited by a Malaysian research paper in the late 1990s, the lack of such musical activities in Malaysia prior to the 21st Century is largely attributed to the absence of professional ensembles in the country who were able to support composers, although key issue has been one of a total absence of infrastructure rather than one of talent.
Fortunately for the Malaysian art music scene progress in the current period has been brisk, and the number of serious composers and compositions in this field is increasing. The 2006-2007 series of Composers Forums in Kuala Lumpur, for example, introduced new voices such as Ng Chong Lim, Teh Tze Siew, Yii Kah Hoe and Mohd Yazid Zakaria.
In 2008 Off The Edge magazine based in Kuala Lumpur collaborated with the Malaysian Composers Collective and HSBC Bank Malaysia Ltd to produce the country's first CD anthology of contemporary Malaysian music called Faith, Hope & Chaos. In 2009 the Malaysian Composers Collective collaborated with Goethe Institut to hold the country's first ever three-day contemporary music festival, the .
Titled Urban Soundscapes, the festival featured guest composers from around the country and the South East Asia region and Germany, with music performed by international new music groups Ensemble Mosaik and Hong Kong New Music Ensemble with a host of Malaysian musicians. The festival held concerts, workshops and a two-day conference at Segi University College Kota Damansara, and also included a late night electroacoustic concert at the Central Market Annexe and an art exhibition on the theme of the city. KLCMF 09 also held the region's first ever Southeast Asian Young Composers Competition which received over 60 entries from Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand.
This article offers only a brief introduction to Malaysia's growing contemporary music movement, in the absence of a full study on the subject. It also places emphasis on the western-based formal tradition, and on composers largely trained in this tradition, purely as a matter of focus on an area that is particularly lacking in information, notwithstanding the very notions of art music or western-based music is itself evolving rapidly today with the blurring of lines between western and eastern instruments and the smearing of borders between various genres such as avant-garde, minimalism, world music and jazz, amongst others.
Musical Language
Malaysian composers have won numerous awards abroad and at home with their rich and diverse styles of composition.At the cutting edge of the avant garde are Chong Kee Yong and Tazul Tajuddin. They have received numerous awards and accolades in Europe, Japan, Korea and elsewhere. Yii Kah Hoe is slowly exploring a similar direction as a departure, or perhaps an enrichment, of his work with Chinese orchestral music, as his award-winning composition for Chinese Orchestra Buka Panggung displays. Pianist-composer Ng Chong Lim inhabits the ground between atonalism and aleatoric music based on the live interaction of more tonal fragments.
Preferring a more lyrical and tonal language, the music of Adeline Wong and Johan Othman are colourful and rhythmically vibrant. Othman in particular combines a quasi minimalist approach with elements of Malaysian aesthetics tempered with jazzy undercurrents to fashion a truly recognisable Malaysian sound, while Wong has a unique way of building complex structures from basic harmonic material and rich sound colours.
Ahmad Muriz Che Rose works with a more populist approach to Malay traditional instruments in a contemporary language through his work with the Petronas Performing Arts Group. Saidah Rastam experiments with jazz and atonalism in combination with ethnic Malaysian and regional elements from gamelan to ketchak, and has even worked with reinventing Chinese Opera through atonal jazz in her work Spirits. Film and jazz composer Hardesh Singh pushes the limits in the field of jazz composition with his group 50cents Jazz Club, and brings in elements of world music and sound samples into the art.
The New Generation
A new generation of young composers are beginning to emerge in the Malaysian music scene. The inaugural HSBC Young Composers Workshop 2008 held at KLPac on 13 July 2008 was the first of its kind and an unprecedented effort to offer young composers a platform for their works to be showcased and workshopped.The workshop brought together five young composers finalists and over ten other participants in the workshops, all of whom can consider this the official starting point of their composing careers. The works of Chow Jun Yan, Chow Jun Yi, Neo Nai Wen, Ng Shyh Poh and Tan Zi Hua were selected to be workshopped by a chamber ensemble comprising flutist Vincent Kok, oboist Yong How Keen and pianists Chee Su Yen, Joyce Ho and Lee Yin Hwa. Another entry by Jessica Cho was also read at the workshop.
Penang composer Tan Zi Hua took first prize with his composition Images of Wind II for flute, oboe and piano. His work was singled out by the Selection Panel for its fluency and practicality. Honorable Mention was awarded to Chin Hong Da for his entry Longing For Home for flute and piano.
At the inaugural KL Contemporary Music Festival 09 in Kuala Lumpur, Chow Jun Yan, Chow Jun Yi, Lee Chie Tsang and Neo Nai Wen were finalists in the Young Composers Competition performed by leading German group Ensemble Mosaik. Chow Jun Yi won first prize in the Malaysian Young Composer Award category, and second prize in the overall Goethe South East Asian Young Composer Award. Last year's winner Tan Zi Hua was given a special commission at the Festival, and presented his Under The Homotopic Silhouettes for quintet.
The Young Composers in Southeast Asia Competition and Festival 2013 was held at the College of Music, Mahidol University and Princess Galyani Vadhana Institute of Music from December 9-15, 2013. It was jointly organised by the two institutions and the Goethe Institut. 10 pieces of music by the finalists - four of whom were Malaysian young composers - were performed at the Music Auditorium, Mahidol University. The myriad musical styles as heard on that night were proof that Southeast Asia is a multifaceted region and home to many talented young composers. Three winners were named at the end of the night, namely: Kongmeng Liew, Yeo Chow Shern and Zihua Tan.
In 2013 Kuantan-born young composer Ainolnaim Azizol represents Malaysia at the ACL Singapore Festival 2013's Young Composers Competition with his Tirai III for percussion trio. He is also a finalise at the Cologne Eight Bridges Festival 2013 competition for string quartet, with his work Badang!!!!.
Selected Works - Malaysian premieres
A list of major orchestral, chamber and instrumental works premiered in Malaysia over the past years, including some significant experimental theatre productions and film scores are listed below in rough chronological order:2011 onwards
Shadows for piano and gamelan trio
Dragonfly for piano
Longing, for string guartet, cello and multimedia
Music for Ang Tau Mui
Music for Merong Maha Wangsa
2009
Jasper Pestonji, for bass clarinet, cello and tape
Under the Homotopic Silhouettes, for quintet
Desir Angin Cina Selatan for gamelan, flute and percussion
Wild Cursive, for zhong ruan, violin, viola and cello
Illegal Structures III, for bass flute, bass clarinet, violin, viola, cello, percussion and tape
Morning Mist, for cello and piano
A Precipitation of Sparrows, for flute solo
Yuan-Fei
The East, for dizi, oboe, clarinet/bass clt and cello
Polygon for clarinet, bass clarinet, voice and laptop
Neutral Space, for piano solo
When Stillness Meets Motion
A Night Without Voices
Autumn's Heart.Maple.Fragrance
The Forgotten Sound
Conference Of The Birds, opera for electroacoustics and voice
Kuang Cao 狂草 for gaohu, erhu, zhonghu and zhongruan
Drunken Madness for trombone & piano
From the Rainforest, for alto flute, trumpet and cello
Tone for Chinese orchestra
The Legend of Pelagus Rapids for timpanist and chamber ensemble
Extend good wishes for mixed chorus and piano
2008
Childhood - flute and piano
Trio Dance II - flute, oboe and piano
Qi Qiu - flute, oboe and piano
Scene - flute, oboe and piano
Images of Wind II - flute and piano
Longing For Home - flute and piano
...footprints - piano
Dying In Order To Live - soprano and piano
the dancing mouse - soprano and harp
Gongan - oboe and piano
Science Fiction - chorus
A Land Far Away - chorus
How The Crocodile Got His Teeth - narrator and wind ensemble
2007
Empunya yang beroleh Sita Dewi - orchestra and wayang kulit ensemble
Ocean's Pulse - orchestra, solo dizi and percussion ensemble
Opening Of The Stage - orchestra
Xiang - orchestra
Temple of Heaven - orchestra
Angin - orchestra
Inner Voices - chamber ensemble
Windows - chamber ensemble
Maze - chamber ensemble
Heritage - chamber ensemble
Topeng III - orchestra
2006
Cabaret! - jazz ensemble, theatre production
Tearless Moon - orchestra
Buka Panggung - Chinese orchestra
Chermin - film score
'A' Note Promenade - chamber ensemble
Bamboo Forest - chamber ensemble
Rimba
M! The Opera - mixed ensemble and vocals, theatre production
2005
Snapshots - cello solo and orchestra
The Starry Night's Ripples - orchestra
Paces - piano and electronics
Daun - piano
Spirits - mixed ensemble, Chinese opera vocals, theatre production
2004
The Starry Night's Ripples - orchestra
Steel Sky - orchestra
Topeng I - orchestra
Benih Harapan - orchestra
5 Letters From An Eastern Empire - cello, boy soprano and electronics, theatre score
Sketches For Two Pianos - piano duo
2003
Prism - mixed ensemble, theatre production
Tenunan III - orchestra
Bertabuh Kala Senja - chamber orchestra
Water Moods And Reflections - chamber orchestra
I Hear The Wind Calling - chamber orchestra
Ittar - chamber orchestra
An Evening In The Myth - chamber orchestra
Synclastic Illuminations - chamber orchestra
2002
Echoed Dream - orchestra
Wayang - chamber ensemble and gamelan
2001
Khatulistiwa for 2 pianos and 2 percussionists
Sonata for Cello Solo
2000
Two Preludes - piano
Selected Works - International premieres
The list of works premiered abroad is extensive, and can be found on the respective composers' websites where available. A small selection of recent premieres are listed below:2010 onwards
Tirai III for percussion, Singapore
Badang!!!! for string quartet and electronics, Cologne
Hypnagogic II for chamber group, Japan
Amorphous for string orchestra - Brauweiler, Germany
Sebuah Tenunan IV for violin, cello and piano - Cyprus
Footprints... - Alburquerque, USA
Landscape for piano - Sheffield, UK
5 Little Pieces for Piano - Sheffield, UK
Length for string quartet, cello and multimedia - Norland, Norway
2009
Inner Voices III for shakuhachi - Melbourne
Winter Night On The River for 2 saxophones, shakuhachi and percussion - Melbourne
Timang Burung for pianos - Port of Spain
Suspended Love for violin & percussion - Pennsylvania
Unfolding Spirit - Munich
Bamboo Forest for chamber ensemble - Reykjavik
From the Rainforest for alto flute, trumpet and cello - Edinburgh
Maekhong for Saxophone Quartet - Bangkok
2008
Gate of Tears for string quartet - Tirania, Albania
Illusory Mirror for chamber ensemble - Tirania, Albania
Bayang - Wayang Kulit and Chinese orchestra, Singapore
Phoenix Calling - Sheng and chamber ensemble, Luxembourg
Gongan - oboe and piano, Pullman, Washington State, USA
Temple Bell Still Ringing In My Heart - cello, Buenos Aires, Argentina
the dancing mouse - soprano and harp, Hamburg, Germany
Metamorphosis IV - saxophone, soprano, viola and ocarinas, New York, USA
Metamorphosis VIII - Sheng, Flute, Oboe, Clarinet and Double bass, Berlin, Germany
Shui.Mo - Concerto for 4 Chinese traditional instruments and orchestra, Belgium
2007
A Land Far Away - chorus, Jakarta, Indonesia
"Metamorphosis I" for viola and harp- New York, USA, Vla.:Stephanie Griffin; Harp: jacqui kerrod
Piano Concerto "Warna Yang Bernada" - London Sinfonietta, UK
Splattered landscape III - chamber ensemble, Seoul, Korea
Horizon's Chants - Sheng, Koto & Gayageum, Germany
Splattered landscape II "Cloud’s echoing" - Ensemble Modern, Germany
3rd String Quartet "Inner mirror" - Spiegel Quartet, Belgium
In Liquid Praise of Sound Refraining for a narrator, 4 singers, London, UK
Toccata From 3 KL Miniatures - Aroha Quartet, New Zealand
2006
Waktu - chamber ensemble, Bang on a Can Summer Festival, New York
Hidden Eternity - 4-hands piano and chamber orchestra, Prometheus Ensemble, Holland
Endless Whispering - sheng, flute, oboe, clarinet and tuba, Berlin
Timeless Metamorphosis - Estonia Symphony Orchestra, Estonia
Gamelbati VI for piccolo, clarinet, violin, viola and cello - Seoul, Korea
Selindung Warna for solo violin - London, UK