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    Sounds of the Sunny Island
    Sounds of the Sunny Island
    Sounds of the Sunny Island
    Ebook84 pages1 hour

    Sounds of the Sunny Island

    By Maher Asaad Baker

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Sounds of the Sunny Island provides a historical overview of music in this rapidly developing city and the impact of immigration on its melodies. Covering folk music to popular tunes, this book reveals the basis of music and relates it to society.

    Explore how Chinese opera tunes, Malay rhythms, Indian raga, and Western styles evolved to become the Singapore memories of today. With each chapter, the definitive cultural milestones and art movements of the chapter's featured cities are revealed, along with the locals that keep the music scene alive today.

    Incorporating elements of Traditional and Modern, "Sounds of the Sunny Island" is your gateway whether you are a music freak or a wanderlust. Feel the beat of this gay sunny island and learn about the pulse of the people that from generation to generation continued to beat in music.
    LanguageEnglish
    Publishertredition
    Release dateNov 15, 2024
    ISBN9783384421227
    Sounds of the Sunny Island
    Author

    Maher Asaad Baker

    Maher Asaad Baker (In Arabic: ماهر أسعد بكر) is a Syrian Musician, Author, Journalist, VFX & Graphic artist, and Director, he was born in Damascus in 1977. Since his teens, he has been building up his career, starting by developing applications and websites while exploring various types of media-creating paths. He started his career in 1997 with a dream of being one of the most well-known artists in the world. Reading was always a part of his life as he was always surrounded by his father's books, but his writing ability didn't develop until a later age as his most time was occupied with other things such as developing, writing songs and music, or in media projects production, he is most known for his book "How I wrote a million Wikipedia articles" and a novel entitled "Becoming the man".

    Read more from Maher Asaad Baker

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      Book preview

      Sounds of the Sunny Island - Maher Asaad Baker

      Introduction

      Singapore is a city that has such a great blend of culture that can only be described through good music. Due to Singapores being multiethnic with Chinese, Malay, Indians and Eurasians music is an important way through which people of these cultures express their society and togetherness. Given the influences from the neighbouring countries as well as the links with the colonial powers of the Western world, Singapore presents a successful effort at one of the regional rhythms, which is Singapore’s own tune.

      Singapore is acknowledged today to have a modern musical culture that developed from its multicultural environment together with the country’s function as a trading port. Previously in the fourteenth century, Singapore was a port city which later turned into a place of trading and immigration for the people of the Asian region. This produced a society that is Chinese, Malay, Indian and Eurasian with the Chinese identified with music and Opium, the Malays with music and festivals, and the Indians with music and rites.

      Under British colonialism in the nineteenth- twentieth centuries the music of the region was also affected by European classical/popular music. The Singapore Symphony Orchestra for example was put in place as well as music education policies formulated. After the independence, the social programs were designed so as to define and preserve the culture of every ethnic group along with encouraging an inter-ethnic exchange of artistry. The result is a diverse and contemporary Music Industry whereby performers and musical groups are as committed to social integration as they are to aesthetics.

      The Chinese emigrated to the region started shortly after Raffles a British trader established a post on the island in 1819. The majority of them were ordinary traders and labourers who brought Chinese folk songs and opera and musical instruments including the two-stringed bowed fiddle erhu to Japan. There was also the Peranakan or Straits-born Chinese who he said had interchangeably adopted the Malay and Chinese cultures and over into song and dance.

      It is noteworthy, however, that the native Malays who were inhabitants of the island were already in place when the British arrived. Their music is accented in Arabic and Persian influences as Islam extended its influence in the Malay Archipelago from the 12th century onwards. Dikir barat and the zapin are forms of poetry, music and dance respectively which are still performed today as part of the Malay folk arts which includes gamelan ensembles.

      In the later part of the 19th century, Indian migrants further enriched the cultural diversity in Singapore. They originated mostly from south India and they introduced classical music such as Carnatic music, dance such as Bharatanatyam and the Tabla drums. Other ethnic community settlers in Singapore included those from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and north India.

      The Eurasians who are of European and Asian descent are also present, albeit in less numbers. However, they have also helped to shape Singapore’s musical palette by being the first to bring in Western pop and jazz styles while also keeping alive the Portuguese and Dutch folk influences.

      This diversity is the strength of Singapore because it gives the opportunity to have artistic interactions between the ethnic groups. However, music also validates the culture and one’s heritage. The culture and traditions that Singaporeans grew up with give them an indoctrination of their heritage despite the fast growth of new civilizations.

      Music is thus performed during festivities such as Chinese New Year, Hari Raya Puasa, Deepavali, and the Eurasian Fiesta. It is associated with events such as the Malay wedding or the Chinese seventh-month Hungry Ghost Festival. Due to cultural diversity, most performances involve the use of multiple languages and different aspects of various cultures in one show.

      The government encourages such cross cultural interaction through performances like concerts, music competitions and educational policies as a form of social inclusion. Chinese opera troops will perform with Indian classical dancers or Malay orchestra players. It is also noteworthy that Ukrainian ballerinas, Japanese drummers, and African American soul singers are also frequent participants in the lineups.

      It also plays a very important role in the formation of bonds within the different ethnic strata of a particular region. They attend concert halls or stadium concerts and, on most occasions, they are organized in groups of families. While musicians have taken time and effort to form collectives in order to ensure that folk arts are kept alive, the entertainment business remains to expand. Participating in practices for competitions results in youths coming in contact with different cultures. Even equal stranger sings together during busking performances as well as others who have one language in common.

      The reason is, that immigrants from various parts of the world have put up residence in Singapore and if not well managed the society could have been characterized by disharmony. But there is elegance in unity in diversity, where each community brings their notes, keys and beats together to make a national orchestra. Through understanding music, I would like to define how it becomes the voices of people and at the same time unites people in a multicultural way. The essence of the Singapore spirit is perhaps this, the ability to bring harmony where there is discord and the abundance of the musical culture of the country could not have best depicted this.

      The Roots

      Concerning Singapore music, it is significant to assume that Singapore music evolved from the melodic and rhythmic music of the ethnic people who inhabited the Singapore island for centuries. Singapore, being one of the most important trading centres of the world has been the place of residence of people of different cultures and origin belonging to South East Asia and other parts of the world. Musical histories of Singapore reveal the travelling of people across seas and the effects of the breaking waves on the shore society.

      If we go to the following history, it is clear that people first settled in Singapore in the early 3rd century CE. For these groups of indigenous

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