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Abstract
Nineteenth-century British writers made frequent observations on Malay music, which are preserved in multiple forms of ethnographic writings and travel accounts, as well as dictionaries and linguistic treatises. Although the cultural boundaries of Malay ethnicity remained a subject of debate, British writers distinguished Malay music from Chinese, Indian, and Javanese traditions. The types of musical practices they observed in the urban centres of Penang, Melaka, and Singapore were probably syncretic traditions, incorporating stylistic influences from several cultures. The melodies from some of these genres were considered analogous to European music, and some writers speculated on reasons for this, such as the earlier influence of Portuguese colonialism. Malay music was transcribed in European staff notation; James Low published a collection of 28 ‘Malayan melodies’ in 1837. The perceived affinities between Malay and European musics in melody and harmony led to comments on the adaptability of Malay melodies within European genres, and the production of exoticist works for pianoforte and other instruments. The earliest published ‘Malay Tune’ (1807) is discussed here, along with other examples from the 19th century.
Acknowledgement
This article expands significantly on my papers, ‘The British historiography of Malay music in the nineteenth century’, delivered at the Penang and the Indian Ocean Conference, Georgetown, Penang, 16–18 September 2011, and ‘Historiographies of music in the Malay world’, presented at the Society for Ethnomusicology Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, 17–20 November 2011.
Notes
1Translation in Maier (Citation1997: 673–4). Original text: ‘Ragam apa diperhamba palu ini, kerana ragam orang Inderapura bukan Melayu? Sungguh beta Melayu, kacukan juga; bukan seperti Melayu Melaka sungguh.’ Maka Laksamana pun tersenyum seraya berkata: ‘Orang Melaka gerangan Melayu kacukan, bercampur dengan Jawa Majapahit!’
2As Leonard Andaya (Citation2001: 324) has pointed out, the ancient origins of Melayu culture can be traced to Sumatra, prior to the centre of Malay cultural gravity moving to the peninsula with the foundation of Melaka.
3Other scholars point to the origins of the melody as the popular kroncong song ‘Terang bulan’, from the komedie stamboel theatre of Batavia (now Jakarta), which became widely known in the mid 20th century (Kartomi Citation1998: 89, 100 n6; on the komedie stamboel, see Cohen Citation2006). Interestingly, kroncong itself is a genre that is considered to have derived from Portuguese influences (see Ferzacca Citation2006).
4A critique of the musical data contained in the works by Raffles and Crawfurd is made by Brinner (Citation1993). For an excellent overview of the British study of non-Western musics in the 19th century, see Zon (Citation2007).
5I am grateful to Larry Francis Hilarian, Jim Sykes, and Raja Iskandar bin Raja Halid for discussions about this point.
6For a transcription, translation, and discussion of the sections on music in the Hikayat Patani, see Teeuw and Wyatt (Citation1970 I: 59–60, 66, 141–5; 1970, II: 211–16, 283–8). For further discussion of the nobat ensemble and an analysis of the representation of sound in the Hikayat Patani, see B. Andaya (Citation2013).
7Dr John Leyden, in his 1808 essay ‘On the languages and literature of the Indo-Chinese nations’, reiterated the trope, adding Hindi to the analogy: ‘This language … from its sweetness, has been termed the Italian, and from its widely extended use, the Hindostaní of the East’ (1811: 163).
8For a discussion of 19th-century comparisons between certain Asian music and that of the ‘Celtic fringes’ in Europe, see Gelbart (Citation2007: 111–52).
9The musical score (melody line only) of Forrest's ‘Malay Song’ was published in his travelogue A voyage from Calcutta to the Mergui Archipelago (1792: first plate after p. 60).
10Edward Moor (1771–1848) appears to have travelled from India to China (presumably through the Straits of Malacca) in the 1790s, and probably had opportunity to hear Malay and Chinese music at that time. See Seccombe (Citation2009).
11The full quotation reads: ‘The Sumatrans are passionately fond of music, particularly that produced by sonorous instruments; they have the gong of the Chinese, drums, &c. Their wind instrument is an imperfect flute, and they have acquired the knowledge of the violin from Europeans. The Malay language may be called the Italian of the east, being full of vowels and liquid consonants; it is consequently highly adapted to poetry, of which the Malays are so immoderately fond, that three-fourths of their time is passed in singing’ (Tuckey Citation1815, III: 345).
12The links made between Italy and the Malay peninsula are perhaps a cultural legacy of the 18th-century ‘Grand Tour’, during which young tourists from northern Europe would drink their fill of music and culture in southern Europe, especially Italy.
13This is suggested convincingly by David Atkinson <http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/INDIA-BRITISH-RAJ/2009-06/1245739152> Accessed 12 September 2011.
14Terry E. Miller (Citation1984: 32) uses this quotation to open his article ‘Reconstructing Siamese musical history from historical sources: 1548–1932’.
15While distinguishing Malay music from other traditions, Crawfurd (Citation1852, I: cc) was also concerned to emphasise its authenticity, asserting that ‘the musical terms both in Malay and Javanese, as well as those connected with their drama, are, with one or two immaterial exceptions, native, and it may therefore be inferred that their music and drama are original and not borrowed’.
16By ‘Jawibukan’ Vaughan (Citation1858: 137–9) means people with Malay mothers and Bengali fathers.
17The name ‘Jullien’ is likely a reference to Louis Jullien (1812–1860), a French composer and conductor who directed a great deal of military music in London, performed by a large orchestra before a large audience; see Horner (Citation2011).
18This is a term often applied to European music of the 18th and 19th centuries. As Justin London (Citation2013: 68) notes, ‘it is a widely held tenet of music theory and musicology that the music of 1700–1900, the so-called “common practice period,” employs a common harmonic, melodic, and rhythmic syntax’.
19John Cameron (Citation1865: 374–5) wrote of the Luso-Asian (Portuguese) community of Melaka:They are great musicians, and are prolific to a degree; and at the close of day the married men sit out in the verandahs of their houses fronting the street, discoursing, generally on the violin, some melancholy dirge for the amusement of their wives and families who are gathered around them.This observation is embedded within a discussion of the Portuguese community of Melaka, who, although Cameron (ibid.) says had largely assimilated and intermarried with the local Malay population, distinguished themselves through style of dress and the speaking of ‘a sort of broken Portuguese’ (i.e. Kristang). On the Portuguese ‘tribe’ of Southeast Asia, see L. Andaya (Citation1995).
20Mary Louise Pratt (Citation1992: 6) describes the ‘contact zone’ as ‘the space of colonial encounters, the space in which peoples geographically and historically separated come into contact with each other and establish ongoing relations, usually involving conditions of coercion, radical inequality, and intractable conflict’.
21Kartomi (Citation2012: 10–11) writes:Slave musicians of the Portuguese who were freed in the seventeenth century may have been among those who spread hybrid Malay-Portuguese music and dance genres and the violin between the many Malay kingdoms, including those on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula and the east and west coasts of Sumatra. The genres included the west-coast North Sumatran kapri and east-coast ronggeng/joget dance music with pantun-verse response singing.For a detailed hypothesis of the gradual spread of sikambang kapri, see Kartomi (Citation2012: 249).
22Matusky (Citation1985: 122) lists the following genres (vocal, dance, and theatrical): ghazal, dondang sayang, lagu Melayu asli, zapin, inang, keroncong, joget, ronggeng and bangsawan.
23For a discussion of Low's biography, see Carroll (Citation2011: 278–80).
24On pp.48–9 are descriptions and illustrations of Burmese instruments; on pp. 51–4 are ‘Siamese airs’; on p. 55 is a ‘Burman air’; and on pp. 56–67 are the ‘Malayan’ airs.
25For a biography of the Gow the elder, see McKnight (Citation1809: 2–5); on the Gow family, see Johnson (Citation2011).
26I have yet to identify this Mr Brown, and investigate the ways in which he transcribed this music or obtained this transcription.
27Norfolk Record Office, MS 11244, ‘Memoirs compiled by W.C. from his own letters. With a sketch of W.C. by John Constable’, 89 [Dec. 1798].
28However, there are some slight differences in notes and rhythm in the melody line of bar 11, and the version published by Crawfurd extends this piece by an extra two bars, instructing the performer at the end of bar 12 to return to the beginning and repeat the first four bars.
29A manuscript in the British Library, ‘Collection of Javanese airs, set to music’ (Add MS 12334), whose flyleaf includes the handwritten note ‘Purchased of J. Crawfurd, Esq/Feb.y 1842’, contains transcriptions of single melody lines, and is possibly the source of the Javanese melodies arranged by Crotch and published by Crawfurd.
30‘Collection belonging to Margaret Douglas Maclean Clephane, and, Anna Jane Douglas Maclean Clephane’ (National Library of Scotland, MS 14949c), pp. 67–68. Thanks to Andrew Woolley for pointing out this source and sending me a transcription of the melodies. For information on the Maclean Clephane sisters and their collections of musical airs, see McAulay (Citation2013b: 91–4). For a summary description of this manuscript source, see McAulay (Citation2013a; Citation2013b: 236).
31A copy survives in the British Library, shelfmark g.934.ww.(11.), but the flute part is missing.
32On his return to Johor, Abu Bakar officially changed his title from Temenggong Sri Maharaja to Maharaja (he became Sultan in 1885); see Trocki (Citation2007, chapter 5). On Abu Bakar's foreign travels, see Abdullah (Citation2011). Abdullah (Citation2011: 3) refers to controversy over the date on which Abu Bakar was awarded the KCSI (Honorary Knight Commander of the Star of India); if the exact publication date of this music score can be ascertained, it may shed further light on the matter.
33It is important to note, though, that not all 19th-century British observers found Malay music appealing. Isabella Bird (Citation1883: 20) wrote: ‘They sing their poems to certain popular airs, which are committed to memory. Malay music, though plaintive and less excruciating than Chinese and Japanese, is very monotonous and dirge-like, and not pleasing to a European ear’. This view points to an individual voice that diverged from the generalised tropes of empathy and compatibility; however, it also seems a minority opinion amongst broader British perspectives of the time.
34Horace St John (Citation1853, I: 24–5) wrote: ‘We grievously err when we set these tribes apart from the classes of mankind familiar to our own observation. The difference is not so broad as an unreflecting mind conceives it to be between the inhabitants of an Indian forest, and the cottagers of an English valley. They are addicted to lively amusements, fond of rude poetry, music and romance, and open to all influences which affect the ideas and feelings of men in any part of the world.’
35On the study of Sarawak Malay music by Charles S. Myers, see Zon (Citation2007: 180, 232–4).
36However, for a different story of origin for ‘Negara-ku’, see Harding and Gullick (Citation1997).
Additional information
David R. M. Irving is Lecturer in Music at The Australian National University. He researches the role of music in intercultural exchange, colonialism, and globalisation. He is the author of Colonial counterpoint: music in early modern Manila (Oxford University Press, 2010) and co-editor with Tara Alberts of Intercultural exchange in Southeast Asia: history and society in the early modern world (I.B. Tauris, 2013).