Striving for a Singaporean identity in the global musical world: Where are we now? What are the efforts that Singaporean musicians and artitsts have made to integrate local and western cutures? How successful are we so far? What are the major challenges? I will explore these questions here.
It has been a consensus among Singaporean artists and policy makers that there is a need for the country to voice out its uniqueness in order to stand out in the international cultural market. In the field of western music, this is remarkably challenging for such a young nation. Compared to European and North American countries, Singapore lacks a long tradition of composing and performing western music. Furthermore, influenced by British, Malaysian, Chinese, and Indian cultures, among others, some people worry that Singapore is in danger of losing its individuality. From my perspective, however, precisely this kind of multiculturalism gives Singapore a natural advantage in creative music-making that is able to impress the world. In the past decades, Singaporeans have explored various innovative combinations of eastern and western elements in musical productions. To prepare for the future, multicultural music education should be encouraged, and the current system of graded music examinations needs a reform.
Multiculturalism has inspired Singaporean artists to investigate the fusion of ethnic and western musical instruments and melodies. In Eric Watson’s orchestral work “Constellations”, four musical instruments representing the major ethnicities in Singapore are featured at the front of the stage. This work shows the composer’s mastery in harmonizing each instrument’s colour and successfully depicts a unique mixture of heavenly mystery and inner peace, which is probably hard to achieve with purely western instruments. However, “Constellations” has been critiqued for its stagnant musical development, partly due to the ethno-specificity of the instruments. In addition to local instruments, folk songs and popular melodies from China, Malaysia, India, and Indonesia have been adapted for orchestral performances. Examples include “Moonlight in the City” (Chinese) arranged by Phang Kok Jun and “Rasa Sayang” (Malaysian) arranged by Lee Jin Jun. They are pleasant to listen to, but lack the rich textures and well-crafted chords that are features of classical orchestral pieces. These features seem to be sacrificed for a clearer representation of the local melodies. Therefore, for the international audience unfamiliar with the local melodies, these adaptions may have limited appeal. They are, indeed, not well-known globally. Nevertheless, the limitations of local instruments and melodies are technical and could be overcome though continued exploration by composers. The attempts so far have been at least an excellent start.
Inspirations from multiculturalism do not only lie in purely musical innovations. Recent productions have seen non-musical forms of local cultures integrated into western music. Apart from using local poetry and folklores as lyrics, as in the case of “House on Ann Siang Hill” by Tsao Chieh, traditional visual arts have also been probed. The staging of Wagner’s opera “The Flying Dutchman” in October 2016 is a great example. The puppetry scenes were shown as a traditional Indonesian shadow play with puppets made from paper cutting. The costumes had elements of Arabic headwear and Chinese royal gowns. All these were seamlessly woven into the original Wagnerian music and stage design. The music is admittedly nothing Singaporean, but thanks to the visual arts, the entire opera was interpreted in a uniquely Singaporean fashion, and was well received by local as well as international audience. Reviewer Klaus Billand remarks that the shadow puppetry “brilliantly embraces Wagner’s idea of the ‘total art’ and can be described as an innovation of the Singaporean directing concept”. This production strikes a wonderful balance between local and western artistic ideas, and represents a milestone in Singapore’s outreach into the international musical world.
Scholars and policy makers have been aware that multiculturalism is an essential part of the Singaporean identity in the context of music. The Advanced Diploma programme was initiated in 2011 by the Ministry of Education and National Institute of Education to train primary school music teachers with an emphasis on multiculturalism. The government’s address on creativity, however, is far from enough. Despite initiatives like the Singapore Young Composers’ Project, Singaporean music education is still largely confined by the need to excel in graded examinations, which assess little more than instrument playing according to standards. Students’ independent thinking can easily be buried in mundane practice. To reveal the full potential of multiculturalism, the exam curriculum needs to be expanded to an assessment of students’ critical appreciation of musical pieces from various cultures.
In conclusion, Singaporean composers and artists have made appreciable innovative attempts in integrating the country’s various cultures into western music, showing that multiculturalism indeed inspires creativity in music-making. Some works have received international recognition, while many face the difficulty of being too localized. To cultivate a truly brilliant Singaporean identity on the global stage, it would be beneficial to impose more emphasis on both multiculturalism and creativity in our music education.
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