•2010. AkashA: Performing a Worldview. Preserving Creativity in Music Practice. UPM Book Series on...

AkashA: Performing a Worldview Frank Ong

The concept of fusing so called Western pop with eastern musical

instruments was inter alia popularised by the Beatles in a song written by

John Lennon titled “Norwegian Wood” found in “Rubber Soul”, an album

recorded in the year 1965. The Beatles included the “Sitar” in the song, a

repetitive tune which applies a minor/major interplay and modal harmony,

which also possesses similar characteristics of some North Indian classical

music genres. This adaptation helped to popularise fusion music during the

counter culture (Oliver, 2008: 63).

Malaysia experienced syncretic music latest during the post Portuguese

period from the 16th century onwards, which was rapidly developed

through exposure to foreign entertainment music during the British

colonisation (Matusky & Tan, 2004: 7). By the 1970’s and 1980’s, many

Malaysian musicians started fusing contemporary pop, Jazz and Rock with

Malaysian musical elements to produce local modern music. This has led to

some serious results in Malay pop fusion style of Nusantara music in the

1980s by artists like Sheqal, M. Nasir and Zainal Abidin. Even though liked

and appreciated by not a few Malaysian music fans, the market production

of this genre of music was inconsistent. The current interest in world music

has inspired and led many musicians to rediscover aestheticism in folk

music, with the current conditioning of musicians through globalisation,

cultural exchange and consumerism, the interest of fusing different musical

sources on a common platform of music has broaden extensively.

This paper will examine identification patterns and the use of associative

music interpretation in the composition “Irish Joget”. Musical structure and

instrumentation will be analysed and brought into the context of present

understanding of popular music in Malaysia. One of the objectives of this

study is to discover the elements, which allow the smoothness and flow of

different musical styles in the composition such as an Irish folk tune, the

Blues, and the Joget. The use of a mixed instrumentation, rhythms and other

thematic elements incorporated in the composition shall be highlighted.

10

150 Frank Ong

AkashA is a fusion band producing its own pieces, recording and

performing with a certain world music concept. The members are from

diverse musical background, which contributes to the unique sound of the

band. The band uses instruments from South East Asia, Asia and Europe

signifying a world approach in instrumentation.

Figure 1: AkashA. (photo by courtesy of Megethen Govinson)

The group, consisting of Jamie Wilson (guitar), Eric Li (keyboard/piano),

Kumar Kartigiesu (sitār), Greg Henderson (bass), Sivabalan S. Shanmuga

Sundram (percussions/mridangam), Vick Ramakrishnan (percussions) and

Mohd Shah Nizam (percussions) tries to perform its special world view,

which is almost identified with young musical ideas in Malaysia. They are

from different parts of the world and are currently based professionally in

Malaysia. From their individual cultural experiences, education, musical

background and their immediate environment which contributes to their

overall music culture, AkashA is a platform for these musicians to display

their musical ideas.

Irish Joget was chosen because of its instrumentation, concept of

arrangement, and common elements in its rhythmic structure with the

inclusion of the Joget. The music piece was composed as a medley with

AkashA: Performing a Worldview 151

musical elements from three sources of different cultures, namely Irish,

Afro American and Malaysian. Geographically these sources are known to

be specified but syncretism from cross boundaries of neighbouring states,

countries, colonial systems and even local influences should be taken into

account.

Sources

Irish Traditional Music

Performing traditional Irish music suggests continuity that is stated as the

creation of new music within an established framework (Cooper, 2004). A

tune performed by the same musician during different performances will

not sound similar; the same tune may have different names depending on

preferences of the moment. The rules of traditional music are different from

classical music; the musician performed the theme first and creates his own

variations of the theme during the repeated sections. In other words, this is

orally transmitted and appropriated music which can be learned by

knowing its musical vocabulary and form, through imitating, recognition of

progressions and engaging in performing one’s own ideas.

Before the 18th century, music in Ireland was remembered and learned by

ear and was handed down through the generations till 1792. Then the music

of the harpers was notated and preserved during the Great Harp Festival of

Belfast and was later published in the year 1840 as “The Ancient Music of

Ireland” by Edward Bunting (Grattan Flood, 1905).

Irish traditional music and Irish folk dance are linked over centuries and

instead of using mathematical meters for naming like 2/4, 34/ or 4/4, Irish

music are written and related to folk dances like hornpipes, jigs, reels,

highlands, barn dances, strathspeys slides, single jigs, slip jigs, mazurkas,

polkas and set dances like waltzes and rondos (Robinson and Parrish, 2001;

Grattan Flood, 1905).

Traditional instruments like the bagpipes, harps, flutes, and fiddles were

popular among the Irish musicians, but today it is common to find

accordion, fiddle, piano, or even a rhythm section accompanying the

dancers.

152 Frank Ong

According to Sir Frederick Gore Ouseley’s assumption, the Irish harp as an

instrument supporting vertical harmonies was known to the ancient Irish

people. With its structure of tuning, the harp allowed chordal intervals of

fourths, fifths, octaves with occasional elevenths and twelfths. Celtics

admitted major and minor thirds as consonant intervals during the 6th

century and they were acquainted with descant or simple counterpoints

(Grattan Flood, 1905).

Blues

It might be suggested that the Blues has its roots in Africa, transported to

America through the slave trade of the African people hundreds of years

ago. Mostly confined to the southern plantations of America, these people

practice a culture of singing or chanting music from their native land while

picking cotton or when at the fields attending to other manual work; this is

the beginning of the formation of the blues (Quill, 2003: 8).

According to Quill (2003), during the end of the 17th century, religious

music appeared in developed musical forms of “work songs, field hollers,

and spirituals”. The fusion of these three music practices resulted in a new

kind of music called the “Early Blues”. These were mostly vocal songs with

lyrics about personalities and dominantly sad lifestyles.

Today, the blues enjoys international recognition by its appearances in

many genres of popular music, adding the richness of the Afro American

culture with the mood, flexibility and easy applications of the blues scale as

a creative tool.

In the 1960s, bands from England adapted “Rock and Roll” and the blues

into their popular music (Perone, 2009: 44), and expanded their sales

territories first to America and later to most parts of the world. Because of

the large amount of followers in reaction on English Rock bands in America

the term “The British Invasion Era” was used as a description for this

particular period of musical supremacy (Campbell, 2009: 193).

This was followed by the “Blues Revival” staged mostly by American and

British bands in the seventies with a heavier rock and blues sound. The

hippie culture played a prominent role influencing the ideology of freedom,

peace, anti establishment and racial equality (Olson, 1999: 230). Demanding

civil rights for Afro Americans and opposing the Vietnam War are

AkashA: Performing a Worldview 153

prominent subjects that used music as a vehicle of communication and

persuasion (Weinstein, 2006: 6).

Joget

The development of the Ronggeng was not documented and officially

known but there were references to this music during the Malaccan

Sultanate from the 17th to 18th century (Matusky & Tan, 2004: 321). The

original instrumentation of the Ronggeng ensemble is the violin, accordion,

rebana and a knobbed gong. The violin, accordion, and rebana were

introduced to the Malay Peninsula by the Portuguese during the 16th

century (Matusky & Tan, 2004: 320).

In the 1930s and 1940s, Ronggeng music incorporated western musical

elements, exchanging its timbre and texture of traditional instruments for a

Western sound. It incorporated the rhythm section of western drums, bass,

piano, guitar, wind instruments like flutes, trumpets, trombones and

percussion instruments like maracas and tambourine. It also modernises its

tonal system with western harmony applications and added a western

singing style (Matusky and Tan, 2004: 321). Comparatively, Ronggeng is

more laid-back compared to Joget, which was developed with a jovial and

happy mood. The Joget rhythmic pattern is rather unique; traditionally it is

mostly written in 2/4 meter with triplets, and it also uses eighth notes

together with triplets at times.

A telephone interview with Ahmad Muriz, (February 14, 2010) a

practitioner and music executive in the Petronas performing arts

department on the rhythms used today for writing, it was confirmed that

2/4 was also in use for writing Joget rhythms but 12/8 and 6/8 are more

convenient as there will be less complication in feeling the groove of the

rhythm (Ahmad Muriz, personal communication, 2010).

Common elements

This chart (Figure 2) illustrates the original purposes and the transformation

of the three different styles of music used for the composition Irish Joget.

The geographical areas of influence are extensively far apart as each country

belongs to a different continent.

154 Frank Ong

Geographical Area

Ireland

(Jigs)

America

(Boogie Blues)

Malaysia

(Joget)

Original purpose Dance Dance Dance

Meter 6/8 4/4 (shuffle feel) 2/4 (triplet and

two 8th beats)

Genre

transformation

Folk Folk Folk

Mood Bright Darker Bright

Figure 2: Sources and their practical features.

Originally the three sources of music, namely Jigs, Boogie Blues and Joget,

are dance music created for the masses—the people’s music that is today

understood as folk music. Irish Joget connected the triplet feeling of the

three styles and utilised it throughout the entire composition. This

controlled the economy of ideas and created a common thematic rhythmic

idea. The triplet was used in other instruments except for some addition of

8th beats in the Joget section by the rhythm section. The concept of economy

of ideas can also be found in a frequent repetitive use to create interrelated

musical phrases in many parts of the melody. This can cause the melody to

linger in the listener’s mind acting as a stimulus, and suggest easy

recognition of the melody by the listener; in a practitioner’s term, it is called

a hook.

Instrumentation

Instruments are highly respected personal items and many musicians

developed a relationship with their favourite instrument which is usually

reinforced through practices, performances or time spent together. For an

accomplished musician, the instrument is an extension of the body and the

mind, and can provide the player with new means for expressing ideas,

personality and passion (Davies, 2003: 114).

AkashA: Performing a Worldview 155

Ukulele

With its’ natural characteristic as a lute from the chordophone family, the

ukulele is related to the Maderian rajao, a local predecessor of the Iberian

guitar which was originated from a place called Sandwich islands, presently

known as Hawaii. The history of the Ukulele is linked to an island called

Madeira off the coast of Portugal. This instrument was probably brought to

Hawaii in 1879 by Portuguese settlers from Madeira (Jähnichen, 2009: 6).

Sitār

Tarafdār sitār means “sitār with sympathetic strings”. These sitārs are made

of wood and with a bulging gourd segment and these models have their

linage from the large sitārs of the 19th century. Sitars, most commonly used

in Hindustani music concerts, are equipped with single or double gourds,

the sūrbahār and the rarely found kachva sitar (Sitār, 2001: 3, 125).

Cabaza

“Originated from West Africa, also known as shekere or skere is an

important percussion instrument for the Latin dance music”, round or pearl

shaped gourd covered with a net work of beads. Some cabaza have rattling

pieces in the gourd (Blades, 2001: 80).

Rebana

A term for a mixture between frame drum and conical drum in Malaysia

and Indonesia. Smaller frame drums also known as kompang are widely

used by Malay people when celebrating bride and groom in a wedding. In

Malaysia, rebanas are a part of theatrical ensembles and Islamic vocal forms.

In some areas of Sumatra, they are used for accompanying religious singing

and ceremonial processions. A picture of the rebana is engraved on one side

of the Malaysian one cent coin (Dobbs, 2001: 708).

Kañjīrā

Although frame drums in India are numerous, there is one that has been

preferably incorporated into Western popular music. The kañjīrā used in the

Kamatik classical tradition in southern India is a tambourine with a 6″ (15

cm) lizard-skin head and one pair of coin jingles. The skin, held in the

Oriental grip, is moistened so that it is loose enough for the player to bend

156 Frank Ong

the low sound by pressing into it with the holding hand (Shepherd, 2003:

365).

Tablā

The Tablā is the principal drum pair of modern Hindustani music normally

used to accompany vocal and instrumental music and the kathak dance.

The drums can also be found in today’s popular and devotional music

genres. The name Tablā denotes the right hand treble drum (dāyā, dāhinā:

right), the left hand bass drum is called the duggī or daggā (or bhayan). The

two main criteria for purchasing a Tablā are the size of the players’ hand

and the selected pitch required for accompaniment (Alastair, 2001: 38-40).

Guitar

The guitar was further developed during the second half of the 19th century,

especially by Antonio de Torres (1817-1892) into its current standard size

and form for the first time in its history after centuries of development in

Spain, France and Italy (Turnbull, 2001: 2, 601).

During the 20th century the guitar underwent changes to meet musical

requirements for guitarists of popular music styles such as folk jazz, dance

music, blues and rock & roll. American countries and western musicians

were in need of more volume from their flat top guitars and companies

such as Martin of Nazareth, Pennsylvania, began to produce steel-strung

guitars during the 1920s (Bacon, 2001: 2, 607).

Bass Guitar

The double bass originated from Europe, mostly used by European

orchestras, and has been used in popular music since the 1890s by string

bands and Ragtime orchestras. During the late 1920s, the double bass was

mostly used with rhythm sections especially in large ensembles. During the

times of acoustic recording, the double bass was mostly replaced by the

tuba due to the low volume produced by the instrument. To counter such

disadvantage, gut strings and at times wound with steel were used with a

high bridge together with slap techniques to achieve a higher volume.

Currently pickups are used for better volume and gut strings are being

replaced by steel strings (Shipton, 2001: 1, 491).

AkashA: Performing a Worldview 157

Thematic ideas Intro – Irish (Original)

Time Signature : 6/8

Chord Progression in Roman Numerals

Intro Imaj - IVmaj - Imaj - Vmaj,

Imaj - IVmaj - Imaj - Vmaj - Imaj

A, B & C – Irish (Original)

Time Signature : 6/8

Chord Progression in Roman Numeral

A, B & C

Imaj - IVmaj - Imaj - Vmaj,

Imaj - IVmaj - Imaj - Vmaj - Imaj

Imaj - IVmaj - Imaj - Vmaj,

Imaj - IVmaj - Imaj - Vmaj - Imaj

Section A, B and C uses the same progression

D – Blues Rock (Original)

Time Signature : 4/4 – (shuffle)

Chord Progression in Roman Numerals

D

Imaj - Imaj - Imaj - bIIImaj -

IVmaj, Imaj - Imaj - Imaj - Imaj,

Imaj - Imaj - Imaj - bIIImaj - IVmaj,

Imaj - Imaj - Vmaj - Vmaj

E, F & G – Joget (Malacca/Portuguese)

Time Signature : 2/4 – 1 triplet and 2 eighth notes

Chord Progression in Roman Numerals

E Imaj - Imaj - Imaj - Imaj Imaj - Imaj - Imaj - Idom7

F IVmaj - IVmaj - I7 -

IVmaj - IVmaj - I7

IVmaj - IVmaj - I7 -

IVmaj - I7 - VI - I7/VII

Repeat E & F

G Imaj - Imaj - Imaj - Imaj Imaj - Imaj - Imaj - V7/VI - V7/V

Ending – Joget (Malacca/Portuguese)

Time Signature: 2/4 – 1 triplet and 2 eighth notes

Chord Progression in Roman Numerals

Ending Vdom7 - Vdom7 - Imaj - Imaj Vdom7 - Vdom7 - Imaj - Imaj

Vdom7 - Vdom7 - Imaj - Imaj Vdom7 - Vdom7 - Imaj - Imaj

The illustration above displays chord progression in roman numerals that

indicates simple folk chord progressions in the composition, except for

letter D where a blues riff progression took place, and in letters F and G

where there are moving bass lines during transitional points.

Shown below are the least complex and popular chord progressions in

popular music of the 20th century. While the possibilities of the Imaj chord

158 Frank Ong

to progress to any other chords are numerous, it prefers a cyclical

movement to the IV and V chords (Scott, 2003: 27-31).

1. Imaj –IVmaj (Basic progression)

2. V – Imaj (Authentic progression)

Unlike other concepts of chord progressions that use many substitutions or

re-harmonisation techniques, the concept of economy in ideas is still

maintained in the harmonic applications of the composition, thus

maintaining the simplicity of a folk harmonic concept. This is the clear

intention of the composer and arranger, which is further complemented by

using repetition and variations to create a thematic and well balanced

harmonic structure throughout the composition.

Conclusion

In the recording (Example 10-04), local elements of folk music, like the

simple melodies and chord changes are mostly kept in perspective and do

not appear distorted. The melodies were presented with a display of its

geographical entities of cultural origin and the use of instrumentation from

different parts of the world gives a special colour to the recording. When

folk music genres were composed, it needs to have material from their own

environment and culture. That can include the salvage yell or shout,

repetition of a pattern or a phrase, the balance of phrases, reiterated phrases

with recurrence of a principal one and a definite tonal area. With these four

elements that have developed through time, they will provide output of

design, balance and climax in a folk song (Bauer, 1946: 92-93). All these four

elements can be found in the composition.

The common element of the triplet feeling used in the melody provided the

rhythmic structure of the composition with the accompaniment supporting

the melody utilising the triplet feeling. This has resulted in a very cohesive

performance by the musicians, captured in this multi track recording

(Example 10-04). The simplicity of the arrangement, the dance association

and joyfulness were projected, with instrumentation making cross cultural

statements that provided a thought of experimentation projecting world

music ideas.

World music can be “folk music, art music or popular music”. World music

might be sacred, secular or commercial, western or non western, acoustic or

AkashA: Performing a Worldview 159

electronically mixed (Bohlman, 2002: 9). People from different cultures will

have a better understanding among each other, but may lose their cultural

identity or musical heritage. “Fusion”, migration, multiculturalism can be

beneficial to some but not to all. AkashA as a band representing externally

different races and musical background found a common tool in expressing

their musical ideas through their music, according to the composer Jamie

(Wilson, 2010), who states that there are no political statements whatsoever

in AkashA ’s music and their music is for everyone who would care to listen.

This non-political approach is a core principle of AkashA, which is, in

reality, highly stimulating among politically interested audiences. Titon

(2009: 4-6) puts it as “every human society has music”, even though it is

“universal” and music is understood in different ways. Different cultures

have their own understanding and ways of expressions and because of this,

a wide and diverse of music understanding can be found around the world.

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Attachment

Transcription outline of “Irish Joget”

162 Frank Ong