Island state situated between peninsular Malaysia and the archipelago of Indonesia. Founded in 1819, it served as an important port of call for the British Empire in South-east Asia, gaining independence on 9 August 1965. The country has approximately three million people, who are largely descendants of immigrants from the Malay peninsula, Indonesia, China, South Asia and Sri Lanka. The ethnic make-up consists mainly of Chinese (77·4%), Malay (14·2%), Indian (7·1%) and Eurasian (0·4%), with other peoples, including Arabs, Japanese, Jews, Armenians and Europeans, making up the remainder. With a largely Asian population in a post-colonial setting, Singapore boasts a mixture of cultural attributes, reflected in its diverse musical culture.
The musical palette of Singapore is largely marked by music of the three major ethnic groups (Chinese, Malay and Indian), as well as Euro-American classical music and popular music in Mandarin and English. In the late 1980s, musicals by Singaporean composers had tremendous success in the country, followed by the advent of locally composed, produced and performed rock music in the 1990s.
In Singapore the Chinese community comprises various dialect groups, including Fujian, Chaozhou, Guangdong, Hainan and Kejia. Operas of the various dialects are performed indoors by numerous amateur opera groups and outdoors on make-shift stages along the streets by professional troupes; the latter, otherwise known as wayang, are usually performed in conjunction with temple celebrations. A popular entertainment during the month of the hungry ghosts (the seventh month of the lunar calendar) is the contemporary urban genre known as getai (song-stage), which usually features popular Mandarin, Fujian and English songs, with comic skits that often highlight local socio-cultural and political issues. Chinese orchestral music received national recognition in Singapore when the country's first national Chinese orchestra was inaugurated in 1996. Among other Chinese musical forms practised in Singapore are the Fujian vocal genre, nanyin (or nanguan), the Fujian liyuan (pear garden) opera and the hand-and-string puppet theatres.
The kompang and hadrah are single-sided, hand-held frame drums, usually played at traditional Malay weddings and official functions. Said to be of Arabic origin, the music is characterized by interlocking rhythmic patterns with vocal accompaniment that usually has religious connotations. Dikir barat is a secular vocal genre, performed by a vocal ensemble with instruments such as the kompang, bonang (double-row gong-chime) and gong. It comprises stock melodies in a verse-refrain form, accompanied by lively hand-clapping and upper-body movements. Other genres practised by Malays in Singapore include the ghazal, a vocal genre usually accompanied by Gambus (pear-shaped lute), tabla, frame drum, accordion and a violin, and kuda kepang, the horse-trance dance. Ensembles of Angklung, tuned bamboo rattles, and Javanese Gamelan are also played. The Singapore Malay Orchestra, formed in 1991, combines Western orchestral instruments with gamelan instruments such as the saron (metallophone) and bonang (gong-chime) and in its repertory includes genres from jazz to dondang sayang, a vocal repartee genre based on Malay poetry. (See also Malaysia, §I, 1(v).)
The majority of Indians in Singapore speak Tamil, while other large groups include the Malayalis, Punjabis, Sindhis, Bengalis and Gujaratis. Temple music from the Carnatic tradition, featuring the nāgasvaram (oboe) and tαvil (double-headed barrel drum), is performed to announce daily prayer times and during festivals such as Thaipusam and Thīmithi. Other genres include the bhajana (Sanskrit bhajan), film music and Hindustani and Carnatic classical music. The Sikh community is known for its bhangra music and dance, a genre said to have originated in Punjab and performed during Sikh weddings, harvest and other joyous occasions. Traditional bhangra is usually accompanied by the thundhi and dhol (drums), while the pop bhangra, popular in several clubs in Singapore, features electric keyboard, drum and guitar. The Singapore Indian Orchestra is reputed to be the first large Indian music ensemble outside India and is supported by the Singapore Indian Fine Arts Society, which conducts courses on Indian instruments and dance.
Eurasians make up one of the four major ethnic groups in Singapore and are descendants of European settlers (such as the Portuguese, British and Dutch) who married Asian women during colonial times. The Eurasian Association dance troupe specializes in European folk dances and performs the branyo, which is apparently exclusive to Eurasians in the Malaysia-Singapore region. Kristang, a Malaccan-Portuguese creole language, is also being revived through publications of stories, poems and songs.
The Peranakans are descendants of early Chinese immigrants to Malacca who married local Malay women and whose musical culture reflects their dual cultural heritage. Religious and festive celebrations such as weddings and funerals feature Chinese music played on the sarunai (oboe), while music for entertainment is characterized largely by joget and ronggeng dances and dondang sayang, the vocal genre based on pantun, the Malay poetic form, and accompanied by rebana (frame drums), violin and gong.
The Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Chorus and Singapore Lyric Theatre are a few of the many music organizations in Singapore that present Euro-American art music. Singaporean composers such as Leong Yoon Pin, Phoon Yew Tien and Joyce Koh have championed Western 20th-century compositional styles and assimilated local musical idioms into them. The Singapore Lyric Theatre has successfully presented many well-known Western operas to critical acclaim and continues to provide performing opportunities for Asian musicians and vocalists.
Since its independence, Singapore has strived to establish a national identity through music. Xinyao, a Mandarin vocal genre accompanied by guitars, began in the early 1980s among teenage students. The year 1988 saw the production of the first local musical that led to many others revolving around the local socio-cultural settings. The composer Dick Lee is particularly known for his advocacy of Asian and Singaporean heritage in his songs and musicals. The bi-annual Sing Singapore national music project was launched in 1988 to encourage the composition and performance of songs about Singapore in the four major languages.
Many English pop music groups proliferated in the 1960s, modelled after Western bands and further encouraged by the marketing of the first locally produced vinyl recordings. In the 1980s and 90s, rock music was re-endorsed at public functions after having been banned in the 1970s because of its perceived association with drugs. There have been numerous experiments with alternative music, known locally as Indie music. Singaporean pop music (Singapop) is gaining recognition overseas, broadcast in Britain and the Asia-Pacific region.
Since independence, as part of the countrys nation-building, Singapore has been negotiating its musical identity. National festivals and concerts featuring local and foreign traditions provide a performance context for artistes and serve as a discursive platform musically to construct and affirm a Singaporean identity.
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TONG SOON LEE