Appendix 6 - International Music Council

diversity – in the sense of the simultaneous practice or presentation within a society
of
many forms of
music.
RESPONSE: In Singapore, many of the ethnic communities take an active role in
performing and preserving their own music. The Indian community, for example, has
several cultural organisations, all dedicated to educating and performing of Indian music
and dance, similarly, the various Malay cultural organisations and the Chinese cultural
organisations. The Eurasian community and Peranakan community, are also active in
promoting, performing and preserving their traditional music on a smaller scale.
Independent arts companies,
for example Gamelan Asmaradana (dedicated to promoting all
forms of gamelan music
and other SEAsian music) have been active in running educational
activities and performances
to achieve this aim.
Among
the private sector, international organisations such as WOMAD have based
themselves in Singapore and organise the annual WOMAD festival celebrating world
music.
In the recording business, composers such as Dick Lee and Andrew Lum are active in
attempting to create musical styles that are unique to Singapore and express the
Singaporean identity.
• Cite examples where they are averse to musical diversity.
RESPONSE: Many presenters in the local radio stations would tend to present pop or rock
music but no other genres of music. This is one of the biggest problems in our broadcast
industry, the focus is too narrow, only on entertainment, and there is no recognition
of the
value musical diversity, and hence the willingness to broadcast music that is not in the
mainstream. There are also not enough avenues for local musicians to get their music heard
in the mass media, unless they go down the road of creating only music for entertainment.
• Cite examples where they support, or weaken, the practice of local traditional
or indigenous music.
RESPONSE: Local traditional music is not supported by the music business in general, so
many local groups specialising in such music have to find their own ways of recording and
distributing their music.
• Cite examples where they are interested in developing hybrid musical forms – e.g.
music that combines two or more ethnic musical genres, or combines an ethnic music
with say, western popular music, or combines
various forms of non-ethnic music.
RESPONSE: There
are several music groups in Singapore that develop hybrid forms of
music.
One the most active is Gamelan Asmaradana, a group that specialises in the
performance of traditional gamelan music but now also does performances of gamelan with
a western-style jazz combo. The group also has developed repertoire which feature a
combination of various Asian instruments with the gamelan, which we call Sounds of New
Asia.
244