Question 1 ( 60 marks )

Choose TWO musical culture from the list and write a comparison essay between them in
terms of instrumentation, music texture, musical form, performance practice and function of
the music. (4-5 pages)

Upacara Sewang Orang Asli

1.1 Instrumentation

Upacara Sewang Orang Asli, usually need 4 musicians to play the main instrument which is
Centung. What is Centung? Centung or we can call is as keranting is made up of two
bamboos which has open at head and its bottom is close by its segment.

Segment at the bottom of

bamboo
Centung which is more bigger called The male centung, and
smaller centung we called it as The female cantung. Male cantung will be hold by left hand. It
is witdh is about to 6-8 cm and its length is about 60-75 cm. Female centung is hold by righty
hand.

Next is Pensol. Pensol is an air instrument which is aerophone. Orang asli believes that
pensol is a holy instrument because this instrument uses nose to produce sound. For them, air
is holy because without air we cannot breath and live.

It is 1.5-2 cm in diameter and its length is between 24-25cm.

Then, next instrument is rebana. Rebana is malay instrument which has skin made of goat or
cow skin..

It is membranophone
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Last is genggong. Genggong is near to the mouth harp. Genggong is held with left hand and
pressed it to his lips. Right hand picking "the tongue" by the way pull rope yarn tied around
the edges. Lastly, there is crep which is chordophone instrument because it has strings.
Usually crep has 2 strings.

1.2 Music Texture

It is monophonic because one melody is important which is pensol and it is accompanied

by rhythm from percussions.

1.3 Musical form

The musical form for Upacara Sewang Orang asli, is A,B,B,A. Along the song, musical
instruments like centung, crep ,rebana, genggong and gong will be played through all the
song.

1.4 Performance practice

For performance, dancers are the main characters to performance. Musicians needed to play
the instruments are occasionaly eight musicians only whereby 4 musician play for centung
and others play for rebana, crep, genggong and pensol. Next, all participants cannot eat spicy
things and stingy animal such Keli fish and snakes. If brake the rules, the patients that sick
will not recover.After that, participants cannot build up any light up things. For instance
campfire.

1.5 Functions of the music

The main function of the Sewang Asli Music, when there is death among their race and to
more to medical by worships spirits.

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Reference web:1 http://muzikorangasli.blogspot.my/2010/09/sewang.html
 Dabus Dance

2.1 Instrumentation

For Dabus dance, it needs a few intruments. The instruments are Gong, big rebana, small
rebana, and ‘anak dabus’. These are the pictures for the instruments.

Anak dabus

Anak dabus is the main intsrument in Dabus dance. This instrument potrays the unique of
this dance and make it a bit different than other traditional dance and music.

Rebana kecil(Anak) and Rebana besar(Ibu)

This percussion instruments are membranophone. They will be play the ryhthm of the
dance song.

Gong
 This instrument is in idiophone category because this instrument made up of brass and
metals. Gong do not have to do tuning process as it has stable pitch in any weather. It will be
played by using mallet.

Kompang

Kompang is near to rebana but the styles for playing this instrument is different a little bit
from rebana.

2.2 Music texture

It is polyphonic as there are one melodies but it is sing by singers and musicians. It is
accompanied by rhythms from percussions.

2.3 Musical form

Musical form for Dabus dance followed by its songs. Usually the musical form for dabus is
A,B,B,C. For instance:-

Besi tua besi muda

Besi datang daripada Allah

Hendak makan sifat Muhammad

Takut ditimpa si kalammullah

Hullillah haillallah,

Nabi Muhammad pesuruh Allah

Ingat semuanya kepada Allah

Bukannya salah permainan ini

Turun temurun semulajadi

Luar dan dalam semuanya diisi

There will be an intro by singer then verse, verse and lastly an outro,

2.4 Performnce practice

The performance for dance will be started by rebana and kompang. The dancers are ready to
dance by put the anak dabus on the floor. When the musicians start to play, they will start
dance by using anak dabus. Anak dabus is the important instrument although they are not real
musicians, but they play a big role in this music and dance. Then, the main singer will sing the
verse which lyric of the verse are taken from Islamic bible and after main singer sing, then the
musicians will answer the singers lyric which the lyrics send messages about praising the
malaysian beauty and justice. This are the picture of the performance.

This performance are performed by Jabatan Kebudayaan Kesenian Negara, Negeri Perak.

2.5 Function of the music

The functions of the dabus dance are weddings , parties royal coronations , rituals , and the
state annual independence day.

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Reference web: http://www.lipscomb.umn.edu/rock/Texture.htm
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Question 2

1. Write about the rise and popularity of the karaoke. Why has this uniquely Japanese
invention caught on with the rest of the world.(1-2 pages)

Recently, karoake is the most activity that people loves to do in leisure time in all
country in this world. What is karaoke? Karoake comes from Japanese country. This
invention have a huge caught on with the rest of the world. Karoake stands for ‘kara’-
empty, Oke stands for Orchestra. Karaoke is an attractive entertainment which the songs
are recorded and it is presented using music videos. Then, the lyrics of the song were
displayed on the screen and there will a moving symbol to guide the singer to sing the
song perfectly on the beat . Karaoke can described as empty track whereby there is no
vocal track in the song, so we can sing it monophonically.

In addition, the person who invented this entertainment is Daisuke Inoue in Kobe,
Japan in the year of 1971. In that year, the karaoake are presented using karaoke
machines. By using karaoke machines, certain country are not attracted and it is labelled
unsuccesful market for the entertainment. Hence, they stop selling the karaoke machines
and start to do a new improvements. For the next few years, Home theater systems replace
them. A new improvements which is it improve the televisions.

Now and then, a new applications for karaoke is introduce to all people in this world
and this applications get a huge crowd of using it. The application names “Smule”

This invention have caught a big attraction to all people because Smule have a modern
look like. This application can add on effect of the sound that we produce using mic of our
gadgets. Examples of the effects are reverb and echoes. Occasionally, reverbs and echoes

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http://tariansewangpayalebar.blogspot.my/
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http://www.kkmm.gov.my/pdf/buku/dabus.pdf
used for reduces dry sound produced and it will make us to sing high pitch perfectly and
not to striking until our throats feel uneasy.

Other than that, this invention have caught a big attraction because nowadays people
are stressful to live in a busy country, traffic jams, and a lot of problems. People can
release their stress by singing. They have no time to go karaoke station hence, this
applications help us a lot. This application can be install using google play in our androids
and other gadgets. We can sing anywhere we want and we can also sing duet, trio and
many people and relatives which is stay far away from us. As example;-

We can sing maybe five peoples and this application will show your friends face and
sound.
2. Malay traditional music can be categorized into 5 main types. Name those types and explain
each of them including examples. ( 1-2 pages )

Malay traditional music can be categorized into five types. These types have made our
traditional music have variety of colors, styles and more unique. The five types are court music,
folk music, contemporary art music, pop music and also syncretic music.

1. Court music

Court music is a music that be played in the palace. Palace is the place for King live and for
Tanah Melayu will called it Sultan as they is Islam. Court music will be performed by musicians
which stand by its people. The examples of court music is Gamelan Melayu. Gamelan is
idiophone instruments made up from bronze and metals. Musicians will hit it by using mallets
and usually Gamelan Melayu play soft and slow tempo songs such Togok. Then, the Sultan will
feel happy and calm to listen soft music.

2. Folk music

Second music is folk music. Folk music are the combined from both traditional music and
the genre that used from it during the 20th century folk revival. This music is traditionally type
because songs from folk music are common rural music that was passed down through citizens.
For instance, malay traditional folk music is ‘Ulek Mayang’ and ‘Rasa Sayang Hei’

3. Contemporary art music

Contemporary art music is music comes from malay traditional music. According to the
Wikipedia, contemporary art music is an artistic phenomenon within Malaysia that has it roots
in 1980’s with the pioneer composers. The composers will compose traditional songs
nevertheless the composer will make the songs that they compose into a new era arrangement
using traditional genres
 4. Pop music

The fourth type of malay traditional music is pop music. Pop music is the most glamour
genre in this country and it was begin from traditional dance art and Malaysian traditional
music genres which is asli, inang, joget and masri styles. The earliest pop music song is Tudung
Periuk

5. Syncretic music.

Syncretic music is the last type of malay traditional music. Syncretic music is music that
developed during the post-Portugese period which is 16th century and contains elements from
both local music and foreign elements of outside countries which are Arab, Parsi, Itali, China,
Western Musical and Theatrical Sources. The examples of syncretic music are keroncong,
Ghazal, and Dondang sayang.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_Malaysia