October 11 2018, 9.06 pm
Rosalie
and Other Love Songs
Chapter
1: Once Upon a Time
by Saidah Rastam
Malayan music is just like our Malaysian
food, which is the fusion of many cultures. This can be seen from two of the
most influential sources of music at that time - Malay cinema and Radio
Malaya/Malaysia.
Jimmy
Boyle, a composer, where his father is an Irish and
his mother is Dutch Indonesian.
P. Ramlee , his father was from Acheh.
Alfonso Soliano, the first leader of Orkes
Radio Malaya, was Filipino.
Saiful
Bahri, a composer of patriotic songs and state
anthems of Selangor and Malacca was from Sumatra.
Military band music was based on British
orchestra.
Malay film songs were influenced by Latin
rhythms, such as samba and rumba.
Malaysia’s national radio orchestra
repertoire was based on jazz from America.
Keroncong comes from Java and Portuguese.
1940s records sounds like music of
European.
And Malay traditional musics five rhythm
are from all over the world.
And this is where the story of our national
anthem begins.
