Will the music die?

 

News of the impending closure of the Penang House of Music led me to make the trek to the Pearl of the Orient over the weekend.

It was an eye opener. If you had expected to see only a collection of popular music in vinyl, you would have been surprised.

The Penang House of Music, or PHoM, is a rich repository of our musical culture and history, dating back to pre-colonial days through to the more recent past.

The irony is that while it could have been a huge tourist draw, the place is rather difficult to reach.

We spent a good 30 minutes wandering along the many alleyways inside Komtar, passing rows of shops selling everything from electronics to clothes, in search of the PHoM.

There were no signposts to direct us. The many people we approached for directions offered only blank looks at the mention of the Penang House of Music.

It is a shock that so little is known about it, not just on the island but in the very complex where it is located.

Finally, a woman sitting by the door of her outlet put us on the right track.

We were to learn later that while the people behind the PHoM are aware of the need for signposting in the maze that defines Komtar, there was no money for it.

Worse was yet to come. We negotiated a series of bends and alleys to finally come to the bottom end of a pair of escalators that, unfortunately, were no longer functioning. Again, it was the lack of money that had stalled the escalators.

While the search for the establishment was frustrating, the rewards were well worth the effort.

For RM10 for senior citizens and students and RM20 for adults, one is promised a 45-minute guided tour of the premises.

Ours, led by guide Elaine, lasted close to two hours. It began with a history of music in Penang, the birth of traditional musical and dance art forms such as ronggeng, bangsawan, joget, keroncong and boria that were part and parcel of the local culture.

It tracks the history of these art forms, from when they were introduced by migrants and traders from as far as West Asia and South Asia to the Far East.

It recounts the melding of these imported musical traditions with the Malay art forms to give birth to our unique forms of entertainment.

Traditional instruments and garment, some of which had been passed down from generation to generation of old Penang families, added context to the words and pictures on the wall.

The PHoM also recalls the days when western pop music held sway and cabarets were so much a part of the local entertainment scene.

The museum tracks the birth of radio in Malaysia, from the formation of the Penang Wireless Society, the group that pushed for the development of broadcasting in Penang, in 1925.

There’s even an anecdote on how the Japanese occupiers were fooled into believing that the local radio station was airing music in accordance with rules set by them.

The man behind the clever ruse was none other than Ahmad Othman Merican, the man who would soon be remembered for putting Malay musical programmes on Radio Malaya.

After they occupied Malaya, the Japanese banned all western music so Ahmad, more popularly known in his heydays as “Mat”, came up with the idea of replacing the English lyrics of popular tunes with Malay.

It fooled the Japanese authorities into believing that the radio station was playing Malay songs.

The PHoM may well be the only place left in Malaysia with such a detailed history of our musical past.

The establishment opened its doors to visitors for the last time yesterday, with nary a sign of it getting a new lease of life.

There is an ongoing dispute on who is responsible for it coming to such a sad end.

The people behind the PHoM, led by musician Paul Augustin, say the state government has failed to meet its promise of regular funding, claiming that when the money did come, it came late.

On the other hand, chief minister Chow Kon Yeow has refuted the allegations and instead accused the organisers of failing to manage their funds properly.

Sadly, neither side see that the trading of accusations will not help to save PHoM.

Unless, all parties set aside their differences and start singing the same tune, the last collection of our musical art form will have sung its swan song. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.