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Oct 4, 2021 · This document provides an overview of traditional textile and fabric arts of Southeast Asia, including batik techniques in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore and silk production in Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. Specific techniques and motifs of each country are discussed, such as ikat dyeing in Cambodia, golden thread silks in ...
www.britannica.com · art · Southeast-Asian-artsSoutheast Asian arts - Malaysian Crafts, Music, Dance
- Overview
- The performing arts
- Diverse traditions in the performing arts
At least three principal cultural influences—Indonesian, Hindu, and Islamic—left their musical marks in Malaysia. The Indonesian influence is seen principally in musical forms, participants, and paraphernalia of the Malaysian shadow play (wayang kulit). It is said that the Indian epics and, especially, the Panji tales of Java came to Malaysia via Indonesia, but there are songs in certain plays and musical instruments (e.g., the double-headed drum and oboe) that could have reached Malaysia from India through other routes. Islamic traces are evident in melismatic songs among the Malay groups in songs connected with religious rituals and in choral singing in the mak yong plays. Chinese music, a more recent development, is largely practiced among the Chinese communities, principally in Singapore.
Before Malaysian independence, the nobat, an old royal instrumental ensemble dating back to about the 16th century, played exclusively for important court ceremonies in the palaces of the sultans of Perak, Kedah, Selangor, and Trengganu. Today, in Kedah, the ensemble consists of five instruments: one big goblet drum (negara), two double-headed drums (gendang), one long oboe (nafiri), one small oboe (nafiri), and one gong. The music, which consists of 10 surviving pieces, is broadcast today and performed live.
Three shadow plays exist, principally in the state of Kelantan. The wayang gedek is the Thai form; wayang Jawa, a Malay form, is almost extinct; and the wayang Siam, which is a combination of Thai and Malay influences, is the most popular form of puppet shadow play. The operator of the performance is the narrator (dalang), who manipulates the leather figures, introduces important characters, and describes different scenes with the accompaniment of the orchestra. The music is led by a two-stringed lute (rehab) in the Ramayana, or an oboe (serunai) in the Mahabharata and Panji cycles. The melodic instruments are supported by a percussion group consisting of pairs of goblet-shaped drums (gedombak), cylindrical drums (gendang), barrel drums (geduk), gongs lying on a support (canang), suspended gongs (gong) or, sometimes, a row of gongs played by two or three men, and one pair of cymbals (kesi). The music usually begins with a prelude followed by a list of pieces the sequences of which are dictated by the narrator.
The mak yong, a dance drama that probably dates back more than 1,000 years, was introduced in Kelantan under the patronage of the royal courts. In the 20th century it existed as a folk theatre with an all-female cast. The music that accompanies 12 surviving stories is played by an orchestra of one bowed lute (rebab), two suspended gongs, and a pair of double-headed drums (gendang). A heterophony (simultaneous variation of the same melody) between a solo voice, a chorus, and the rebab creates a music with a Middle Eastern flavour.
A rich musical heritage in the rural sections of Malaysia is shown in musical instruments used by Malay, Thai, Semang, and Senoi groups. Idiophones include shell and coconut rattles, the jew’s harp (mostly pulled by a string, rather than plucked), bull-roarers, bamboo clappers, and the bamboo slit drum. Aerophones include the buffalo horn, wooden and clay whistles, nose flutes, end-blown flutes, and the oboe. Chordophones are two- and three-stringed fiddles with coconut resonators, monochords, and tube zithers. One membranophone is a double-headed cylindrical drum.
In Borneo among the Malay, Kadazan, and Iban groups, the principal instruments are gongs in a row (gulintangan) played with suspended gongs of different types (canang, gong, tawak-tawak). Among the Murut, Kenyah, and Iban the mouth organ with a calabash resonator (sompoton) plays a melody with a drone accompaniment. The jew’s harp (ruding), bamboo zither (tongkungon), nose flute (tuali), hourglass drum (ketubong), and vertical flute (suling) may be heard among different ethnic groups. Iban ceremonial songs are sung in connection with rice festivals and rituals to prevent sickness, while mourning songs make up a rich repertoire of solo and leader–chorus singing. The Kenyah are particularly adept at blending low voices of men singing a melody supported by a drone.
In variety of dance and theatrical forms and in the number of performing groups, no area in the world except India and Pakistan compares to Southeast Asia. Some form of the performing arts is a normal part of life throughout the several nations. Sophisticated performing groups cluster in and around the present and former court cities—Yogyakarta and Surakarta in Java, Ubud and Gianyar in Bali, Bangkok in Thailand, Mandalay in Myanmar, Siĕmréab near Angkor and Phnom Penh in Cambodia, Hue in Vietnam—where drama, puppetry, dance, and music have been cultivated for 10 centuries or more. Hundreds of commercial theatrical and dance groups perform in such newer centres as Yangon, Saigon, and Jakarta and in scores of provincial cities and towns. Wandering troupes of actors, puppeteers, singers, and dancers travel from village to village in areas adjacent to these population centres. There are few communities in which some form of folk dance is not performed by local people.
In the West, music, dance, and drama are usually separate arts, whereas in all areas of Southeast Asia, drama, dance, mime, music, song, and narrative are integrated into composite forms, often with masks or in the form of puppetry. The spectator’s senses, emotions, and intellect are bombarded simultaneously with colour, movement, and sound. The result is a richness and a vividness in the theatre that is absent in most Western drama, so much of which rests on a literary basis.
Four relatively distinct traditions exist in the performing arts: folk, court, popular, and Western.
Southeast Asian arts - Indonesian, Batik, Wayang: The islands that in the 21st century compose Indonesia probably once shared in the complex Neolithic heritage of artistic tradition, which also spread farther, into the islands of Melanesia and Micronesia. Beautifully ground Neolithic axes of semiprecious stone continued to be treasured in some countries. In many parts of Indonesia there are ...
Learn about the history, styles and genres of Malaysian art, from architecture and performing arts to visual arts and crafts. Explore how Malaysian art reflects the diverse cultural influences of China, India, Indonesia, Europe and more.
Oct 26, 2020 · 11. MALAYSIA Malaysian artisans use various media for their expression. Traditional Malaysian art is mainly focused on the crafts of carving, weaving, and silversmithing. Malaysian arts and crafts include fashionable textiles such as the batik, songket, pua kumbu, and tekat often embroidered with a leaf and flower motif or geometric patterns (spiral). Batik is the traditional technique of ...
Indonesian art. Wood carvings from various parts of Indonesia on display, most notably wayang golek from West Java and Balinese masks and woodcarvings. It is quite difficult to define Indonesian art, since the country is immensely diverse. The sprawling archipelago nation consists of 17,000 islands. [ 1 ]
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Jan 19, 2012 · This is the same Wayang Kulit which is commonly performed in Malaysia while people of the Minangkabau performs the Randai traditional folk theater. Crafts in Indonesia is very rich due to its long historical traits and multicultural society. Balinese paintings are some of the most sought after work of art while Balinese furniture and interior ...
