The Music of Malaysia: The Classical, Folk, and Syncretic Traditions

Abstract

In the past five decades, efforts have been made by the Malaysian government to document, preserve, and promote the traditional performing arts as part of the nation’s plan to bridge the social and economic gap between the ma- jor populations. This led to the establishment of Kompleks Budaya Negara (National Cultural Complex) in 1972, after the National Cultural Congress a year earlier. The National Cultural Complex was later known as Istana Budaya (Palace of Culture), where traditional performers were employed as instructors, and performances were held. This was followed by the opening of Akademi Seni Kebangsaan (National Arts Academy) in 1994. Now known as ASWARA, the academy offers tertiary education in traditional performing arts including makyung and wayang kulit. Since music was included in the na- tional school curriculum, there have been demands for more music school- teachers and instructors. Students are also taught traditional performing arts in many schools and universities as part of extracurricular activities. Publica- tions and teaching materials for traditional music and performing arts have still been lacking, however.