This curated page is part of Sounds of Yesteryear Vol. 2, an initiative by the National Archives of Singapore (NAS) showcasing one newly digitized music record from NAS's audiovisual collection each week.
Return to the main landing page or view footnotes and references.
Given the prolific output of the recording industry between the 1940s and ‘50s, labels and performers needed a way to differentiate and market their recordings. While language was a natural organising principle, genres and styles offered an alternate lens for describing and understanding music. Contemporary advertisements for gramophone records often listed the genre of a song alongside its title; it was also common for each side of a gramophone disc to be labelled with the style of the respective track. While the “usual suspects” such as “keroncong” and “opera” made frequent appearances, other unusual, intriguing genres could also be found.
By the late 1940s, a diverse range of styles had taken root in the local music scene. While many of these had been —at the very least— introduced to Singapore in the pre-War era, this period marked further growth and cross-pollination, a phenomenon that continued well into the ‘50s and ‘60s. As the Singapore Standard[a] noted in 1951, “American and European swing and dance music has been exerting a gradually increasing influence on the characteristic styles of Indonesia, Malaya, Siam, Ceylon and other Asian countries. The combination of Oriental melodic forms and Occidental tempo and presentation has produced some delightful results, pleasing to the ear of Asian and European alike…”[2]. Indeed, music listeners were responding so favourably to the incorporation of Western rhythms into new Malay music that in 1949, Radio Malaya reported to the Straits Times that “ninety percent of requests for Malay music are for those westernised with English tempos”.
This development was not without its detractors. In that same Straits Times article, there is mention of “the recent opinion of Utusan Melayu, [regretting] the tendency of Malays to introduce Western tunes and jazz into Malay music”. But this idea of pitting traditional classics against foreign-influenced modern songs belies a more complicated reality. Firstly, record sales and music polls from this time show that there were songs in more traditional styles maintaining their popularity amidst songs in newer styles . Secondly, Malay music had for centuries already been assimilating foreign influences, from the traders and settlers that came to Malaya from all around the world. In the long view of history, the developments in Malay music at this time were but a natural continuation of the ways that Malay music had always adapted to its contemporaneous circumstances.
Much of the same could be said for Chinese music and the changes it underwent in post-war Singapore. The “Chinese Have Always Borrowed Music”, asserted Singapore Free Press columnist Fu Hsi in a 1952 piece, pointing to influences from Cochin-China, Cambodia, Korea, and neighbouring countries. The Chinese singing cafes, covered in our previous theme, also mixed Western songs into their musical repertoire to appeal to “the large numbers of Allied troops in Singapore”, and this mingling of styles was further carried forth into the music recording scene, with Chinese songs being released in all manner of genres beyond the traditional.
This selection of records presents a survey of musical genres and styles documented by shellac gramophone discs of the era. While by no means exhaustive, the theme will introduce popular rhythms and instrumentations and trace their transmission, revealing Singapore’s shifting cultural landscape and rising cosmopolitanism.
Latest release
Previous releases
Pasir Puteh / Singapura Di-Kampong Jawa
Performer(s): Momo Latiff
His Master's Voice NAM-501
1949
On this record, Momo Latiff presents two interpretations of the foxtrot. The track on Side A, “Pasir Puteh” (White Sand), is labelled a “keroncong foxtrot”; the keroncong has been reduced and infused into the foxtrot form. The song is in a slow foxtrot rhythm, played with jazz instruments like the trumpet and trombone instead of a typically string and flute dominated keroncong ensemble. If anything remains of the keroncong, it is in the song’s melodies and harmonic structure, elements which can be supported by the foxtrot arrangement.
Side B contains the track “Singapura Di-Kampong Jawa”, which presents Singapore as a famous and bustling hub of international commerce, over a snappy foxtrot rhythm provided by a jazz ensemble. Kampong Jawa was the name that most Malays in Singapore would have known Singapore’s Arab Street by at the time, arising from the fact that it was largely populated by Javanese immigrants then. “Di situ lah asal pusat berniaga/ Terkenal sudah ita merata-rata (That’s where its origins as a centre of business began / Already famous all over the world)”, Momo sings of Kampong Jawa. In putting the lyrics of the song to this style of music, an implicit connection is made between the style of music and the rise of global modernity centred in Singapore.
Listen to Momo Latiff’s oral history interview to learn more about her life.
Tafa Masri / Seri Wanang
Performer(s): Kamariah
Pathe PTH-48
1951
Malay music in this era also drew heavily from Middle Eastern styles, such as masri and ghazal. The two songs on this record, performed by Kamariah Noor, demonstrate this influence.
“Tafa Masri” features a masri rhythmic pattern typically played using the rebana drum and gong, and an implied melodic mode also associated with the masri style. The traditional masri style is generally considered to have developed from Arab influence, and this is reflected in the use of masri songs for telling Arab stories during traditional bangsawan (Malay opera) performances.
“Seri Wanang” is labeled a “lagu gazal” on the disc – a ghazal song. Originally a type of love poetry in pre-Islamic Middle East, ghazal is believed to have first spread to India as a musical form by the thirteenth century, and then to the Malay Peninsula in the late nineteenth century, before being popularised as a form of Malay folk music in the early twentieth century.[3] Key instruments in the ghazal ensemble include the Malay gambus, which developed from the Middle Eastern lute known as the ud, as well as the Indian harmonium, tabla and baya drums, reflecting the trajectory of the genre’s transmission. A ghazal song can be recognised from a combination of the instruments, rhythmic patterns, and style of singing used.
The performer of these recordings, Kamariah, is also known as the sister of Hamzah Dolmat, a composer, violinist and singer; both siblings were active musicians between the 1940s and 70s. In 1951, the year of this record’s release, Kamariah was being advertised in newspapers as a singer of “true Malay folk songs” , indicating a demand for such tunes amongst the record-buying public.
Hidup Sangsara / Goda’an Setan
Performer(s): Jasni
Pathe PTH-27
1950
It was common for musicians of the era to be adept in multiple musical styles; this Pathe record demonstrates the range of the musician Jasni, and captures the interplay of East and West found in local recordings.
The recording on Side A, “Hidup Sangsara”, is described as a “Malay tango”; the song’s lyrics paint a miserable character, despairing of his lonely and destitute existence. While a traditional tango arrangement would typically feature a more string-heavy ensemble, Jasni is backed by a brass-dominated jazz ensemble playing to a slow, simple tango rhythm.
“Goda’an Setan” is labelled a masri on the disc, referring to the masri rhythmic pattern that underpins most of the song. Note the differences in instrumentation and singing style from Kamariah’s “Tafa Masri” presented last week – the jazz ensemble of “Goda’an Setan” instead of the string instruments heard in “Tafa Masri”, and Jasni’s more relaxed chest-driven voice lacking the drawn out nasal notes in Kamariah’s singing – an indication of the flexible nature of the masri rhythm's use. In “Goda’an Setan”, Jasni sings of the devil coming to tempt men and women with animalistic urges, impossible to resist.
Listen to two other songs by Jasni in our first theme “Music Goes Modern”.
听我唱 / 妮娜 Hear My Song Violetta / Nina
Performer(s): Lim Lee, Henry Foo Su Yin
Parlophone DPE-5729
1952
“Ting Wo Chang” (听我唱; Hear Me Sing), is a cover of a 1936 German song, “Hör' mein Lied, Violetta” (Hear My Song, Violetta). The song has a long history of adaptation, having been covered by many singers and in many languages, and itself borrows musically from the prelude of an 1853 Italian opera “La Traviata”. In their melodies and instrumentation, both songs hew closer to a more conventional approach to tango, in comparison to the “Malay tango” of last week’s release from Jasni.
A Straits Times article describes it as an “[e]specially pleasing” release by two of “Malaya’s foremost singers”. Lim Lee and Su Yin had both found success performing at singing cafes and as Chinese-language recording artists. In particular, Lim Lee had been “voted and crowned Queen of Malaya’s singers” in 1950. She “won the hearts of nearly 4,000 Singaporeans whose votes enabled her to win by a comfortable margin”, and her success was attributed to “her almost unrivalled ability to sing Chinese and English songs”, reflecting the tastes of her audience.
Listen to two other songs from Lim Lee and learn more about her life in our previous theme “Birth of the Singing Cafe”.
别时 / 岜里岛 Aloha / Bali Isle
Performer(s): Poon Sow Keng
Parlophone DPE-5702
1951
Bie Shi” (别时; Time to Leave) is a Mandarin cover of the Hawaiian folk song “Aloha ‘Oe”. Amongst the instruments providing accompaniment is the distinctive Hawaiian steel guitar, typically played with the guitar laid flat on one’s lap. Hawaiian music had been introduced to Singapore as early as the 1920s and was popularised over the following decades, mirroring the development of Tiki culture in America between the 1930s and 50s. A Straits Times article reported that Hawaiian music was one of the top requested styles of music from listeners of Radio Malaya in 1949; Hawaiian bands were akin to “pop bands of today”, possible due to its similarities to keroncong.
“Ba Li Dao” (岜里岛, Bali Island) is a Mandarin cover of the Indonesian folk song “Pulau Bali”. It retains the characteristic percussion of the gamelan ensemble that a traditional Indonesian rendition would be played with, provided by metallophones, xylophones and kendang drums. For comparison, a gamelan keroncong version of “Pulau Bali” performed by Momo Latiff can be listened to here – note the presence of the ukulele in Momo’s version, a key instrument of the keroncong ensemble that this version lacks.
This record was Poon Sow Keng’s second release, and the most popular of her first five records released that same year. Click here to listen to two more records from her and learn more about her life.
Oh Bulan Chemeriang Menyinar Di-Malaysia / Oh Maria
Performer(s): Trez Amigos
His Master's Voice NAM-510
1953
Following the colonisation of Malacca by the Portuguese in 1511, mixed marriages between Portuguese settlers and local women flourished, giving birth to the Kristang community.
The Kristang—also known as Portuguese-Eurasians or Malacca-Portuguese—are a close-knit community with a strong music and dance tradition. In 1950, Mr Horace Sta Maria, Mr Camilo Gomes, and Mr Ernest Rodrigues formed the Trez Amigos, hoping to “preserve for the present and future generations, by medium of their records, some of the delightful Portuguese songs which have been heard in Malacca for the past four hundred years”.
The band quickly found success, performing regularly on Radio Malaya. By the time of this record's release, they had also had their songs broadcast in the UK and other Commonwealth countries.
This release contains two original compositions by the Amigos, recorded in Malay; “Oh Bulan Chemeriang Menyinar Di-Malaysia” was also commercially recorded in English, under the title “Oh, the moon is shining bright over Malaya”; a version of “Oh Maria” containing Portuguese, Malay and English lyrics can also be listened to here. Reflecting their cultural heritage, “Oh Maria” is performed in the traditional branyo style of the Malaccan Portuguese community.
Ta Mong Ta / I Love You
Performer(s): Miss Julia
Columbia GEM-66
1952
The term ramvong refers to a folk dance practiced in Laos, Cambodia and Thailand. The dance was introduced to Singapore in January 1950, when a visiting Siamese dance troupe performed the ramvong at the Happy World, sparking a regional dance craze not unlike the joget modern obsession in the Malay social dancing scene at the time.
For 50 cents, customers at dance halls could get up close “with a Siamese beauty, who sings, pinches, tickles, gives a glad eye, wriggles and giggles” – a distortion of the dance, according to a contemporaneous article in the Bangkok Post, which described the essence of true ramvong as “a mood of calm and reserve”.
The craze was short lived – by March that same year, business was slack, and by November, the Straits Times was reporting that the ramvong “had died a natural death”. Nevertheless, there still remained an audience for the ramvong as a performance, as evidenced by the release of this record in 1952, and the fact that the last ramvong troupe in Singapore only left in 1953.
Both songs on this record are labelled as ramvongs on the disc. “Ta Mong Ta” is a Malay rendition of the Thai folk song “ตามองตา” (loosely also pronounced “Ta Mong Ta”, or “Eye to Eye”). Though the titular phrase remains a transliteration of the Thai title, the rest of the lyrics have been translated to Malay.
Miss Julia was a popular Malay singer who shot to fame after the release of her first record in 1932. Learn more about her and listen to two other records from her here and here.
大梦大 / 仍公 Da Meng Da / Reng Gong
Performer(s): Xi Lian Juan, Lei Zi Rong
Parlophone DPE-5715
1952
The popularity of the ramvong was not confined to the Malay social dancing scene, as discussed in the previous release. The craze spread to the Chinese singing cafes, as evidenced by newspaper articles, as well as this Parlophone record. This release features two ramvong-influenced songs performed in Teochew, speaking to the dance’s popularity amongst the Chinese populace.
“Da Meng Da” (“大梦大”, or “Big Dream Big”) is a Teochew rendition of the Thai folk song “ตามองตา”—the same song previously heard in Malay. The titular phrase remains a transliteration of the Thai title, but the rest of the lyrics have been translated to Teochew, and the song is further differentiated by being played on Chinese instruments instead.
娥眉月（其一）/ 娥眉月（其二） E Mei Yue (Part 1) / E Mei Yue (Part 2)
Performer(s): Wu Mei Ling; Xiao Chen
Horse Record HRP-220
1955
By 1947, Singapore’s Hakka community numbered around 40,000, making up 5 to 8% of the local Chinese population.[4] More substantial were the numbers of Hakkas in Malaya, Sarawak and North Borneo at the time of this record's release, variously engaged in tin mining, gold mining, rubber planting and agricultural production.[5]
Like other migrant communities, they brought with them their cultural practices, including the singing of hill songs (山歌) —a type of folk song traditionally used as a form of communication when working outdoors in mountains and fields.[6] As migrants began permanently settling in Southeast Asia, the lyrical content of these songs became more localised.[7]
This 1955 release by the local “Horse” Brand record label contains two parts of a Hakka hill song titled “E Mei Yue” (娥眉月, “Crescent Moon”). Released in 1955, the two tracks on this record still present a relatively traditional mountain song, reflecting the gradual pace of localisation. As can be heard in these two tracks, the verses of mountain songs are typically composed of four lines, with each line containing seven characters. It should be noted that this was not always the case, and it was not uncommon for lyrics to be improvised on the spot, as these songs were informal and unserious, a way for people to entertain themselves while working. In the case of duets like the two tracks on this record, the songs also allowed for connections and conversations to spark.[8]
胡不归 / 杨翠喜 Hu Bu Gui / Yang Cui Xi
Performer(s): Zhuang Xue Fang
Parlophone DPE-5710
1952
Though we began our exploration of this era's mingling musical styles with a focus on Western influence, it should be noted that music produced in Singapore was in conversation with cultures and countries within Asia too, as the previous three entries in this series have already pointed to. This Parlophone release presents a glimpse into the regional Cantonese entertainment industry that Singapore was a part of.
The first track on this record, “Hu Bu Gui” (胡不归; Why Don’t You Return?), is a cover of the theme song for the 1940 Hong Kong film of the same name, which was itself an adaptation of the well-known Cantonese opera, first performed in 1939.[6] The second track on this record, “Yang Cui Xi” (杨翠喜), is a traditional Cantonese piece whose origins are no longer known for certain, but was supposedly composed for the infamous opera actress and courtesan of the same name who lived and died at the turn of the twentieth century.
Although Zhuang Xue Fang was a native Hokkien speaker, performing in Cantonese allowed her to have a much broader appeal, catering to the voracious appetite for Cantonese media East and Southeast Asia. That Zhuang was later able to pursue a successful acting career in transnational Hokkien films during the 1960s speaks to how the level of regional connectivity seen here extended to the other Chinese dialects as well.
Click here to listen to two other songs from Zhuang and to learn more about her life, as presented in our previous theme “Birth of the Singing Cafe”.