Developing a compositional style intergrating Patah Lagu Melayu and a western approach to music composition

The author is a Malay student of music composition who researched his personal development as a composer by bringing together the traditions of his own Malay culture and traditions of Western composition techniques with his personal philosophical world-view. To represent the Malay-ness of his voice, the author examined and identified examples of patah lagu Melayu, the ornamentation employed in lagu asli, a type of Malay syncretic music. The examples of patah lagu Melayu were uncovered through score analysis, aural analysis and personal one-to-one interviews. The author’s philosophical world-view is Muslim. The daily practice of being a Muslim, which acknowledges a power greater than him, Allah S.W.T, is a guiding force in the author’s life. To grow the author’s artistic voice, the identified elements of the patah lagu Melayu and the sacred text of Islam were then interpreted and embedded into five new music compositions: Pujian, Dhikr Asli, Asli Row, Saxoasli and Takdir. These pieces harness many of the Malay and Muslim characteristics, whilst at the same time using Western compositional techniques to produce a neoteric music. The characteristics of Malay and Islamic philosophies can be clearly heard in the composition created. A collection of audio files and hard data in written form is part of the research findings. The author’s compositional voice has evolved and expanded as an outcome of the research.