Reading the introduction into the International Conference John Cage 101 held in August 2013 in Tanjung Malim, Malaysia, the following two sentences caught my attention: _Cage was an early proponent of the need for Western music to incorporate Asian music characteristics. He studied Zen and I Ching, both philosophies having a powerful impact on his music, writings and art._1 This paper examines the essence of this statement that seems to commend openness and at the same time points towards a globally dominating perception of musical intellectuality rooted in the West, a place that John Cage to some extent intended to leave. He studied what many studied before him, the I Ching [Yi Jing]. By doing so, how much could he contribute to the world of composition? Methodologically, this paper will focus on the hermeneutic perspective in discussing Asian music characteristics that are incorporated into contemporary music compositions. Taking further some teaching texts on John Cage to illustrat.....

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This paper is a descriptive study of the creation of a new work that used practice-based and practice-led methodology, chance, indeterminacy, Malaysian folksong, Hindustani Raga, birdsong and philosophy to guide its creation, its coming into being and its performance realization. The paper also addresses the main problem encountered in its creation, which was how to maintain form whilst using indeterminacy. The composition which was the focus of the study employed indeterminacy and chance in the approximation of the performance realisations and interpretations of the notation. Each of the four main elements of the composition was created separately and incorporated a mode of limited transposition, Hindustani Raga, Kalimantan folktune and Malaysian avian motifs. In the context of the emphasis of the John Cage 101 International Conference, the composition attempted to explore concepts of space and time, chance and indeterminacy and the Cagean notion that _There is no such thing as an emp.....

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The bulk of artistic and philosophical discussion generated by our intellectual fascination with John Cage_s orchestral work Atlas Eclipticalis (1961_62) centres around its application of aleatoric processes such as the elements of chance and indeterminacy in the stages of composition and performance. That which underlies Cage_s advocacy for and championship of aleatoric explorations is his musical philosophy of nonintentionality. In his views, intentionality stood against genuine artistic expression, or rather, the true expression of the Self through music. This resistance against prevailing musical convention remains relevant in contemporary practices. However, we have often overlooked the role and implications of Cage_s employment of an arbitrary graphical source in the composition of Atlas. The use of a graphical source to determine musical parameters draws tantalisingly close to the creative notions behind graphical scores, graphical notation and musical imageries. Common to all o.....

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This paper will explore conceptual approaches to participatory music-making, with a focus on the work of John Cage. Cage relied primarily on a performer-audience model of music-making; which seems paradoxical, as a non-hierarchical participatory model seems more in line with his philosophy. While his compositional methods appeared to indicate a desire for self-effacement and collaboration, the resultant works were often quite far from models of non-hierarchical co-creation. However, Cage was a composer who concerned himself primarily with illuminating concepts and demonstrating processes, rather than producing beautiful _objects_ and musical commodities. Embracing a community-based experimental model of participation involves departing from traditional Western art music paradigms that regard _sound_ primarily as a consumable _product_ and the individual composer as all-knowing, all-powerful and central to any experience of music. This movement from selfaggrandisement to self-effacement.....

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One of the similarities between the ideas and philosophies underlying the musical compositions of John Cage and Hands Percussion Malaysia (HANDS) is their desire to explore musical sounds beyond the conventional and cultural norms of their time. Cage utilised Asian philosophy as inspiration for his aleatoric and chance music compositions, while HANDS fused sound art with movement. Founded on shi gu (shi: lion, gu: drum) drumming, movement and choreography, HANDS now experiments with a variety of musical instruments from various cultures to expand on the sounds and timbres produced in their performances. They merge extracts of musical elements from selected musical cultures, rhythmic drumming, and synchronised creative movements into their concert pieces. Some aspects of HANDS compositions are based on interculturalism, but many are new creations that decontextualise the musical instrument from its essentialised cultural-musical context. Based on interviews with HANDS_ artistic director.....

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Early exploration of the use of computers in Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI), somehow allowed me to venture further into the domain of sound. Nothing much was known or noted in terms of the notion or historical perspectives of electroacoustic music in Malaysia. Unlike in the West, our music industry accommodated Western music, particularly popular music, but not experimental or electroacoustic music. The advancement in computer technology in music applications introduced new creative ideas, and its democratization permitted more creative exploration, technically and aesthetically. This paper is a recollection of the long journey of a Malaysian composer venturing into electroacoustic music...

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Kajian ini bertujuan untuk menilai pelaksanaan program keagamaan terhadap pengimarahan Masjid Angkatan Tentera Malaysia (ATM). Objektif kajian yang ditetapkan bagi mencapai tujuan tersebut iaitu: (1) mengenal pasti tahap penerimaan anggota tentera berdasarkan elemen konteks, input, proses dan produk dalam pelaksanaan program keagamaan terhadap pengimarahan Masjid ATM; (2) menganalisis perbezaan berdasarkan demografi anggota tentera dengan hasil pencapaian program; dan (3) menganalisis hubungan di antara elemen konteks, input dan proses dengan hasil pencapaian program. Kajian ini telah mengadaptasi satu model penilaian iaitu model CIPP dari Stufflebeam (1971). Rekabentuk kajian ini adalah pendekatan kuantitatif berbentuk tinjauan dengan menggunakan borang soal selidik sebagai instrumen. Sampel terdiri daripada 380 anggota tentera dari tiga Masjid ATM yang terdapat di Pangkalan Tentera Laut Diraja Malaysia. Data kajian ini di analisis dengan perisian Statistical Packages for Social Scien.....

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This study aims to examine the relationships between stress and depressive symptoms on job performance. The role of emotional intelligence (EI) was used to determine whether it has a moderating effect on relationships. Stratified sampling was utilized to select 282 secondary school teacher in Kelantan. Stress, depressive symptoms, EI, and job performance were measured using the Job Stress Scale, the Major Depression Inventory, the USM Emotional Quotient Inventory, and the Individual Work Performance Questionnaire 1.0, and all of these were translated back-to-back. Pearson correlation and multiple regression analysis methods were used to analysed the data. The results indicated that there was a significant positive relationship between stress and job performance r = .169, whilst there was a significant negative relationship between depressive symptoms and job performance among those secondary school teachers r = .-174. In addition, it found that there was no significant effect of EI on .....

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The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the overall perception of the musical expressiveness of a piano performance is affected by the mode of presentation - audio, visual, or audio/visual combination - and whether or not mistakes made by the performer affect expressiveness scores. Subjects (N=90), were undergraduate music majors, randomly selected from two large state universities. A professional pianist performed an excerpt of a piece in three perceptual modes: audio only, visual only, and audio/visual combination, with and without mistakes. Subjects only saw, heard or heard and saw performances with and without mistakes and then rated each presentation for its musical expressiveness using a seven-point Likert scale. Two One- Way ANOVAs with repeated measures were used to analyze the data of audio only and audio/visual combination performances. A t-test with dependent variables was used to analyze the visual only mode. There were significant differences between the expre.....

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Developing an expressive and beautiful tone is one of the essential accomplishments to which instrumentalists and singers of all levels and styles aspire. Many tone instructional methods and concepts have been prevalent worldwide since Quantz_s time (1697-1773) and remain influential. Tone quality is considered as the most important basic attribute of all music and the most vital concept in the evaluation of the goodness or badness of a tone, although in musical literature the concept and its pedagogy are most unexplored and misinterpreted. In this research, primal sound is used as a natural and holistic element of tone pedagogy that encompasses the emotionally motivated expression and reflexive automatic body responses that engage the whole performer_s body and mind. This research investigates how the reflexive automatic body responses can be used as a facilitator between instrument and instrumentalist to construct the key components of tone and tone pedagogy. This research explores t.....

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