This research in progress examines the process of arranging songs by P. Ramlee for a barbershop quartet. Barbershop quartet music is a distinctively American style of singing, but it is a very “low-tech” genre to perform, requiring no instruments, no electricity, and only four singers. Because of this, the potential to teach or demonstrate the style to those who cannot support elaborate sound setups. Barbershop quartet music provides one of the foundations for jazz and popular music and incorporates traditional Western harmony (both very present in popular music). However, because of its “American-ness” in the language (English) and dialect (American English), barbershop quartet music is nearly absent in Malaysia. Because P. Ramlee songs form a similar foundation of music in Malaysia as barbershop quartet music does in America, this research project involves the arranging of P. Ramlee songs for barbershop quartet. The presentation describes the presenter’s past experience in .....

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Sedap Cycle is a composition inspired by the author’s interaction with Malaysian cuisine.The culture surrounding each meal, the food’s components and author’s background and experience with the food inspired the musical output. The music is drawn from music connected to a food’s culture and the interpretation of tastes as musical characteristics. The creation of the music used some quantitative methods to survey Malaysians about which local foods are well-known, but largely several categories of qualitative methods to create the music, such as practice-based, practice-led and autoethnographic research. The result is a six-movement composition based on six meals in a day (four main meals and two ‘teas’) with each major movement containing a title of well-known Malaysian food (‘Nasi Lemak’, ‘Nasi Campur’, ‘Char Kuey Teow’ and ‘Roti Canai’). This piece combines Western classical and avant garde styles with traditional and popular Malaysian, Chinese, Indian and .....

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