Setting Sail with Sound and Syairs
So I just launched my ko-fi with a gift book, Project Setting Sail. It’s a showcase of A Tale About the Ships in the Swamp, my submission to the HarperCollins Author Academy, and it includes a whole bunch of bonus content such as version exclusive character art, a songbook and an explanatory note on what inspired my work. As the essay is merely an introduction, I wanted to provide further details on the cultural context that my novel builds upon for those of you who want to geek out with me.
To kick things off, I will start by discussing the heart of my story being Table-Top Role-Playing Games and its parallels to the Malay World’s Oral Storytelling Tradition. A bit of background information is needed here so please bear with me as I get into my life story. Before I got interested in writing, a lot of my time was actually devoted to music. Having performed with both concert bands and orchestras, I had a deep appreciation for sound’s capacity to tell stories and the music within my words was something that I paid special attention to.
As I researched further into the relationship between storytelling and music, I came to realise that silent reading was actually, a relatively modern phenomenon, and that sound was in fact, a vital part of many literary experiences. One of the most striking instance of this was within the Malay World itself.
Defined by its shared use of Malay languages, the Malay World commonly refers to the postcolonial nation-states of Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore today. Within this region, syairs are a literary form that was popular from the 19 thto early 20 thcentury in present-day Indonesia. A kind of extended narrative poem, they exist as manuscripts written in jawi though they were traditionally performed orally to a live audience through melismatic melodies. They are commonly accepted as a form of oral-literature though there are variations in how they were performed over time and space.
While the texts do not record the melodies used to recite syairs, they provide information on the aesthetic evaluations of sounding voices, their social meanings and affective responses to them. Syair Buah-Buahan for instance depicts ‘fruits’ reading late into the night, such that when they do finally go home, they are ‘unable to sleep’ because they are so affected by both the romantic storylines and the beautiful sounds of the reciting voices themselves.
Anggur membaca sedap lagunya
Nyaring suaranya asik rasanya
Sekalian masing-masing mendengarkan
Hikayat dibaca Anggur mulakan
Following from the narrative’s emphasis on how sound affects its listeners, the way syairs are performed to the audience is needless to say, very important. Moreover, its meaning can be interpreted differently whether one focuses on the words or the style of delivery. A whole lot more can be said about this but something I want to highlight is the way sound is also understood to have magical properties. According to my conversations with the nusantara otaku Hafiz Rashid, a manner where this can still be observed today is the recitation of Syair Ikan Terubuk by some fishermen, as a ritual for better catch.
So what happened to syairs and what has it got to do with Dungeons and Dragons? Now I could be cheeky and put the rest of my research behind a paywall but really, I’m just trying to consolidate all of my work onto a single platform. The truth is, I’m using this bait and switch tactic as I’m still getting most of my readership from Medium. Well, help me out and head on down to https://nicholasbchua.substack.com for more.
