Sound, Space and Perceptions
Aside from affecting life through the implementation of new laws, perceptions of sounds and how they affect life can also be shaped by controlling the spaces through which we receive sounds. Of relevance here, is the reception of Getai, a form of entertainment where folk songs are performed with a live band alongside folk dances, sketches, dramas and cross-talk, which originated from the Japanese Occupation of Singapore. Even though getai was performed on the streets in the same way wayang was since they were staged within amusement parks, one of which was located at Jalan Besar just minutes away from where the banned Muharam festivities were once held, access to these spaces were unfettered and they became very popular as they were largely supported by the Japanese who encouraged such forms of entertainment. However, it must be observed that the Japanese also had a vested interest in the success of these amusement parks for they were also used as highly profitable gambling farms. Nonetheless, we can still observe the impact the power dynamics between the colonizers and the colonized has upon the relationships between sound, affect and space though in a different manner.
As spaces inevitably carry with them historical associations, the influence they have on our perceptions of sound and how they affect us is also furthered. This becomes evident when we consider getai as a counterpoint to Singapore’s first dedicated performing arts space being the Victoria Theatre and Memorial Hall. By housing the Syonan Kokkaido Orchestra, a western orchestra which revered Beethoven and Bach during the occupation when all other forms of music were banned, the Japanese administration perpetuated a distinction between the sounds associated with the streets and these colonial buildings as started by the British even in its earlier incarnation as Singapore’s Town Hall, which had housed the Singapore Amateur Musical Society since their 1865 performance of Haydn’s First Quintett among other chorale pieces and also orchestras like the Singapore Philharmonic Society which performed Italian overtures and Rossini’s airs since 1891.
Given that these orchestra ensembles were historically supported and supplemented by musicians from a regimental band, and that exposure to western music was seen as “artistic progress” the politicization of soundscapes can be seen when we compare the sounds that filled the respective spaces they occupied and what they became associated with. For western music, they became aligned with civilization and progress as enshrined by the Victoria Theatre and Memorial Hall, while getai and the amusement parks became seen as pure hedonistic pleasure. This trajectory continues even in the post war years as the reopening of Victoria Theatre after the completion of renovation works in 1958 was commemorated with the commissioning of an orchestral piece performed by the Singapore Chamber Ensemble titled “Majulah Singapura” which later became Singapore’s national anthem and as Memorial Hall continues to be used for landmark events such as public meetings for the review of Singapore’s constitution. Meanwhile getai’s popularity declined as amusement parks closed and other forms of entertainment emerged, the most notable being the television. Coincidentally, Singapore’s pilot television broadcasting service, Television Singapura, was launched at Victoria Theatre and Memorial Hall on 15 February 1963, further suggesting how getai can be seen as oppositional to what the colonial buildings represented.
Curiously, in spite of the privileged position of classical music in Singapore, the building of the National Theatre to commemorate Singapore’s achievement of self-governance in 1959 was curiously accompanied by then Minister for Culture S. Rajaratnam’s declaration of how the theatre was meant to dispel the prevailing myth of Singapore as a culturally backward nation that is primarily concerned with making money. Nonetheless, by considering both wayang and getai, we can see how extensively space and the access thereof can influence sound and affect.
