What can audiences expect to see in Tunggu Sekejap: The P. Ramlee Suite?
Tunggu Sekejap will be a really cosy and intimate orchestral experience in Wild Rice’s theatre. What I’ve done is recompose nine of P. Ramlee’s songs into a three-movement symphonic suite, with elements of a violin concerto, because the violin was P. Ramlee’s favourite instrument. It’s taking something familiar, and presenting it in a way that I hope will make people sit up and tunggu sekejap – ‘wait a while’ – and listen to it as if for the very first time.
Your re-compositions will be performed by re: mix, a string orchestra led by violinist Mr. Foo Say Ming. How did this collaboration come about?
I’ve always looked up to Mr. Foo Say Ming as a violinist. If you were learning violin in the 80s and 90s, you would know of Mr. Foo and how he was so outstanding that he made it to the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. My teacher, the late Iskandar Ismail, loved working with Mr. Foo and re: mix – he used to write for them. After he passed away, our good friends, Rebecca Gao and Gao Yang, told me that Mr. Foo would love to meet to chat and see if there was anything we could do together in memory of Iskandar.
When I met Mr. Foo, he was the one who suggested using the music of P. Ramlee to create something symphonic. I got goosebumps at the idea, because I knew that was one of Iskandar’s dream projects that he never got to work on. So I couldn’t say no, because I also knew that I would be working with a violinist I really admired.
How did you decide on the form that this tribute to P. Ramlee would take?
I must confess that the sheer volume of P. Ramlee’s music sort of overwhelmed me at the start. Especially since his music is so beloved and revered! It was Mr. Foo who gave me the idea of using classical form as an approach. Once I started looking at P. Ramlee’s songs from a symphonic perspective, using classical form as a kind of architectural blueprint, I could then be very selective with his catalogue – looking out for songs that share similar melodic contours or harmonic progressions.
What challenges did you face in the process of reinterpreting P. Ramlee’s songs?
The challenge for me was to reimagine P. Ramlee’s music, because this is not simply a straightforward arrangement of an instrumental version of his songs. It involves taking fragments of his songs and developing them, using them throughout the suite.
At the same time, I wanted the music to be recognisable and accessible, especially to his fans. When working with Mr. Foo on the score, I was very specific about the vocal and lyrical quality of P. Ramlee’s music. Even though I was transposing it from vocal music to instrumental music, I thought it was still important to understand the lyrics of some of these songs, to understand how P. Ramlee phrased the vocal lines when he sang, because his voice was beautiful and all his songs had a very poetic quality to them. In that sense, writing the suite, to me, felt a lot like a dance with P. Ramlee. Sometimes, he leads and I follow. Sometimes, I lead and he follows.
When did Wild Rice come into the picture?
This collaboration with Mr. Foo and re: mix started out as a purely orchestral concert, which we performed to a small audience in 2018. We had always wanted to perform it again, but the pandemic hit and things got in the way. When I received the National Arts Council Young Artist Award in 2023, I thought I could finally put some of the grant money I received towards reviving this very personal music project of ours. I had initially approached Wild Rice to hire the theatre for just one night!
But Ivan Heng [Wild Rice’s Founding Artistic Director] and Alfian Sa’at [Wild Rice’s Resident Playwright] expressed interest in programming the piece as part of the company’s main-stage season. I was a bit apprehensive at the prospect at first, because I thought that this was not a play, nor a piece created for the theatre. But Ivan and Alfian were very sincere in wanting to bring a new audience into Wild Rice, and to try something that the company had never done before. I was very heartened by the positive reception to Don’t Call Him Mr. Mari Kita, so I thought, “Okay, let’s give it a shot!”
Why did you want to book Wild Rice’s theatre for an orchestral concert?
I’ve worked in the Wild Rice theatre a lot, and I love the acoustics of the space, as well as the intimacy between the artists and the audience. I know this theatre is not a concert hall, but I wanted people to be really close to the musicians – to hear and see the cellos, the violins, the harp, and the percussion up close. That’s why I thought The Ngee Ann Kongsi Theatre would be a perfect space for this show. Plus, it would be really nice for the regular Wild Rice audience to see the theatre in a new light!
How has the piece evolved from its 2018 iteration to today?
When we premiered The P. Ramlee Suite seven years ago, there was a performance lecture element to it – I delivered a preamble explaining to the audience what I had done in recomposing P. Ramlee’s music. I think I cannot escape the fact that I’m a teacher!
This time around, I have adapted that performance lecture into a dialogue with the actor Fadhli Ramlee, who is playing P. Ramlee. I’m very grateful to Ivan, who has reunited the creative team behind Don’t Call Him Mr. Mari Kita, and will be adding all these different elements – from multimedia to lighting – to elevate the material. Now, I would describe Tunggu Sekejap: The P. Ramlee Suite as a very proudly Singaporean piece that blurs the lines between music, theatre and cinema.
For fans of Don’t Call Him Mr. Mari Kita – what sets Tunggu Sekejap apart from that tribute to the late Zubir Said?
I think it’s very important to know that the two shows are very different!
They are, of course, related in the sense that Zubir Said was P. Ramlee’s mentor, and he also taught Iskandar, who taught me. Iskandar loved P. Ramlee’s music. His mother, the legendary Nona Asiah, sang a lot with P. Ramlee. So I’m very aware of those connections and that I stand on the shoulders of giants.
But, for me, while almost every song by Pak Zubir was a gem waiting to be uncovered, where I once worried about not having enough material for Don’t Call Him Mr. Mari Kita, I was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of P. Ramlee’s music that is out there, and which has become the greatly prized, loved and revered treasure of so many people.
In that context, I felt that there was no way I could present P. Ramlee’s songs with my voice alone. There are already so many tribute concerts to him throughout the year, which feature way better singers. So, while I had to imagine Pak Zubir’s music, I had to reimagine P. Ramlee’s. And the only way I felt I could make a unique contribution to the discourse and the crowded landscape of P. Ramlee tribute concerts is to present his music in a very different way. That is where re: mix, our glorious 30-piece chamber orchestra, comes in!
What have you learned about P. Ramlee while working on this piece?
P. Ramlee’s life and legacy say a lot about how we value artists. He is now regarded as a cultural icon, but that is very much something that happened after he died. Up till today, his story and legacy are continually being rewritten. So many attempts have been made in Malaysia to reclaim him as a national treasure – from converting his home to a memorial museum, conferring him the honorific title of Tan Sri posthumously – but he was shunned and poorly treated by his peers and artistic community at the end of his life. As late as 2018, the year I recomposed this suite, his songs were declared warisan kebangsaan – national heritage. That honour comes 45 years after his death, which is longer now than he was alive, because he died very young at the age of 44.
It’s been amazing working with Fadhli on this piece. He’s a P. Ramlee expert, so he has offered us a lot of insight and input, and also told us the other day that this show asks the questions that P. Ramlee would have loved to be asked – questions about the golden age of Singapore cinema, and the artistic potential of the region that has been lost.
How has P Ramlee influenced your own musical journey?
P. Ramlee once said of himself: “Aku cacamerba saja” – “I am a hodgepodge of things, a jumbled-up mixture.” Because he listened to so much music, and he very freely borrowed from all sorts of cultures and styles to create music that was uniquely his own. I think his all-embracing attitude towards music and art is something that I share.
Last, but not least, what is your favourite P. Ramlee song?
I have two favourite P. Ramlee songs.
The first is Malam Bulan Di Pagar Bintang – The Moon Surrounded By Stars. This is a love song from Pendekar Bujang Lapok, one of his most famous films, and which is the first P. Ramlee movie I watched.
My other favourite song is Tunggu Sekejap. I think that’s why we also used it as the title of our show. Tunggu Sekejap is from the movie Sarjan Hassan, and it features in a very beautiful scene where P. Ramlee plays the guitar in his army bunk, it’s raining outside, and he’s thinking of his lover. It’s something that a lot of us can relate to when we go to do NS! But there is also a very profound message in Tunggu Sekejap – that if we wait a while and we listen, and we don’t forget the people who have gone far away, I think the world would be a better place.
Interview By: Shawne Wang
