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Page 11
 
 
 
 

A Profile of Khaw Guan Liang

COMPOSERS OF SERIOUS MUSIC in this country are rare. Of art songs, even rarer still.  And so it was a delight not only to discover Malaysia’s own composer  Khaw Guan Liang but to find that his is an indigenous voice, distinctly Malaysian in sound and sentiment. The pioneer artists Yong Mun Sen and Chong Pak Fuk rejected the traditional subject of imaginary Chinese mountains and rivers. That they were natives of these lands and seas compelled them to commit to canvas the colours of Penang’s unique buildings and green countryside. In the field of  music Guan Liang chose the verse of local Chinese and Malay poets and gave them accompaniments that breathed into each line its peculiar rhythms and sound.  

               Guan Liang (first from left) and friends

Guan Liang discovered Malay poetry in Chinese translation. He was captivated by the magic of the words. The two volumes of his published work includes Masuri SN’s lovely Kampong Halaman translated as “My Kampong”, his anti-colonial “On this Lovely Earth,” and patriotic Nyor Melambai; Tongkat Warrant’s heart breaking “News from the Kampong”, and Salma Manja’s ode to the village girls, Antara Puspa-puspa translated as Bai Hua Chi Fang. He hoped that in the translations the Chinese educated would understand Malay culture and come to love Malay poetry. Guan Liang it will be noticed uses the augmented second when writing for Malay poetry, because the leap, he thinks, shows the flavour of the Arab influence.  

Because he did not completely feel at home in the English language, Guan Liang says that he has confined himself to poetry written in Chinese, because the music must rise and fall with the rhythm of the language, something that Mussorgsky fully understood. Thanks to his grounding in Chinese literature, Guan Liang has been able to select ancient Chinese poems and set them to music, work which he has pioneered. He prefers poems of the Sung dynasty because their lines are made up of uneven number of characters which  allows him flexibility with the musical phrases, examples being Hua Jiu and Yi Jiang Chun’s  Shui Xiang Dong Liu.  

Songs of Penang 

But Chinese-Malayan poets are his first choice. In the two volume collection of his art songs, we find poetry showing love of Penang and Malaya examples of which are the poems of Yang Ji Guang, Xiang Du Shong and Ding Xin Liang. Among favourites are Liang Ding Xin’s Song to Malaysia and Wu Jia Dao’s poem celebrating the building of the Penang Bridge. The well known painter Hoe Koon has also written songs for him, the most successful being “Beautiful Asean” which, sung by the soprano Su Xuan Chen, won first prize at an Asian Music Festival.

Today, Khaw Guan Liang’s art songs are sung and are featured in festivals of music in Singapore and Hong Kong. His songs Zai Lian, Shen Qu, and Xiang Chun Lai-de Xiao-Xi are used in singing competitions in South East Asia. Some have become part of the singer’s repertoire in far away Taiwan.  

Khaw Guan Liang was educated at Han Chiang School, Penang.  He went to Hong Kong where he studied at  the Hong Kong Music Conservatory concentrating on composition and piano playing. At the same time he attended the New Asia College where he studied Chinese literature. Returning to Penang he got a job at his old school as music director as well as teacher. He was appointed band director when the former director, his sister Guan Cheng, left for Germany to study voice. The band leader was Tung Gak Hong. Guan Liang noticed her voice and encouraged her to study in England promising financial help. When she had raised enough money Gak Hong left for the Royal College of Music. Guan Liang soon joined her enrolling at the Trinity College of Music.  

His teachers were Arnold Cooke, the English composer, who was the greatest influence in his composition; Peggy Brook ( piano performance); C J Toon (harmony, counterpoint and orchestration) and Enid Langley (music education). “Cooke was a great teacher”, says Guan Liang. “He  encouraged his students to develop their own compositional styles, and taught us not to imitate him or other composers”. “Be your own man” was his constant reminder.    

Chamber Music

In 1968 Guan Liang and Gak Hong, whom he married the year before,  formed a choir for the Penang Philharmonic Society.  He became vice president of the society and conductor of the choir. Since then he has had a busy life holding such jobs as director of the Penang Musical Cultural Centre, Chairman of the Penang Dance Society, advisor to school bands. He is also a judge for the National Art Song Singing Competition. Despite this busy life he found time to teach the piano, music theory and composition.  

Guan Liang’s first venture was into chamber music, his first love. He turned out piano trios, string quartets, woodwind quintets, and overtures. But he found that in those days there were no musicians to play his pieces or that there were not enough to form the necessary number needed for those pieces. In recent years however with rising standards he has been able to have some sonatas for violin and piano played to selected audiences. It was a different story with art songs. In this field it was comparatively easier to find a competent pianist and a singer to introduce a composition to the public. With Gak Hong as a voice trainer the task of searching for a good voice was made easier  The well known baritones Yang Hou Chen and Yang An Chan also requested songs from him.  

It was through Arnold Cooke that Guan Liang learned the music of Hindemith and the meaning of “functional music” (Gebrauchsmusik): music composed for specific purposes, among which are included education, performance by amateurs, children’s games, community singing, mechanical instruments and the accompaniment of news reels and so on. That Guan Liang was a disciple can be seen in his compositions for children and amateur choruses.  

The Hindemith influence is seen in the wide range of compositions. Li Ge (1983), written as a graduation anthem for the Penang Chinese Women’s High School; Wen Hua Jie Ke (1997)  composed for the Penang Cultural Festival. Other works include two- to four-part harmony for children’s choirs, women’s choirs.

Bartok

Asked what are the great influences on his art,  Guan Liang says that he struggled with the problem of setting local songs to music without getting an answer until he heard the Hungarian songs collected and scored by Bartok  In Bartok the folk songs harmonized perfectly. It was a revelation.  From Bartok he learnt how to write music that did not destroy the character of the Chinese language.   Other influences were Kodaly and Dvorak whose New World Symphony swept him off his feet. Negro spirituals were another discovery. Other influences were Brahms and Schumann and Wolfe.   But a study of Schubert , he cautions, is basic to writing accompaniments

So heavy is the demand for dedicated works that the composer has had little time to indulge in his passions. Composing has further obstacles to surmount. It is not easy to find a music copier, and publication costs are high. But Guan Liang’s art songs and choral works have been collected in two volumes, thanks to the help of friends of the Philharmonic Society.  

Guan Liang however will not write lyrics. In this he is merely following the example set by his teacher Shen Shih Lin of Hong Kong who, although a Chinese scholar, only set the works of professional poets to music. “We cannot do both,” says Guan Liang. There are exception however. It is song praising Penang, Mei-li de Bin-Cheng, Wo de Jia-Xiang (Lovely Penang, My Home Village). A second song Wei Wa Jie followed.     

Musical Forms

Musical forms, rhythmic and motivic ideas and harmonies  

Trained in the Western musical tradition Guan Liang’s compositions are as expected in the Western compositional style. The neo-classicism taught by Cooke and Hindemith caused him to compose his melodies and harmonies in very conservative ways, according to a study of him by  R Lim Yang-Yuin But he was able to set the mood of the song by using simple motivic ideas (see Fei (Fly) and Hai Yuan zhi ge (The Sailors’ Song) In setting a Chinese poem to music he preferred the pentatonic scale as the basis for the melody though the harmony was Western (see Huai Jiu which is a good example of an effective Western and Chinese elements) The grace note is used in Chinese form and not in the Western manner; an example is to be found in Fei (Fly). In the Malay songs the distinctive sound of the augmented second is to be found. For example, see Xiang Cun Lai-de Xiao-Xi (News from the Village)  

His piano accompaniment reflects the lyric of his songs, see Fei (Fly) and Ye Yu (Night Rain).  Professors at the Southern Illinois University at Carbondale have commented that Guan Liang keeps the range of the accompaniment to the middle range of the piano, making his music accessible to a wide range of pianists. That perhaps is the secret of his success with Malayan pianists and audience. Dissonances or chromatism are avoided, the style of neo-classicism being preferred.  

Teachers have found his songs to be of great educational value as for example, Simmons,  vocal coach of the school of music at Southern Illinois University; Best, the principal bass singer to the Metropolitan Opera New York who has recommended the songs as undergraduate vocal teaching material.#

The Penang File Issue 11