Investigating acoustic properties, playing techniques and live-electronics potential of traditional Southeast Asian musical instruments

Abstract:

Southeast Asia has a rich musical history, where traditional instruments continue to influence the contemporary music scene. This project investigates the potential of traditional Southeast Asian for use in live-electronic performances. The research was conducted in two phases: First, in summer 2025, in the laboratory of the Department of Music Acoustics the team consisting of experts from the University of the Philippines, University Malaya, and mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna discussed a possible practice-based research methodology to investigate the live-electronics potential of Southeast Asian musical instruments. Second, mdw project staff visited UM in November 2025 for measurements, interviews, and practice-based research in live-electronic music performance with a focus on the Malay ‘Kulintangan’.

Dr. Marzelan Saleh presenting SEA wind instruments, Roan Opiso and Tim-Tarek Grund working with gesture control software for live-electronics in the acoustics laboratory at mdw in Vienna.

© H. Hussin

« ‹ of 6 › »

Implementation Period:

01/2025 – 12/2025

Project:

1. Introduction:

Southeast Asia is a region with a rich and diverse musical past and present. The Philippines have a history of prominent composers working with traditional Filipino instruments, while also investigating contemporary or unconventional methods of sound production with an interest in contemporary music. This musical past is well documented at the Center for Ethnomusicology (UPCE) at the University of the Philippines (UP).  Dr. José Maceda, both a composer and an ethnomusicologist, wrote pieces for Southeast Asian instruments, but also with cassette players and for radio stations. Maceda was also involved with composition for musique concrète.  Dr. Ramón Santos, another renowned Filipino composer, explored the limits of traditional Filipino instruments as well, and attended the summer courses in Darmstadt in Europe. Malaysian composer Tazul Tajuddin is an important member of the electro-acoustic scene and is credited of being one of the first Malaysian artists composing electro acoustic music. After studies and work in UK, he returned to Malaysia.

As part of the FWF-project „Études for live-electronics“[AR743], Dr. Alex Hofmann and Tim-Tarek Grund have already explored the intersection of traditional instruments and digital sound synthesis (Grund, et al, 2024). This project will follow a similar approach and allow an in-depth investigation of Philippine and Malay instruments and their potential use in live-electronic performances.

2. Report of the Action: Phase I (Vienna)

This project consisted of two phases: In the first phase, experts from the University of the Philippines, and the University Malaya (UM) visited the acoustics laboratory at the Department of Music Acoustics at mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. During this visit previous research on Southeast Asian instruments from Vietnam was presented and discussed in the team. A methodology for this project was decided, based on the experiences from the previous research and the background knowledge provided by Prof. Dr. Hanafi Hussin, Dr. Marzelan Salleh (both from UM) as well as Collections Manager Roan Opiso (UP).

Different types of traditional Southeast Asian instruments were considered for this research. The expert from UP advised us to take cultural implications into account, for example that certain Philippine gongs such as the ‘Gangsa’ are often performed in ritual settings and are considered sacred. We were introduced to specific wind instruments, where playing techniques were very difficult to learn, such as the ‘Kalaleng’ nose flute. The Malaysian ‘Kulintangan’, a row of small, horizontally laid melodically tuned gongs turned out to be a good compromise between accessibility, playability, and uniqueness of sound for further live-electronic processing.

A concept for a live-electronic performance was developed in collaboration with sound artist Cedrik Fermont. Within this performance, AI models using the RAVE architecture are employed to encode within and decode sounds from a latent space. Microphones on both a tenor saxophone and the Kulintangan send audio signals into the Pure Data software. Here, the signals are processed and subjected to the encoding and decoding process of the RAVE architecture through the nn~ object. These multichannel latent signals are also processed before the audio signal output is fed back into the system. Special care is taken to ensure that the use of AI remains ethical: Training data for the AI model, respectively tenor saxophone and idiophon instrument recordings, were produced by the research team.

Note, Prof. Dr. LaVerne David C. de la Peña retired from his position as the head of the Center for Ethnomusicology (UPCE) at University of the Philippines (UP), and Dr. Lisa Veronica D. Decenteceo started new in this position during 2025. Based on the selection of a Malaysian instrument, and the changes at UPCE, we planned for a research visit at UM instead of UP for late 2025.

3. Report of the Action: Phase II (Kuala Lumpur):

In the second phase, the team from mdw visited the Universiti Malaya for the practice-based research procedure that combined live-electronics with the ‘Kulintangan’. The research team conducted sound pressure measurements with instruments at the Faculty of Creative Arts at UM, always with a focus on futher sound processing in live-electronic performance (photo left; credit A.Hofmann). The experiments allowed us to furhter develop the composition “Beneath, Within”, which was then premiered in a concert at the Malaysian Composer Series 2025 in Kuala Lumpur (see attached program poster). Furthermore, during the visit, there was the possibility to give a workshop for students, where they had the possibility to learn about the live-electronics software, the reseach procedure and to gain hands-on experiences with the instrumental setup for their own studies.

Dr. Marzelan Salleh also introduced the research team to Prof. Tazul Tajuddin from UiTM who plays a significant role as a researcher and educator on contemporary music in Malaysia.

4. Future steps:

To further investigate contemporary live-electronic music approaches with Southeast Asian instruments, a close collaboration with local experts is essential. This can happen on different levels (experts, students) and should therefore involve music students from SEA universities in the future during experiments and artistic research performances – an idea that was discussed in the team early on, but was not possible to implement due to organizational matters in this research phase. What happens when emerging musicians shape the aesthetics of live-electronics with traditional instruments?

Also, the established contact to Prof. Tazul Tajuddin and Dr. Ainolnaim Azizol, with their expertise of the Technical University Mara, combined with the musicological and socio-cultural analysis approach of UM holds the potential to critically examine the role technology in contemporary music in the SEA region using a multi-perspective framework.

References:

Tim-Tarek Grund, Huệ Trinh Lương, and Alex Hofmann. 2024. Challenges and Prospects in Remote Cross-cultural Musical Interface Design. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.13904905