If music be the food of love, play on, give me excess of it that, surfeiting, the appetite may sicken and so die. That strain again, it had a dying fall.
— Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
‘If music be the food of love, play on’ are the words of Duke Orsino in Shakespeare’s play The Twelfth Night and these words are seen as among the most famous opening lines in all of Shakespeare.
I remember reading these lines in English Literature classes ages ago now. We learnt that what was meant by these words by Orsino was paraphrased as follows: ‘If music feeds our desire to love, then play on, musician; play so much music that I become stuffed with it, so love’s appetite for hearing music grows sick and dies.’ Yes, let’s play so much music and be stuffed with it. After all, it’s what feeds our desire to love. That’s not a bad thing at all, isn’t it?
It’s heartening to note the recent resurgence of the Sape or Sampeh music which has seen a refreshing revival for a while now in Sarawak. I would term the latest developments as a ‘Musical Upbeat of Tradition and the Arts’ of Sarawak and ‘a labour of love’ rolled up all in one.
I think it’s a development which we shall all welcome and be proud of. It’s our common and unique heritage as Sarawakians. Something we can all connect to. And I believe that our unique music and traditional arts have enormous potential to generate economic returns to our people and to create employment opportunities for our youth.
The latest evidence of this positive development is amply demonstrated in a very public way by the recent Malaysia Book of Records (MBR) feat at the sape concert performed at the closing of the Citrawarna Keluarga Malaysia 2022 event at the Kuching Waterfront on February 27.
This latest event made it to the MBR as having the ‘Most Number of Sape Players in a Performance.’ A total of 257 sape players participated in this record setting event.
Congratulations are in order to the musicians and sape enthusiasts who took part and, of course, to the organisers behind the event.
In particular, I would like to commend Sarawak Energy Bhd which has been an ardent fan and strong supporter of the traditional music and the arts of the Orang Ulu. I am sure the Orang Ulu community, and others too, will appreciate the efforts of Sarawak’s prime energy company in their unique CSR initiative focusing on culture, music and the arts of the Orang Ulu, thereby helping to preserve them. If not nurtured and supported, they could one day disappear in the face of time as the so-called ‘modern world’ makes its relentless and unstoppable momentum around the world.
This latest feat came on the heels of another MBR achievement in 2018, termed as the ‘Longest Non-Stop Sape Performance’ — where 54 sape players clocked a total of 50 hours, either in groups or solo, of non stop sape musical relay. That feat started at 9.30am on February 15, 2018 and concluded at noon on February 17. It was a real hardcore effort, and the participants were truly passionate and enthusiastic musicians to have invested the time and efforts.
I was fortunate to be in the closing ceremony of the ‘Non-Stop Sape Performance’ event, performing alongside Malaysian Sape maestro, Mathew Ngau, and Miss World Malaysia 2018 Larissa Ping, who is also an enthusiast of the Bornean lute.
Reflecting on the above two MBR feats, I have attempted to decipher the reason behind this phenomenon which I have called the ‘Sape Resurgence’. Obviously, the roles of well-known and publicly acknowledged Sape masters like the late Tusau Padan and my good friend, the Malaysia Living Legend, Mathew Ngau have been enormously powerful in this regard. The efforts and accolades received by Alena Murang, supported by her team of young people, in promoting the Sape on the global stage and targeting the youth and specific target audience are equally welcomed and refreshing approaches. They have not only set the standard and projected the beauty of sape music nationally and internationally, but they have also served as the role models for aspiring sape players while at the same time becoming the icons and ambassadors for Sarawak traditional sounds in general, and sape music in particular.
I am fully aware of many other talented sape players found in the longhouses all over Baram and Belaga and probably elsewhere, including in towns and the cities, but they are hitherto generally unknown to the bigger circle and outside world. Nonetheless, their skills at the sape is unmatched and unique to their own style. The MBR achievements and the performances by the Sape masters, and even ordinary sape players, overseas or at international music festivals and events are useful reminders to keep the tradition alive and well.
The appreciation of the sape has cut across gender, age, ethnicity and geographies. Now everyone seems to enjoy the sounds of the sape. It’s soothing and calming effects is undeniable — an affirmation of the origin and original purpose of the instrument where it was used mainly for traditional healing rituals in the past age. I once saw an old film clip of such a ritual being performed and the amazing part for me was listening to the low, enchanting beats of the melodic sape. It’s not difficult to imagine the blues type genre of the beat and melody as an accompaniment to an ‘out-of-body’ experience as the medicine man danced to the hypnotic music being played on the ancient instrument. Dancing on the edge of two worlds needs a special beat and an out of this world music, so it seems.
It’s likely that the sapeh or sape has a deep root in the Hindu past of Nusantara and most likely was played as part of rituals in temples and also in traditional palaces as part of ancient classical music.
An eighth century bas-relief of the Borobudur Temple in Central Java, Indonesia is telling. A man is seen playing the sapeh amongst a big group of figures carved on the wall — evidence that the music was an important part of the culture, belief systems and arts of ancient civilisations, of which we are the modern day inheritors. Coincidentally, the heart-shaped earrings worn by the maidens in the bas-relief of the Angkor Wat temple in Cambodia bear an uncanny resemblance to those worn by modern day Orang Ulu maidens.
My own sape journey was not as dramatic, but it all happened after I taught myself to play the sape. A recording of one of my practice session was made by my daughter and uploaded to YouTube which generated some interest. It was noticed by the organisers of the Rainforests World Music Festival who invited me to play at the 2013 Edition of RWMF. I was the curtain opener for the Saturday night programme and, as the saying goes, the rest is history. At least for me. I was invited to play at the Melaka Festival of Art and Performance (MAPFest) the same year. I also played the sape in Jogjakarta in 2019 on a stage set up in front of the famous Candi Prambanan Hindu temple complex.
My enthusiasm for the sape has not waned and though I love the traditional melodies very much, I also enjoy experimenting and composing my own sounds and composition — varying the beat, mixing the tones and pairing all these with powerful scenes of nature uploaded on clips that I have collected. Who knows I would have the time in future to compile a sape music collection into an album, thereby contributing to the collection of materials and recordings on sape music which will no doubt increase into the foreseeable future.
For a music born of the rainforests it is absolutely critical to keep the music alive and well preserved for the enjoyment of future generations and the world at large. Maybe, when we have devastated our environment to such an extent or lost our natural forests for good, the only thing left to remind us will be just the unique and melancholic sounds of the sape.
Hence, the resurgence of interest in the sape and the popularity and acceptance of the unique sounds born of the rainforest augurs well for the sape and our traditional art and music scene.
