Transcript of interview with Eugene Dairianathan (conducted by Gavin Lee), 29 September 2016, 1.30 pm, National Institute of Education.
Eugene Dairianathan is Head of the Visual and Performing Arts department at the National Institute of Education. Eugene listens out for sounds from his daily life, such as the washing machine or the clinking of the water glass. He listens to anything on the radio, whether it is from his son’s sound system or in the shopping mall. Eugene likes jazz and extreme metal music, and he finds that he is generally drawn towards any kind of music with an emphasis on craft and attention to detail. Eugene likes YouTube as it provides direct access to unique music, e.g. Mongolian throat singing meets extreme metal. As an educator, Eugene thinks that it is important that teacher-trainees experience diverse musical practices. Although some teacher-trainees have fixed musical preferences, he hopes that through the course, they will be influenced enough to appreciate other musical practices that they would not have been exposed to or would have necessarily liked at the beginning. Regarding musical practices in Singapore, Eugene thinks that it is important to focus not only on ethnic music in Singapore but on Western classical music as well. While Eugene finds it hard to pin down exactly what Singaporean music is, he characterizes it as fluid, dynamic, interactive, and a blend of many cultures.
“There are a number of situations where sound disturbs me. Whether it’s the sound of my motor vehicle misbehaving, whether it’s the washing machine about to live it’s last few hours. Whether the clink of the glass has a particular pitch, and I’ve got to go to the piano and found out which pitch it is – to anything that comes either on a radio station, or comes out of my son’s mp3 system, which is amplified in the house. And of course, wherever I am, whether it’s a shopping mall or anywhere else, I’m interested to hear what sort of sound permeates the space.”
“If I were to put a CD on, I would have a problem with the CD. Because I now have YouTube. And YouTube gives me direct access to a number of things that I never would have thought possible. YouTube enables me to look across over cultures; it helps me to look at positions of Mongolian throat singing meets extreme metal.”
“The main goal here is to encourage – in the best ways possible – diversity of musical practices. First-hand direct experience in engagement so that even if [the teacher-trainees] can only do it in a semester, there is a memory of it that will enable them to see how that can actually be replicated or encouraged in the schools where they are.”
“I don’t think I can take away the individual ownership and the territorial practices of individual student-teachers. Of course, there are some who will still strongly feel that ABRSM is for them the preferred choice. But at least they can make that preference based on an experience of diversity, rather than them not having any other way of looking at the world.”
“I guess in the culinary world, it’s very much easier. If you’ve been brought up on dark soy sauce, vermicelli and a few bits of egg, and you’ve had that with black coffee – and that’s all you have for the rest of your life, how could you imagine yourself as a teacher, espousing values of access and opportunity to diversity?”
“I don’t think a study of Western classical music ought to be completely obliterated so that we could engage in “affirmative action,” you know. That said, we live in Singapore, we should just focus on cultures in Singapore. I don’t think we can take away a sense of a Singapore blend of many migrant and immigrant cultures. And Western classical music is one of these many.”
“Ever since YouTube and the radio turned up. I found myself excited by any direction where I found craft, care, and a sense of adventure in the creative process. And so, the genre actually becomes less important to me than the disturbance in the media, so to speak. Of course, I do have my favorites in jazz. I am excited by extreme metal.”
“I personally would reserve my judgement on Singapore, Singaporean. I would rather think of a Singapore blend because it is dynamic, it’s changing, and I’m excited by the change.”
“Now if we talk about “Singaporeanness,” we don’t know what “Singaporeanness” meant, means, will mean. Because it’s dynamic, it’s interactive.”
“Is Phua Chu Kang [who sang the comedic SARS song as part of a public health campaign] quintessentially Singapore? It so happens that there are certain characteristics that belong to or are identified with Phua Chu Kang, that seem to position him in a particular way in Singapore.”
Click on the link below for the full transcript