COURT PATRONAGE OF THE PERFORMING ARTS
Once only performed for royalty, Terinai has developed into a popular dance.
The issue of court patronage for traditional Malay performing arts remains an intriguing one. Although popular imagination has it that the arts were always supported by royalty, available evidence does not support this view. Court support did exist, but it was very limited, unlike in Thailand, Cambodia and Java where court support for the arts has always been significant.
The most obvious early sources of any information regarding the Malay courts, the classical histories or legendary stories (hikayat), do not yield any clear evidence to indicate that the arts did indeed receive patronage. Nothing but incidental music receives any mention in these works. The Hikayat Patani is an exceptional work in this regard; however, no major genres of the traditional performing arts are mentioned, with the possible exception of Asyik.
Evidence of court patronage for the arts comes from relatively recent times. Puppeteers from Kelantan were sent to Java in the 1920s to learn and master the Javanese Wayang Kulit Gedog. This was performed in Kelantan as Wayang Kulit Melayu. Genres such as Asyik and Joget Gamelan served as entertainment for an educated elite. Joget Gamelan came to the Malay Peninsula through an early 19th-century intermarriage between the courts of Riau-Lingga and Pahang, and a subsequent marriage between the courts of Pahang and Terengganu. Thus what is called Gamelan Pahang or Joget Pahang came into being. Later, with the evolution of the unique Malay style of gamelan as well as the dance, these genres were named Gamelan Melayu and Joget Gamelan.
The Hikayat Patani confirms the possible existence of the Asyik dance and music in the Patani palace. In Kelantan, Asyik music and dance were performed for court entertainment by a retinue of dancers and musicians supported by the palace. This practice, however, seems to have died out by the beginning of the 20th century. And like Joget Gamelan, Asyik dance and its music have become part of popular rather than royal entertainment, although the style of performance remains unchanged. A similar situation prevailed over the Terinai dance of Perlis. It, too, was the beneficiary of court patronage which was subsequently lost. Today, Terinai is a popular dance both in Kelantan and in Perlis.
Two other important genres of music and dance deserve mention in connection with the role of the Malay courts: Nobat and Mak Yong. The Nobat orchestra was imported from the Middle East and possibly India some time before the 15th century. Unlike its original context, where the music served to inspire bravery among the soldiers, in the Malay sultanates where the Nobat was established, both the orchestra and its music took on a sacred aura, forming a part of the royal regalia. In the case of the Mak Yong dance theatre, evidence is lacking to connect it with any Malay court prior to the third decade of the 20th century when an attempt was made by a Kelantan nobleman to develop a court variety of Mak Yong. But the attempt did not bear fruit.