Insertion of  singing  in the Bangsawan performance is normal and is one of the characteristic of Bangsawan. The singing is in the scene or love scene, flirting or enjoying. The lyrics of the song is set. For more experienced actors who have been involved in the bangsawan, the lyrics of the song is improvised at that time, only the accompanying song is fixed. In the farewell scene for example, the young girl and  male actors would sing and the song that accompanied. This could be  the Seri Banang song or any song with original rhythm. Their focus during singing whether during joyous moments or sad moments is to synchronize their singing with the music. Besides synchronization, they would try to raise the intensity of their voice so as to overcome the music accompaniment.

According to Mak Minah, the condition was more difficult when they had to sing non-malay songs like the Hindustani, Arabic and English songs. They are forced to memorize the lyrics while at the same time synchronizing with the music accompaniment. At times they are forced to perform the song even though they do not understand its meaning. Although the situation was such, they manage to convince the audience that their performance was in conformity with the meaning of the lyrics. They did this by recognising the tempo of the song. If the tempo of the song is slow, the actor or the singer would assumed that it was a sad song or one that portrays a gloomy situation. Therefore, suitable actions would be used to accompany the singing. Lyrics of the non-malay songs are usually prepared and not improvised by the actor.


Vocal (singing) in Bangsawan



'mestika bumi'

'mestika bumi'

'mestika bumi'