Hidden Gem in Telok Ayer: Singapore Musical Box Museum

As a child, I have always loved musical box. The soft melody and the sight of a delicate little ballerina that would swirl and swirl around in a small jewel box that my mother used to own. I remembered winding the box up again and again just to listen to the music and watch the ballerina twirl. I believe no one can resist the magic of a musical box. My little girl was exposed to musical box in a form of a train 3 years ago. She , too, loves musical box.

Organised in conjunction of the Singapore Heritage Festival (SHF), we registered with Singapore Musical Box Museum to enjoy a free admission as well as tour. The trip was a truly eye opener! I did not know that they come in all sorts of sizes. The 2 wonderful guides explained to us the history and evolution of musical boxes. I am totally impressed! I believed those who are with us were too!

Singapore Musical Box Museum

The Singapore Musical Box Museum is the first of its kind in Singapore.  Although the museum was opened in Nov 2015 to the public, I was not aware of its existence until this SHF. Its founder is a Japanese collector Mr. Naoto Orui. He moved his collection from his Minamichita Music Box Museum in Mihama, Japan, to Singapore. Many of these exhibits are his collection. Currently, there are over 40 of them in the museum.

Music boxes are similar to the chime mechanism of old clocks.

The museum is not huge but nevertheless, it is fascinating! The first part of the tour is about cylinder music boxes. These are made of a revolving cylinder with pins on it. The cylinder would be spinned and at the same time, it plucks the pins of a comb to make music. Some of these have interchangeable cylinder to play different music in the same musical box. In the early days, only the super wealthy could afford to have musical boxes as they were expensive. The cylinders with the pins had to be man made.

Mandolin Tremolo Zither (Switzerland)  1880s.

Left: Roller Gem Organ (USA)1885 reminds me of a typewriter
Right:Musical box with storage drawers

Next session, we were introduced to  the disc musical boxes,  German music box artisan Paul Lochmann created discs instead of cylinders. Discs can be mass produced, unlike cylinders of the time, which had to be hand made. Thus, disc music boxes can be made for a much lower cost and be brought to more people to enjoy.

Below  is a Polyphon Table Model Style 45. (Germany)1890s

Doesn't this reminds you of a vinyl player?

Left: How a  punched disc looked like
Right: Other Disc musical box include a Britannia

Then, we explored the coin slotted musical boxes, these are giants! They are as big as a grandfather's clocks. They need antique coins to operate. Modern coins does not work on them. They are that specific.

"Atlantic" - an orchestral musical box
It was to go into the Titanic, but they wanted a larger box on it, and this went to the Atlantic instead. It has parts of a piano ,  bass drum, snare drum and even a triangle.

Giant cylinder of the "Atlantic"

Polyphon Giant Music Box

This is a precursor of the jukebox! Look at the number of disc it has! Yes, you can choose which song you want it to play.

"China" made in Singapore
Are you surprised to know that Singapore manufactured musical box as early as late 1800s? I am! The guide explained that as Singapore was under colonial rule, the British had taught Singapore craftsmen how to repair watches and clocks. Subsequently, when musical boxes were brought into the country, the same craftsmen would repair and maintain, eventually going on to make the musical boxes themselves.

I wonder what tune would "China" play. Unfortunately, it is still waiting for restoration.

If you wonder, why it was named "China", we were told, during the colonial time, any place in the East was considered China. Hence, this piece of work is consider that from China.

"China"

Limited edition scarf by Hermès made in 1996 and a musical cigar holder in front.

The musical cigar holder. It's mind blowing that people use musical for almost anything, not just for pure entertainment.

The guides even ask us to take a look at the architecture of this place. 

View of Chong Wen Ge Pavillion, Thian Hock Keng and Singapore Yu Huang Gong temples

 Chong Wen Ge was the first education institution set up by the Chinese community in Singapore. Thian Hock Keng Temple is Singapore’s oldest Chinese temple. Both gazetted as national monuments in 1973.

"Chong Wen Ge In the past, two institutions flanked Thian Hock Keng: Chongwen Ge (崇文阁, ‘Institute for the Veneration of Literature’), Singapore’s first Chinese school; and Keng Teck Whay (庆德会), a private Straits Chinese self-help association. In 1849, an outstanding Hokkien Peranakan merchant, Tan Kim Seng (陈金声), spearheaded the construction of Chongwen Ge. Besides the Hokkiens, members of the Hakka and Teochew communities also contributed generously to the project. Originally, Chongwen Ge comprised the Chongwen Pagoda and Chong Boon Gate. Chong Hock Pavilion was added in 1913.

Having outgrown its facility within the temple grounds, Hokkien Huay Kuan moved into Chong Hock Pavilion in 1915. That same year, it established Chong Hock Girls’ School (崇福女校), one of Singapore’s earliest Chinese schools for girls. The name ‘Chong Hock’ (崇福) was an honorary title given to Mazu in the imperial court during the Song Dynasty (960–1279).

Thian Hock Keng Today

The temple remains an important place of worship among local Chinese Buddhists and Taoists. Between 1998 and 2000, Thian Hock Keng underwent a major restoration which earned it an honourable mention in the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage 2001 Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation.

Thian Hock Keng and Chongwen Ge were gazetted collectively as a National Monument."

 - Roots ( NHB)

Thanks to SHF, both Little One had an educational tour on musical boxes. It is amazing that musical bozes that were 2 centuries old are still functioning today! A tip from the guides to maintain the music boxes is to play it often. 

Also in Chong Wen Ge is Peranakan Tile Gallery. If you are a tile lover, do check this place out! It opens daily from 12-5pm.

Look at those lovely tiles and the mirror , of course! My favorite is the peacock and plenty,  plenty more!

If you are in Telok Ayer, do consider paying this place a visit. They have a gift shop too!

Singapore Musical Box Museum

Operating Hours : 

Mondays, Wednesdays-Fridays:10am-6pm
Saturdays: 10am-5pm

*Closed on Tuesdays, Sundays & Public Holiday

Address : 168 Telok Ayer Street, Singapore 068619 - Next to Thian Hock Keng Temple

T: +65 6221 0102

Ticketing information:
Adults : S$12.00
Students (with valid student pass) S$6.00*
Seniors (60 years and above with valid ID) S$6.00*

*For Singapore citizens and permanent residents only

For more information, visit their website.

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Throwback Thursday: Ukuleles

How cute are these Ukuleles - Hello Kitties, spidey, smiley and what have you

These Ukuleles reminds me the short period of time Little One and I learnt some basics chords.

Little One @ Playground near Jubilee Square

Near Jubelee Square, there is this playground which looked rather ordinary and unimpressive.

Guess what we found? 4 musical scores!  Lucky for us, Little One was the only child playing in the playground.

Next to the playground are one convex mirror and one concave mirror. Children could play with their reflection here.
 At the same time learning some scientific knowledge, hopefully...

In between the 2 mirrors (mentioned earlier) is the kaleidoscope, Little One ducked into it and took pictures of what she saw in there. 

If you are somewhere near Ang Mo Kio Central, do consider to pop by for a visit.

Address
61 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 8
(S)569814

Update: Dec 2015
The playground was revamped, the 'piano' was no longer there. I will post a photo once I found it! My computer crashed twice during the last holiday and it took quite some time for the computer to recover. I need to sort out those photos soon!

A night of NanYin at Kusu Island

Have you heard of the legend of Kusu Island?
There are many versions if you were to google it. The most common belief was that a giant tortoise turned itself into an island in order to save 2 drowning fishermen, a Chinese and a Malay. That was why Kusu Island had the shape of a tortoise. However, if you were to google the shape of the island now, it looks nothing like tortoise because this island had undergone reclamation.

The Singapore Heritage Festival (SHF) took place in July, the theme this year was Our Islands, Our Home. I wanted to go for Nanyin (songs from the South) at Kusu (Chinese Hokkien for Tortoise) Island. However, it was fully booked and due to the overwhelming response, additional tours was conducted in September. I was lucky enough to go after balloting.

Participants would visit the Tua Pek Kong's (Da Bo Gong) temple on the island and if they want to, they could also visit the 3 Muslim keramats on top of a hillock which was located just next to the temple. However, visitors would need to climb 152 steps to visit these Malay shrines. The night ends with a Nanyin performance, a special arrangement for SHF, by the Siong Leng Musical Association (established 1941) at the temple. This musical  performance is usually held during the Kusu pilgrimage (which occurs in the ninth lunar month)

I was truly excited when I got to know we could visit the island. It would be my first visit. My sister who had been there when she was very young, remembered getting sea sicked and vomited! Good gracious! As my husband and I would be bringing Little One along, we are naturally worried whether the same would happen to her. I tried find anti seasickness band in pharmacies but could not find any. Hence, we crossed our fingers and hope every thing would go well. I did prepare plastic bags just in case. We also brought light food to be eaten for dinner that night, another precaution for sea sickness. The journey from Singapore to Kusu Island is about 30-45min depending on the condition of the waves. We were glad that my little girl survived the ferry trip without much problem. I guess my sister could have traveled on those small and unstable boats that were used in the past.

Facts about Kusu Island
Kusu Island is about 5.6 kilometre to the south of Singapore. It was initially 1.2 ha but due to landfill and reclamation in 1975 joined it with another coral outcrop, it had increase to  8.5 ha island.

Pilgrimage to Kusu began as early as 1813, the year of Syed Abdul Rahman's death. Hence, the tradition of the pilgrimage had started before Sir Thomas Raffles arrived Singapore in 1819. When the island (known as Peak Island then) became the burial site for immigrants who died in quarantine on St. John's and Lazarus Islands in the late 19th century, many of the devotees were unhappy about the use of the sacred place as a burial ground,

It is noted no overnight stay is allowed on the island. There is no street lamp on the island.

Our trip
This is our second family trip exploring islands of Singapore. The first one was just a few days ago to Pulau Ubin.

My daughter's excited about the trip. The tag she had on is our group name. SHF utilised many guides as there  were more than 100 people on tour that night.

Cheng Ho Cruise Ship, a replica of the actual ship that Cheng Ho comes to Singapore in! It tours around the southern coast of Singapore as well as provide a landing on Kusu Island. I wish to board this instead!

This was the cruise ship we boarded. 

Welcome to Kusu Island!

A rather serene view of the island

Fun with Malay musical instruments and Wayang Kulit

Exploring Malay Culture and Instruments

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