Profesor Madya Dr. Raja Zulkarnain RMY

Research Progress Update: From Intonaphobia Concept to Measurement Framework

I have recently completed a new manuscript related to my ongoing research on intonaphobia, microtonal perception, and maqām-based music education. This article represents the second stage of a larger research trajectory. The first stage introduced and theorised the concept of intonaphobia as a framework for understanding resistance and perceptual difficulty in relation to maqām microtonality. This second stage moves the discussion forward by developing a preliminary measurement framework for examining these perceptual challenges more systematically. The work is intended to provide a foundation for the next phase of the project, which will focus on broader implementation within higher education contexts and future research funding development. I am now identifying a suitable journal for submission.

Pleased to share that my article, Introducing Fa Tuning to Malaysia (2005), has now been published in the Journal of Creative Arts.

It documents my role in introducing Fa tuning into Malaysian oud/gambus pedagogy in 2005, as an alternative to the tuning system that had long been used by gambus players in Malaysia.

Glad to see this part of the journey now formally recorded.

Read here: https://journal.uitm.edu.my/ojs/index.php/JCA/article/view/10029

Living Sounds of Constantinople

I am pleased to share that my latest article, “Bunyi yang Masih Hidup di Constantinople,” is published in the April 2026 issue of Dewan Budaya under the Salam Benua (travel writing) section.

This piece comes from my recent research journey to Istanbul, where I continued my work documenting the oud within its living cultural environment. For me, research has never been confined to libraries or studios. Much of what I have learned about music, instruments, and tradition has come from walking cities, meeting makers, listening to musicians, and observing how culture survives in everyday spaces.

Since first becoming seriously involved in the arts and cultural field more than two decades ago, this path has taken me across regions and continents. Each journey has quietly shaped how I understand transmission, pedagogy, and the place of traditional instruments in contemporary life.

Travel, in this sense, is not movement for its own sake. It is part of the long process of learning where knowledge actually lives, sometimes in institutions, but often in people, places, and practices that continue without announcement.

Grateful to Dewan Budaya for continuing to provide a space for these reflections since my first contribution in 2013.

I’ve just completed a new reflective essay: “BUNYI YANG MASIH HIDUP DI CONSTANTINOPLE”

Written after my recent research trip to Istanbul and its surrounding districts, this is not a travel story.

It is about why some musical traditions never need to be revived.

In the city, the oud and the makam system are not preserved on stage. They live in daily listening, small corrections, and shared understanding. Music survives not because people perform it, but because people still hear it.

The essay asks a simple but uncomfortable question:
What happens to a tradition when a society stops listening and only starts presenting?

Coming soon.