KUALA LUMPUR, March 22 — A piano belonging to icon of screen and song Tan Sri P. Ramlee has been brought back to its former glory after decades of sitting in silence.
And it’s all thanks to piano technician Mohammad Alif Yahya who invested blood, sweat, and tears into repairing the instrument which the legendary performer used to compose his hits.
Believed to be between 50 and 60 years old, the piano was in an extremely fragile state when Alif first laid eyes on it.
Malaysia’s warm and humid climate had taken a toll on the maple wood.
“When we opened up the piano, there was so much mould inside and we had to use a special type of sandpaper to remove it.
“It was a really tough job because we had more than 100 parts to clean,” Alif told Malay Mail.
Extensive damage was also found on the hammers which strike the piano’s strings, suggesting that P. Ramlee frequently played the instrument in his glory years.
“There was a lot of damage on the hammers and we actually needed to replace them. They are now okay and I just left them as they are.
“If I changed it all, it would cost more because we need lots of time, energy, and money as we have to purchase the parts from the United Kingdom,” Alif added.
The piano underwent restoration and repair work under the Getaran 88 Kekunci Hati project organised by the National Archives and Innate Publishing Sdn Bhd with the support of the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture.
Donations totalling up to RM25,000 poured in and the piano can now be played with 90 per cent of its original sound.
Now, the project is seeking a further RM50,000 in funds to see restoration works to the end.
When asked why repairing a piano requires such a generous sum, Alif explained that there were a lot of parts that needed to be fixed and manual labour that had to be compensated when taking on a job as complex as this one.
“There are 14,000 individual parts which we need to check one by one. You’ll need time, and time is money.
“I’m also not going to do this job alone. I can’t carry a 100kg piano by myself because we need to take out the frame.
“We need at least four people to help and we have to pay them too. That’s what the budget is for,” he said.
The team also had to get creative with their repair works as the piano had several abnormal problems that normal routines could not solve.
“There’s critical damage on the tuning pin, so we can’t tune it because it keeps coming loose and the wood is broken.
“This kind of damage requires us to think of alternative solutions to fix the piano,” Alif added.
The hard work was worth it in the end when the piano was unveiled to the public at Pustaka Peringatan P. Ramlee where Primeworks Studios chief executive officer Datuk Ahmad Izham Omar treated the audience to a live performance using the instrument.
He played the singer’s popular single Getaran Jiwa as guests, who all knew the lyrics by heart, sang along with one another.
It was an emotional experience for Alif as he recounted how the melodies of the piano would resound in his head each time he worked on it.
“This piano belonged to P. Ramlee and it was really special for me because I got to touch it.
“Once I listened to its sound, I still heard it in my head even after I returned home from work,” he said.
The piano technician has a special kinship with P. Ramlee who also appeared as a piano repairman in the film Antara Dua Darjat.
All this has provided the fuel for Alif to continue working on the instrument which he hopes will become an important relic for young people to appreciate.
“It’s really amazing and I want to thank everybody that supported us, especially God who gave me the good health to work on this job. I’m so happy.
“I will not end here and we will continue this project. I want to make this piano perfect for the future generation,” he said.
