It was a CNN moment. Iraqi flags flew and crowds chanted anti-war slogans. I emerged from the Dewan Filharmonik - which moments earlier echoed not with the familiar strains of Bach or Beethoven, but with brand new music by six young composers given the rare privilege of kicking off a Malaysian art music repertoire - right into the demonstrations that had made the news worldwide on Saturday 29 March 2003.

Running smack into the melee, dodging the riot police cordon and fire trucks, and just missing the unleashing of water cannons and tear gas by minutes, my mind thought not of war, but of "piece". Two pieces, actually - the obsessive hammering of Adeline Wong's Synclastic Illuminations and the sensual stirrings of Johan Othman's Ittar.

My only disappointment at the workshops of the first Forum of Malaysian Composers held in March this year was that more people were not there to witness the creation of these works. Where were all our many music enthusiasts and music students and teachers? I was proud to be there, to watch, like the fashioning of a sculpture from a block of stone, the chipping away at the scores to produce this brand new music.

The Forum was a rare chance to experience a myriad of styles, from the unabashedly post-Romantic sounds of Vivian Chua and Ahmad Muriz, through to Tay Poh Gek's assimilation of Malaysian roots into her Bartokian nationalism right across the spectrum to Chong Kee Yong's Boulezian sound paintings, all eager to call Malaysia home.

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