A melody arrives first. It has a shape and a temperature before anyone has said a word over it. Then somebody has to find language that can live inside it — words that fit the rhythm, sound natural in a singer’s mouth, and say what the tune was already saying without getting in its way.
That is the lyricist’s job, and it is the one job in popular music designed to disappear. Audiences remember the singer, because they can hear the voice, and often the composer, because the tune is what they hum. The person who supplied the words they have been singing by heart for fifty years is usually not in the sentence at all. Yusnor Ef wrote more than two hundred and fifty of them.
He was born Mohamed Noor bin Mohamed Yusofe in Singapore on 12 September 1937. His father died during the Japanese Occupation, leaving his mother to raise three children alone. She sold kuih she made herself; the family moved between rented rooms, including in Geylang, and took help from welfare organisations. He later spoke of a promise to his mother: that he would keep the family together and make himself useful. He did not chase the film industry to Kuala Lumpur. He took a salaried job in education and stayed in it.
He was schooled at Telok Kurau Malay School, then entered the Teachers’ Training College under Pendeta Dr Muhammad Ariff Ahmad — Dr MAS — who remembered him for his keras kemahuan, a hard and unyielding will. He became a Malay-language teacher, transferred to the Ministry of Education in 1983, wrote textbooks and produced educational television. People called him Cikgu Yusnor. It was not a nickname attached to a celebrity. He was, literally and continuously, a teacher.
His artistic life began not with lyrics but with performance — as a comedian, on stage and in radio programmes associated with Zaharah Za’ba. A lyricist who has stood in front of an audience knows where a breath has to go, and that comic timing is a matter of syllables.
Then came P. Ramlee. Yusnor sought him out and went to his house at Cedar Avenue. The visits ran late, because P. Ramlee came home late from the studio; by Yusnor’s own account they sat together until two or three in the morning. What he wanted to learn was not lyric-writing but screenwriting — how a story is built, how dramatic pacing works. It is one of the most humanising pictures in the whole P. Ramlee literature: not the star on a screen, but a working artist coming home after a long day and finding the energy to teach a young man who had turned up wanting to know how it was done.
Two things came out of it. The first was a name. Mohamed Noor became Yusnor Ef because P. Ramlee gave him the pen name — so for sixty-five years, on every record sleeve and book jacket, P. Ramlee’s hand was on the byline. The second was a piece of advice. Yusnor was tempted by the film business, and P. Ramlee told him not to go. Stay a teacher, he said, and when you have time, make art — and make it sincerely. Ikhlas. Yusnor took it literally, and then took it for sixty-five years.
His method upends the usual picture of songwriting. He could not read notation and did not play an instrument. He began with the melody: he listened, worked out what it was feeling, then asked the composer what kind of song he had in mind. Only then did he write. When the words were done he took them back to the composer, adjusted, and worked with the singer on pronunciation and delivery. That he could not read music is close to the method rather than a limitation. He heard a tune as a listener would — precisely the ear a lyric has to satisfy.
His first film lyrics came through P. Ramlee, for S. Kadarisman’s Tunggal. His first success was Kasih Sepanjang Masa in 1959, with Kassim Masdor, sung by Fazidah Joned. That partnership became one of the most productive in Malay popular music, and in 1974 the two founded Senada Records. His words were sung by Saloma, Ahmad Daud, Sharifah Aini, Anita Sarawak, Ahmad Jais, Rafeah Buang, Sanisah Huri and Rahimah Rahim.
Later he became the historian of the culture he had worked inside — television documentaries including Aku Dia dan Lagu, and books, among them P. Ramlee Yang Saya Kenal (2000), the testimony of a student writing about his teacher. He also built the machinery: founding president of PERKAMUS in 1992, founding member and director of COMPASS, chairman of the National Arts Council’s Malay Music Development Committee, adviser to MusicSG. Copyright, representation, funding, archive — the four things a music community needs, and he had a hand in all four.
Singapore gave him the Cultural Medallion in 2011. He died on 16 April 2025, aged eighty-seven. The tributes remembered the teacher first.
Melodi datang dahulu. Ia sudah mempunyai bentuk dan suhunya sendiri sebelum sesiapa mengucapkan sepatah kata di atasnya. Kemudian barulah ada orang yang perlu mencari bahasa yang boleh hidup di dalamnya — kata-kata yang menepati rentaknya, yang terasa semula jadi di mulut seorang penyanyi, dan yang menyebut apa yang sudah disebut lagu itu tanpa menghalangnya.
Itulah kerja seorang penulis lirik, dan itulah satu-satunya kerja dalam muzik popular yang memang direka untuk lenyap. Penonton mengingati penyanyinya kerana suara itu yang mereka dengar, dan selalunya penggubahnya kerana melodi itu yang mereka dendangkan. Orang yang membekalkan kata-kata yang mereka hafal selama lima puluh tahun itu selalunya langsung tidak disebut. Yusnor Ef menulis lebih dua ratus lima puluh daripadanya.
Nama sebenarnya Mohamed Noor bin Mohamed Yusofe. Beliau dilahirkan di Singapura pada 12 September 1937. Bapanya meninggal dunia ketika zaman Pendudukan Jepun, meninggalkan ibunya membesarkan tiga orang anak seorang diri. Ibunya menjual kuih buatan sendiri; keluarga itu berpindah-randah antara bilik sewa, termasuk di sekitar Geylang, dan menerima bantuan kebajikan. Beliau kemudiannya menceritakan satu janji kepada ibunya: bahawa dia akan mempertahankan keluarga itu dan menjadikan dirinya seorang yang berguna. Beliau tidak mengejar industri filem ke Kuala Lumpur. Beliau mengambil pekerjaan bergaji dalam bidang pendidikan lalu kekal di dalamnya.
Beliau bersekolah di Sekolah Melayu Telok Kurau, kemudian memasuki Teachers’ Training College di bawah Pendeta Dr Muhammad Ariff Ahmad — Dr MAS — yang mengingatinya kerana keras kemahuannya. Beliau menjadi guru bahasa Melayu, berpindah ke Kementerian Pendidikan pada 1983, menulis buku teks dan menghasilkan televisyen pendidikan. Orang memanggilnya Cikgu Yusnor. Ia bukan gelaran manja yang dilekatkan kepada seorang selebriti. Beliau memang, secara harfiah dan berterusan, seorang guru.
Hidup seninya bermula bukan dengan lirik tetapi dengan persembahan — sebagai pelawak, di pentas dan dalam rancangan radio yang dikaitkan dengan Zaharah Za’ba. Penulis lirik yang pernah berdiri di hadapan penonton tahu di mana nafas perlu diambil, dan tahu bahawa jenaka itu soal suku kata.
Kemudian datang P. Ramlee. Yusnor mencarinya lalu pergi ke rumahnya di Cedar Avenue. Kunjungan itu berlanjutan sehingga lewat malam, kerana P. Ramlee pulang lewat dari studio; menurut catatan Yusnor sendiri, mereka duduk bersama sehingga pukul dua atau tiga pagi. Apa yang dikehendakinya bukan penulisan lirik tetapi penulisan skrip — bagaimana sesebuah cerita dibina, bagaimana rentak dramatik berfungsi. Ia antara gambaran paling manusiawi dalam seluruh kepustakaan P. Ramlee: bukan bintang di layar, tetapi seorang seniman yang pulang selepas hari yang panjang lalu masih menemui tenaga untuk mengajar seorang anak muda yang datang mahu tahu bagaimana kerja itu dilakukan.
Dua perkara terhasil daripadanya. Yang pertama sebuah nama. Mohamed Noor menjadi Yusnor Ef kerana P. Ramlee yang memberikan nama pena itu — maka selama enam puluh lima tahun, pada setiap sampul piring hitam dan setiap kulit buku, ada tangan P. Ramlee pada nama penulisnya. Yang kedua sepatah nasihat. Yusnor tertarik kepada dunia filem, dan P. Ramlee menyuruhnya jangan pergi. Kau terus jadi guru, katanya, dan jika ada masa, buat kerja seni — buat dengan ikhlas. Yusnor menerimanya secara harfiah, lalu memegangnya selama enam puluh lima tahun.
Kaedahnya menyongsangkan gambaran lazim tentang penulisan lagu. Beliau tidak membaca notasi dan tidak bermain alat muzik. Beliau bermula dengan melodi: beliau mendengarnya, mencari tahu apa yang sedang dirasainya, kemudian bertanya kepada penggubah lagu jenis apa yang terbayang di fikirannya. Barulah selepas itu beliau menulis. Apabila siap, kata-katanya dibawa kembali kepada penggubah, disesuaikan, dan beliau bekerja bersama penyanyi tentang sebutan dan penyampaian. Bahawa beliau tidak boleh membaca not muzik lebih hampir kepada kaedahnya berbanding kepada kelemahannya. Beliau mendengar melodi sebagaimana seorang pendengar akan mendengarnya — dan itulah tepat-tepat telinga yang perlu dipuaskan sesebuah lirik.
Lirik filem pertamanya datang menerusi P. Ramlee, untuk filem Tunggal arahan S. Kadarisman. Kejayaan pertamanya Kasih Sepanjang Masa pada 1959, bersama Kassim Masdor, dinyanyikan Fazidah Joned. Gandingan itu menjadi antara yang paling produktif dalam muzik popular Melayu, dan pada 1974 mereka berdua menubuhkan Senada Records. Kata-katanya dinyanyikan Saloma, Ahmad Daud, Sharifah Aini, Anita Sarawak, Ahmad Jais, Rafeah Buang, Sanisah Huri dan Rahimah Rahim.
Kemudiannya beliau menjadi sejarawan kepada budaya yang pernah didiaminya — dokumentari televisyen termasuk Aku Dia dan Lagu, dan buku, antaranya P. Ramlee Yang Saya Kenal (2000), iaitu keterangan seorang murid yang menulis tentang gurunya. Beliau turut membina jenteranya: presiden pengasas PERKAMUS pada 1992, ahli pengasas dan pengarah COMPASS, pengerusi Jawatankuasa Pembangunan Muzik Melayu National Arts Council, penasihat MusicSG. Hak cipta, perwakilan, pembiayaan, arkib — empat perkara yang diperlukan sesebuah komuniti muzik, dan beliau ada tangan pada kesemuanya.
Singapura mengurniakannya Anugerah Budaya Cemerlang pada 2011. Beliau meninggal dunia pada 16 April 2025, pada usia lapan puluh tujuh tahun. Ucapan takziah mengingati gurunya dahulu.