Music of Thailand

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Life in Thailand

Cuisine
Culture
Dance
Instruments
Demographics
Economy
Education
Film
Holidays
Languages
Literature
Media
Monarchy
Music
Politics
Religion
Society
Sport
Tourism

edit box

The music of Thailand reflects its
geographic position at the intersection of China and India, and reflects trade
routes that have historically included Persia, Africa, Greece and Rome. Thai
musical instruments are varied and reflect ancient influence from far afield -
including the klong thap and khim (Persian origin), the
jakhe (Indian origin),
the klong jin (Chinese origin), and the klong kaek (Indonesian
origin).

Though Thailand was never colonized by colonial
powers, pop music and other
forms of modern Asian, European and American music have become
extremely influential. The two most popular styles of traditional Thai music are
luk thung and mor lam; the latter in
particular has close affinities with the Music of Laos.

Aside from the Thai, ethnic
minorities such as the Lao, Lawa, Hmong,
Akha, Khmer, Lisu, Karen
and Lahu peoples have retained
traditional musical forms.

Contents

1 Classical
music

2 Piphat

3 Khruang Sai

4 Mahori

5 Traditional or
folk

5.1 Luk
thung

5.2 Mor Lam

5.3 Kantrum

6 Pop and rock

6.1 Phleng pheua
chiwit

6.2 String

7 Indie

8 See also

9 References

10 External
links

[edit]
Classical music

Siamese theater group which performed in Berlin, Germany in
1900.

"Kham
Hom" ("Sweet Words")

Wax cylinder
recording of "Kham Hom", or "Sweet Words", performed by the theater group
above.

Problems listening to this file? See media
help.

"Sansoen
Phra Barami" ("Royal Anthem")

Wax cylinder
recording of "Sansoen Phra
Barami", the Thai Royal Anthem, performed by the theater group
above.

Problems listening to this file? See media
help.

Thai
classical music scale

The seven-note scale of Thai
classical music played on the ranat ek

Problems listening to this file? See media
help.

Thai classical music is synonymous with those stylized court ensembles and
repertoires that emerged in its present form within the royal centers of Central
Thailand some 800 years ago. These ensembles, while being deeply influenced by
Khmer and even older practices and repertoires from India, are today uniquely
Thai expressions. While the three primary classical ensembles, the Piphat,
Khruang Sai and Mahori differ in significant ways, they all share a basic
instrumentation and theoretical approach. Each employ the small ching hand
cymbals and the krap wooden sticks to mark the primary beat reference. Several
kinds of small drums (klong) are employed in these ensembles to outline
the basic rhythmic structure (natab) that is punctuated at the end by the
striking of a suspended gong (mong). Seen in its most basic formulation,
the classical Thai orchestras are very similar to the Cambodian (Khmer) pinpeat and mahori ensembles, and
structurally similar to other orchestras found within the widespread Southeast
Asian gong-chime musical culture, such as the large gamelan of Bali and Java,
which most likely have their common roots in the diffusion of Vietnamese
Dong-Son bronze drums beginning in the first century ACE.

Traditional Thai classical repertoire is anonymous, handed down through an
oral tradition of performance in which the names of composers (if, indeed,
pieces were historically created by single authors) are not known. However,
since the beginning of the modern Bangkok period, composers' names have been
known and, since around the turn of the century, many major composers have
recorded their works in notation. Musicians, however, imagine these compositions
and notations as generic forms which are realized in full in idiosyncratic
variations and improvisations in the context of performance. While the composer
Luang Pradit Phairau (1881–1954) used localized forms of cipher (number)
notation, other composers such as Montri Tramote (1908–1995) used standard
western staff notation. Several members of the Thai royal family have been
deeply involved in composition, including King Prajatipok (Rama VII, 1883–1941)
and King Bhumibol Adulyadej (1927–), whose compositions have been more often for
jazz bands than classical Thai ensembles.

Classical Thai music is polyphonic and follows similar conventions to
American Folk and Dixieland Music. Each instrument improvises within accepted
idioms around basic lines of harmony or melody called paths. Rhythmically and metrically Thai music is
steady in tempo, regular in pulse, divisive, in simple duple meter,
without swing, with little syncopation (p. 3, 39),
and with the emphasis on the final beat of a measure or group of pulses and phrase (p. 41), as
opposed to the first as in European-influenced music. The Thai scale includes
seven tempered notes, instead of a mixture of tones and semitones.

[edit]
Piphat

Main article: Piphat

The most common and iconic Thai classical music that symbolizes the dancing
of the Thailand's legendary dragons, a midsized orchestra including two
xylophones (ranat), an oboe (pi), barrel drums (klong) and two circular sets of
tuned horizontal gong-chimes (kong wong). Piphat can be performed in either a
loud outdoor style using hard mallets or in an indoor style using padded
hammers. There are several types of piphat ensembles ranging in size and
orchestration, each kind typically being associated with specific ceremonial
purposes. The highly decorated piphat ensemble that features the ornately carved
and painted semicircular vertical gong-chime is traditionally associated with
the funeral and cremation ceremonies of the Mon ethnic group. Different versions
of the piphat ensemble are employed to accompany specific forms of traditional
Thai drama such as the large shadow puppet theater (nang yai) and the khon dance
drama.

[edit]
Khruang Sai

Main article: Khruang
Sai

The Khruang Sai orchestra combines some of the percussion and wind
instruments of the piphat with an expanded string section including the so duang
(a high-pitched two-string bowed lute), the lower pitched solaw (bowed lute) and
the three-string jhakhe (a plucked zither). In addition to these instruments are
the klhui (vertical fipple flute) in several sizes and ranges, a goblet drum
(than) and, occasionally, a small hammered Chinese dulcimer (khim). The khruang
sai ensemble is primarily used for instrumental indoor performances and for
accompanying the Thai hoon grabok (stick-puppet theater), a genre deeply
influenced by Chinese puppetry styles. Accordingly, the addition of
Chinese-sounding string instruments in the khruang sai ensemble is imagined, by
the Thai, to be a reference to the probable Chinese origins of this theater
form.

[edit]
Mahori

Main article: Mahori

The third major Thai classical ensemble is the Mahori, traditionally played
by women in the courts of both Central Thailand and Cambodia. Historically the
ensemble included smaller instruments more appropriate, it was thought, to the
build of female performers. Today the ensemble employs regular sized
instruments—a combination of instruments from both the Khruang
Sai and Piphat ensembles
but excluding the loud and rather shrill oboe. The ensemble, which is performed
in three sizes—small, medium and large—includes the three-string so sam sai
fiddle, a delicate-sounding, middle-range bowed lute with silk strings. Within
the context of the Mahori
ensemble, the so sam sai accompanies the vocalist, which plays a more prominent
role in this ensemble than in any other classical Thai orchestra.

While Thai classical music was somewhat discouraged as being unmodern and
backward looking during Thailand's aggressively nationalistic modernization
policies of mid-20th century, the classical arts have benefited recently from
increased governmental sponsorship and funding as well as popular interest as
expressed in such films as Homrong: The Overture (2003), a
popular fictionalized biography of a famous traditional xylophone (ranat ek)
performer.

[edit]
Traditional or folk

Main articles: Music of Cambodia and
Traditional
Thai musical instruments

[edit]
Luk thung

Main article: Luk thung

Luk thung, or Thai country music, developed in the mid-20th century to
reflect daily trials and tribulations of rural Thais. Pongsri Woranut and Suraphol
Sombatcharoen were the genre's first big stars, incorporating influences
from, Asia. Many of the most
popular artists have come from the central city of Suphanburi,
including megastar Pumpuang Duangjan, who
pioneered electronic luk
thung. The late 90's saw a commercial resurgence of Luk Thung, and the
modern electrified, pop-influenced version of the genre remains the country's
most popular music form.

[edit]
Mor Lam

Main article: Mor lam

Mor lam is the dominant folk music of Thailand's north-eastern Isan region, which has a mainly Lao
population. It has much in common with luk thung, such as its focus on
the life of the rural poor. It is characterized by rapid-fire, rhythmic vocals
and a funk feel to the
percussion. The lead singer, also called a mor lam, is most often accompanied by
the khaen, also known as khene.

There are about fifteen regional variations of mor lam, plus modern
versions such as mor lam
sing. Some conservatives have criticized these as the commercialization of
traditional cultures.

See also: Music of Laos

[edit]
Kantrum

The people of Isan are also known for kantrum, which is much less
famous than mor lam. Kantrum is played by Khmer living near the
border with Cambodia. It is
a swift and very traditional dance music. In its purest
form, cho-kantrum, singers,
percussion and tro (a type of fiddle)
dominate the sound. A more modern form using electric instrumentation arose in
the mid-1980s. Later in the decade, Darkie became the genre's biggest
star, and he crossed into mainstream markets in the later 1990s.

Examples of traditional instruments

A music teacher in Mae On, near Chiang Mai, playing a sueng.

A group of musicians playing traditional Ranat.

A Khong wong lek
being played.

Small Thon-rammana
hand-drum.

Khene player in a sarong and pakama.

[edit]
Pop and rock

See also: Thai rock

By the 1930s, however, Western classical
music, showtunes, jazz and tango were popular. Soon,
jazz grew to dominate Thai popular music, and Khru Eua
Sunthornsanan soon set up the first Thai jazz band. The music he soon helped
to invent along with influential band Suntharaporn was called pleng Thai sakorn,
which incorporated Thai melodies with Western classical music. This music
continued to evolve into luk grung, a romantic music
that was popular with the upper-class. King
Bhumibol is an accomplished jazz musician and composer.

[edit]
Phleng pheua chiwit

Main article: Phleng phuea
chiwit

By the 1960s, Western rock was popular and Thai artists began imitating bands
like Cliff Richard
& the Shadows; this music was called wong
shadow, and it soon evolved into a form of Thai pop called string. Among the
groups that emerged from this period was The
Impossibles. The '70s also saw Rewat Buddhinan
beginning to use the Thai
language in rock music as well as the rise of protest songs called phleng
pheua chiwit (songs for life).

The earliest phleng pheua chiwit band was called Caravan, and they
were at the forefront of a movement for democracy. In 1976, police and right
wing activists attacked students at Thammasat
University; Caravan, along with other bands and activists, fled for the
rural hills. There, Caravan continued playing music for local farmers, and wrote
songs that would appear on their later albums.

In the 1980s, phleng pheua chiwit re-entered the mainstream with a grant of
amnesty to dissidents. Bands like Carabao became
best-sellers and incorporated sternly nationalistic elements in
their lyrics. By the 1990s, phleng pheua chiwit had largely fallen from the top
of the Thai charts, though artists like Pongsit Kamphee
continued to command a large audience.

[edit]
String

Main article: String (Thai
pop)

String pop took over mainstream listeners in Thailand in the 90s, and bubblegum pop stars like
Christina Aguilar,
Bird Thongchai
McIntyre and Asanee-Wasan became
best-sellers. Simultaneously, Britpop influenced alternative rock
artists like Modern Dog,
Loso, Crub
and Proud became popular in
late 1990s. In 2006, famous Thai rock bands include Clash, Big Ass, Bodyslam and Silly Fools. The late 90's
saw pop overshadowed by the remarkable commercial resurgence of Luk Thung, but
modern Luk Thung has also adopted some elements from the pop acts.

[edit]
Indie

A group of independent artists and records which produces music for
non-commercial purpose also found in Thailand: Bakery Music (now under Sony Music) [1]; Smallroom [2]; FAT radio [3]; City-Blue [4]; Coolvoice [5]; Dudesweet [6]; Idea-radio [7] Panda Records [8]; and SO::ON Dry Flower
[9].

[edit]
See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Music
of Thailand

Korphai ensemble

Traditional
Thai musical instruments

BEC-TERO

GMM Grammy

RS
Music

[edit]
References

Clewley, John. "Songs for Living". 2000. In Broughton, Simon and
Ellingham, Mark with McConnachie, James and Duane, Orla (Ed.), World Music,
Vol. 2: Latin & North America, Caribbean, India, Asia and Pacific, pp
241–253. Rough Guides Ltd, Penguin Books. ISBN
1-85828-636-0

Morton, David (1976). The Traditional Music of Thailand. University
of California Press. ISBN
0-520-01876-1.

[edit]
External links

The
traditional music of Thailand

Thai-Maori Musical Exchange Project

Thai
song update diary

Music
Album Update

Thai song update

Music Online Thai Song Old - New

v ·
d ·
eMusic of
Asia

Central

Afghanistan ·
Badakhshan ·
Buryatia ·
Gansu ·
Kazakhstan ·
Khakassia ·
Kyrgyzstan ·
Mongolia
· Tajikistan ·
Turkmenistan ·
Tuva ·
Uzbekistan

East

China
(Guangxi •
Hong
Kong • Macau •
Tibet •
Inner
Mongolia • Qinghai ·
Xinjiang) · Korea
(North •
South) · Mongolia ·
Taiwan
· Japan

South

Bangladesh ·
Bhutan ·
British
Asian · India ·
Maldives ·
Nepal ·
Pakistan ·
Sikkim ·
Sri
Lanka

Southeast

Brunei ·
Burma ·
Cambodia ·
East
Timor · Indonesia ·
Laos ·
Malaysia ·
Philippines ·
Singapore ·
Thailand · Vietnam

Southwest

Arab World
(Bahrain ·
Egypt ·
Iraq ·
Jordan ·
Kuwait ·
Lebanon ·
Oman ·
Palestine ·
Qatar ·
Saudi
Arabia · Syria ·
United
Arab Emirates · Yemen) · Iran ·
Israel ·
Turkey

Transcontinental

Armenia ·
Azerbaijan ·
Cyprus ·
Egypt ·
Georgia
(Ossetia) ·
Russia
(Altai
Republic · Sakha
Republic) · Turkey

v · d · eTraditional
Thai musical instruments

String

Plucked

Jakhe · Grajabpi · Sueng · Phin · Phin
pia · Hai
song

Bowed

Saw
duang · Saw u · Saw sam sai · Salo

Struck

Khim

Wind

Flutes

Khlui (Khlui lib · Khlui phiang
aw · Khlui
u) · Wot

Oboes

Pi (Pi nai · Pi nok · Pi
klang · Pi
chawa · Pi mon · Pi
chanai · Pi o · Pi chum · Pi so)

Free-reed pipes

Khaen

Percussion

Drums

Glong
khaek · Glong
songna · Glong yao · Glong thad · Thon
rammana ·
Taphon · Glong thap
(Thap) · Glong
Chatri · Taphon
Mon · Glong
Malayu

Xylophones

Pong
lang · Ranat
(Ranat ek · Ranat thum · Ranat ek
lek · Ranat thum
lek · Ranat kaeo)

Gongs

Khong wong
yai · Khong wong
lek · Khong
Mon (Khong Mon wong yai, Khong Mon wong
lek)

Others

Ching · Chap · Krap · Mong

v ·
d ·
eTraditional
Thai musical ensembles

Piphat

Piphat
chatri • Piphat mai khaeng (Piphat mai
khaeng khrueang ha , Piphat mai khaeng
khrueang khu , Piphat mai khaeng
khrueang yai) • Piphat mai nuam • Piphat
duekdamban • Piphat mon (Piphat mon
khrueang ha, Piphat mon khrueang
ku, Piphat mon khrueang
yai) • Piphat
nanghong

Khrueang sai

Khrueang sai wong
lek (Khrueang sai
diao) • Khrueang sai
khruang ku • Khrueang sai
prasom • Khrueang sai pi
chawa

Mahori

Mahori wong
lek • Mahori khrueang ku •
Mahori
khrueang yai

Lanna
(Northern Thai)

Salo-saw-seung
ensemble

Isan
(Northeast Thai

Bong
lang ensemble, Isan
mohori

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_Thailand"

Categories: Thai
music

Hidden categories: Articles
with hAudio microformats

Personal tools

Log
in / create account

Namespaces

Article

Discussion

Variants

Views

Read

Edit

View
history

Actions

Search

Navigation

Main page

Contents

Featured
content

Current
events

Random article

Donate
to Wikipedia

Interaction

Help

About Wikipedia

Community
portal

Recent
changes

Contact
Wikipedia

Toolbox

What
links here

Related
changes

Upload file

Special
pages

Permanent
link

Cite
this page

Print/export

Create a book

Download as PDF

Printable
version

Languages

Français

한국어

ไทย

This page was last modified on 28 February 2011 at
13:50.

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of Use for
details.
Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a
non-profit organization.

Contact
us

Privacy
policy

About Wikipedia

Disclaimers