Thailand

PowerPoint Slide #1

1. Thailand:
 Today we go to Thailand!
 Introduce three main musical categories from Thailand:
o classical (piphat),
o folk (lam klawn),
o and popular (luk thung) music.
 the Lam Klawn and Luk Thung folk and popular music is mainly
centered in the eastern region of Thailand and Laos,
 and Piphat music is considered the main form of classical music
found throughout Thailand.

PowerPoint Slide #2
 Thailand was known as Siam until 1932 when the absolute
monarchy became a constitutional monarchy.
o The monarchy lost political power, but still remains as a
moral authority to this day.
 Cultural Regions
 Central: Bangkok is the capital city and seat of government with a
population of roughly nine million people (2011).
o Very busy city, lots of tourism, shopping, traffic
o Consequently, central Thai traditions dominate the
educational system and most of the country.
 North: The north region is known as Lanna, meaning “a million
fields,” implying rice fields.

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 o One can find more authentic Thai music and culture in the
northern region
 Northeast: Isan translates as “Northeast” and refers to cultural
traditions of this population,
o is predominantly Lao and has much in common with its
northern neighbor, the country of Laos.
 South

 Even though Thailand is influenced by modernization,

globalization, there is still factors such as the monarchy,
Buddhism, village life, and age old rituals that keep Thailands
culture strong and present in the modern day

 Predominantly Buddhist
 Theravada Buddhism dominates the religious scene, though
prominent elements of Hinduism are included.
 Some of the Buddhist concepts include
o Their relationship of their lives and the world
o Sufferings causes and solutions
o The nature of existence
o And the path toward enlightenment
 Their religious practices with rituals are typically framed within
the context of Buddhist ceremonies and include such things as
o Daily devotions
o Yoga
o Meditation
o Living life by a moral code

 Tonal language
 The Thai language has five tones (common, low, falling, high, and
rising).

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 The inflection of the voice can thus significantly alter the meaning
of a word.
 This is important for singing as the melodic contour must follow
the basic tonal contour of the language.

Forest, Aunt, Throw, Father

https://slice-of-thai.com/tones/

PowerPoint Slide #3

 Classical Piphat (BEE-PAHT) Music:

 Piphat refers to the classical Thai music ensemble:
o Pi (BEE), referring to the reed aerophone, a wind instrument;
o and phat, a reference to “hitting,” i.e., percussion,
instruments.
 This music was formerly associated with the royal court, as is
much classical music around the world.

PLAY CD 1.11
 First impressions
 First-time listeners often describe Thai music as “chaotic.”
 Yet, the steady pattern of the ching and consistent rhythm of the
lead xylophone give it a sense of order.
 The timbre of the pi (reed aerophone), which has a timbre
somewhat like a melodic kazoo (nasal)
 and ching (small hand cymbals), along with the bright timbre of
the xylophone, are probably the the most obvious clues for a listener to
recognize this music as Thai classical piphat.

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 PowerPoint Slide #4

Thai classical instruments

 in a piphat ensemble there is:
 The gong circle (khong wong yai) is made of tuned bronze gongs.
 Xylophones (ranat ek,) have either wood or bamboo keys and are
played with either hard or soft padded mallets

 The thon (TONE) and ramana drums are played together by a

single person, sounding out the underlying rhythmic cycle of a
performance.
 Other rhythmic percussion instruments (ching, chap lek, krap
sepha) mark the basic pulse.

 The pi (pronounced bee) is a quadruple reed aerophone.

o The pi is the only non-percussion instrument of piphat
ensemble.

 Mahori and Khruang Sai are other classical ensembles, which

replace the pi with a flute (called khlui) and add stringed instruments.
 The Khruang Sai ensemble does not include any melodic
percussion (no xylophones or gong circles).

 PowerPoint Slide #5
7. Tuning System:
 The Thai tuning system divides the octave into seven equidistant
steps, instead of twelve as in Western music.
 It is easier to relate their scale to the major scale tuning each
successive note in the scale until there are approximate equidistant
relations between notes.

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 Music of Thailand
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_Thailand
(Play the example of the scale – lower right)

Some of the divisions thus fall “between the keys” on a piano and may
make the music seem “out of tune

 Polyphonic stratification
 Ethnomusicologists describe the Thai style of heterophony as
polyphonic stratification.
o Stratification is just arranging things into different groups
 This refers to the “layers” or variations of a basic melody.

 Each instrument has its own “style” of playing a melody.

 The gong circle plays the basic melody.
 The lead xylophone changed the melody by playing in octaves
with a thicker rhythmic density.
 The pi adds frequent ornamentation and tone bending to its
variation of the same basic melody.

Temple analogy:
 The visual analogy of a temple helps to articulate these basic parts:
o Roof: colorful decorations of the melody, played by melodic
percussion and pi
o Pillars: Ching, holding everything together, everyone relies
on the ching

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 o While musicians often listen to the drums for the basic
rhythmic cycle, the ching is most important for maintaining
the tempo.
o the performers, both rhythmic and melodic, rely on the ching
player to articulate the beat and tempo.
o Dancers are particularly attuned to the drums and ching
when performing with a piphat ensemble.
o Thai music is “end-accented” in that the emphasis is on the
last pulse of a phrase, rather than the first as it tends to be in
Western music.

o Foundation: Gong circle laying and keeping the

foundational melody
 While the ching and rhythm are essential, the “focus” for an
audience is primarily on the melody, as with the colorful decorations of
Thai temple roofs.
 The tiered roofs of Thai temples are considered symbolic of the
Buddhist belief in reincarnation.

PowerPoint Slide #6

10. Cultural Considerations:

 During the 19th century when the monarchy of Thailand was very
powerful, Thai classical music was highly patronized and played a major
role in court ceremonies, whether sacred or secular
o Therefore even nowadays Thai classical music is
associated with societies most important state occasions,
festivals, funerals, ceremonies, Buddhist rituals

 This example we listened to is associated with a teacher honoring

ceremony called Wai Khru

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 Wai is a word to describe a greeting used in everyday meetings
throughout Thailand.
 The hands are placed together in a prayer-like gesture along with a
slight bow to the directed recipient of the greeting.
 Khru means “teacher” and is derived from the word “guru” in
Hindi.
 A wai khru ceremony is thus translated as a “greeting-teacher”
ceremony, but it is intended to have the students reaffirm their
allegiance to their teachers
o The acts of teaching and learning, passing on and receiving
knowledge, is considered a near sacred activity in Thai
society

(Refer to PP Picture):
 Atop the altar are masks representing the first teachers of
knowledge in various arts and other disciplines.
 Many of these have Hindu associations.
 Musical instruments are blessed during such ceremonies, and
students are initiated into their studies with a brief lesson on their
instrument type.
 Portraits of well-known teachers (deceased) are also given honor
by being placed on the altar.
 Offerings, such as food, drink, flowers, and incense, are also found
on the altar as offerings to the spirits.
 The music itself is considered an offering as well and is important
for structuring the ceremony with specific pieces performed at key
points in the ritual.
 Our listening example is the opening music for wai khru
ceremonies and is meant to invite the “spirits” to attend the ritual.

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 PowerPoint Slide #7
11. Arrival in Northeast Thailand and Laos:
 Laos and Northeast Thailand are culturally similar (economic
subsistence, language, music, etc.).
 Laos, a former French colony, is one of the world’s poorest nations
and is land-locked.
o Not much modern infastructure
 The society was split into two regions, Laos and northeast
Thailand (Isan)
 Northeast Thailand (Isan) was/is the poorest region in Thailand,
characterized until the 1990s as “backwards.”
o Was neglected by the government for a while
 But the increasing migration of Isan rice farmers to urban areas,
mainly Bangkok, has brought much positive attention to the region’s
culture – food and music being the most visible.

PowerPoint Slide #8

PLAY CD 1.12

12. First Impressions & Aural Analysis:

 After some initial vocal improvisation, the singers fall into a
relatively speech-like vocal delivery, as if they were reading poetry to
their audience (which indeed they are).

13. Lam Klawn (LUM GLAWN) Instruments:

 The khaen, a free-reed bamboo mouth organ,
o The cultures most significant instrument
 sounds similar to a harmonica, also a free-reed instrument.
 Each of the sixteen tubes has a small hole that must be covered to
make the reed sound.

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 Khaen performance consists of three elements: melody, “chords,”
and drone.
 The player can inhale/exhale to play,
o though many use a circular breathing technique

PowerPoint Slide #9

aural analysis

 Lam (LUM) is an age old type of singing where the melody

following the natural tones of the words
 This example is a lam klawn which is a type of poetic singing that
is sung in pairs
 The pairs take turn singing and while one is singing the other is
gracefully dancing (repartee)
 There is a intro section that is imporovised by the singer with the
phrase O la naw (which means nothing)
 Follwoed by a metered section that features speech-like poetry

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 Unlike a khaen musician, who is considered an amateur, a Maw

Lam is a professional singer.
 He or she must memorize vast amounts of poetry on a variety of
topics, i.e., religion, politics, geography, or history.
 The text or poetry addresses a Wide array of topics:
o Debates, history, religion, literature, politics, erotic topics
 though expressed through double entendre; these are
often sung at wedding celebrations.

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 During performance, the order of the poetic verse is improvised in
a sort of “stream of consciousness” inspired by the context and
interaction with other performers.
 Lam klawn performance contexts are typically in association with
temple festivals, i.e., New Year, but may be entertainment for specific
rituals (often associated with the temple).
 Performances typically start in the evening and last all night.
 These types of songs are starting to become less popular ,
especially since the area received electricity during the 1980s
o Pop music started becoming more popular

PowerPoint Slide #11

PLAY CD 1.13
 Phleng Luk Thung (PLENG LOOK TOONG)
 Phleng (pronounced “pleng”) means “song,” while luk thung
(pronounced “look toong”) literally translates as “children of the field.”
 Groovy
 The music often has a basic “pop” sound with inexpensive
synthesizers and basic drum beat, though many modern performers have
adapted to recent trends in mainstream pop music, including electric
guitars, drum machines, etc.

 The primary traditional instruments present in a luk thung

ensemble include the khaen and electric phin (pronounced “pin”), drum
set, electronic keyboard, and chap lek (small hand cymbals).

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 The phin is usually adorned with the head of a serpent and has
unevenly spaced frets that correspond to the typical pitches used in
pentatonic scales common to Isan.
 Other instruments, such as the saw u (fiddle, similar to saw bip
[pictured] but with coconut shell resonator) appear infrequently in
today’s luk thung performance.

 Sung in both the Northeastern (Isan) and Central Thai languages,

the performer switches back and forth between the two.

 Certainly, it’s not possible to follow the switch (unless, of course,

you speak Thai),
o but there is an obvious switch in melodic content and the
rhythmic density of the text setting when the changes occur.
 Much of the vocal style is derived from traditional lam klawn
singing (see Chapter 6, Site 4).
 Basic structure!:: There is just an intro section, then an alteration
between two sections , each of which features one language, finished
with intro section

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 Luk thung began in response to Luk krung popular music (“child of

the city”), first popular in the 1940s in Bangkok.
 This modernized form of lam singing became the rage by the
1970s as Thailand’s economy prospered and many Isan peoples
migrated to Bangkok in search of better jobs.
 The luk thung sound combined a “modern” urban sound with a
nostalgic connection to the rural roots of this new workforce.
 Therefore, a culture that was once looked down upon and not
respected, was now being appreciated by central Thai cultures

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 By the 1980s, Big Thai pop stars, were attracting audiences as
large as their mainstream musical counterparts.
 Today luk thung “shows” involve not only musicians but one or
more troupes of onstage dancers in colorful costumes and huge
amplification systems that draw large crowds even in rural areas.
 Some artists, such as Tai Orathai, travel internationally to perform
for Thai communities around the world.
 The DVD cover pictured in the slide reads “Luk Thung.”

The Sound Of Siam - Leftfield Luk Thung, Jazz And

Molam In Thailand 1964-1975
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPIwxc0_s3M

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