Thailand (Lonely Planet, 13th Edition) - China Williams [49]
One of the more attention-drawing instruments is the kórng wong yài, which consists of tuned gongs arranged in a semicircle and played in simple rhythmic lines to provide a song’s underlying fabric. Several types of drums carry the beat, often through multiple tempo changes in a single song. The most important is theà·pohn (tohn), a double-headed hand-drum that leads the entire ensemble. Prior to a performance the players offer incense and flowers to theà·pohn, considered to be the conductor of the music’s spiritual content.
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Want to know more about Thai music? Check out www.ethaimusic.com where you can read transliterated and translated lyrics and buy popular songs.
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The standard Thai scale divides the eight-note octave into seven full-tone intervals, with no semitones. Thai scales were first transcribed by the Thai-German composer Peter Feit (also known by his Thai name, Phra Chen Duriyanga), who composed Thailand’s national anthem in 1932.
The èe pâht ensemble was originally developed to accompany classical dance-drama and shadow theatre, but can be heard these days in straightforward performances at temple fairs and concerts.
Classical Thai music has not been forgotten in the dusty annals of history, but has been fused with international jazz elements. Fong Nam, a Thai orchestra led by American composer Bruce Gaston, performs an inspiring blend of Western and Thai classical motifs that have become a favourite choice for movie soundtracks, TV commercials and tourism promotion. Another leading exponent of this genre is the composer and instrumentalist Tewan Sapsanyakorn (also known as Tong Tewan), who plays soprano and alto sax, violin and klòo·i with equal virtuosity.
Lôok Tûng & Mr Lam
The bestselling of all modern musical genres in Thailand remains lôok tûng (literally ‘children of the fields’), which dates back to the 1940s. Analogous to country and western music in the USA, it’s a genre that tends to appeal most to working-class Thais. Subject matter almost always cleaves to tales of lost love, tragic early death, and the dire circumstances of farmers who work day in and day out and at the end of the year are still in debt. There are two basic styles: the original Suphanburi style, with lyrics in standard Thai; and an Ubon style sung in Isan dialect.
If lôok tûng is Thailand’s country and western, then mr lam is the blues. Mr lam is a folk tradition firmly rooted in the northeast of Thailand and is based on the songs played on the Lao-Isan kaan (a wind instrument devised of a double row of bamboo-like reeds fitted into a hardwood soundbox). The oldest style is most likely to be heard at a village gathering or parade, has a simple but very insistent bass beat topped by vocal melodies, and is often sung in Isan dialect. It has traditionally had a ‘country bumpkin’ image, often the source of comedic music videos and self-effacing lyrics. Mr lam has jumped the generational fence and now has an electrified pop version.
Within the past decade, as economic migrants from Isan moved to Bangkok, the two genres have begun to merge, creating a brew called lôok tûng rá·yúk. Contemporary singers often cross from one style to another with a few songs in between and the terms are often inconsistently applied.
Thailand’s most famous lôok tûng singer was Pumpuang Duangjan, who rated a royally sponsored cremation when she died in 1992 and a major shrine at Suphanburi’s Wat Thapkradan, which receives a steady stream of worshippers. When she died many feared that the