burmese classical music tradition

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T H E B U R M E S E C L A S S I C A LM U S I C T R A D I T I O N : A N I N T R O D U C T I O NHsin-chun Lu1

English AbstractThis article introduces Burmese (now Myanmar) classical music, a centuries-long legacy of theBurmese royal courts. Drawing primarily on extensive ethnographic study and literature review, it provides an overview of this tradition and also updates information on its current status. To helpbuild a comprehensive picture of this tradition, both its musical and extra-musical aspects are examined. The musical investigation provides basic information on this music’s ensembles, sounds,and structure. In particular, at the core of the inquiry is that which makes this music sound dis-tinctive. It is suggested that a mechanism of collective playing that entails indigenous ideas of improvisation and the aesthetics of “playfulness” might be an explanation. This article also presentsthis music in its historical, social, political and cultural contexts, describing its social and culturalpractices as well as its recent politicization and commercialization. Finally, two creative albums re-leased in the new millennium offer case studies on the issues of musical blending and aestheticclashes. In conclusion, this tradition is still flourishing as it is being proudly reinterpreted in newways and is reaching out to new audiences in the twenty-first century.

French AbstractCet article présente la musique classique birmane (aujourd’hui de Myanmar), un leg séculaire de laCour royale de Birmanie. Dressant dans un premier temps une étude ethnographique et une revuelittéraire, il fournit un tour d’horizon de cette tradition et met à jour les informations sur sa situationactuelle. Les aspects musicaux et extra-musicaux y sont examinés afin de donner une image com -plète de cette tradition. La recherche musicale fournit des informations de base sur les ensemblesqui jouent cette musique, ses sons, sa structure. Les raisons de sa singularité sont au cœur del’investigation. L’une des réponses suggérées évoque un mécanisme de jeu collectif entraînant desidées d’improvisation de caractère indigène ainsi que l’esthétique d’un jeu qui serait «complet ourempli ». Cet article présente également cette musique dans son contexte historique social, politiqueet culturel décrivant ses pratiques sociales et culturelles ainsi que ses récentes politisations etcommercialisations. Enfin, deux albums créatifs sont sortis depuis 2000, proposant une étude de cassur les questions de mélanges musicaux et de conflits esthétiques. Pour conclure, cette tradition esttoujours florissante et réinterprétée avec fierté de diverses manières, touchant un public nouveauau 21e siècle.

German AbstractDieser Aufsatz beschäftigt sich mit klassischer Musik aus Birma (heute Myanmar), demjahrhundertealten Erbe der königlich-birmanischen Höfe. Er bezieht sich in erster Linie aufumfassende, ethnographische Studien und Literaturkritik, wodurch er einen Überblick über diese

1. Hsin-chun Lu is an assistant research fellow at the Institute of Ethnology in the Academia Sinica, Taiwan.Her doctoral dissertation, “Constructing Musical Identity among Burmese Classical Musicians in Burma and Its Diasporas,” was completed at the University of California, Los Angeles in 2007. She may be contacted at [email protected]. This article has been peer-reviewed.

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Tradition vermittelt und über den aktuellen Stand informiert. Der Vollständigkeit halber werdensowohl musikalische als auch außermusikalische Aspekte untersucht. Außerdem werdengrundlegende Informationen zu Besetzung, Klang und Struktur der birmanischen Musik geboten.Woher der besondere Klang dieser Musik rührt, ist die zentrale Frage. Der Autor beantwortet diesemit einer Technik des gemeinschaftlichen Musizierens, die aus indigenen Vorstellungen von Im -provi sation herrührt, und einer Ästhetik der „Verspieltheit“. Der Artikel stellt die Musik außerdemin ihrem historischen, sozialen, politischen und kulturellen Zusammenhang dar und beschreibt ihresoziale und kulturelle Praxis ebenso wie ihre aktuelle Politisierung und Kommerzialisierung.Abschließend werden zwei im neuen Jahrtausend erschienene Alben als Beispiele zu den Themender musikalischen Verschmelzung und ästhetischen Kollision vorgestellt. Die birmanischeTradition lebt weiter, indem sie stolz immer wieder neu und aktuell interpretiert wird und so neueZuhörer im 21. Jahrhundert erreicht.

Introduction

Like many other musics in Southeast Asia, Burmese2 classical music today is held in highnational regard as a sophisticated art form. It not only remains a living tradition at homebut also represents the country to great acclaim abroad. However, its infrastructure andmusicians have received little ethnographic attention. In particular, from 1962 to 1988,when General Ne Win’s regime was in control, Burma held tightly onto its xenophobicpolicies and long-term political isolationism. As a result, field-sites and the length of timepermitted for non-Burmese people to conduct field research were severely restricted.Given this inaccessibility and the paucity of materials, the first-hand findings collectedfrom the field research of pioneering non-Burmese ethnomusicologists/anthropologists(e.g., John Okell, Judith Becker, Muriel Williamson, Robert Garfias, TokumaruYoshihiko) are extremely valuable. In the years since 1988 under the current regime,more liberal policies have boosted the number of these “outsider” ethnographers. Morescholars have dedicated long-term study to this subject (e.g., Ward Keeler, Gavin Douglas,Kit Young, Christopher Miller, Jane Ferguson, and myself ). I should note here that thenames listed above only account for the contributors who primarily publish in English. Infact, aside from the rich indigenous sources written in Burmese, scholarly publicationsbased on field research can be also found in many other languages, such as Japanese,Chinese, French, German, and so on.3 In addition, we should not forget that all ethnographicprojects are situated in particular temporal, spatial, and humanly-relational contexts. The

T H E B U R M E S E C L A S S I C A L M U S I C T R A D I T I O N : A N I N T R O D U C T I O N 255

2. In 1989 the Burmese military authority (SLORC: State Law and Order Restoration Council, recently re-named the State Peace and Development Council) changed the name of Burma to Myanmar, and the former cap-ital Rangoon to Yangon. However, this decision has been rejected by any sitting legislature in Burma and also bythe U.S. Government, who argue that this military government does not have the authority to institute it.Myanmar is a derivative of the Burmese name Myanma Naingngandaw (nation). To be consistent with majorityscholarly usage in the U.S. nowadays, in this article, I use the terms Burma, Burmese, and Rangoon without anypolitical implications. In addition, the terms “Burman” and “Burmese” are used to indicate specific meanings:Burman refers to the majority ethnic group in Burma, making up 68% of the total population of 48 million (June2009 estimate). Besides ethnic Burman, the seven minority groups recognized by the Burmese government areShan, Mon, Chin, Kachin, Rakhine, Kayin or Karen, and Kayah. “Burmese” indicates all people of Burma’s na-tionals <https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/BM.html>, (accessed June 22 2009).

3. For publications in Japanese, see Sayuri Inoue, “Biruma Koten Kayou No Senritsu Wo Motomete —Syosyou To Kousyou Kara Sousaku e” ビルマ古典歌謡の旋律を求めて―書承と口承から創作へ [The MelodyCreation of Burmese Classical Songs from Their Oral and Written Forms] (Tokyo:風響社, 2007); “Birima KotenKayou Ni Okeru Janru Kubun No Keisei” ビルマ古典歌謡におけるジャンル区分の形成 [The Formation of

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research results are thus inevitably somewhat subjective, dependent on the ethnogra-pher’s personal experience.

Taking these two facts into consideration, I do not intend to survey this music in an ex-haustive manner in this article. Rather, I offer research findings from my extensive field-work and review existing literature, with the aim of providing an updated introduction tothis musical tradition. The majority of the information was collected through personal in-terviews, conversations, and instrumental studies with Burmese musicians in Rangoon(now Yangon) between 1998 and 2009 (15 months in total). The extant literature onBurmese music published in English, Chinese, and Burmese also helped form the basisof this article.

Thachìn Gyì: Ethnomusical Integration, Two Types of Ensemble

Burmese classical music is the court tradition passed down by the ethnic Burman, thepredominant ethnic group constituting two-thirds of Burma’s total population. Althoughits ethnicity is today associated exclusively with Burmans, the music is an amalgamationof ethnic cultures that had necessitated certain degrees of assimilation and indigeniza-tion.4 An overview of Burma’s geocultural layout and ethnic composition can help us bet-ter comprehend the intensity of cultural integration. On the one hand, Burma is nested at

256 F O N T E S A R T I S M U S I C A E 5 6 / 3

Genre Division in Burmese Classical Songs with Special Reference to Song Anthologies in Palm Leaf Manu -scripts], Journal of Asian and African Studies 74 (2007): 121–63. For publications in Chinese, I myself completeda M.A. thesis “Miandian Gongxing Shuqin saùng-gauk zhi Xingzhi Fazhan yu Xiangzheng Yiyi” 緬甸弓形豎琴saùng-gauk 之形制發展與象徵意義” [The Development of Construction and Symbolic Meanings of BurmeseArched Harp—saùng-gauk] (National Taiwan University, 2001). A French musicologist Ludivine Isaffo also con-ducted ethnographic research in Burma. One of her conference papers is found relating to the Burmese hùn tayò(horn-violin). See Ludivine Isaffo, “The Timbre of the ‘Horn-violin’ in the Early 20th Century Recordings,” in theProceedings of the Conference on Interdisciplinary Musicology. Montréal (Québec) Canada, March 10–12(2005). For more detailed accounts on the research foci of these ethnographers, see U Tun Khin, “GitábedaMeitseik” gˆtebdmit\Sk\ [Introduction to Musicology], in Shwe Yatu A-theìn A-hmat Magazine eRWrtuATim\;Amt\ mg© zc\:[Golden Jubilee Magazine] (Rangoon: Commerce Graduate Association, 2004), 167–70. In addition, lately, a M.A. thesis “Myanmarische Musik—Yodaya Lieder im historisch-kulturellen Kontext” (Myanmar Music-YodayaSongs in Historico-cultural Context) was completed by a German graduate student Daphne Wolf at theHumboldt University in 2008, Berlin (written in German).

4. Scholars have identified some foreign musical elements that contribute to Burmese classical music. ForChinese pentatonicism, see U Khin Zaw, “Burmese Music: A Preliminary Enquiry,” The Journal of the BurmaResearch Society 30 (1940): 393–5. For Chinese musical instruments, see Shen Dong 沈冬, “Tangdai PiaoguoyueChutan” 唐代驃國樂初探 [A Preliminary Investigation on Pyu Music in the Tang dynasty], Zhong Wai Wenxue中外文學 [Zhong Wai Literary Monthly] 19, no. 3 (1990): 22-57; Lin Qiansan 林謙三 [Hayashi Kenzo], Sui TangYanyuetiao Yanjiu 隋唐燕樂調研究 [Research on the Yan music in the Sui and Tang Eras] (Shanghai: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1974); and Hsin-chun Lu 呂心純, “Xianxi Tangdai Piaoguo Xianyue de Yiyi”淺析唐代驃國獻樂的意義 [The Meaning of the Burmese Pyu Band as a Tribute to the Chinese Tang Dynasty],in Proceedings of the First Conference of Music Graduate School Students (1999): 1–26. For ancient Indian musicalinstruments, see Judith Becker, “The Migration of the Arched Harp from India to Burma,” The Galpin SocietyJournal 20 (1967): 17–23; John Okell, “The Burmese Double-reed ‘Nhai’,” Asian Music 2, no. 1 (1971): 25–31;Muriel Williamson, “The Iconography of Arched Harps in Burma,” in Music and Tradition: Essays on Asian andOther Musics Presented to Laurence Picken, edited by D. R. Widdess and R. F. Wolpert, 209–307 (New York:Cambridge University Press, 1981). For the Thai scale system, see U Khin Zaw, “Burmese Music,” 398–400. ForThai instrumentation, see Robert Garfias, “The Development of the Modern Burmese Hsaìng Ensemble,” AsianMusic 16, no. 1 (1985): 5; also U Ye Htut, Myanmar Dances (Rangoon: Win Sarpay, 1997), 28.

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5. See Noel Singer, Burmese Dance and Theatre (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 11; also U YeHtut, Myanmar Dances, 30.

6. The politico-geographical configuration of these ethnic kingdoms actually outlines an ethnic map that endures to this day: the dominant Burmans mainly having occupied central Burma, the Mon southern Burma,the Shan the north, and the Arakan the west. See Maung Htin Aung, A History of Burma (New York: ColumbiaUniversity Press, 1967), 30.

7. Singer, Burmese Dance, 1–15. 8. Part of the nation-building project, Maha-gitá was published by the Burma Ministry of Union Culture. See

Muriel Williamson, The Burmese Harp: Its Classical Music, Tunings, and Modes (Dekalb, IL: Northern IllinoisUniversity, 2000), 22. Gitá-wíthàw-dani is the earlier official anthology, published in Rangoon in 1923. It wasbased on the repertory established by the last court harpist, U Maung Maung Gyi, and later compiled by hispupil U Maung Maung Lat, ibid., 36–7. Overall, Maha-gita is now used more extensively through the musical institutionalization and centralization in the several state-run schools of the arts.

the intersection of three civilizations: India, China, and Thailand/Siam. The inter-regionalexchange of trade, information, and culture speaks to its locus as a significant crossroadsin southeastern Asia. Meanwhile, large-scale warfare between Burmese kingdoms andthese external powers also enriched artistic practices remarkably. For example, Thai/Siamese theatrical plays and music were adopted within the Burman artistic tradition after the Burmans’ triumph in the Thai-Burman battles of the sixteenth and eighteenthcenturies. In these two military victories, Burmans brought thousands of captives back totheir court, among whom were numerous Thai musicians and dancers from the Thaicourt, Ayutthaya. This artistic infusion generated a new style, yòdayà, which has been oneof the most popular musical styles in Burma since the second half of the eighteenth cen-tury.5 On the other hand, Burma’s ancient ethnoscape also shows that many kingdoms, or-ganized around major ethnic groups, peppered the extensive fertile plains, before theBritish took over the rule of these local settlements in 1886.6 It is thus not unimaginablethat frequent internal warfare, skirmishes, and interchange between ethnic groups withinthe country caused some cultural intermingling. In Noel Singer’s accounts, Pyu, Mon, and Burman artistic traditions merged and evolved into a single style, thriving at the courtof the Burman kingdom, Bagan (1044–1287 C.E.). Glancing at Konbaung (1752–1885)court musical practices, one can also witness the influences of Cambodian, Laotian, andJavanese music, dance and plays, as well as those derived from the indigenes, such asShan and Arakan.7 As a result, what is known as Burmese classical music today is an out-come of a centuries-long blending of diverse ethnic musics.

This musical tradition is today commonly known as thachìn gyì. The term thachìn gyìrefers to the entire song repertoire of Burmese classical music. Although there is littledocumentation indicating when the Burmese began to use this term, it is clearly associ-ated with the official anthology of the song-text repertoire, Maha-gitá (Great Songs), pub-lished in 1969.8 Later when the Burmese Broadcasting Service (BBS) was introduced toBurma to serve nationalism through political propaganda, its musical programs classifiedsongs into “kit paw” (popular music) and “thachìn gyì,” the term translated directly fromthe Pali term mahagitá (“great songs”) by the BBS. Then thachìn gyì was widely broad-casted and popularly adopted by the Burmese public. Now it is often used as a loose equiv-alent for “classical music,” conceived by the Burmese as a repertoire characterized by certain distinctive musical sounds, articulations, and progressions that, taken together,constitute the “classics.” In this article, I use thachìn gyì to denote the tradition in thisbroader sense.

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Thachìn gyì is rooted in the Burmese vocal music tradition, composed of hundredssongs that are categorized into different song types in the Burmese government’s stan-dardization of music since the mid-twentieth century. The origin of many song composi-tions in Maha-gitá today is historically traceable. Most songs of the three ancient songtypes, Kyò, Bwè, and Thachìn-khan, were the main court music before the Konbaung dynasty, coming into being in the mid-eighteenth century.9 These songs are still extant intoday’s thachìn gyì practices, while new compositions based on such court-derived, ideal-ized compositional styles are still produced and performed.

Thachìn gyì is characterized by two types of ensembles: the hsaìng ensemble and therefined-style ensemble.10 The hsaìng music sounds exhilarating and vigorous, and its most common ensemble, hsaìng-waìng (or simply hsaìng), features the shrill voice of theshawm and the virtuosity of various drum-sets and gong-sets (see Illustration 1 below).The sets include maung-hsaìng (gong-circle), kyì-waìng (gong-frame), chaut-lòn-bat (six-drum set), and, the leading musical instrument, pat-waìng (drum-circle). Illustration 1showcases the National Hsaìng Ensemble where Sein Chit Tee, an outstanding drum-circle player, served as a director during 1962–1985 in Burma’s socialist era (1962–1988).In contrast, the refined-style music sounds more subtle and enchanting, often using an instrumental duet or a trio to support the crucial vocalist. Typically the vocalist controlsthe metric cycle by playing two idiophones called sì (cymbals) and wà (clappers), (seeIllustration 2 below). Compared to hsaìng music, the music of refined-style ensembles ex-hibits a steadier, albeit still flexible, tempo. There are some Western musical instrumentsused in today’s refined-style ensembles, and they were Burmanized for the purposes ofplaying of Burmese classical music during the period of British colonization (1886–1948).These indigenized Western instruments are accepted nationally as an intrinsic part of thisBurmese tradition, and are prominently featured in the state-run musical competitions


9. Specifically, for example, Wungyi Padei-thá-yaza (1683–1754), the musical minister in the Toungoo dy-nasty (1486–1752), was responsible for the first four song compositions of the Kyò type; his works also includethirty-seven Nat songs, the song type for the thirty-seven Burmese local spirits (nat). See Shoon Myaing, Maha-gitá Myanmar Classics (Mandalay: Mandalay Myoma Amateur Music Association, 2001), 88. Now his four Kyòsongs are typically used for all the thachìn gyì beginners, regardless of the musical instrument they play. In ad-dition, Myáwadi Wungyi U Sá (1766–1853), a famous Konbaung musician and also a dramatist, is said to havecomposed the last five pieces of the Kyò songs, and also probably composed at least sixty-seven Pat-pyò songs inhis newly invented tuning, auk-pyan. Later, Pyinsi Minthà (1813–1862), the Princess Pyinsi, composed most ofthe Yòdayà type of songs, Pat-pyò songs, and Thachìn-khan songs. See Muriel C. Williamson, The Burmese Harp:Its Classical Music, Tunings, and Modes (Dekalb, IL: Northern Illinois University, 2001), 20–26; 141).

10. To conceptualize and systemize Burmese music, Western and Japanese scholars have in the past usedterms to classify Burmese ensembles mostly in favor of their occasional contrast. For the terms of “theatrical”/“chamber,” see Judith Becker, “Modes and the Oral Tradition in Burmese Music” (M.A. thesis, University ofMichigan, 1968); Yosihiko Tokumaru, “Burmese Music: A Brief Discussion of Its Present Situation,” in MusicalVoices of Asia: Report of Asian Traditional Performing Arts 1978, edited by Richard Emmert and Minegishi Yuki,68–75 (Tokyo: Japan Foundation, 1980). For the terms of “outdoor”/“indoor,” see Garfias, “The Development ofthe Modern Burmese Hsaìng Ensemble.” For the terms of “outside-style”/“inside-style,” see Ward Keeler, “Mu -sic Cultures and Regions: Burma,” in The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, vol. 4, Southeast Asia, edited byTerry E. Miller and Sean Williams, 363–400 (New York: Garland, 1998). However, these two types are now bothplayed indoors and outdoors (e.g., those for making any mediated music production), and hsaìng accompaniesnot only theatrical plays but also singing and sports, or may also be heard as “abstract” music. In addition, no in-digenous terms indicate this dichotomy; interview accounts also reveal that most Burmese today don’t have theconception of this distinctive duality. I thus prefer not using any contrast, or dichotomous, terms to avoid anymisleading indication.

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ILLUSTRATION 1 The hsaìng ensemble. Part of the National Hsaìng Orchestra, where SeinChit Tee sits in the center of the circle-drum set (Courtesy of Kyaw Kyaw Naing, mid-1970s)

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and school education. The Western instruments in question include the violin (tayàw), thepiano (sàndayà), the slide guitar (Bama gitá), and the mandolin (medalin), each havingundergone adaptation.11 In comparison, the indigenous solo musical instruments saùnggauk (arched harp) and pattalà (xylophone) are considered more historical and indige-nous. Illustration 2 features the prestigious harpist U Myint Maung and the renownedsinger Daw Yi Yi Thant.

Sounds, Texture, and the Aesthetics of “Playfulness”

Thachìn gyì music is recognized as highly distinct from other Asian classical musics.To Western ears, this music challenges the expectations of steady tempo and symmetry,being marked rather by musical twitches and abruptness. Particularly in the hsaìng per-formance, what characterizes the music are vivid contrasts of texture, abrupt shifts inrhythm and melody, and a unique style of deliberate virtuosity. The ethnomusicologistTerry Miller brilliantly describes the seeming incoherence of Burmese music as parallel


11. For example, the very first piano is believed to have shown up at court as a present from the Italian ambassador in 1872 (Heizman, 1998), and the Hawaiian slide guitar was introduced to Burma in 1943. At the outset, they both had to be retuned to accommodate the intonation used in Burmese thachìn gyì. For more information, see Kit Young’s online article “The Strange, The Familiar: Foreign Musical Instruments inMyanmar/Burma” <http://www.asiasource.org/myanmar/md_essays02.html> (accessed June 2009).

ILLUSTRATION 2 A refined-style ensemble with harpist U Myint Maung and singer Daw Yi YiThant. (1996, photograph by Rick Heizman, used with permission)

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to that of Burmese dances, which are similarly unpredictable and kinetically sudden.12 Yet,these descriptions remain imaginary in the existing literatures due to the lack of decisiveevidence. I suggest that, to comprehend the melodic and rhythmic “incoherence,” the underlying dual structure of the music as well as the improvisation skills of Burmese col-laborative playing must be explained.

A typical thachìn gyì performance (either live or recorded) is a collaborative produc-tion, where individual performance is improvisational in nature. However, this individual-ity is relative to the other performers’ presentations as a whole, and it is framed by a dualstructure that informs a Burmese musical performance. This structure consists of a het-erophonic texture of juxtaposed, independent musical entities that are rendered eithermonophonically (by the voice, violin and shawm) or in a two-part instrumental structure(by the harp, gong-circle, drum-circle, etc.),13 and are interwoven with patterned metriccycles. The style and the aesthetics of thachìn gyì derive from this duality. The componentthat supports the whole performance is the theme that Burmese musicians call the “back-bone” (kyàw-yò). It provides a given frame in which a multitude of variations (a-kwet)based on musical motifs or phrases are created. This core melody is drawn from a bodyof themes associated with the song texts, recorded in song anthologies and passed downover centuries.


EXAMPLE 1 “Backbone”(Kyàw-yò) and patterned variations14 rendered in monophony and two-part structure.

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12. Terry Miller, 2004, “Southeast Asian Musics: An Overview,” in The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music,vol. 4, 19.

13. To avoid the confusion of using the term “harmony,” I have derived the concept of “two-part instrumen-tal structure” from “two-part instrumental style” as defined by Robert Garfias. See Garfias, “Myanmar,” in TheNew Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (London:Macmillan, 2001), vol. 17, 576.

14. These patterned variations are derived from Burmese mandolin music as demonstrated by my mandolinteacher U Kyaw Lwin in July 2006.

Theme: “Backbone” 0 2 2 4 4 6 6 5 4 3 2 1 —

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Since the classic anthologies such as Maha-gitá only contain song texts without musi-cal notation or symbols, performance of rhythms, melody, interludes, etc., conventionallyrely on oral transmission. In order to keep the “backbone” from being lost to memory,however, contemporary Burmese musicians have been codifying cipher notations15 overthe past decades in order to preserve this oral tradition and to transpose the music easily.The Western staff notation was also introduced in the 1950s to document the previouslyorally-transmitted Burmese classical music, and it is part of the government’s standard-ization of music. This government-sanctioned attempt is called into question due to thefact that these transcriptions in staff notation are often used to serve nationalistic purposes (e.g., the unification of the national history and culture). It also proposes theartistic legitimacy and autonomy that the Western musical notation implies.16 The projecthas resulted in a great number of descriptive transcriptions, posing as a dilution of the improvisations-as-performances in the Burmese musical aesthetics.

In addition to the voice, the violin17 is now a prevailing melodic instrument in a refined-style ensemble, as is its counterpart, the shawm, in hsaìng. The instrumental monophonyperformed by these instruments tends to mirror the thachìn gyì vocal style: highly em-bellished and lyrical. In doing so, the instrumental theme emulates the sentiments em-bedded both in the thematic contour and invokes the meaning of the original song lyrics.18

The violin’s unfretted fingerboard allows musicians to produce subtle shadings whenmoving from one note to another, similar to the idea of portamento used in the Europeanart music. The shadings are characteristic of the thachìn gyì monophonic style, i.e.,“smoothness,” or “slipperiness” (chàw), as well as the ideal expressive tone “moaning”(nyì).19 An indigenous saying captures this commonality of style: “a fine Burmese shawmplayer can articulate the smoothness between notes as if it were the violin” (my transla-tion).20 In the refined-style musical playing, bearing in mind the understanding that “thevoice takes the lead,” violinists mostly mimic the vocal line by following closely behind oroverlapping with it.

In order to understand the two-part instrumental structure that is performed alongwith the monophonic instruments discussed above, the manner of playing the remaining


15. One cipher notation uses Arabic numbers (e.g., 1, 2, 3), and is considered as a Chinese influence. I havefound Jonathan Stock’s description of cipher notation as used in China equivalent to what Burmese musiciansadopt in thachìn gyì practice: “cipher notations is fully transposable, using a series of simple characters to rep-resent modal degrees . . . the basic character set is the Western digits: 1 (pronounced “do”), 2 (“re”), 3 (“mi”)etc.” See Jonathan Stock, Musical Creativity in Twentieth-Century China: Abing, His Music, and Its ChangingMeanings (Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 1996). Another cipher notation is an indigenous formwidely used as the musical skeleton of the two-part structure by many Burmese musicians. A tablature, this notation adopts Burmese numbers (1 to 7= 1234567) to indicate the numbered keys on a Burmese scale that the right hand and left hand (e.g., on the xylophone and the drum-circle), or right finger and left finger (e.g., onthe harp and the mandolin) have to play. See Gavin Douglas, “State Patronage of Burmese Traditional Music,”(Ph.D. dissertation, University of Washington, 2001), 189-91.

16. Ibid., 192–96.17. Burmese use Western-style violin to play thachìn gyì, and in Burmese music, the violin only plays music

in a monophonic manner, rather than playing double or triple stops. 18. This statement is based on my experience of learning the Burmese harp, as well as the interview with

the Burmese musicologist U Tun Khin (fieldnotes, dated July 26, 2006).19. The Burmese terms I use here, such as chàw and nyì are based on my fieldwork accounts and phone con-

versations with Burmese musicians. 20. “ NeK¥ aeta.teya (hnè chaw daYw tayàw).” This sentence is taken from U Khin Zaw, Burmese Culture:

General and Particular (Rangoon: Sapeibeikman Press, 1981), 122.

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musical instruments is the key. Played with two fingers (e.g., harp, mandolin), two mallets(e.g., xylophone, gong-circle), or two hands (e.g., drum-circle), only two notes are soundedsimultaneously. This practice underlies the Burmese two-part instrumental structure, inwhich the dual lines develop the intricacy from the song theme horizontally.21 The ethno-musicologist Robert Garfias has therefore even suggested that Burmese music is “bestthought of as an amplified single melodic line, rather than as truly polyphonic.”22 To helpvisualize these ideas, the transcription above presents the various layers involved. Thedominant organizational element of the two-part instrumental structure, which character-izes the two variations, is the “backbone”-derived melody in the upper voice, while themelody below is designed to produce supporting intervals (i.e., 4ths, 5ths, 8ths, 9ths).23

Today, musicians prefer the instrumentation of a standard thachìn gyì performance tocombine monophonic musical instruments and “two-part-structure” musical instruments.For example, in view of the different articulation styles used with these two types of musical instruments, each player in a performance exerts him/herself, and eventuallyachieves “gusto,” or what some musicians call “playfulness” (ka-sà), which is deemed cru-cial for a successful thachìn gyì performance. There are also duet performances with onlyvoice and a solo instrumentalist in which the voice is absent in repeated sections, allow-ing the instrumental virtuoso to improvise freely and dramatically depart from the rhyth-mic and melodic framework.

Improvisation (pan-tì) is intrinsic to collaborative playing in thachìn gyì. In practice,Burmese musicians play music by watching and listening to each other. Technical termssuch as yaw tì (“playing complementary notes”) and kwet pyauk (“divergent playing frompatterned techniques”) denote two typical mechanisms of improvisation that serve theidea of “playfulness.” Both suggest a sense of freedom and spontaneity in collaborativemusic making. Yaw tì 24 refers to a master musician’s “playful” embellishments, occurringwhen the theme is carried by other musical instruments or the voice, or when s/he is “inthe mood,” which is to say, when s/he plays notes complementary to the theme, ratherthan playing the theme straight, to strengthen the effect of the resulting melodic andrhythmic contrast. Burmese musicologist U Tun Khin’s simile vividly explains this skill:“it is a kind of ‘hnàn-pyù’ (“sprinkling sesame”), referring to the addition of superfluoustouches to someone else’s work just to show off one’s knowledge or skill.”25 The other vir-tuosic skill is Kwet pyauk, referring to the creative passages where a master plays patternsthat diverge from what is expected in playing the theme. To Burmese musicians, a fulfill-ing performance involves this collaboratively creative process in which they achieve sat-isfaction through the “playful” skills of Yaw tì and Kwet pyauk. The experience of a per-former in thachìn gyì ensemble-playing is thus both personal and dialogic. Its musicalstructure, overlaying improvisational style, and aesthetics are what make thachìn gyìmusic a distinctive and identifiable musical genre.


21. Ibid., 91.22. Garfias, “Myanmar,” 17:576. 23. The supporting quality of these intervals developed via “mouth-music,” the Burmese mnemonic system,

over centuries. In addition, thachìn gyì musicians also often imitate the timbre and articulation of the harp in refined-style music on the drum-circle, its counterpart in hsaìng music. A good tone of the drum-circle is de-scribed as “mellow roundness. . . .sounded like the harp.” Ibid., 63.

24. Yaw tì is by origin a hsaìng technique, but now many experienced masters on other musical instrumentsare capable of employing it.

25. This quote is taken from my field notes dated 7 December 2005.

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Musical Practice in Society

Today, thachìn gyì continues to thrive in diverse expressive forms, both secular and sa-cred, instrumental and vocal, ensemble and solo. Professional musicians and amateurs,26

whose artistry ranks very high in the category of “serious leisure,”27 keep it alive andflourishing. The online version of the Yangon/Rangoon Directory suggests that todayquite a number of skillful thachìn gyì musicians may be found in large Burmese cities in the country’s central, fertile, and densely populated flatland. Musicians perform in professional troupes,28 private ensembles, and individually; in addition, a few thachìn gyìcarriers are also found as émigrés in Burma’s diaspora.29

Traditionally, hsaìng and refined-style ensembles are used as part of significant socialand cultural practices. Hsaìng is employed for ceremonial and outdoor entertainment occasions, including festive events such as “spirit-propitiation rites” (nat-pwè), “theatricalplays” (zat-pwè),30 “puppet show”( yok-thè), and “Burmese traditional football game” (chìn-lòne), as well as those activities related to family-oriented rites of passage (e.g., boys’ ini-tiation into novice-hood (shin-pyu), girls’ ear-piercing ceremonies (nahtwin), weddings,and funerals). In light of Burmese conceptualization of certain diverse ceremonies (pwè)such as “auspicious ceremonies” (mingalar pwè),31 some hsaìng troupes perform only forspecific types of ceremonies, due to concerns about inherent conflicts between the func-tions of different rituals. One can therefore hear some hsaìng leaders state that they are mingalar-hsaìng (an ensemble playing only for auspicious ceremonies) or nat-hsaìng(an ensemble playing only for spirit rites). In contrast, other hsaìng troupes play any typeof ceremony. There are also balar hsaìng ensembles, which only give strictly instrumentalperformances hsaìng music and does not accompany theatrical plays or dances. Today,one can find many new compositions made for such ensemble by modern Burmese hsaìngmaestros.

Hsaìng and refined-style ensembles share the same classics as well as playing newcompositions. However, there are particular repertories for the hsaìng that are appropri-ate to different occasions according to thematic and contextual associations. For example,sacred music has its own repertoires, and certain musical pieces or even melodic pas-sages are thematically and contextually identified, e.g. ngo-chìn for grief, bon-tauk for


26. The Burmese arts specialist Noel Singer has pointed out that amateur artists have managed to maintainthe essence of the traditional performing arts, while the standards of artistry in commercial shows organized byprofessionals have deteriorated (Singer, Burmese Dance, 77). My ethnographic studies in the decade since hisbook appears also support this.

27. According to a leading psychologist’s notion of amateurism, “serious leisure” refers to “a systematic pur-suit of an amateur, hobbyist, or volunteer activity that is substantial enough for the participant to find a careerthere in the acquisition and expression of its special skills or knowledge or both.” See Robert Stebbins, Ama -teurs, Professionals, and Serious Leisure (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1992), 3.

28. The Directory lists seventeen Burmese hsaìng ensembles in business under the category “Myanmar Orchestra” in Rangoon <http://www.yangon-directory.com/CompanyList.aspx? sub_cat=13~Myanmar%20Orchestras> (accessed 10 February 2009). This number is supposedly a severe underestimate dueto many musicians’ unregistered status and the exclusion of refined-style ensemble musicians.

29. This statement is a general extrapolation from my extensive field research and personal communication(e.g., phone interviews, e-mail) with people in Burmese communities across Asian countries and the US.

30. For more information on the hsaìng music of nat-pwè and zat-pwè, see Keeler, “Music Cultures,” 372–74;also Keeler’s online article: “Contemporary Burmese Za’ Pwè” <http://www.asiasource.org/myanmar/md_essays01.html> (accessed 10 February 2009).

31. “Auspicious ceremonies” basically refer to all ceremonies excluding funerals and spirit-propitiation rites.

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joyfulness, etc. Burmese refined-style musicians in the past used to accompany the femalesolo dance form, the anyeint. Yet a new style of anyeint—a synthetic of melodrama, music,and dance32—emerged later (perhaps in the late nineteenth century), and soon foundgreat favor with the public. Possibly to enrich the dramatic sound effects, the hsaìng com-pletely took over the role of accompanying this new form.33 In more traditional contexts to-day, refined-style ensembles are found only within indoor, small-scale ceremonial and fes-tive occasions such as weddings.

While the performance of classical music is still limited to a particular repertoire,34

socio-cultural changes have created new performing milieus, performative mechanisms,and alternative repertories for the ensembles in question. Both ensembles have beenbrought to the stage, and publicized within new socio-cultural contexts, and have collabo-rated with Western orchestras in order to meet the needs of the film and music industries.Moreover, recent, large-scale nation-building projects have also opened up new perform-ing arenas, such as the state-run radio and television broadcasts.

Specifically, since the mid-1990s, new performing mechanisms have emerged in thetourism and music industries in large cities. Most of these initiatives result from privateenterprise, and they have benefited from the selective liberalization of Burma’s economy.Stage-shows in restaurants, primarily designed for foreign tourists, were commonplaceuntil the beginning of this millennium. Although the shows appear to have been the resultof a sudden upsurge of foreign investment, as I see it, this situation might be a short-termremnant of the state-sponsored tourist campaign “Visit Myanmar 1996 Year.” At the turnof the twenty-first century, continued political and economic stasis, together with corrup-tion, second-rate tourist packages, and the partial Western boycott on travel to Burmabrought tourism-oriented cultural shows to an end. For example, Lon-Ma-Lay, a well-known fine dining restaurant in the Kandawgyi (Royal Lake) area of Rangoon, held dailyperformances of Burmese classical music at the peak of the tourism boom in the late1990s. Profoundly Burmese in its performance and decoration, it went out of business in2001.

In Rangoon’s music market of late, a growing number of albums of Burmese classicalmusic has appeared. Many Burmese hsaìng troupes and refined-style solo musicians haveproudly produced albums that are typically given the name of the performance troupe as title.35 Various disc formats, such as CD, VCD, and Karaoke VCD, are used for theserecordings and may be found in the market. To cater to the different tastes of buyers, a typical hsaìng VCD album includes maestros playing different styles of music. Some


32. This new anyeint style refers to a public burlesque that incorporates comedians’ slapstick within the solofemale character’s singing and dancing. Such anyeint performance is still commonly found.

33. For more detailed information of Burmese hsaìng music and anyeint dance, see Robert Garfiaa,“Burmese Hsaìng and Anyeín,” in program booklet accompanying Music and Dance of Myanmar (Burma) con-cert (New York: Asia Society, 12–13 December 2003). This is also available online at <http://www.asiasource.org/myanmar/md_essays03.html> (Accessed June 2009)

34. As mentioned above, all the classical musical repertories were collected in the eighteenth century withinthe Maha-gitá, but only song lyrics, without notation, were recorded. The music itself has been orally transmit-ted from generation to generation. Nonetheless, these classical pieces are now basically fixed in rhythmic andmelodic patterns, in terms of the improvisations overlaying the musical structure, and in their functions withinsocial practice.

35. For hsaìng, in most cases the name of the troupe is also the name of the leader (i.e., the drum-circleplayer).

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tracks are exclusively instrumental and designed for the master to display his/her virtu-osity, while others are tailored for karaoke purpose in which the words are shown onscreen for audience to sing along. Some tracks feature the voices of celebrated singers.To hold the buyers’ interest in purchase, the hsaìng master may also collaborate with a fewactors in order to tell short stories, deliver jokes, and make remarks. On top of these,there are also CD albums purely for sound recordings. The three album covers in Illustra -tion 3 below demonstrate the diverse content of the hsaìng albums available in the market.

Music of the Nation

Since the early 1960s, the Burmese government has generously funded the arts in or-der to shape the “traditional” or “classical” Burman arts to fit the profile of a “national” art.More recent endeavors enacted by the current rulers aim to unify the musical canon and


ILLUSTRATION 3 Three album covers of hsaìng VCDs: Sein Moot Tar Plays Myanmar Classi -cal Songs Volume 1 (Rangoon: Eastern Country Production, 2006); Mon State Ko Ko Naing: Good -will in Abundance (Rangoon: Yatanar Sein, 2006, cat no. 3172); Myanmar Hsaing-waing Festival ofShining Diamond Stars (Rangoon: Kabakyaw, 2002, cat no. 1945) (photographs by author)

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to promote the nationalistic art heritage to the global community. This nationalisticscheme has been aided by tourism projects and the selective opening of the country to foreign investment and has permeated the state-controlled media. It also informed thefoundation of the University of Culture (as of 2008, the University of National Culture andArts) and the Hso-ká-yeì-tì 36 Competition (The Music and Dance Competition), two high-profile national institutions. They were both established in 1993: the University wasfounded both in Rangoon and Mandalay; and the Competition only in Rangoon.37 The Uni -versity of Culture is the highest-level institution providing formal musical training inBurma, and its postgraduate program in music, established in 2005, offers the highest-level music degree in Burma today. However, as Gavin Douglas points out, although theUniversity has produced a large number of graduates, it also trains civil servants for workin government offices completely unrelated to the arts.38 In the same nationalistic spirit,Hso-ká-yeì-tì Competition runs every October (November at times) as an annual momentof reasserting the current military dictatorship’s power in the field of national culture.This moment is also to define good Myanmar citizens by awarding contestants who ex-celled at the state-standardized art tradition. Yet the state’s legitimacy does not go un-challenged. For example, one anonymous musician keeps a statue of Socrates, the Greeksage, in a private space to “silently” voice his/her repugnance towards this Competition.Making a pun on the similarity of pronunciation between the competition name and thatof the Greek philosopher, the musician said, “I have a Socrates [´s1-krc-tız] at home; noneed to participate in Hso-ká-yeì-tì” (2002).

The University of Culture and Hso-ká-yeì-tì Competition are oriented toward reinforcingnational unity by instilling a patriotic “Myanmar identity” within its graduates, or contes-tants. Gavin Douglas notes that in the “Curricula and Syllabus” of the then-University ofCulture, the general objective of teaching academic and cultural subjects is referred to as“keeping dynamic patriotism, strengthening of national unity, preserving and disseminat-ing the Myanmar Traditional Culture, teaching Myanmar Traditional Culture customs ofindigenous national races at Universities, Institutes, Colleges and Schools, upholding thespirit of nationalism.”39 Ironically, no ethnic minority musics are scheduled or present inactual practice; the curriculum is exclusively framed in terms of the artistic traditions ofethnic Burmans. Despite this fact, a representational exaggeration of the number and sig-nificance of the non-Burman contestants is found in the news coverage of and ethnic at-tire encouraged in the Hso-ká-yeì-tì competition.40 This discrepancy suggests that whilethe government is keen to emphasize the heritage of the ethnic majority Burmans as na-tional culture, it is also eager to showcase the “willingness” of non-Burmans to participatein national, Burman-dominant culture. On the state news coverage of the competition,such high-profile presence of characters that are relatively irrelevant to the arts by nature,


36. In Burmese, hso literally means “sing,” ká “dance,” yeì “song-writing,” and tì “instrumental playing.”37. As for 2005, when the country’s capital was changed from Rangoon to Pyinmana, approximately 200

miles north of Rangoon, the Hso-ká-yeì-thì Competition was also moved to the new capital, beginning in 2006. 38. “In fact, all students of the University of Culture are guaranteed work in government ministries. Training

in the basic academic courses has provided the students with a sufficient basic education to work as civil ser-vants in any of a variety of government ministries not necessarily related to the cultural industry,” quoted fromGavin Douglas, “The Myanmar University of Culture: For Patriotism and National Unity,” Minsu Quyi/Journal ofChinese Ritual, Theatre and Folklore 141 (2003): 273.

39. Ibid., 278–9. 40. Gavin Douglas, 2001.

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such as the one of ethnic minorities, also of governing generals and children, is in doubt.It is believed that “art traditions” have been merged into the political practices of the mil-itary regime,41 wherein the traditions are invented, standardized, and reinterpreted.

Two Cases of Creation: Blending Sounds, Clashing Aesthetics

Although new milieux for musical performance have opened up over the past decadesin which musicians perform, traditional artists still cannot hold out against the Burmesemusical industry, where Western-influenced pop music holds sway. This is evident fromRangoon’s authoritative billboard charts, The City Music Top Ten, based on sales (seeIllustration 4 below). Most professional classical musicians today encounter a severe lackof career opportunities in the arts. To make a living, many artists have become semi-professionals, concurrently pursuing another vocation. Some, however, have taken ad-vantage of this globalized and modernized environment, and have turned Burmese classical music in new directions. Along these lines, as mentioned earlier, many hsaìngmaestros have produced sound recordings to boost visibility and maximize profit.42

Additionally, a few artists have striven to introduce hsaìng to new audiences and keep themusic alive and thriving. The albums Yaw Tha Ma Mhwe (The Mixed) and Bang on a Canwith Kyaw Kyaw Naing are two successful examples.

In the propaganda-based discourse of the Burmese authorities, it is the typicallyWestern influences that are blamed for the substantial decline in popularity of traditionalarts. However, DJ (disc jockey)-mix technology has at times turned Burmese traditionalmusic into big hits in the Burmese pop music industry. The album Yaw Tha Ma Mhwe(The Mixed) blends British electro music with Burmese nat doe, the hsaìng music playedat the supernatural ritual of spirit propitiation. Such “sacred” sounds provided the DJswith “fresh” material to mix on their turntable. Produced by two of Rangoon’s leading DJs,Thxa Soe and DJ Jay, this album soon won over urban youth after it was released in 2006.For Burmese urban youth who had craved “new” sounds for expression, this productionfulfilled their desire.

Based on the regulations of the ill-reputed state-run censorship board, this album posesan apparent conflict between what was “hip” and the “classics” as well as between secu-larity and sacredness. Despite the problems, yet album was not banned. However, theVCD version of its first track, “Hsaìng Kyaik Te Maung” (The Man Who Likes HsaìngMusic), was not allowed to be released in Burma by the censors. In the video, a hiply-


41. Ibid., 82–3.42. Although the tourism-boosting national project “The Visiting Myanmar Year 1996” is ill-reputed, a vast

number of sound productions came into being over the past decade, in addition to those ones discussed in thisarticle. A multitude of sound recordings targets foreign tourists as potential buyers. Therefore, English albumtitles are designed to draw cosmopolitans’ attention. For example, Eastern Country Production released a fewseries of albums featuring Burmese solo musicians awarded by the Hso-ká-yeì-tì Competition. A series of harpalbums highlights the harpist Hlaing Win Maung. They are Pleasing Melody, Pleasing Melody 2, Pleasing Melody3, The Very First Season, and Myanmar Classical Songs (Rangoon, 2006 etc.). Another series is contributed to the hsaìng maestro Sein Moot Tar. Two albums are Sein Moot Tar Plays Myanmar Classical Songs Volume 1 andits Volume 2 (Rangoon, 2006). On the contrary, Yinmar Music reproduced the sound recordings of a passedrenowned musician, Saung U Ba Than (1912–1987), and presents the series “A Traditional Instrumental MusicCollection,” such as The Myanmar Xylophone: Saung U Ba Than and Myanamr’s Harp & Xylophone: Saung U BaThan (Rangoon, 2002). Manthiri also released a series of musical productions named “Myanmar TraditionalMusic: Myanma Gita A-Hla Ba-Day-Thar” [Varieties of Beauty in Myanmar Music](Rangoon, 2000 etc.).

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dressed Western female dancer performs with a nat-ka-daw (spirit medium), which wasdetermined to be “inappropriate.” That this video was eventually made accessible to theBurmese, both at home and abroad, is a tribute to the power of cyberspace. Video-sharingwebsites, such as Youtube and some Burmese-run blogs, have helped people gain accessto it. Such cross-border circulation of this video reflects a sense of resistance to theBurmese regime’s political control that is essentially restricted by its territorial borders.44

Illustration 5 suggests the conceptual environment The Mixed is produced. From the picture, one can see the collage of disparate codes of traditionality (e.g., hsaìng, the royal pageboy with two hair knots) and modernity (e.g., loudspeakers, Western jacket).Whether or not this album clashes with ideals of aesthetic integrity in the cultural politicsof the nation does not seem to concern Burmese hipsters, as this album was a triumph. Itreached Rangoon’s Top Ten of the City Board in 2006 and remained there all year, pavingthe way for the success of Thxa Soe’s next albums, in which he continued to re/mix moreBurmese traditional musics with Western beats.

Another case is the album Bang on a Can Meets Kyaw Kyaw Naing, released in 2004 inNew York. It originated as an avant-garde project in which the hsaìng prodigy Kyaw Kyaw


43. The City Music Top Ten, City Mart Smart Living 41 (Rangoon: City Mart Holding Co., 2006), 9. 44. “Internet DJs Beat the Censors,” The Irrawaddy 15, no. 6 (2007): back page.

ILLUSTRATION 4 The City Music Top Ten in Rangoon (photograph by author).43

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Naing collaborated with the New York-based ensemble Bang on a Can All-Stars.45 Bang ona Can musicians have striven to expose “the new, the unknown and the unconventional”46

in music over the past years, and Burmese music, which has had so little exposure in theWestern world music market, serves this purpose well. This album exclusively showcasesBurmese-inspired instrumental music, featuring tracks of Kyaw Kyaw Naing’s new hsaìng compositions, as well as those of some significant Burmese composers from older generations. However, even though the compositional idea expresses a strong sense ofBurmese ness tied to the hsaìng tradition, the package of this album greatly downplays anyelements related to Burma. From the album cover (see Illustration 6 below), it becomesobvious that the image of Buddha and the golden color are used to create the impressionof an Asian, or more precisely, an Oriental ambience, the design apparently catering to a wider range of white, middle-class, world music audiences, rather than only to a smallcoterie of Burma aficionados.

The first track of this album is coincidentally named “Hsaìng Kyaik Te Maung,” thesame as the title of the first track of The Mixed. Even though its compositional idea is


45. Kyaw Kyaw Naing served as the director of Burma’s National Hsaìng Orchestra from 1985 until he wentinto exile in the U.S. in 1999. He is recognized as the only Burmese hsaìng proponent in the U.S.

46. Mission Statement of Bang on a Can (http://www.bangonacan.org/about_us).

ILLUSTRATION 5 The front page of DJ Thxa Soe’s official website for the album Yaw Tha Ma Mhwe (The Mixed) (photograph by author). [http://www.thxasoe.com/index.html, accessedFebruary 9 2009].

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exclusively Burmese, the European-art-music-style rendition, as performed by Americanmusicians on Western musical instruments such as clarinet, cello, and drum-set, makesthis track sound quite un-Burmese. This in part results from the dilution of Burmese mu-sical aesthetics, that is to say, the distinct hsaìng features (e.g., the sudden shifts in rhythmand melody, and the collective playfulness) are not present. The distinct qualities of hsaìngmusic are thus greatly compromised by the Western standards of music that emphasizecontinuity and coherence.

The two albums described above represent two cases of sound blending and aestheticclash in this new millennium. Burmese conservatives might identify them as threats tothis tradition. Yet, such blending and clash also occurred centuries or decades ago in bothmonarchic and colonial eras, appearing first as multiethnic integration and later as theBurmanization of Western musical instruments. Both developments may also have cre-ated conflicts and debates at the time, but the results were eventually transformed intowhat we now call the thachìn gyì tradition. So the musicians’ acts of musical blending canbe seen as providing an incentive for this tradition to continue to flourish.

Conclusion

What is known as Burmese classical music today has been shaped over the longuedurée: created by multiethnic contacts, patronized at court, later carrying a colonial in-scription, and now standardized by the dictatorship. As it is seen now, the hsaìng ensem-ble and refined-style ensemble are two common types of the Burmese classical music tra-dition. They have not only borne the old sounds, structures, and socio-cultural meaningsfor generations, but are also used to create new ones. Since the early 1990s, Burma hasbeen developing a more modernized infrastructure, and is exposed to a wider, globalizedcommunity. Within this context, this music has been extensively appropriated and rein-terpreted for a variety of uses by Burmese musical cohorts and individuals worldwide. Tosome extent, it is these new appropriations and reinterpretations that vitalize this tradition.


ILLUSTRATION 6 The album inlay for Bang on a Can with Kyaw Kyaw Naing (New York:Cantaloupe Music, 2004, CA21023) (photograph by author).

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burmese classical music tradition

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