MYANMAR MUSIC

Myanmar or Burmese music is highly developed.

The simplest Myanmar or Burman instruments are the harp (sating) and the dulcimer (ftatala). The harp has a boat-shaped body of wood, with a skin stretched over it for sounding-board. The thirteen strings arc of silk or modern material, strengthened with varnish. The staves of the patata are of dry bamboo. These two Myanmar or Burman instruments are not loud ; they are used to accompany the voice, as we use a harp or guitar, and also by themselves.

The loud band (saing-di), which gives so much character to the pwe, is composed of clarions, gongs and drums. The clarion (hne) is a loud and strident instrument, the effect of which is enhanced by the second clarion. These are supported by gamuts of tuned gongs and drums in circles (kyi-waing and saing-waing). There are two tenor drums and a bass drum. Time is accentuated by cymbals and clappers. The tone of the gongs is so round and bright that it may be mistaken for a piano ; the flourishes played on the kyl-wain; would imply considerable execution in a pianist. Drums are struck with the fingers, gongs with padded sticks. Most of the time Myanmar music and dance go together within Myanmar music. Myanmar music has a lot to offer beside of the usual modern Myanmar music, like Myanmar pop music. There is a lot of other positive surprise, the somehow only strange "noise" is coming from the metal flute, sounds very Indian.

RAP GIRLS FUN GUESS WHAT

POP LADY Pay Oo Naw - chit kya mae - sate phay

myanmar music dancing group Very often the Music of today is a usual copies of "western music" with Myanmar music lyrics there is a wide pool of creativity bringing lots of real good music, pop music and for the connoisseur very pleasant Myanmar classic music.....

Without music, song and dance life is not complete.

Although the performing arts of Myanmar have been influenced by the arts and culture of India, China, Sri Lanka and Thailand, Myanmar has preserved and developed its own culture including traditional dance and music Myanmar

“Ahak” can be traced back to the first. Century A.D. Records show that asearly as A.D.802”Pyu” music and dance troupe including 35 artists and 22 musical instruments was sent on a goodwill mission to China.

After the Pyu period,

Bagan became the focus of cultural activities and Indian, Sri Lankan, China, Pyu, Mon, Myanmar and indigenous nationals cultures were celebrated during the Bagan period from 1057 to 1287.

Stone inscriptions of this period mention 21 musical instruments and 64 kinds of musicians and dancers and also the word “Ka-Chay-Tha-Bin” which means Music and Dance Festival. King Nga Si Shin Kyawswa of Pinya dynasty composed “Kar-Chins” or martial songs for a shield dance in 1336. In 1714, Minister Padetharaja wrote a play entitled “Manikhet Zat” which initiated the form of “Zat-Kyi” or traditional grand drama.

He also composed thirty seven “Nat” songs. Marionette theatre and “Myay-Waing” dance also emerged at about this time. The latter dance was performed on a circular plot of ground on the same level as the audience...

In 1767, King Hsinbyushin conquered Ayutthaya, the capital of Thailand, and brought back many craftsman and artists including court dancing girls who introduced and taught Thai dance forms in Myanmar. Thus Myanmar dance and music styles have been enriched by absorbing techniques and styles from neighbors.
myanmar music harp player Interest in all forms of arts and crafts declined during British rule. To revive and promote the performing arts after the country regained independence, the government opened the State School of Music and Drama in Yangon in 1954 and the State School of Fine Arts, Music and Dancing at Mandalay, in 1955.

The present basic dance course known as “Ka-byar-lut,” is performed with drum beats as the only accompaniment. A stone figure in the Shwezigon pagoda from the Bagan period portrays the “Ka-byar-lut” dance style, suggesting that this basic dance has been in existence for a very long time.

There are a number of popular dances performed for state guests, visitors and the general public at festivals or at restaurants. One is the “Bon-she” or long drum dance featuring two long drums, a pair of cymbals, a bamboo clapper and a “Hne,” a wind instrument similar to an oboe.

The “Ozi” or pot drum dance

includes a drummer who may carry and play from one or many drums, two bamboo clappers, a cymbals player, an oboe player and an “Ozi” dancer usually garbed as a prince or a royal page boy......more at e-books

The music of Myanmar
UNESCO Courier, March, 1992 by Khin Mya Kyu

The music of Burma - now officially known as the Union of Myanmar - is close in spirit to those of the Southeast Asian civilizations of Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. The Indian influence is less perceptible here than in the nation's mythology and religious beliefs, or than in such other arts as the shadow-theatre and dance-drama.

The most complete Burmese instrumental ensemble is the hsaing-waing, which consists basically of a set of from eight to twenty-one drums suspended by leather thongs on a circular rattan frame, and of a circular array of gongs. In addition there may be anything from seven to twelve other instruments, among them oboes, myanmar dance music bamboo clap-sticks, hand-cymbals, flutes and mouth organs, bells, xylophones and zithers. As in all the countries of the region, however, drums and gongs predominate. In traditional orchestras, they come in many shapes and forms: double-headed drums struck with wooden sticks, double-headed horizontal drums played by hand, single-headed pottery drums. The gongs may be flat or bulbous, suspended or supported on wooden frames. Most of these instruments, including the drums, produce an unvarying sound. For that reasons, they normally come in pairs, one for sharp tones and the other for flat.

Burmese musical practice, in which the notes are identified in descending order, resembles that of other Southeast Asian countries: the octave is divided, theoretically, into seven equal intervals. Whatever mode is used to play a melody, the structure of the scale remains the same.

Improvisation plays an important part in traditional Burmese music. Whereas in most parts of the world the instruments of the orchestra are meant to be played in unison, in the traditional Burmese orchestra, instrumentalists start from a common melody but are free to play whatever variations they like, provided they join up with the ensemble from time to time. Sometimes the results could be called "heterophonic", but they do not lack harmony for all that.

In Myanmar, as in the rest of Asia, music is closely linked to the performing arts, notably plays, puppet-shows, shadow theatre, dance-drama and opera. In drama, the Indian influence is preponderant. All the characters, whether heroes or gods, originate in the Ramayana or Mahabharata epics, or in the Jataka, narratives relating episodes from the Buddha's previous incarnations. Performances, which often take place in the open air, may last for several hours, sometimes even for days.

Ancient instruments, modern rhythms

Burmese music has not escaped the contagion of Western pop, which is widely broadcast by the media. Some musicians have tried to create a synthesis by adapting Burmese lyrics to Western rhythms or by performing translated French and English songs to a Burmese backing. This so-called "new music" is a hybrid genre whose artistic value is at best uncertain. But it is popular with the young, and the influence of radio, television and cinema will eventually establish its grip.

Yet Myanmar remains the land of 100,000 pagodas, for each village has at least one monastery and a pagoda. The chimes of bells and metal gongs, carried on the wind, are relayed from community to community in an uninterrupted chain. This music at least will long remain an irreplaceable feature of the Burmese landscape.

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