Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. The Maiden Plays In the Water Overture
2. Lullaby
3. Prasat Wai
4. Royal Lullaby
5. Wind In The Coconut In Trees
6. I've Lost My Chance To Be Your Husband
7. Cherd Nai

Disc 2:

1. Tra Nimitr
2. Maha Nimitr
3. Javanese Suite
4. The Chinese Doctor's Puzzle
5. The Votive Candle (Laotian)
6. The Votive Candle (Toa)
7. Busaba's Votive Candle
8. The Yogin Makes A Fire Sacrifice

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #186268 in Music
• Released on: 1995-03-01
• Number of discs: 2

Album Description
Imagine the inhabitants of the Menam Basin being called to dance and sing by the birds and monkeys, or imagine trying to become familiar with how the traditions of the ancient Indian and Khmer cultures developed. Elders no longer speak the story of how the Thais have lived and dreamed in their land for more than 1,000 years. However, their music does speak through its textures, rhythms and pitches.

Ancient-Contemporary Music from Thailand does not refer to the folk traditions where generations of common experience come together in a music that is obvious and necessary to all who share in that particular life style. Instead this music was created to heal the spiritual wound of either-or-ness and move toward a more humane cultural balance.

This unique balance is achieved through the freedom the musicians have to travel along the melodic path (tang in Thai). The pivotal notes are not fixed but left to the discretion of the player. It must be remembered in Siamese music there is no notational system, it is exclusively an aural tradition. This has a profound influence on the nature of the music.

The first work on the disk is a traditional second level tune dating back to the Ayudhya Period of the 15th century. The disk travels the road leading from traditional to contemporary, bringing with it the standard Western set of drums, both snare and cymbal. This music has achieved great popularity among orchestras throughout the country. Many of the compositions heard here are considered to be part of the standard classical repertoire.

Amazon.com
If the only Thai music you've ever heard is the Westernized pop played in Thai restaurants, this two-CD set will be a revelation. The tunes here, based on folk forms that leave plenty of room for individual interpretation, run the gamut--there are lullabies, ensemble pieces for fiddle, percussion and gong, Thai folk rock tunes that make use of Western drum kit and electric keyboards, and a Thai brass band playing the National Anthem. The erudite notes by Bruce Gaston give you an in-depth look at Thailand's musical history and music theory, as well as helpful hints for listening to the complexities of the music, but you can plunge into the discs without doing the heavy reading and still appreciate them. --j. poet

About the Artist
Boonyong Ketkhong is considered to be one of the greatest masters of the renart or soprano xylophone. His playing has been compared to "the sound of pearls falling on a jade plate". Music compositions by Ketkhong are noted for their highly syncopated rhythms which cause his music to sound unusually modern in idiom.

Bruce Gaston appears on Ancient-Contemporary Music from Thailand as co-founder and music director of the ensemble. He is a university lecturer, composer and performer experimenting with serious music based on the combination of Thai classical instruments and compositional techniques, with electronic sounds and unorthodox approaches to the music-making process. He is recognized as an authority on Thai music.

Customer Reviews

developing "thai ears"
You don't have to be a scholarly music student to appreciate this 2-CD set; rather, by simply being open, mindful and reading the introductory material on Thai music traditions by Bruce Gaston, you can let yourself succumb to the enchantment of this ancient and at the same time very modern music. It is at once as beautiful, exotic and yet recognizable as the profusion of orchids cascading from trees in a Bangkok garden. Be open to the music and develop "Thai ears" to listen with.

For those of us who have spent time in Thailand, it is an aural and textural trip back to paradise.

developing "thai ears"
You don't have to be a scholarly music student to appreciate this 2-CD set; rather, by simply being open, mindful and reading the introductory material on Thai music traditions by Bruce Gaston, you can let yourself succumb to the enchantment of this ancient and at the same time very modern music. It is at once as beautiful, exotic and yet recognizable as the profusion of orchids cascading from trees in a Bangkok garden. Be open to the music and develop "Thai ears" to listen with.

For those of us who have spent time in Thailand, it is an aural and textural trip back to paradise.

Serious Thai music
These CDs are serious!! Not for anyone who searching for easy listening things you've find in many Thai imagse. But you're hearing a compilation pieces of arts which not easily to get along with but it worths to, in my humble opinion these music (not include the westernized pieces which present in these CDs for educational purpose) could compare with the works of great composers like Bach, Marler, Messiaen... to name a few.