Good stuff, new and old

I have two exciting events to report on from this week: one new and innovative, and one completely traditional. The first was a benefit concert for the environment that took place on Sunday at the Thailand Cultural Center Small Hall, called "The Classical Elements: Earth Water Air Fire". What was particularly exciting and memorable about it for me was that it featured all new works by Thai composers, some of whom I'd already met and interviewed, and others that I'd heard of and got to meet after the performance. The group is pictured on stage above, during a brief talk before the performance (from left to right,  Anothai Nitibhon, Jiradeth, Denny Euprasert, and Prince). Each composer's style is completely different, and the works premiered showed this. 

"Earth" was covered by Prince. His piece for saxophone, cello, and percussion was atonal and moody, defined by rhythmic pulses, with no hint of a melody emerging until the third movement. Denny Euprasert's "Water" was a slow, reflective piece for marimba, cello, and piano, marked by jazzy chord changes and the occasional hint of a pentatonic Thai melody. Anothai composed "Air" for shakuhachi, percussion, harp, viola, and piano, and the work was accompanied by a dancer. The instruments were split in two groups facing each other on the stage, with the dancer, Terry Hatfield, maneuvering in the middle. The harpist was set on a platform in the middle of the audience. Very high concept stuff, but it worked. The shakuhachi, a Japanese bamboo flute, dominated the soundscape with the prepared piano behind it, and the overall effect was eery, especially with the half-naked, powdered dancer writhing about in a sort of death-dance in the middle. There was something of a surprise ending that I can't really describe, but it was very powerful. Jiradeth's piece, "Fire", brought the evening to a close and left the audience stunned. Written for saxophone and computer, the performer is engaged in a sort of electronic dialogue throughout. I don't know how it worked, but basically the saxophonist was making all sorts of fluttery, breathy, bodily function type noises on his instrument and the computer would react with a sound of its own. Or was it vice-versa? I don't know, but it was extremely cool. The performer was excellent. As I said earlier, each piece was very different in style, the sign of a healthy composition scene here in Bangkok. It was great to see the house full; with a ton of students out to support their teachers and many other composers along to keep tabs on their colleagues, the vibes were great all around. 

Yesterday was the more traditional event: a wai khru ceremony at the Royal Thai Navy School of Music. The wai khru at its simplest is when a musician formally becomes the student of a particular master. This happened recently between me and my teacher. I brought him the traditional offering of a silver bowl, a white towel, candles, incense, flowers, and 12 bath, and in return, he wrote a power sign on my forehead and communicated that he accepts me as his student as long as I continue along the path of goodness set by previous teachers and musicians. During this type of wai khru, it is also common for a musician to be guided through the first measures of the Sathukan, an important Buddhist piece that opens the Evening Overture, on the khong wong yai [large gong circle]. By comparison, the ceremony at the Navy was much more large scale and thus less a personal initiation (in Catholic terms, it felt sort of like a combination of Christmas mass, my first communion, and confirmation). There are many variations on the wai khru ceremony, but it is always a means of paying respect to music teachers [khru] "living, dead, and divine", in the words of Buddhist scholar Deborah Wong. 

Getting to partake in this ceremony at the Royal Thai Navy School of Music was very lucky. A friend who used to work at the school offered to take me, and I jumped at the opportunity. At first, it involved a series of invocations that were alternated with music played by the Navy's famous piphat ensemble. This went on for almost three hours before the leader of the ceremony--a highly regarded musician who was granted this position by the king--began the blessing of the instruments, which were all displayed beautifully on the stage, Thai and Western alike. After the blessing of the instruments and musical interjections from a student brass quintet and student string quartet, the offerings/blessings began. First, prominent officials went up on stage for this (see picture above), and then regular officials, musicians, and students got to get in line and wait their turn (that's me, below, during the last step of my offering/blessing, for lack of more accurate Buddhist terminology). 

Words are failing me because I don't understand everything that happened. All I can say is that it was incredibly moving. One of the things I have been most in awe of during my time studying Thai music is the respect shown for teachers and the instruments themselves. Just the display on stage yesterday gave me chills, it was so beautiful to see all of the instruments draped in flowers, with offerings of fish, meat, and fruit spread out before them. I've said this before on this blog, but it was an experience I won't soon forget.