Here is an interesting article about the introduction of western instruments to Burma.....including slide guitar.
Burmese Music and Dance
Burmese Music and Dance is little known in the United States and yet it is one of the most exciting and versatile performing arts traditions in Asia. From the refined chamber ensembles of the saung gauk (or harp music) to the exuberant dance of the all night Zat Pwe, and the accompanying virtuosic music of the Hsaing Waing (drum circle ensemble) this tradition continues to entice and astound audiences wherever it is performed.
In December 2003, Asia Society and Lotus Music & Dance presented a program of music and dance of Myanmar (Burma) at the Asia Society, New York City. Received enthusiastically by both audiences and critics, this marked the first presentation in New York of a full Hsaing Waing ensemble, featuring performers directly from Myanmar (Burma), since 1975. This web site has been developed in conjunction with this program to provide information and help to develop a greater appreciation for Burmese arts and culture.
Source:
www.asiasource.org/myanmar/program.htmlThe Strange, the Familiar: Foreign Musical Instruments in Myanmar/Burma
Kit Young
Myanmar/Burmese musicians’ use of foreign instruments in the last 150 years has enchanted the ear of many newcomers to the music of lowland Myanmar/Burma. Foreign listeners recognize familiar timbres - piano, violin, mandolin, Hawaiian slide guitar, Chinese lute (byat saun), concertina, euphonium, banjo, trombone -and delight in a totally new character of sound introduced by necessity: the need to adapt these instruments to complement and merge with the Myanmar/Burmese hsaing waing (percussion ensemble which includes the circle of 21 drums known as the pat waing), pattela (xylophone), saung gauk (harp) and hhne (oboe). Each new instrument went through an adaptive evolution which adjusted to the soundscapes of musicians in the Burmese Royal Court (1800’s), the outdoor village theatre known throughout Myanmar/Burma as Za’ Pwe and Na’ Pwes, marionette performances (yokthee pwe) and both silent and sound movies from the 1920’s to the present day.
U Khin Zaw, a pioneering and lively writer on Myanmar/Burmese music described seeing, in the early 1950’s, a Za’ Pwe performance which combined a hsaing waing group on the right hand side of the stage with a piano, violin, clarinet, brass instruments and a jazz trap set on the left hand side of the stage (a practice that is still in use today at outdoor za’ pews. Nowadays, there is an addition of amplification for younger generation rock bands and an introduction of Hip Hop and Rap songs in Myanmar/Burmese which is sometimes accompanied by the hsaing,).
He lovingly describes the blending of instruments: “Would the two mix well? It depended on the discretion with which the mixture was arranged. Tone, resonance, timbre, capacities and limitations of western instruments are quite different from Burmese instruments. The former might have precision, the latter might have grace. Would there be a sensitive understanding of the nature of the different instruments to exploit their use with discretion? Well, I listened to the overture attentively and enjoyed it from beginning to end. And he adds, “ The voluminous statement of the brass was retaliated by the eloquence of the hnai (Myanmar/Burmese oboe). The accents of the piano were echoed by the impact of the drums with gusto. The traps were overwhelmed by the bamboo clappers. If this judicious mixture could be extended to the traditional marionette and modern stage, all would be well.”
Sandaya: The Piano in Myanmar/Burma
The pat waing and pattela players in the court of King Mindon at Mandalay (1850’s-1870’s) took immediately to the piano when it showed up at court as a present from the Italian Ambassador. King Mindon instructed one of his ministers, who was on a fact-finding trip to England, to report on various technological wonders of the West - among which was the piano. The King reputedly was interested in acquiring a piano. (Desai) (Hla Shwe)
Present day pianist and composer U Thein Maung of the Myoma Amateur Musicians’ Association suggests two speculative derivations for the word “Sandaya”. The first being the consequence of an elision of two words in Myanmar/Burmese ‘ se' ’ meaning ‘machine’ and ‘yandaya’ meaning ‘complicated parts’.
Another suggested etymology was offered as “san de wa wa” or ‘feeling around with one’s hands like a blind person’ which was what the court musicians reputedly did in Mandalay and Ava when the piano first arrived. But the musicians quickly regained “sight” as the white keys of the piano became equivalents for the keys of the pattela and the substitute pitches for the drums of the pat waing. One finger of each hand approximated the mallet strikes on a pattela or strokes on the pat waing. Musicians experimented with retuning the white keys to approximate their own familiar raised fourth and lowered seventh degrees making it easier to modulate among the Myanmar/Burmese modes.
A completely unique technique of interlocked fingering with both hands extending a single melodic line allowed for agogic embellishment, fleeting grace notes in syncopated spirals around a steady underlying beat found in the bell and clapper time keepers (si and wa). Rarely, in the early days of sandaya was the keyboard terrain divided into bass-left and treble-right hand configurations.
Immediately heard – as a result of this kinesthetic and aural adaptation – were the textures of quickly-released keys, abrupt entrances, sudden accents and decrescendos of sound delighting Myanmar/Burmese audiences with echoes of the pattela, pat waing and saung gauk. Percussive strikes on the keys were the equivalents of mallet dampening on the pattela or the palm dampening the head of the drum on the putt waing. And all of these textures imitated the expressive techniques (han) of Myanmar/Burmese singing.
At the core of Myanmar/Burmese traditional music is the Mahagita or “Great Music” – a collection of verses and memorized song forms passed through generations for the last three hundred years. The various genres of these songs form a pedagogic tool introducing techniques of embellishment, and arranging melodic patterns in improvised sections known as "Ti Kwe" or "Le' Son" (Becker).
The musical lines tend to be monophonic with occasional supporting intervals (9ths, 4ths, 5ths predominant) at pivotal phrase points. Melodic phrases weave between lower and higher registers of the octave. As more western instruments were folded into a Myanmar/Burmese musical context, their Burmese properties were discovered and quickly developed.
Silent Movies and Home-Grown Accompaniments: Cornets, Violins, Pianos, Banjos, Guitars, Trombones and More!
While we can only speculate on the approximate “arrival” points of western instruments into Myanmar/Burma, it is the “burmanization” of these instruments that we can hear on old recordings and imagine through anecdotal history that becomes a point of fascination for the unaccustomed listener.
The first English silent movie was introduced to audiences in Rangoon around 1915. Burmese studied film techniques and began making silent films. To the accompanimentof a cornet and drum. Burmese musician Ko Oo Kah was a hsaing player for Za’ Pwes who played an upright piano at Myanmar/Burma’s first movie theatre: the Cinema de Paris which stood on the grounds of the current Bogykoke Market in Rangoon. Ko Oo Kah accompanied the first extended Myanmar/Burmese silent film: “Myittha hnit Thuyar” or “Love and Liquor” in 1920.
As the film industry developed in the 1930’s and ‘40’s, more instruments were added to the music ensembles which moved beyond the cornet/drum duo to a duo of violin (tayaw) and piano (sandaya) expanding to a combo of saxophone, trombones, trumpet, Hawaiian guitar, banjo and trumpet playing along with a hsaing waing. When film reels were changed, the ensembles would accommodate more or less numbers of players with flexible improvisation.
More than a few pairs of ears, however, couldn’t adapt to a mix of Myanmar/Burmese and Western instruments and songs. At the Cinema de Paris, all western films were accompanied by two pianists who demanded that the piano be tuned to western tempered tuning. When Myanmar/Burmese films were shown in alternating two week spans, Ko Oo Kah would return the white keys of the piano to Myanmar/Burmese Hne pitches and not use the black keys. The Anglo-Indian pianist, Mr. Robin would arrive later in the week and bitterly complain about how impossibly out of tune the instrument was. The piano was so frequently tuned and “out-of-tuned” that the piano action’s rapid decay escalated an unfixable crisis for lack of spare parts. Ko Oo Kah eventually won out by borrowing the hammer shanks and screws of the black keys and attaching them to the white keys for his sessions accompanying the movies.
As for the sound of the sandaya - regardless of the style in which it was played, some musicians objected to the various musical evolutions surrounding them. Sandaya Sagaing Hla Shwe quotes the famous Myanmar/Burmese singer Daw San Mya Aye Kyi: “The sound from the sandaya is totally different from the pattala and saung gauk which I have preferred since childhood. The sandaya is accented, sharp, hard – just like a foreigner trying to hard to sound like a typical Burmese. I have no heart to sing along with the sandaya.” (Hla Shwe) The Myanmar/Burmese violinists and trombonists, having respectively unfretted Fingerboards and slides, easily adjusted their fingering and ears to whichever style –western or Burmese – was required.
Slide Guitar
The Hawaiian Slide Guitar was introduced to Myanmar/Burma in 1943. Its tunings were immediately changed to accommodate Burmese Thakyin Gyi and popular songs of the time in Myanmar/Burmese style. The six strings were tuned to two sets of C, F and G and the use of strumming minimized while complicated plucking techniques were introduced which made listeners think of the saung gauk (harp). Khi' Haung Thakyin was a genre of popular song from the 1920's to the 1950's which stressed Myanmar/Burmese articulation of the melody and accompaniment rather than a style acquiescing to chord progressions. Saya Ko Kah was the first great virtuoso on the Myanmar/Burmese slide guitar and made many records for the Myanmar/Burmese recording company Columbia.
Continuum
Myanmar/Burmese musicians continue to experiment with new possibilities of scale and sound. Well-known pat waing player U Kyauk Sein likes to try out chromatic passages and modulating chords when he improvises – constantly Leaf Rag’ on the pat waing – temporarily “un-burmanizing” his instrument.
Rap and Hip Hop have afforded some interesting possibilities in changing articulation and focusing on spoken rhythm of Myanmar/Burmese words as a performing alternative to pop ballads. Pioneer Myanmar/Burmese rap performer Myo Kyaw' Myaing enthralls audiences with his imaginative use of Myanmar/Burmese language and it's rhythmic and alliterative potential. He's opened up ears to intentions which may yet see exciting fruition among the improvising of younger players.
Kit Young,
Yangon November, 2003
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Shine On
Michael.
