Thai musicology in context: epistemic disparities in Thai and western ways of knowing Thai music

ABSTRACT

Relatively little has been published in English about dontri Thai (Thai classical music) and due to the absence of Thai scholars from English language musicological scholarship, most of what has been published was written by non-Thai scholars who have relied upon terms and concepts developed for explaining music with roots in the European tradition. The importation of extrinsic categories conceals indigenous explanatory models and blocks paths connecting Thai musical performance and thought to other areas of Thai culture and social life. This article frames the silence of Thai voices and their ways of knowing as the epistemological dimension of the colonising enterprise, the effects of which have made their way into Thai universities where they have transformed intellectual life and dontri Thai pedagogy. The disciplinary reorientation suggested here aims towards a pluralist model of musicological thought and method. This will open a space for different ways of musical knowing, creating, and theorising to enter from where they may decentre and reshape Western musicological discourse and practice. A rethink of musicology will help align its disciplinary goals with the aims of addressing equality of representation and allow unheard Thai voices to explain their own music in their own terms.

KEYWORDS:

• Thai music
• Epistemology
• Music theory
• Pedagogy
• Performance
• Decolonisation
• Cross-cultural analysis

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge the support given to this research by Jarun Kanchanapradit and Jatuporn Seemuang at Khon Kaen University, Pornprapit Phoasavadi at Chulalongkorn University, Stuart Grant and Neil McLachlan.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The terms ‘dontri Thai’ and ‘Thai music’ are used strategically when discussing Thai and Western approaches respectively. This aims to distinguish their different approaches to their subject.

2 Tuning, for example, is an established category of musical knowledge that is underpinned by normative assumptions derived from European ideas. When applied to other musics they result in category errors (see Garzoli 2020).

3 Clayton approaches it similarly in observing that ‘structure in music is itself contingent, and needs to be recognized as a discursive artefact’ (2003: 66)

4 Disciplines such as cross-cultural psychology see the processes of classification and categorisation unfolding differently within European and Asian intellectual traditions (Nisbett 2003: 137–155).

5 Mrázek’s (2008) approach draws attention to conceptualisations of energy systems, his personal experiences of exhaustion and physical pain (64), the requirement of an acute sense of bodily spatial awareness, and the necessity of an ‘empty mind’ (68). His work reflects essential aspects of Thai pedagogy, performance, and musical knowledge that are at the centre of the Thai performance-focused musicology.

6 Scholars across a range of disciplines have expressed concern over the imposition of European intellectual models and the displacement of indigenous knowledge. Bryan van Norden (2017), Peter Park (2013), Molefi Kete Asante (2004) and Yoshitaka Miike (2014) have led charges against Eurocentrism in their fields.

7 The first dontri Thai course was at Wittayalai Khru Ban Somdej Chaopraya which offered Bachelor of Music in a specialist Music Department in 1970. The Faculty of Education at Chulalongkorn University inaugurated a Bachelor Music Education in 1973. The Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts at Srinakharinwirot University began a Bachelor of Thai music in 1976 and a Master’s program in Ethnomusicology in 1992. The Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts at Chulalongkorn University inaugurated its program in 1983.

8 Chaisaree observes that ‘Since the influence of foreign culture, particularly Western, has flooded into Thai. It made the formal system of the study and the granting of the degree, to conform to those origins. It makes Thai Music organized into the formal system which is part of internationalism’ (Chaisaree, 1994: 1). “แต่เมื่อกระแสวัฒนธรรมจากพาหิรประเทศ โดยเฉพาะทางตะวันตกบ่าท่วมเข้ามาจนมีการเรียนการสอนอย่างเป็นระบบรูปแบบ และมีการประสาทปริญญา ลัทธิคล้อยตามก็บังเกิดขึ้น พาให้ดนตรีไทยต้องจัดตนเองให้เข้าระบบอันยอมรับกันว่าเป็นสากลนิยม” (พิชิต ชัยเสรี, 2537: 1).

9 This separation is exemplified in the use of the terms khru, which is the title traditionally given to teachers and which carries important cultural implications and power, and ajarn, which is a less prestigious term given to university workers.

10 These were originally used for teaching bachelor degree students but were later incorporated into the Master’s program at Chulalongkorn University. They became the basis for his later book but the original notes still circulate among teachers.

11 The Thai translation: “เมื่อว่าตามความเป็นจริง ทฤษฎีและปฏิบัติในดนตรีไทยนั้น มิได้แยกกันชัดเจนจนถึงขนาดจะศึกษาเล่าเรียนไปโดยลำพังอย่างใดอย่างหนึ่งไม่ ที่แท้นั้นก็เป็นดังเช่นศิลปะตะวันออกทั้งหลาย ซึ่งมีอัตลักษณ์เป็นเอกภาพกลมกลืนจากใจสู่ใจ จากครูสู่ศิษย์โดยไม่อาศัยตัวกลาง” (พิชิต ชัยเสรี 2537: 1) (Chaisaree 1994: 1).

12 Music is not alone in this regard. Western ideas in other fields similarly fail to permeate into Thai intellectual life (see Thanes 2010).

13 การดนตรีไทยและทางเข้าสู่ดนตรีไทย

14 Thai spelling การประพันธ์เพลงไทย

15 Of the major dontri Thai schools in universities, Khon Kaen and Naresuan Universities use both Chaisaree’s and Wisuttipat’s texts, Thaksin University uses Chaisaree’s, Burapha University previously used Wisuttipat’s but now uses Chaisaree’s, Ban Somdej Chaophraya previously used Sa ngad’s but now uses Wisuttipat’s and Chaisaree’s.

16 Notation is only used by string and wind players. Piphat performers learn from memory. The use of notation as learning aid has been historically contentious as it contradicts the idea that music must be learned directly from a teacher and its critics blame it for the decline in students’ ability to memorise songs (see Uthit 1968).

17 Chaisaree considers luk tok ‘obligatory’ melodic notes because the various thang of the individual ensemble members should converge at these points.

18 The version of Satukhan by Luang Bamruang Jitjareun that is taught at Chulalongkorn University is different to the version taught to students in the Pattayakoson tradition.

19 Satukhan is performed during the wai khru ceremony and at the beginning of three special overtures called Homrong Chao (morning overture), Homrong Klang Wan (afternoon overture) and Homrong Yen (evening overture).

20 Pali is the source language of numerous Thai musical terms.

Additional information

Funding

John Garzoli was funded by The Australian Government’s ‘Endeavour Postdoctoral Research Fellowship’ and a ‘Visiting International Scholar Fellowship’ from Khon Kaen University.

Notes on contributors

John Garzoli

John Garzoli holds a PhD in ethnomusicology from Monash University. He is a Research Affiliate at Khon Kaen and Monash universities. His research involves traditional and contemporary Thai music, culture, history and politics as well as Western pedagogy, intercultural musical synthesis, and jazz. He is a recipient of the ‘Prime Minister’s Asia Endeavour Award’, the ‘Endeavour Post-doctoral Research Fellowship’, the ‘Chulalongkorn University ENIT’s Research Fellowship’, the DFAT-ATI ‘Artist in Residence’ award, and the 2019 Chulalongkorn University ‘Artist in Residence’ fellowship. Recent publications include: ‘Competing Epistemologies of Tuning, Intonation and Melody in the Performance of Thai Classical Music on Non-Fixed-Pitch Instruments’ (2020), ‘The Thai Lao—Thailand's largest unrecognized transboundary national ethnicity’ (2019), ‘Music, the media and the Thai state following the death of King Bhumibol: Popular music’s role in orchestrating certainty in Thailand’s existential crisis’ (2019) and ‘Improvisation, Thang, and Thai Musical Structure’ (2018).

Tharanat Hin-on

Tharanat Hin-on is an Assistant Professor of Thai Music at the Department of Music and Performing Arts in the Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts, Khon Kaen University where he is Head of School. He has a Bachelor of Education in Music Education and Master of Arts in Thai Music. His thesis was titled ‘Royal court music of celebratory ceremony for the newborn princes and princesses’. He has published on Thai string pedagogy and on Thai music education. He is currently researching the history of gramophone records in Thailand and the history of dramatic form of musical theatre known as lakorn rawng from the reign of King Rama V until the reign of King Rama VII.