page_title: Culture of Thailand
section_title: Music
hierarchical_section_title: Culture of Thailand / Arts / Music
caption_attribution_description: English: Thailand,2008
context_page_description: The culture of Thailand has evolved greatly over time, from its relative isolation during the Sukhothai era, to its more contemporary Ayutthaya era, which absorbed influences from all over Asia. Limited Indian, Chinese, Burmese and other Southeast Asian influences are still evident in traditional Thai culture. Buddhism, Animism and Westernization also play a significant role in shaping the modern culture.
  Thai national culture is identified differently throughout regions in Thailand where it also integrated different regional cultures such as the Lanna, Isan, including Chinese origin, Portuguese origin, Persian origin, and in the reign of King Chulalongkorn in the late-19th century, European trend of nationalism has began to insert greater influence into Thai culture. However, the promotion of civic culture reached its peak after the Siamese revolution of 1932 where series of authoritarian regimes began to insert greater control over people's culture and lifestyles, especially under the regime of Field Marshal Plaek Phibunsongkhram.
context_section_description: The Music of Thailand includes classical and folk music traditions, e.g., Piphat and Mor lam, respectively, as well as Thai pop music, e.g., "String". Thai classical music is synonymous with those stylized court ensembles and repertoires that emerged in its present form within the royal centers of Central Thailand some 800 years ago. These ensembles, while being slightly influenced by older practices and repertoires from India, are today uniquely Thai expressions. While the three primary classical ensembles, the Piphat, Khrueang sai and Mahori differ in significant ways, they all share a basic instrumentation and theoretical approach. Each employ the small ching hand cymbals and the krap wooden sticks to mark the primary beat reference.
  Several kinds of small drums (klong) are employed in these ensembles to outline the basic rhythmic structure (natab) that is punctuated at the end by the striking of a suspended gong (mong). Seen in its most basic formulation, the classical Thai orchestras are very similar to the Cambodian (Khmer) pinpeat and mahori ensembles, and structurally similar to other orchestras found within the widespread Southeast Asian gong-chime musical culture, such as the large gamelan of Bali and Java, which most likely have their common roots in the diffusion of Vietnamese Dong-Son bronze drums beginning in the first century.
  Traditional Thai classical repertoire is anonymous, handed down through an oral tradition of performance in which the names of composers (if, indeed, pieces were historically created by single authors) are not known. However, since the beginning of the modern Bangkok period, composers' names have been known and, since around the turn of the century, many major composers have recorded their works in notation. Musicians, however, imagine these compositions and notations as generic forms which are realized in full in idiosyncratic variations and improvisations in the context of performance.
caption: Schoolgirls and boys playing khrueang sai in front of a temple
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