CFP – for a Panel at the ICTM 2019

Call for Papers for a panel at the 45th ICTM world conference held from 11th to 17th July 2019 at Chulalongkorn University, Thailand “Burmese Music” Continuity and Change in Myanmar’s Performing Arts Lorenzo Chiarofonte (School of Oriental and African Studies University of London, UK) Friedlind Riedel (Bauhaus University Weimar, Germany) In Myanmar performing…

Paper on the tuning of the Pat Waing by Rolf Bader

Finite-Difference model of mode shape changes of the Myanmar pat wain drum circle using tuning paste Rolf Bader Proc. Mtgs. Acoust. 29, 035004 (2016); (Full Published Online: May 2017 Accepted: February 2017) https://doi.org/10.1121/2.0000450  ABSTRACT The pat wain, a unique drum circle found in Myanmar is investigated in terms of its tuning. The 21 drums are pitched, where tuning is…

5th Symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Performing Arts of Southeast Asia

The 5th Symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Performing Arts of Southeast Asia (PASEA) 16-22 July 2018 Hosted by the Department of Sabah Museum, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. Three papers at least discuss music traditions of Myanmar: Lorenzo Chiarofonte – “Burmese Marionettes Performances for Tourists: Preserving, Reviving or Continuing…

Memories of Burmese Rohingya Refugees: Music and Art as Symbols of Identity and Everyday Resistance

Kazi Fahmida Farzi analyses #music as informal #resistance in her “critical analysis of the #Rohingya refugees’ identity building processes and how this is closely linked to the state-building process of Myanmar as well as issues of marginalization, statelessness, forced migration, exile life, and resistance of an ethnic minority. With a focus on the ethnic minority’s…

Music transcriptions of recordings made in 1911 in Burma

Kurt Reinhard. 1939. Die Musik Birmas. Würzburg: Konrad Triltsch. Download the musical transcriptions by Kurt Reinhard of music recordings by Lucian and Christine Schermann from 1911 Burma. This is an excerpt of his dissertation on music in Burma that is based on the Schermann collection of phonograms as well…

Interview on Myanmar Ethnomusicology by the ျမန္မာ့ယဥ္ေက်းမႈသုေတသနအသင္း

Watch the entire series of videos here

Seminar on Performing Arts in Southeast Asia, By Francesca Billeri, Lorenzo Chiarofonte

“Changes in Action: New Technologies, Media and Transformations in Contemporary Southeast Asian Performing Arts” 15th May 2017 SOAS Room G52 Francesca Billeri, Lorenzo Chiarofonte This seminar comes from the idea of exploring the ongoing processes of modernisation of Southeast Asian oral traditions: recent diffusion of technological and mass-media is affecting traditional…

Music activism with Saw Phoe Kwar in Myanmar’s war zones

Saw Phoe Kwar invests in future politics by teaching his reaggea songs of peace to the youth. “I ask them: Who is responsible for this, ? The government? The police? No you and me!”

Lorenzo Chiarofonte on “Music for the Amay Gyan Nat”

We would like to announce a talk by Lorenzo Chiarofonte, Ethnomusicologist and currently enrolled as PhD student at SOAS Music for the Amay Gyan Nat (Spirit): Song, Dance and Gender in Burmese Nat Pwe Ceremonies International Gender Studies Centre, Oxford University Thursday 9th of February, 2pm to 3.30pm in the…

Kit Young: Conference on the Mahagita

Conférence du CASE KIT YOUNG Pianist-Improviser-Composer-Scholar Singing and Playing The Royal Classical Canon of Burmese Music: The Mahagita 6 January 2017 10h-12h – EHESS– 198 avenue de France, 75013 Paris – salle 638 The Mahagita, a compendium of song texts from the Burmese royal court starts with a genre…

New: Burmese Sheet Music

In an effort to standardise “Burmese music” making, the Ministry of Union Culture released several notated versions of classical musical pieces.

New: Gallery of Historical Images of Musik Making in Burma

New Page on the WAING website with a collection of historical photographs, prints, drawings and paintings of music making in Burma

New! A Myanma Book Galery

We have a New Myanma Book Gallery on our page. We can already provide you with PDF’s of some of the books. Such as လူထုေဒၚအမာ – ျမန္မာ့မဟာဂီတMyanmar Mahagita and ေဒၚျသဘာေသာင္းအေျကာင္း. Please contact us if you have a pdf of any of the books. Find out more here

New Publication: The Historic Bells of Yangon

The Historic Bells of Yangon Khin Maung Nyunt, 2016 Department of Historical Research and national Library, Yangon University If you have a copy or would even like to write a review, please contact us! ဒီလရသမွ်ထဲမွာအေက်နပ္ဆံုးစာအုပ္တစ္အုပ္ ရန္ကုန္ေခါင္းေလာင္းမ်ားသမိုင္းေ ဒါက္တာခင္ေမာင္ညြန္႕

Exhibition: Unfaded Splendor – Contemporary Development and Multiple Representations of Myanmar/ Burmese Classical Music

Unfaded Splendor | Contemporary Development and Multiple Representations of Myanmar/ Burmese Classical Music Organizer: Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica Curator: Tasaw Hsin-Chun Lu Exhibition Duration: Sep 16, 2015 –Nov 30, 2016 Unfaded Splendour is a groundbreaking exhibition on classical music in Myanmar by Tasaw Lu who tells the inherently transnational story…

Voice of Burmese Poetry: ko ko thett

The Voice of Burmese Poetry: ko ko thett Monday, October 17, 2016 – 6:00pm to 7:30pm Postle Hall 1184 (305 W 12th Ave) The Department of East Languages and Literatures and EASC will host a public talk and performance by ko ko thett, an internationally known poet from Myanmar…

Kit Young for the Myanmar Times

Ignoring particulars: Music and Society in Myanmar By Kit Young   |   Myanmar Times  |  Thursday, 29 September 2016 “Deep listening acknowledges another voice, not the echo of our own, and navigating other languages of movement between sound and silence. The particulars of another music not only enrich experience but…

Panel on Music at the Burma Studies Conference

Music’s Cymbals and Symbols  Panel at the Burma Studies Conference 2016 in DeKalb, Illinois. Friday 7th of October | 12:45 – 02:40 p.m | NIU DeKalb, Holmes Student Centre, Room: Capital North, more information here. Find the abstracts in the conference’s book of abstracts. Gavin Douglas Buddhist Soundscapes: Dhamma Instruments…

New Book on Music about colonial Burma

Burma, Kipling, and Western Music The Riff from Mandalay Routledge Research in Music |  ISBN: 978-1138125087 For decades, scholars have been trying to answer the question: how was colonial Burma perceived in and by the Western world, and how did people in countries like the United Kingdom and United States…

Article on Copy-Pop-Music by SAM STUBBLEFIELD

A Song By Any Other Name in The Irrawaddy  “Copy thachin songs are musical covers, but the Burmese language lyrics are new creations and may carry a totally different meaning to the original lyrics.  The act of “localizing” and bringing new significance to foreign musical compositions with Burmese language…