Unit 2.2

Overview and Learning Outcomes

In this unit, we will follow the efforts of a group of students, faculty and community members in New Paltz, New York who came together under the direction of Kyaw Kyaw Naing, an internationally renowned Burmese musician, to learn to play in a hsaing ensemble.  The materials for this unit include a conversation between Dr. Alex Peh and Alyson Hummer, who discuss the experience of learning under Kyaw Kyaw in the United States and on a trip to Myanmar, the differences between learning Western music and Burmese music, and the overall sensory experience of learning to play music from a different religious and cultural tradition. You will also watch two short films documenting the ensemble’s work with Kyaw Kyaw Naing. Growing Rhythm documents the ensemble’s learning and performance of a piece composed for them by Kyaw Kyaw Naing and Ko Gyi Kyaw documents the ensemble learning and recording Kyaw Kyaw’s arrangement of a piece called Ko Gyi Kyaw (the name of one of the 37 Nats), which is played at the beginning of performances to ask the spirits for success. The second film is also a story of how the ensemble had to adapt under the pandemic.

Learning Outcomes

At the conclusion of this unit, students will be able to:

  1. Identify and describe differences between the learning styles in the Western musical tradition and Burmese oral tradition.
  2. Identify and describe differences between theatrical performances of the music and dance of Burmese spirit mediumship, and ritual performances of spirit mediumship.
  3. Describe the emotional and sensory experiences of American musicians learning to play Burmese ensemble music.

Lecture

Lecture 2.2 – Learning Traditional Music in America and Myanmar (Dr. Alex Peh and Alyson Hummer)


Films

Alyson Hummer and Lauren Meeker. 2019. Growing Rhythm (12:30 min)

This film by Alyson Hummer and Lauren Meeker documents the formation of the first Burmese Hsaing Percussion ensemble in the United States under the direction of Kyaw Kyaw Naing. Naing is the former director of the Burmese National Orchestra. The Naing Ensemble was founded at SUNY New Paltz in 2019 and is composed of faculty, students, and community members.

 

Lauren Meeker and Alyson Hummer. 2021. Ko Gyi Kyaw. (20:07 min)

This film by Lauren Meeker and Alyson Hummer, in collaboration with Kyaw Kyaw Naing, documents the Naing ensemble, the first Burmese Hsaing Percussion ensemble in the United States under the direction of Kyaw Kyaw Naing, acclaimed Burmese pat waing drummer and former director of the Burmese National Orchestra. The film follows as the ensemble learns and records a piece called Ko Gyi Kyaw, whose title is also the name of one of the 37 Nat spirits of the Burmese Nat religion. The piece is played at the beginning of theatrical performances to ask for success and is derived from the music that accompanies Burmese spirit mediumship ceremonies. The piece was originally written a long time ago by a dancer at the Burmese Ministry of Culture, but the rhythm sections were written by Kyaw Kyaw Naing. In the film, Thin Thin Hla, professional dancer and Naing’s wife, dances a theatricalized version of a spirit mediumship dance, the end of which symbolically represents a trance state.

The American ensemble members reflect upon their own relationship to the spirituality of the piece and the accompanying dance, as outsiders to the tradition, and Naing, a devout Buddhist, discusses how he approaches the music as a religious outsider. Through these reflections, the film raises important questions about the relationship between music and spirituality; music and culture; and about how cross-cultural dialog happens through music.

The ensemble was originally scheduled to perform the piece at SUNY New Paltz in Fall 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic changed everyone’s lives. The pandemic pushed the ensemble into a condensed rehearsal schedule; instead of a live performance, they made a recording of the finished piece. The film and filming process reflects these unusual circumstances.

Song Text (Sung by Thin Thin Hla):

12:49 -13:06

To our beautiful Nat Spirits before us, we their spouses raise high our glorious offerings and praise

Each Nat, adorned in golden raiments, longyis and capes of silk and fine linen

14:51 – 15:05

In your arms, embrace the gold visage.
In your arms, embrace the gold visage,
O wandering, (le, le le shint) Embrace the gold visage in your arms
Spin and call out.

15:22 – end

O denizens of Popa, whether mischievous or forebearing, male or female,
Show how strong your power is!

Here! Cold water! Feel how it cools you, delights you, enervates you.

Raising up, lowering down with a palm fan, happy and magical among the Nat Celestials

Placing plates of chicken to honor you, night and day lanterns of light in the golden palace Mountain

In the realm of the stars, ‘til the largest Morning Star shines over our happy golden palace Mountain


Review Questions

  1. What are some of the differences between the way Western and Burmese music are taught? What challenges do they present to the Western trained musician?
  2. How did the American musicians learning with Kyaw Kyaw Naing describe their emotional connection to the music they were learning?
  3. How did the American musicians relate to the spiritual dimensions of the Ko Gyi Kyaw piece that they learned? How did Kyaw Kyaw Naing, a devout Buddhist, describe his relationship to playing spirit mediumship music?