British Forum for Ethnomusicology

Thai Music in Java, Javanese Music in Thailand: Two Case Studies

Author(s): David W. Hughes
Source: British Journal of Ethnomusicology, Vol. 1 (1992), pp. 17-30
Published by: British Forum for Ethnomusicology
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VOL.1 BRITISH OFE-THNOMUSICOLOGY
JOURNAL 1992

Thai music in Java,

Javanese music in Thailand:
two case studies

David W. Hughes

Thailand and Java share a large numberof basic musical traits, yet a contrastive study of
settings of the same melody in each country's style can highlight what is distinctive about
those styles. Such "contrastiveanalysis" is applied to two pairs of melodies: the Javanese
gamelan piece Ladrang Siyem, derived in 1929 from a Western-influenced Thai tune
SanrasoenPhra Barami;andthe Thai piece YawaKao, an adaptationof the gamelan piece
LadrangBima Kurda.Variationwill be noted in parameterssuch as tuning,macrostructure,
phrase structure,polyphonic treatment,melodic disjunction,and overall degree of absorp-
tion. Whereasthe borrowedThai piece was almost totally converted into typical gamelan
performancestyle, the Thais continueto treatthe Javanesepiece as a foreignborrowing.

Introduction
This paper introduces two examples demonstrating how the musicians of
ThailandandJava have reactedto, absorbedand adaptedeach other's music. It is
intendedas a first small step in an eventual largercooperativestudy of histor-
ical, culturaland musicologicalaspectsof musical interactionbetween these two
cultures.1
Such a study should be placed within the larger research context of cross-
culturalmusical interactionin general.There seems to be no limit to the ways in
which cultures react to external musical elements. Sometimes only musical
instrumentsare borrowed,without any absorptionof the original music; other
times, conversely, only a melody is taken and played on the instrumentsof the
borrowing culture. Sometimes it is only a rhythm, sometimes only a polyphonic

1 The presentpaperis also cooperativein origin. It was AnantNarkong,then a researchstudentat

SOAS and now teaching at ChulalongkomUniversity, who first alertedme to the examples dis-
cussed here and who providedThai recordingsand references.Any blame for misinterpretationsof
these datamust, alas, rest with me.

17

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18 vol. 1 (1992)
BritishJournalof Ethnomusicology,

technique, sometimes a tuning system that is adopted. The reasons for

borrowingare also diverse, often involving motives other than aesthetic ones;
thus the JapaneseadoptedWesternmusic as the standardin their schools in the
1870s, not because they preferredit, but because they believed this would help
them catch up with the West economically and politically. The mechanismsof
borrowing are also varied and can operate in either wartime or peacetime. In
earliercenturiesin mainlandSoutheastAsia, for example, the court musiciansof
a defeated kingdom would often be absorbedinto the court of the conquering
power (cf. Morton 1976: ch. 1); since the balance of power shifted frequently,
the classical musical systems of what are now Thailand,Laos, Cambodiaand
Burmacame to sharemost of theirbasic features.
Here is a simple, concreteEast Asian exampleof some factorsinfluencingthe
treatmentof externalmusical features.A boat-rowingsong from western Japan,
"HiradoBushi", migratedto Korea, perhapsearly in this century, where it is
known as "Baet Norae" ("Boat Song"). The Koreans adopted the original
melody almost without change, which was unproblematicsince the particular
Japanese scale used in that song was also known in Korea-the standard
"anhemitonic pentatonic". The metre of the song, however, was changed
significantly.The Japaneseversion was in a 2/4 metre, but virtuallyall Korean
folk songs are in triple metre. The Korean singers, apparentlyunconsciously,
re-interpretedthe melody in triplerhythm.Now when similar songs move from
westernJapansouthwards,to the Japaneseisland of Okinawa,a differentchange
occurs. Duple metreis commonin Okinawaas in mainlandJapan,so thereis no
need to alter the metre. But the most common scale in Okinawa has a very
different interval structure from the anhemitonic pentatonic, and Okinawan
singers-again unconsciously-tend to re-interpretJapanesemelodies into their
own favouritescale: C-E -F-G-BLbecomes C-E-F-G-B.
When a melody has been borrowed,as in the above case, a contrastivestudy
of the setting-the treatmentor use-of that melody in its original land and in
its new home should help reveal what is distinctive about melodic treatmentin
each of the two cultures. But often, instead of direct borrowing,we have only
an imitation of the style, in which certain features are exaggerated and given
more prominence than they have in their native land; in that case, we learn
which featuresof the foreign music seemed most distinctiveto the imitators.For
example, Westernerstrying to imitate Chinese music tend overwhelmingly to
use pentatonic scales, parallel fifths in the harmonies, and a pinched, high-
pitched, nasal vocal quality-features which are indeed found in some Chinese
musical genres, but not by any means in all. Parallel fifths are also commonly
used by composers imitatingthe music of the Native American Indians;in this
case, however, they are in error, for parallel fifths are never found in Native
Americanmusic except in accidentalpolyphony.This remindsus thatimitations
of musical features are not always mere exaggerations, they are sometimes
simply wrong.
Musical borrowing between Thailand and Java takes place against the
backdropof a large numberof sharedbasic traits, since both regions belong to

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 Hughes:Thaimusicin Java,Javanesemusicin Thailand 19

the South East Asian "gong-chime culture" area.2 This culture area is
characterizedby the frequentpresence of ensembles centredaroundpercussion
and featuring gong-chimes-sets of small knobbed gongs treated as a single
instrument,such as the Thai kh6ng wong gong circles and Central Javanese
bonang double-row chimes. The music played by these ensembles is generally
structuredaccording to the principle of polyphonic stratification, in which
several layers of vocal and instrumentalsound with various melodic densities
relate, with various degrees of improvisationalfreedom, to the same melodic
framework. (This is a specialised case of heterophony, the simultaneous
variationof a melody by several performers,each in a fashion idiomaticfor the
instrumentor voice in question.)Thereis some uncertaintyin Thailandand Java
as to how to locate this "framework".In Thailand,the large gong-chime kh6ng
wong yai is commonly considered to be playing the most basic version of the
melody. In Java today, a "skeleton"(balungan)melody is recognized,is notated
in tune collections, and is often played on some membersof the saron family of
melodic metallophones.In both countries, however, only the pitches at certain
key points in the rhythmiccycles of these "basic"melodies serve to structurethe
melodic choices of the other strata.This layeringresults, accordingto Debussy,
in "a type of counterpointby comparisonwith which thatof Palestrinais child's
play" (quoted in Lockspeiser 1962:115). Debussy's remark, rather than
demeaningPalestrina,insteadreflects the extremedifficulty which an untrained
listener often encountersin locating any melody at all among layers of sound
which are coordinatedvertically only every several beats, as in Thailand and
Java. The principalmoment of coordination,of melodic convergence, is at the
end of a rhythmic cycle. In Java this moment is marked by a stroke on the
largest gong, for which reason each such cycle is called a gongan; in Thailand,
the rhythmic cycles tend to be shorterand less clearly marked at the end. In
both cases melodies are predominantlystrophic,so that sections of the melody
are repeated before perhaps going on to new material; this is an almost
invariablelaw in Java but less dominantin Thailand.
Preparatoryto discussing the two case studies, let us note a few specific
differences in performancepractice in the Thai and Javanese court traditions.
First, most Javanesepieces include a shortsolo introductionspecific to the piece
prior to beginning the first cycle of the melody, whereas Thai pieces do not.
Second, vocal and instrumentalsections alternatein Thai pieces, performingthe
same melody successively, but in Java the vocalists often sing simultaneously
with the instruments and perform a quite different version of the melody.
Third, the Thai and Javanese tuning systems are significantly different from
each other and from Westerntuning(see below). Fourth,in termsof polyphonic
stratification, Thai ensembles feature basically only two levels of melodic
density (the kh6ng wong yai at one level with all other instrumental lines

2 Convenientshortintroductions
to the musicsof this regioncan be foundin the New Grove
dictionaryof musicandmusicians(Sadie1980)undercountryentriessuchas "Southeast Asia",
"Thailand"and "Indonesia".Longer introductorystudies include Morton 1976 and Sorrell 1990.
See also Hood 1975.

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20 BritishJournalof Ethnomusicology,
vol. 1 (1992)

approximatelytwice as dense), while the gamelan featuresmany more. Finally,

each traditionfeatures a named formal procedure(thao in Thailand,irama in
Java) for augmentationand diminution of the rhythmic cycle, with the basic
melody stretched or compressed to fit; Morton (1976:3) has called this
"telescopicvariation".In Thailandthe melody is graduallycompressed,while in
Java the reverse is most often true (cf. Becker 1980).

From Thailand to Java

At the Central Javanese court in Surakarta it has been customary to
commemorateimportantstate events, such as the visit of a foreign dignitary,by
composinga new piece for gamelanorchestra,or at least a new poem to be sung
to an existing melody.3Sometimesthe title of the new compositionwould reflect
the origins of the visitor. There are several items in the gamelan repertoire
whose titles suggest such a foreign orientation,some of which are known to
have been createdfor state occasions. Two pieces which seem to refer to Thai-
land are Gendhing Bangkok (Mloyowidodo 1976:3.61) and GendhingSiyem
(ibid:3.45). References to the Netherlandsoccur in pieces such as Gendhing
Nederland (ibid:3.68), Gendhing Sri Nassau (Warsadiningrat1987:158) and
LadrangOranyeNassau (ibid:156). These pieces apparentlyvary considerably
in age; indeed, some are now lost from the repertoire,and none of the above-
mentionedpieces are commonlyperformed.Perhapsfuturestudy will show that
some such pieces are based on non-Javanese,importedmelodies, while others
were written in imitation of the style of a foreign music rather than actually
using a borrowedmelody. At present, however, only the single piece to be
discussedbelow has been tracedto a Thai antecedent.
Let us now considermusical events connectedwith threevisits by Thai kings
to Java. In 1896, when King Chulalongkorn(Rama V) visited the court of
Surakarta, a new text was supplied for a traditional tune (Warsadiningrat
1987:154), but neitherthe text nor the music containedany Thai elements. King
Chulalongkornvisited again in 1901 to presenta medal to his counterpartand
friend,SultanPakuBuwono X, and this time a gamelanpiece called Sri Minulya
was composed in honourof the visit (ibid:156).However, this piece was only a
re-workingof an existing gamelanmelody bearingan appropriatelyroyal title,
Ladrang Raja, ratherthan being a totally new composition;there is nothing at
all Thai aboutit.
In 1929, though,a more significantmusical event occurred.Upon the visit of
King Prachatipok(RamaVII) and his wife, a melody called LadrangSiyem was
composed;Siyem of course means Siam. This particularpiece was indeed based
on a Thai melody, one of the best known of all and a very appropriatechoice

3 Thetermforsuchcommemorative
creationsis panembrama.
See Warsadiningrat
1987:153ffand
Sumarsam1992:193-5,402-6.

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 Hughes:Thaimusicin Java,Javanesemusicin Thailand 21

for the occasion: Sanrasoen Phra Barami,4"Song to Honourthe King". It was

composed for King Chulalongkornin the late 19th centuryby Prince Narit Sara
Nuwatdiwong.Let us comparethese two versions.5
In its Thai version (fig. 1, upperstaff), the melody seems basically European
in style, with only tracesof Thai melodic movement.It was apparentlyintended
from the first to be performedon Western instruments.The standardpresent-
day setting, as heardat close of broadcastday on some Thai television channels,
is for Western-style band with mixed chorus and typical Western harmonies.
The piece is also often played on traditionalinstruments,but the overall phrase
structureis sufficiently irregularthat traditionalpercussion patternscannot be
used (A. Narkong, pers. comm.). In a version for large mahori ensemble
(provided on tape by A. Narkong), the degree of heterophonic variation-
divergence of melody in different parts-is far less than in a normal Thai
classical performance.
The Javanese version6keeps much of the basic melodic outline (fig. 1, lower
staff). The similaritiesare partly disguised in my transcriptionby two factors.
First, I have chosen to notate the Thai and Javanese versions in different key
signaturesto remindus of the differencein tuningsystems, which is discussedin
more detail in a moment.Had I notatedJavanese pitches 5 and 1 as F# and B
rather than as G and C respectively (the choice is largely arbitrary), the
melodies would appear more similar in some places but less so in others.
Second, in bars 2 and 6 the Javanesebasic melody has some extra notes. These
are clearly imitations of the instrumentalfillers, based on a D-major chord, in
the Westernbandarrangementwhich must have been the model for the Javanese
version. I have not notatedthese in the Thai version because they are not partof
the vocal melody and are clearly consideredsubsidiaryby the Thais; the Javan-
ese adapters,however, unfamiliarwith the piece and the style, perhapsdid not
discriminatebetween melody and filler.
There are, however, a numberof more importantdifferences resulting from
the fact that the melody is being treated as a typical traditionalpiece of the
Javaneseformal category ladrang. In otherwords, insteadof tryingto imitate a
performanceby Thai musicians, the Javanese borrowedonly the melody, then

4 ForThairomanization, I followtheCornellLibrarysystemas usedin Morton1976(theprimary

Western-language publication on Thaimusic),withthe followingsimplifications:
tonesandlong
vowelsarenotmarked;"openo" is shownas 6; andthehighfrontroundedvowelis shownas G.
Morton'sglossarygivesthetones,vowellengthandThaiwritingformanyof thetermsusedhere.
5 Sumarsam (1992:405-6)presentsthemelodiesof thesetwoversionsin a comparative score,but
he seemsto haveomittedfourbarsfromthemiddleof theThaiversion.It is possible,buthighly
unlikely,thatthe "Thaimarchingband"on his recordedsource(PlayasoundPS33512)omitted
thesebars.Also, all highC's on thosepagesshouldbe re-writtenas B's. - FortheThaiversion,I
workedfroma recordingfor WesternbandandchorustakenfromThaitelevision(performers
unknown),plus a mahoriversionby the ThaiFine ArtsDepartment. The versionof Ladrang
Siyemtranscribed in figure1 is fromLokanantacassetteACD14,butthereammanyvariants.
6 Warsadiningrat(1987:160)mentionsthathe himselfwasoneof thefourcomposersof Ladrang
Siyem(he wasthen43 yearsold).Oddly,he saysnothingaboutthemelodyhavinga Thaimodel.

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22 vol. 1 (1992)
BritishJournalof Ethnomusicology,

Fig. 1 SanrasoenPhra Barami(upperstaff) and LadrangSiyem (lower staff).

Javanese pitches 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 have been notatedfor convenienceas C, D, E, G,
A, and the Thaipiece has been transcribedat a similarpitch level.

N P N P

Ji
N P I I P
[ZU- G'N r

i
. i I I I
..' . . ,• ,, , , ,

N P N P G/N N

P P G/N

"translated"it into the standardperformancestyle for CentralJavanesegamelan

music. Let us considerthe natureof the translation.
First, the Javanese regularized the phrase structure. As adumbrated above,
Javanese pieces are almost invariablystructuredinto four-barphrases, and the
total number of bars in a rhythmic cycle (gongan) will be some multiple of this
by a power of two (8, 16, 32, ... bars). Since the Thai version consists of 22
bars, the Javanese were forced to add two bars (the third and fourth bars from
the end) in order to treat it as three eight-bar gongan.7

7 The lettersN, P andG abovethe staffrepresentthe instruments kenong,kempuland gong,

whichsoundto markthemoreimportant melodicpositionsin the Javaneserhythmiccycle.G is
the"strongest" N thenext.
positionrhythmically,

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 Hughes:Thaimusicin Java,Javanesemusicin Thailand 23

Second, the Javanesehave addedan introduction(buka), as usual in gamelan

compositions. This introduction(not shown in fig. 1) is in effect an abstraction
of the final bars of the piece. Since those final bars include the two new
measuresadded in Java, it is not surprisingthat AnantNarkongfinds it hardto
hearany connectionbetween this bukaand the originalThai melody.
Third, the normal Javanese approachto polyphonic stratificationhas been
applied, in which the original melodic line undergoes considerable variation,
often highly formulaic but in ways unique to each instrument or voice.
Characteristicallydivergent from the original melody in this arrangementare
the parts performed by the female solo vocalist (sindhinan), male chorus
(girongan) and end-blownflute (suling), as shown in figure 2.
Fourth,as mentionedabove, the Thai and Javanesetuning systems are differ-
ent. Thai classical ensembles are tunedto an approximatelyequiheptatonicscale,
i.e. with seven nearlyequal steps in the octave, each somewhatless thana West-
ern major second. (Actually, SanrasoenPhra Barami was apparentlyoriginally
composed for Westerninstruments,althoughmost Thais would surely have no
troublerecognising it in the traditionalThai tuning.)The Javaneseversion uses
the sldndro tuning, one of two common Javanesetuning systems. Although the
precise intervalsof slindro are not fixed and can vary considerablyin different
ensembles, each of the five steps per octave will be somewherebetween a West-
ern majorsecond and minorthird.The matchbetween Thai tuningand Javanese
slindro is thereforequite poor. Even if they had wished to adoptthe Thai tuning
for this particularpiece, the Javanesehad little choice--unless they wished to go
throughthe laboriousprocess of re-tuningthe entire gamelan with its dozens of
bronze gongs and keys. To learn to sing or play the fiddle in a quite different

Fig. 2 One phrase of Ladrang Siyem showing (top to bottom) saron,

girongan, sindhdnanand sulingparts; the latter two are rubato. Shown a half-
step lower than recorded.
.=34
P N P G/N

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24 BritishJournalof Ethnomusicology,
vol. 1 (1992)

tuning system is also very difficult. So one element in the translationof this
piece from Thailand to Java was a change of tuning. Moreover, whereas the
Thai piece uses seven pitches to the octave, the Javanesesldndro tuning allows
only five.8 As a result, both the C# and the B of the Thai version are translated
as Javanese pitch 1 (notated here as C), while Thai F# and G both become
Javanese pitch 5 (G). No such radical transformation was necessary in
converting from Western to Thai instruments,since the original melody only
used seven pitches per octave as in the Westerndiatonicscale and the traditional
Thai scale.
A final differenceis in the treatmentof octave disjunctions.In both Thai and
Javanese traditionalmusic, many instrumentsemploy only a very restricted
pitch range, often little more thanan octave. If the intendedmelody exceeds this
range, the performersimply transposesa note or passage up or down an octave
while still "thinking"or "hearing"it in its intendedrelation to adjacent notes.
An example is at bar 8, where the Javanesemelodic instrumentsgenerallylack a
high D (= Javanesepitch 2) and must thereforetransposethe D down an octave.
Since Thai music employs the same technique,perhapsthe resultingdifferences
are not perceived as significant.Westerners,however,reserve this techniquefor
"emergencies",as when a vocal part exceeds one's range, and consider it bad
practice.9
The result of these variouschanges is that a Thai audience hearingLadrang
Siyem for the first time is unlikely to recognise it as their beloved Sanrasoen
Phra Barami. So it proved, at least, when I played a commercialrecordingof
the piece for the musiciansand musicologistsat the conferencementionedin the
Acknowledgements.Only on the second hearingcould most of them discern the
connection---despitemy having alertedthemin advance.
It must be noted also that the melody of LadrangSiyem is somewhatunusual
for a gamelan composition. For example, most gamelanpieces proceed largely
in even note values: typically one expects a steady succession of crotchets
(quarternotes), as found here only in bar 11. Thai classical compositions show
much more durationaldiversity, so the originalpiece is less unusualin a Thai
context. Aside from that, many melodic passages, such as bar 2, have unusual
contoursfrom a Javaneseperspective.Perhapsfor thatreason,thereis some un-
certaintyin assigningLadrangSiyemto a Javanesemode (pathet):it is given as
pathet sanga in Becker andFeinstein(1988:363) but as pathet nemin most other
sources (e.g. Warsadiningrat1987:160;Mloyowidodo 1976:1.149).
There are several other minorchanges which could be noted, but let this suf-
fice for an initial demonstration.

8 Additional pitches are sometimes added in the fiddle and female vocal parts, but not (to my
knowledge) in performingLadrangSiyem.
9 Dusadee Swangviboonpong(pers. comm.) states that experiencedThai fiddlersalso try to min-
imize the occurrenceof such disjunctions.Still, the frequencyof occurrenceand thus presumably
the degreeof toleranceare greaterthanin the West.

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 Hughes:Thaimusicin Java,Javanesemusicin Thailand 25

From Java to Thailand

We have seen how a tune from Thailandcan be placed in a thoroughlyJavanese
setting, so much so that a Thai listenermight fail to recognize the originaltune.
Let us now consider the reverse:the adoptionof Indonesianmelodies or styles
into the Thai classical repertoire.
It is well known that the titles of many Thai pieces contain termsreferringto
othercultures.Examples of such terms are:Phama, Burma;Khamen,Khmeror
Cambodia;Mbn, Mon;Lao, Laos; Chawa or Yawa,Java;andKhaek,a general-
ized term meaning "foreign" but usually pointing toward India, Malaysia or
Java. It is logical to assume that at least some of these pieces might contain
musical elements reflecting the cultures referred to in their titles. We might
even expect to be able to identify specific national substyles, accents or dia-
lects-a Burmese style, a Javanesestyle and so forth--within the Thai classical
repertoire,and indeed, scholars have attemptedto do so. So far, however, the
goal has provenelusive.
To decide whetherthere is a distinctJavanesestyle within the Thai classical
repertoire, we could begin by listing pieces known (even if only from their
titles) to have Javaneseconnections.10Among them are: YawaLek, YawaReo,
Yawa Kao, Yawa Mai, Busen Sdk, Karat Raya, Kadiri, Bukan Tamo, and
Samarang. Many of these may occur in versions of the so-called "JavaSuite"
(Tab Chawa). Luang PraditPhairoh(1881-1954) broughtsome of these Javan-
ese melodies to Thailand in 1907, along with the ensemble of tuned bamboo
rattlesknown as angklung. Subsequently,he and/orhis followers created other
tunes which they intended to have a Javanese flavour. These may be heard
played on traditionalThai instruments,on the Javaneseangklung and rarelyon
one of the two gamelans sent as gifts from Java in 1929. Several of them also
include singing in some modifiedversionof Indonesianor Javanese.
It may be, of course, that some Javanese melodies entered Thailand several
centuries ago. After all, both the so-called pi chawa, or "Javaneseoboe", and
kldng khaek, or "Javanese drums", are thought to have arrived in Thailand
during the latter half of the Ayuthaya period (1350-1767), or at any rate no
later than the 18th century(Morton 1976:90; Yupho 1971:43-5, 81-2). Several
older compositionsare consideredto be based eitheron Javanesemelodies or on
Javanesestyle; these include KhaekYingNok, a Thai parodyof Javanesemusic,
which arranges a set of central Thai folk tunes in pseudo-Javanese fashion;
Khaek Hae, a parody of Islamic chanting and of various foreign styles; and

10 The only significantpublishedsourcedealingwith the importation of Javanesemusicinto

Thailandseemsto be the programme notes(TramoteandPhairoh1949)to a concertplayedon
gamelaninstruments in Bangkokin 1949.Thesearepublishedas programme 32 in a collectionof
suchnotesby thegovernment's FineArtsDepartment. Bothauthorsof thesenoteswereactively
involvedin the absorptionof Javanesepieces in the earlypartof the century,but ambiguities
remainin theirtextas to theexactsourcesof somepieces.Thanksto DusadeeSwangviboonpong
fortranslating
thecontentsof thissource.Thehistoricalinformationin thissectionof mypaperis
basedon thissourceplusAnantNarkong'smemoriesof university lecturesby Tramote.

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26 vol. 1 (1992)
BritishJournalof Ethnomusicology,

KhaekAwang.11But a Javanesemelody borroweda centuryor more ago might

easily have changed beyond recognition. As a first step toward discovering a
Thai approach to treating Javanese material, let us confine ourselves to one
particularpiece which was clearly createdfrom a gamelanmelody. Its Javanese
name is LadrangBima Kurda,its Thai nameYawaKao.12
Ladrang Bima Kurda is a fairly typical piece of the ladrang structural
category.13Not surprisingly,its melody is much more traditionalthan is that of
the Thai-derivedLadrangSiyem.The tuningsystem used here is not slindro but
pilog, the other Central Javanese system; the mode (pathet) is barang. Its
intervals are nearly those shown in figure 3, althoughtypically the E would be
just slightly lower and the Bb slightly higher than their Western counterparts.
The piece is pentatonic,althoughthe pilog tuning does have two other pitches
available. It is most frequentlyencounteredas part of a dance suite, in which
context there is no need for its shortintroductorypassage (not shown in fig. 3).
In the dance context it is played relatively fast and loud, with the main melody
more prominentthan in other performancestyles for ladrang. Perhapsthat is
one reason that the Thais borrowed it: they could hear the melody clearly
without being distractedby the ornamentingparts.It is also quite likely that the
original borrower(s)worked from the usual skeletal gamelan notation showing
only this main melody. In any case, in the Thai version no attemptis made to
imitatethe variouselaboratingpartsof the type shown in figure 2.
The Thai version follows the outline of the originalmelody fairly closely (if
one makes allowances for the different tunings); indeed, in a performancefor
angklung, the tuned bamboo rattles broughtfrom Java around 1907, only the
basic melody is played. But just as the Javanese converted Sanrasoen Phra
Barami into a nearlytypical ladrang, so the Thais have returnedthe favour in
this case when performing on traditionalThai instruments.I worked from a
recordingof a kruangsai ensemblein which each melodic instrumentdeveloped
the original melody in a typically Thai way. What I have shown in figure 3 is
basically the partfor the s6 duang fiddle, which is somewhat"busier"than the

11Thislastitem,whetheror notof Javaneseorigin,was"changedto Javanesestyle"by Phairoh

in 1928andthenarranged by Tramotein 1930-31in theformof a thaosuite-a specificallyThai
involvingthemetricalaugmentation
structure anddiminution of the originalmelody(cf. Becker
1980)-to be playedon one of the setsof gamelaninstruments presentedby PakuBuwonoX to
KingPrachatipok (TramoteandPhairoh1949).Whatever "changingto Javanesestyle"implies,
Phairohdid the same with certainother pieces as well-which complicatesthe task of
discriminatingoriginsby analysingstylealone.
12 Althoughthe similaritiesareso strikingas to virtuallyprovedirectborrowing,LuangPradit
Phairohclaims:"Although themelodyis similarto a Javanesepiece,it wasin factadaptedfroma
Burmesepieceby thegreatranatek [xylophone]playerKruShuenMoedang."We wouldlike
moredetails.Inanycase, YawaKaois fullyrecognizedandtreatedas a composition of Javanese
origin.
13 For YawaKao I workedprimarlyfroma recordingof a kruangsai performance by theThai
FineArtsDepartment providedby A. Narkong;LadrangBimaKurdacanbe heardin its typical
r6leas partof a dancesuiteon, e.g.,Lokananta cassettesACD114andACD143.

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 Hughes:Thaimusicin Java,Javanesemusicin Thailand 27

Fig. 3 Ladrang Bima Kurda (upper staff) and Yawa Kao (lower staff).
Javanese pitches 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 have been notated for convenience as E, F, A, B ),
C, and the Thai piece has been transcribed at a similar pitch level.

N P N P N P

1.GIN 2. G/N I P
lr7? 12 r

**

1712.
..l .":
P N P

P /1 2.Gj P N P
#ii SG N
ii!

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28 BritishJournalof Ethnomusicology,
vol. 1 (1992)

Javanese version. I have shown two different improvisationsby the s6 duang

player for one three-bar passage; notice that both parts match the Javanese
version in pitch on the strong first beat of each bar, which is as expected
accordingto the musical structuresof both cultures.14
The angklungversion,but not the kruangsai one, featuresan accompaniment
on three gongs which play a pseudo-Javaneserhythmicpatternroughly where
the kenong, kempuland gong (N, P, G) are shown in the transcription.(For this
purpose the Thais use the set of three mong gongs normally employed in the
large piphat ensemble.) However, whereasin Java these instrumentsmust play
precisely as shown, the Thai patternis somewhat irregular,suggesting either
incompleteunderstandingof the principlesor lack of concern for correctnessin
what is, after all, "just"a bit of foreign music. (In fact, there is considerable
freedom in mong playing in general.)The kruangsai setting, which represents
an attempt to treat the piece as Thai music rather than imitation Javanese,
eschews these gongs and insteaduses the expected small Thai cymbals (ching).
The so-called "Javanesedrums"(kl6ng khaek) are used when performingthis
piece, playing a version of a specific drumpattern,nathapkhaek,conventionally
associatedwith Java. The drums,thoughsurely not the drumpattern,are indeed
quite likely of Javaneseorigin.
Notice that the Thai version omits bars 3 and 4 of the original, which are
merely a repetitionof the first two bars. Whereastheir omission in Java would
disrupt the four-square symmetry of the phrase structure (three eight-bar
gongan), this is no problemto the Thais. This is exactly the reverse of what we
saw in figure 1, where the Javanesefilled out the symmetryof the Thai original.
The reason that the Thais can make this deletion so cavalierly is that the most
important rhythmic cycle is only two bars long (as marked by the ching
cymbals).

Concluding remarks
Having selected only two examplesfor comparison,it is obviously impossibleto
generalize or to make predictions about other borrowings between Java and
Thailand.Two significant differences between the two cases discussed above
must be mentioned which make any direct comparison dangerous. First, the
Javaneseborroweda Western-styleThai composition,while the Thais borrowed
a traditionalJavanese gamelan piece. Second, the Javanese have completely
absorbed the Thai piece into their traditionalrepertoire,with all the changes
which that process entails, whereas the Thais seem to be continuing to treat
Yawa Kao as a Javanese-styleitem, as seen for example in the use of angklung
and of pseudo-Javanesegong and drumpatterns.The Javanesepresumablynever
consideredthe option of treatingthe Thai royal song as a traditionalThai piece,

14A detailedexplicationof theprinciplesof improvisation

in Thaifiddleplayingis availablein
Silkstone1992.

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 Hughes:Thaimusicin Java,Javanesemusicin Thailand 29

for the Thais themselves rarely did so.15Reflecting that both of these borrow-
ings took place within the present century, we can see that factors other than
time affect the degree to which an alien melody is transformedinto an accept-
able local style.
A logical next step would be a thorough study of the other pieces named
above whose titles or known histories link them with foreign sources or styles.
Deeper investigation would involve cooperation between musicologists and
historiansworkingon both Thailandand Java. It is hoped that such a projectcan
be carriedout in the near future.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This paperis adaptedfrom a presentationat the conferenceon "CulturalInteractionsin
TraditionalSouth-EastAsian Music", Khon Kaen University, January1992. Financial
supportfrom the BritishCouncil and Khon Kaen Universityto enable my participationis
gratefullyacknowledged.

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vol. 1 (1992)

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