MUSIC-MAKING VERSUS Devil in disguise, there is one word in THE COMMODIFICATION Faust’s condition that is of utmost significance, namely the word Augenblick. If OF MUSIC: A CALL TO the Devil can help him to reach that supreme ENLIGHTENED AMATEURS moment, he can have his soul:
∗ If I say to that moment: Chetana Nagavajara Do remain! You are so beautiful! (ll. 1,699–700) Preamble: A foretaste of the supreme moment (Augenblick) Faust never quite reaches that moment (or else he would have lost his soul to the Devil), but almost. Nearing his death, having Abstract seen so much, done so much (of good and bad), the dying Faust experiences a foretaste Music-making, fundamentally a communal of the blissful moment which is the ultimate practice, is the source of aesthetic, goal of his pact with Mephistopheles: emotional, and spiritual experience of a kind comparable to the Faustian To that moment I could say: “moment” (Augenblick). The most ideal Do remain, you are so beautiful. musical culture is one in which no clear The trace of my earthly days dividing line exists between practitioners Cannot dissolve into thin air. and listeners, professionals and amateurs, As foretaste of such great happiness, 1 the remnants of which are still discernible I am now enjoying the supreme moment. in present-day Thai classical music. The (ll. 11,581–586) growing professionalism has been exploited by commercial manipulations And having uttered these words, Faust driven by money and technology, resulting passes away. in a smug, push-button consumerism that treats music as a mere commodity. The It takes 9,980 verses and half a decade in the only way out of this crisis is a return to the poet's own life to allow Faust to attain only a practice of music at the family, school, and foretaste of that happiness. There is a joke community levels, whereby chamber music enjoyed by Germanists who maintain that can be cultivated by a large pool of Faust is rescued from eternal perdition by a amateurs out of which real professionals subjunctive: "to that moment I could say ...." can grow. What have all these idiosyncrasies of As a teacher of German, may I be allowed to German literature to do with music? My begin by referring to Goethe's Faust? In that answer would be that we can draw analogies important scene in which Faust, out of sheer from this literary masterpiece that support despair with life, declares himself ready to the main argument of our common enter into a pact with Mephistopheles, the endeavour. First, music can bring happiness; it can bring happiness to many. We may be even more fortunate than Faust in the sense ∗ Emeritus Professor of German, Silpakorn University, Thailand. 1 My own translation.
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that we may be able to experience many London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Augenblicke in our lifetime. Second, each Sir Malcom Sargent with Yehudi Menuhin individual has to find his own way to reach (1916–1999) as the soloist. He was playing that supreme Augenblick, but the best that two concerti in the same concert. The first we mortals can achieve within the confines half of the concert was devoted to the of our "earthly days" is that which Faust Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, which fell achieves, namely a "moment" of a second flat, exquisitely uninspired. The world- order, a foretaste of the real thing. Although renowned violinist was not “in tune” with our command: "Do remain: you are so this piece of music, and he was literally out beautiful!" is never obeyed, to be able to of tune most of the time. I was disappointed keep happy memories of those "moments" and resigned myself to witnessing a calamity suffices to convince us of the inexhaustible for the second half of the concert. On the value of music. contrary, Menuhin came back a different person, technically flawless and deeply I propose to share with you some such inspired by the Brahms Concerto. It was an moments that I have myself experienced. experience that makes you grateful to the composer as well as to the soloist and The first experience could be called "An orchestra for such an (extended) Augenblick. Evening Walk along North University The critic of the Daily Telegraph, two days Avenue." I was teaching at the South East later, could find no appropriate expression to Asian Studies Summer Institute (SEASSI) at describe Menuhin's performance of the the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in Brahms Concerto and simply wrote: "He 1985. It was a mild summer evening, and came back in the second half and played like my colleagues and I came out for supper as a God." When a critic resorts to hyperbole the sun was setting. We were walking along like that, it means that words must have North University Avenue. A trio was failed him. The Augenblick was rehearsing a Schubert Piano Trio with the indescribable. There must have been over a windows and front door of their house open. thousand people in the audience that night, They were nearing the end of the Slow and I could tell that they were transported Movement. We decided to stay on to hear and transfixed. After the concert, I took the them finish the entire piece. The ambience last train from King's Cross Station back to was right, and in the end, we were Cambridge. It was a very cold night, and I enraptured. So we exploded into applause, had to walk all the way from Cambridge which was answered with a loud "Thank Railway Station and did not get to my room you." I have heard many concerts played by until after 1.00 a.m., but I was feeling warm professional ensembles, but none has inside. imprinted itself indelibly on my memory as this one did. This was an Augenblick for me! Such experiences are unexpected, unpredicted, and therefore even more I would like to call my second experience "A welcome. I do not mean that musicians can Wintry Night in the Royal Albert Hall." The leave everything to chance and rely entirely Royal Albert Hall in London is a colossal on their instinct or inspiration. Rigorous multi-purpose hall that is used for indoor training and assiduous practice are required sports as well as concerts. On a wintry night conditions. But the Augenblick is "a in 1960, I was attending one of those particular kind of communal experience of a "Sunday Classical Concerts," played by the
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particular intensity in a particular place."2 in front of me, imbibing the congenial and And that is music-making in the noblest convivial atmosphere of music-making, sense of the word, whereby communication whose uniqueness cannot be repeated (in becomes communion. the same way that my eavesdropping on the Schubert Trio in Ann Anbor could not The (attempted) perpetuation of be). Menuhin, in the television series The the Augenblick Music of Man, produced by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, argued heatedly with the Canadian pianist Glenn Gould The episodes I have related above would (1932–1982), who preferred music being tend to privilege the live performance over made in a recording studio, while Menuhin all forms of modern reproduction. This is a defended the traditional live performance, point that we shall have to debate, for the since he could always feel his audience. I experience of people living in the age prior would go so far as to say that it might have to the advent of "technical reproducibility" taken him some time to feel his audience (to borrow the term popularized by the and once he achieved that secret German thinker Walter Benjamin) can communion with them in the second half never be identical with that of those of the of the concert, something miraculous did subsequent era in which recorded music occur (and of course, it did not occur at can be considered an experience of value. every concert of his!). In a way, the But to return to the last example given essence of music-making is the presence above, many of those who were in the of all concerned, performers as well as Royal Albert Hall that night could only listeners. wish that that particular performance of the Brahms Violin Concerto had been Yet one has to admit that a composer of note recorded so that millions of music lovers would wish to share his work with his could have a chance to share that unique contemporaries and to perpetuate his work experience. The dilemma facing a member for posterity. Since the West was committed of the audience like me comes from the to the written mode of communication, it question whether repeated listening to a was only natural that notation was invented. recording of that performance would give (Thai culture being predominantly an oral me the same aesthetic pleasure that I one, Thai classical musicians to the present experienced in the real performance. I am day rely almost entirely on memory.) more inclined to think that it would not be Notation, as a means of perpetuation, is the same, because the "moment" arose out essentially different from recording of my being there, being part of a technology, for notation induces music community of listeners/spectators, hearing lovers to acquire skills in reading music, the real sound, seeing the soloist perform playing musical instruments, and singing according to the notes on the page. In other words, notation enriches active music- 2 I have borrowed this succinct formulation making, whereas our passive listeners of from the "Programme and Abstracts" of the today rely on push-button technology. conference The Proms and British Musical Chamber music thrived through notation, as Life, London, April 23–27, 2007. (Day 3, Session 1: Timothy Day, "Malcom Sargent, family members and friends gathered in the William Glock and Martin Luther"). sitting room (i.e., chamber) to perform sonatas, quartets, and other kinds of music
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for small ensembles for their enjoyment. recording, however imperfect it may be. I Most of them were amateurs, and as we read a great deal about the collaboration know from the lives of distinguished between the great composer Johannes composers such as Beethoven, some of their Brahms (1833–1897) and his closest friend amateur pupils possessed very high Joseph Joachim (1831–1907), the great standards. Those who could not read music violinist. When I heard a recording of and could not play an instrument had to rely Joachim made during the early years of the on competent friends. The French poet 20th century, I could understand why Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867), who was Brahms wrote that great violin concerto an ardent lover of music and a champion of for him (which Yehudi Menuhin superbly Richard Wagner, had to wander from one performed that wintry night in 1960). The friend to another with a piano transcription recording’s fidelity is much below today's of Wagner's music, entreating them to play standard, but it is adequate to allow us to this music for him on the piano. Besides, gauge his style and above all, his musical notation gave rise to music-publishing. It personality. could benefit a composer in material terms as well, if he had an honest publisher to help There is much to be said for the humility him. Brahms became fairly well-to-do with of the early generations of sound and earnings from the sale of his piano music to recording engineers as well as producers. amateurs (the easier pieces, I suppose!). We They grew up with broadcasting and were can perhaps conclude that notation activates wont to work with original performances. people to make music. The advent of Their ambition was to capture and recording technology has changed all that. reproduce the original work as faithfully as possible, hence the use of the term high From high fidelity to infidelity fidelity in recording technology. These were honest people; when they came up Recording technology started with a noble with a system of amplification, they said mission: to perpetuate great works of great so; that is to say, they wanted to amplify artists. It can benefit both the artist and the the original sound. And their technology public. The artist can lend permanency to did benefit jazz and popular music. They his work (by simpler means than notation) did not want to cheat us. We now live in and reach out to a larger public. The the age of "virtual reality" which will soon listener can get to know a piece of music supplant real reality. Technology has now through repeated listening, and, in terms of advanced so far as to be able to produce a the aesthetic pleasure derived from certain second reality that is not to be considered compositions, recording can help a great inferior to any original. It may not be an deal to increase that pleasure. (We need exaggeration to talk about the arrogance not talk about the supreme Augenblick of present-day technology. A recording of here.) Besides, we have historic a symphony is technologically perfect, recordings of memorable live and, in musical terms, it is technically performances. The works of great artists perfect as well: there are no wrong notes, can thus be handed down to subsequent not a single instrumentalist in the orchestra generations who are not lucky enough to plays out of tune. The perfect have been born their contemporaries. So "performance" is not a performance in the reputation no longer rests on hearsay but sense that we used to know it, but a on concrete evidence in the form of concoction from different "takes," or an
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edited version with "repairs" made through about his brethren: "We are a race that technological means. The term editing, should disappear."4 borrowed from the noble discipline of It would be unfair to stress too much the philology where scholars work with negative side of technology. It must not be different manuscripts or different printed forgotten that broadcasting and especially texts in order to get as close as possible to radio broadcasting has achieved much in the authorial version, has thus been soiled terms of bringing music (of all kinds) to a by the contemporary recording industry, vast listening public. In some countries, which no longer cares for an "original." (I like the United Kingdom, radio stations set am not in any way hostile to electronic up their own orchestras, including regional music which uses technology to create orchestras, initially for the purpose of sounds which are not identical with broadcasting, but soon began to launch acoustic instruments and whose live concerts that have been shaping public compositional principle admits of cuts and taste for many decades, such as the BBC’s pastes by design and not by default.) annual Promenade Concerts (known as the However, contemporary recording proudly Proms), which are unrivaled in many parts adopts infidelity as its guiding principle in of the world. Some radio orchestras are order to achieve faked perfection. known for their quality and rank among the best in the country, such as those in The recorded sound soon assumes a Munich, Hamburg, and Stuttgart in character of its own which excites Germany. The case of Thailand is also a listeners: it is grand, resonant, opulent, historic one: the rise of the Thai popular majestic, especially the orchestral sound. song, a hybrid genre combining Western Some musicians, and especially popular (big-band) music with Thai conductors, have known how to exploit classical music, must be considered a boon these technological possibilities, and some to Thai musical life, as I have elsewhere have gone so far as to coax their orchestras demonstrated.5 The chief protagonist was into producing a sound that would suit the the big band created by the Public process of recording. Herbert von Karajan Relations Department in 1939, where the (1908–1989) was one of them, with his best composers, musicians, and singers of renowned Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra; Thailand congregated to deliver a he was even spiteful of colleagues who remarkable number of masterpieces that knew little about such technicalities and reflect the depths and range of emotions of once branded a worthy colleague, Eugen the Thai people. The popularity of the Jochum (1902–1987), as a "philistine."3 With the advent of television, many conductors began to use the new medium for a self-serving and self-promoting 4 A television broadcast of a rehearsal of purpose, which sometimes provoked a Dvorak's Second Symphony with the Bavarian negative reaction from other colleagues, Radio Symphony Orchestra, taped and lent to me privately. such as the Italian conductor Riccardo 5 Muti, who made the following remark Chetana Nagavajara, "The Thai Popular Song and Its Literary Lineage" (1989), in Chetana Nagavajara, Comparative Literature from a Thai Perspective. Bangkok: Chulalongkorn University Press, 1996. 137–163. 3 A television interview. (I am reporting from memory.)
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genre owes a great deal to radio commonly shared cultural broadcasting. artifact.6
I may have put great emphasis on the And of course, he bemoans the imminent communal aspects of music-making when demise of the recording industry as a result talking earlier about live performances, of the advent of more modern digital but it must be conceded that the notion of technologies. My only reservations would community can be applied also to be that while one can enjoy great music in broadcast and recorded music. Not many recorded form, one should not deny people are fortunate enough to attend oneself the (irreplaceable) experience of concerts or recitals given by great live performances. Perhaps one can go orchestras and distinguished artists, and even a step further: why should one not radio and recording offer them access to learn an instrument and assert oneself as valuable (though secondary!) musical an amateur? experiences. A community of fervent music lovers can thrive on broadcast and Alas, mass-marketed music has more or recorded music, and the level of critical less killed the amateur—the technical acumen expressed through the exchange of standard is now so high (many views need not be inferior to that professional musicians cannot play live at connected with live music. It has to be the technically accurate level of their own admitted that music criticism based, for recordings) that the amateur is intimidated example, on recorded music can be of and embarrassed to attempt an original extremely high quality, probably because public performance, for they know they of attentive listening through repeated would be compared to the recording artist! hearings. One may even go so far as to assert that recording has enriched and Commodification and enhanced music criticism. The commercialization distinguished British music critic Norman Lebrecht has characterized the virtue of I have in the previous section described recorded classical music in very apposite both the weaknesses and strengths of terms: technology in the service of the musical arts. It is well and good to use technology Classical records brought delight to advance music education for a vast and enlightenment to millions who majority of people and in rare cases to never dared enter a concert hall. capture the unique experiences (those More than that, they fostered a Augenblicke) for the benefit of mankind. sense of community by allowing But let us be honest about it: the dividing listeners to compare and contrast line between the noble act of preserving, one interpretation of Bruckner's disseminating, and promoting valuable fourth symphony with another, sometimes to a nerdish extreme but inherently, invaluably, as a 6 Norman Lebrecht, "Look who's been dumped." The Lebrecht Weekly, December 31, 2003.
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musical experiences and the now and then, and it is inevitable that he commodification of music for commercial would put great emphasis on the purposes is a very thin one. There is fortissimos and pianissimos and not care inevitably a danger in turning a human and much for things in between. How many of humane experience into a commodity that our idle consumers know how to can be bought and sold. Mind you, we distinguish between a conviction and a should not forget that musicians too have pose? to survive and that we have to reward them for their artistry. The market forces are omnipotent, and even in a Western country with a venerable The question is where the middle path lies. tradition of criticism, it is the business side In his book Who Killed Classical Music? of the musical enterprise that always wins (1996), Norman Lebrecht demonstrates the day. This was what happened in how the cult of celebrity has destroyed the Germany in 2006. After six years at the music world, because star conductors, helm of the world renowned Berlin soloists, and singers are paid so much that Philharmonic Orchestra, the British star there is very little left to pay orchestral conductor Sir Simon Rattle came under musicians, resulting in the disbanding of attack by a number of German music one orchestra after another. In a consumer critics who were of the opinion that the society, selling and buying are not always standard of playing had suffered, related to the quality of the commodities, especially in that part of the repertoire for the modern witchcraft of public which had always been the pride of the relations and advertising usually holds the august ensemble, namely the Austro- public in thrall. When money and German Classics. One of them, the technology join hands in the music resident critic of the national newspaper business, they become invincible. A rock Die Welt, was more outspoken than the concert that can attract a gigantic crowd others, who very soon followed suit with needs to depend not only on the prowess their own negative evaluations. The critics of the performers but also on state-of-the- most probably overestimated the forces of art technologies and, last but not least, on tradition, for Germany since the 18th market stratagems and machinations. At century had prided itself as the home of every such concert, the audience must be "critical" philosophy and on the eminence convinced that the Faustian Augenblick of its criticism of the arts, be it in the can happen every thirty seconds, and, domain of literature, visual arts, theatre, or more often than not, audience participation music. They did not recognize the advent serves to heighten those paroxysms. The of a new hegemonic power, the market. domain of classical music is not free from The critic of Die Welt lost his job and had such aberrations. People expect a star to switch to earning his daily bread by conductor to perform a dazzling editing a CD magazine for a record store. choreographic feat on the rostrum. I have No compatriot came to his rescue. Only a witnessed one who responded so well to British colleague dared to concur with him his public's expectations that he had to publicly in saying that "what is lacking in quench his thirst with a glass of water the interpretation [of Gustav Holst's The between the movements of a symphony. Planets] is a coherent sense of direction Of course, you would expect him to and that can be taken as a metaphor for the produce those supreme Augenblicke every general state of play in the Berlin
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Philharmonic. High as Rattle has risen, he chance to applaud the principal flautist has failed to convince with much of his who makes Tamino's instrument sound music-making at the level to which truly "magical." But he/she has to remain Berliners are accustomed." You could invisible; only the conductor has a chance probably guess who the British critic is. Of to come on the stage for the final curtain course, we are hearing the voice of call. In a sense and accidentally, tradition Norman Lebrecht, who concludes with a supports the PR-driven craze for stardom. piece of brotherly advice: "Somehow the bite has gone from Rattle's baton. He may Yet, whatever one may say about the need, in mid-life and for the first time in commercial excesses of the musical world, his life, to read some of the bad reviews it has one virtue that is also visible: the and reflect on what is going wrong."7 presence of an audience substantiates its viability. If we cross over into the domain Good criticism has no nationality! of visual arts, we shall encounter a strange phenomenon, and I am speaking here of Let us face it: one critical voice can do the specific case of Thailand. Public little against a bastion of well-organized museums of modern art are usually empty, PR campaigns in favour of the deliberately and I have a personal predilection of cultivated cult of stardom. "Visibility" is visiting our National Gallery on early perhaps one of the mildest terms adopted Sunday mornings, for until about 11.30, by the contemporary music industry. Many there are only two people in that well- opera houses see no need to retain a maintained, air-conditioned space, namely regular "company" of singers anymore. myself and a single watchman! But many They can fly in "international" artists to of our contemporary artists thrive well in constitute an "international" cast for our society. Buyers and collectors are there specific performances at whatever costs to buy their "commodities," irrespective of (which in some cases are supported by the artistic quality. So buying and selling public money). The only "company" in an go on vigorously in a society in which opera house is the orchestra, traditionally there is no public for contemporary art. It sunk into a pit (not necessarily as deep as is a prerogative among the nouveaux the "abyss" [Abgrund] in Bayreuth). The riches to collect art works, and they can be musicians are the mainstay of the house, easily persuaded by art dealers or are badly paid in most cases and invisible. sometimes by the artists themselves. (It Every time I see Mozart's The Magic may be noticed that loquacious artists sell Flute, I wish the audience would have a better than those who do not know how to promote themselves.) People these days are ready to forgive a self-serving remark 7 Norman Lebrecht, "Rattle has a battle on his made by a diva, but tend to regard a hands." The Lebrecht Weekly, August 23, 2006. similar statement by a Mike Tyson as
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lack is the redeeming gift of humility, an onslaught of modern life and maintain its urge to be at the service of art."8 high standard of performance. The demarcation line between professionals When music becomes a marketable and amateurs is very thin, as confirmed by commodity, humility is not an attribute the results of the research project that attracts a large clientele. "Criticism as an Intellectual Force in Contemporary Society."10 It is no rare The (precarious) survival of Thai sight to see a member of the audience step into an orchestra and take over (and surely classical music not usurping) the place of a performer who steps out to assume the role of a listener. It would appear that music geared towards To formulate it in more radical terms, this mass consumption is not much concerned is music for musical practitioners and not with quality, for idle consumers with no for passive listeners. It does not care for a critical awareness always fall prey to mass audience and it does not partake of market manipulations. Can we go a step the process of commodification and further in positing that a society that commercialization. A virtuoso in Thai consists almost entirely of listeners, with classical music is usually known in a small only a tiny fraction of its members circle of connoisseurs and can never get practising music—either as professionals rich. There is a funny practice of the Thai or amateurs—is, musically and culturally bureaucracy (which I do not find funny!) speaking, not in a healthy state? I cannot that most local schools have to employ help being reminded of Bertolt Brecht their music teachers in the capacity of (1898–1956), who as playwright, director, janitors. This is because most of these and theoretician, has had immense masters of Thai classical music have had influence on the theatre internationally. only a four-year compulsory education, Brecht, in his theory of the didactic play, although their level of performance would was of the opinion that the ideal theatre equal that of an M.Mus. or a D.Mus. in the could only arise out of a community in higher education system. So the only place which there was no clear dividing line for them in the Thai bureaucracy is that of between performers and spectators, and a janitor. The "education" they have that amateurs were the driving force 9 received is an informal one. There are no behind such a community. The same fixed curriculum, no graded examinations, principle could very well apply to music, and no certification, and the training is and the case of Thai classical music can mostly done on a one-to-one basis; substantiate the Brechtian theory. Against nevertheless, it is rigorous. The guiding all the odds, it has managed to survive the principle is quality, and we owe it to these humble janitors of local schools that the standards have been upheld. 8 Norman Lebrecht, "The Singing World's Golden Couple?" The Lebrecht Weekly, February 16, 2006.
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Thai classical music remains community- are much, much more felicitous than the based, in many cases, with Buddhist kicks they get out of drugs. If this is one temples functioning as community centres. way in which music can function as a Music contests and music festivals are therapy, it is a therapy that is based on held, not in the National Theatre or the man's creative ability. Engagement in august Thailand Cultural Centre, but in a music can in this case combat base multi-purpose hall of a temple. A few instincts. years ago, I attended a music contest at a small temple that went on all night, with Perhaps we can extrapolate a little from the Deputy Abbot as the Convener, who the above episode that music-making is also supervised the preparation of the also conducive to the development of supper for the ten orchestras taking part, personality, both at the individual and the which was to be served around 3 a.m. collective levels. It is not too difficult to When I took leave of him at around 2.30 recognize the individual personality of a a.m., he regretted that I would miss the distinguished musician, but it is by no important part of the event: the orchestras means easy to speak of the distinct would indulge in musical jokes around personality of a musical ensemble. The dawn! The point I am making here is that aforementioned research project "Criticism this is music-making just for the sheer as an Intellectual Force in Contemporary pleasure of it—worlds apart from the Society" did invite two orchestras from the common run of the music industry we province of Saraburi to perform at the have seen above under the section same concert at the Sirindhorn "Commodification and Commercial- Anthropology Center, Talingchan, ization." Bangkok, on June 12, 2005, in the programme called "Pupils of the Same This is not the place to discourse on the Master Compete at Taling Chan." The two role of the Buddhist temple as the centre orchestras consisted of members and of a community. There is no need to stress friends of two families who were relatives, that it is not just a place for religious lived as next-door neighbours in the same worship. Worldly, and sometimes very village, and were trained by two masters worldly, problems are to be addressed (also relatives) who studied under the there too. There is a temple near the same master musician in Bangkok. Yet notorious slums of Khlong Toey, known as their styles of playing were different; the Wat Khlong Toey Nai, which has sounds of the respective orchestras were distinguished itself as a self-appointed different, too, even when they were conservatory. Youngsters from the slums performing the same set pieces. So, living go there for musical training. Some of physically close to each other and being them—there is no secret about it—are next-door neighbours did not homogenize former delinquents or drug-addicts, but their distinct collective musical once they fall under the spell of Thai personalities. This is the wonder of music, classical music, they begin to realize their and music-making is probably one of the own worth, strive for perfection, and gain most effective means of achieving thereby self-confidence and self-respect. A intellectual and spiritual cohesiveness. few of them have been praised as virtuosi. When we turn to the Western world, we Perhaps in their music-making, they may encounter complaints that most symphony have experienced those Augenblicke which orchestras these days sound alike because
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they do not work continuously enough skills, as well as humility. And we must under their chief conductors, who jet not forget that they, more often than not, around the globe guest-conducting this and perform together without a single that orchestra. The quasi-religious belief rehearsal. I am not claiming that this is a about the "sound" of an orchestra can go prerogative of Thai music, for jazz music very far, and Sir Simon Rattle has been too admits of such collaboration. Civilized accused of destroying the "German sound" collegiality is the order of the day. of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, as though that sound was ethnically and There is a ranad (xylophone) player in racially determined. But the sound of the Bangkok known by his nickname Pom Philharmonia Orchestra of London under who roams about town (and sometimes its chief conductor Otto Klemperer in the up-country) with two ranad sticks in his 1960s was perhaps more "German" than bag and joins in with various orchestras. (I that of any German orchestra! I am more heard him live once.) As I have explained inclined to side with the conductor Eugene above, we still live in an age in which each Ormandy (1899–1985) when he said: "The orchestra retains its own style and its own Philadelphia sound, it's me!" The young sound, so when Mr. Pom comes for a visit musicians from the Thai province of and asks to be allowed to play the main Saraburi would readily agree with him. ranad, the orchestra has to adjust itself. But the greater the adjustment, the greater But such distinctiveness does not is the challenge, and the greater the necessarily preclude a certain degree of pleasure of music-making. Of course, such flexibility in adjusting themselves to collaborative feats are not possible for the changing circumstances. Thai classical entire repertoire, for certain compositions musicians do not operate exactly in the belong to certain schools and guest same way as their Western counterparts musicians will find it hard to fit in. But the when they perform with guest soloists. available repertoire that permits such With the Western system of notation, the collaboration is large enough. Naturally, soloist, the home orchestra, and its the way both parties adjust themselves resident conductor do not have absolute may not be perceptible to the uninitiated, freedom to veer from the written text, and this is where Thai classical music although a certain freedom is there that is remains, to a certain extent, music for agreed upon during the rehearsals between connoisseurs. the soloist and the conductor/orchestra. A Thai orchestra is not score-based, and A question may arise as to what, in the when a guest musician joins in, the nature of Thai music itself, is supportive of orchestra (with no conductor) and the such flexibility that, in turn, facilitates guest musician have to find their collective music-making. The answer is relationship, which has not been quite straightforward: improvisation. Thai prescribed beforehand or written down in classical music is played from memory the form of notation. They must (and one master musician, Bunyong instinctively feel together, be attentive to Ketkhong, had a repertoire of roughly 11 each other, listen to each other, and be 20,000 tunes), that still leaves room for prepared to sacrifice individual personality in order to achieve a new collective 11 personality. The process requires great This information was transmitted to me by the German theatre director, Gert Pfafferodt,
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improvisation. A classical Thai musician is in our sense, is therefore "intertextual," but expected to be not only a performer but intertextuality does not deny originality also a composer, and it is this second altogether. In this free-for-all process of capacity that enables him to accommodate give and take, it is difficult to identify the whatever the guest artist may have come origin, and the modern notion of copyright up with. Of course, all this freedom to which is supposed to be one of the improvise does not happen wildly without hallmarks of a civilized society can hardly design but must respect a common be relevant to the practice of Thai music. framework within which each musician The joy of listening to Thai music is that can be both himself and part of an you have the impression of having heard ensemble. this music before, but what you are hearing here and now is not exactly what The concept of composition in Thai stuck in your memory from previous classical music also needs some hearings. It is as though you were clarification. A composition need not be awakening to the memories of your past something completely novel. The lives! composer can take a folk melody or an old composition by a past master and adapt it, Knowing Thai music does not concern vary it, curtailing and supplementing the only the music; Thai music can function as original. He may draw on a common pool a gateway to Thai culture in general. I of existing melodies and make out of them shall cite a specific example: the something of his own. What the French constitution of a piphat orchestra. Two thinker Roland Barthes (1915–1980) says ranad (xylophones) are placed in front of about "the immense dictionary from which the orchestra: the first, called ranad ek in he [the scriptor] draws a writing that Thai, is responsible for carrying the main knows no halt"12 can perhaps be applied to melody. The musician in charge of the the process of composition in Thai ranad ek is accorded a distinct prominence classical music, although we would never and is encouraged to demonstrate his go as far as Barthes in denying the creative virtuosity. Sitting at his side is a colleague role of the artist/composer. Composition, who plays the ranad thum, literally a ranad with a soft sound. The latter musician gives the appearance of playing a secondary role: he syncopates, who worked closely with the Thai music master for almost two years from 1982 to 1984 accentuates, and at times comments on the in the process of preparation for the production principal melody. He seems to be content of the "hybrid" drama, Phra Sang-Iphigenie. I with assuming the role of the buffoon of have sought advice on this issue from a the orchestra. number of experts in Thai music, who are of the opinion that, as a "composition" in Thai But appearances are deceptive. More often classical music is an adaptation/variation/ than not, the master himself opts to play extrapolation/recomposition of other works, the ranad thum, while giving a chance to the assertion may not be an exaggeration at all. 12 one of his top pupils to shine out with the Roland Barthes, Image-Music-Text. Essays. first ranad. In his apparently subordinate Selected and translated by Stephen Heath. London: Fontana Press, 1977. 147. position, the master directs the orchestra. The colleagues have to listen attentively to him: he may relax or hasten the pace. It
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would be a blunder to translate this industry, which have turned out docile orchestral structure in occidental terms listeners and consumers, it would be such that the first ranad is likened to the desirable to hark back to music-making at first violin and the second ranad to the the community and family levels. There is second violin. The English expression "to no better way to achieve this than by play second fiddle" does not apply here. In returning to chamber music. Let us take the Western context, a chamber orchestra counsel from one of the most professional without a conductor is directed by the of professional musicians, who remained concertmaster, who still maintains his an enlightened amateur at heart. prominence at the first desk of the first violins. We Thai have reversed that We shall always come back to hierarchical disposition. I have elsewhere chamber music—the quartet, the elaborated a theory of the second string quartet in particular—as the xylophone, which in some ways can be highest form of musical activity . . helpful in the understanding of Thai . . It is not aimed to produce culture.13 Ours is a ranad thum culture mammoth effects in volume on which does not fit into the contemporary mammoth audiences in mammoth craze for visibility and publicity. The halls . . . . It is perhaps the greatest dilemma facing present-day Thailand contribution Europe has made to could be explained in terms of our facile civilization. abandonment of our ranad thum culture in favour of a hasty and unreflected espousal Chamber music should be played, of superficial values. almost, by amateurs rather than by professionals. Naturally the A return to chamber music? professional quartet is an amazing achievement, but the civilization In a way, a Thai classical orchestra is akin that I would love to know rests on to a Western chamber orchestra in terms of amateur performance, on those its size and the intimate rapport among the innumerable small groups that musicians. The futile efforts to increase the gather in private homes—too few size of a Thai orchestra to rival, or even to today, the age of “The Knob.” It is outdo, a Western symphony orchestra have my prayer and hope that . . . , produced disastrous results, simply when the present generation grows because our instruments sound extremely up, they will have the means to ugly when played in a very large play for themselves, for their ensemble. To counter the craze for big friends, for their families, to make 14 sound and gigantic ensembles, invariably chamber music at home; . . . exploited by technology and the music
13 Chetana Nagavajara, "Wechselseitige Erhellung der Künste in der thailändischen 14 Kultur," (1992) in Chetana Nagavajara, Yehudi Menuhin and William Primrose, Wechselseitige Erhellung der Kulturen. Violin & Viola. Yehudi Menuhin Music Guides. Aufsätze zur Kultur und Literatur. Chiangmai: New York: Shirmer Books, 1976. 89–90. Silkworm Books, 1998. 69–73.
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There could not have been a more Education as the last resort? eloquent plea for music-making and a more convincing defence of the role of the Over thirty years ago, I went to the amateur than the above statement by Lord Philippines as member of the Secretariat Yehudi Menuhin. Thirty years have passed of the South East Asian Ministers of and, let us face it, we shall have to Education Organization (SEAMEO), continue hoping—and praying. A strange serving the Council of Education phenomenon came about in Thailand two Ministers, which was meeting in Baguio years ago when the film The Overture, City. We were impressed by the warm based on the life of a great Thai classical welcome accorded us along the musician, was shown, first to empty mountainous route, where school bands houses, and subsequently, through were greeting us as we passed by. The concerted campaigns in the media, to full Permanent Secretary of Education told us houses, resulting in an upsurge in the sale that it was the government's policy to of musical instruments—especially the encourage every school child to learn a ranad, as the hero of the film plays the musical instrument. Within less than ranad ek—and in the demand for music twenty years, most musicians playing in lessons. Alas, as with most good things the lobbies of first-class hotels in Thailand that happen in this hapless Land of Smiles, were Filipinos. They had sensitivity, the whole excitement was a fleeting affair. musicianship, and skills with which local The media's interest was not genuine, and Thai musicians could not compete. They there was no firm educational foundation have had education, the kind of education to keep the flame burning. The state and that their Thai counterparts did not have. private organizations have failed to Of course, with the advent of karaoke, our capitalize on the golden opportunity to Filipino friends have had to pack their revive music-making, and we are now bags and go home. Once again in this back to square one, where millions of Land of Smiles, technology and money (or television viewers get bewitched by a to be more precise, money-saving television show called "Academy mechanisms) have eliminated music- Fantasia," which brings young aspirants making. together in residence (whose every move, including the most intimate ones, is The case of the Philippines is of captured by television cameras), and who exemplary nature. Concerted efforts on are trained to compete in a weekly popular various fronts have been initiated, which song contest, adjudicated by a popular are not restricted to actual teaching and vote via SMS. The weekly contest takes learning but also take into account place in a mammoth hall, the ticket price activities of promotional character. The being naturally exorbitant. The age-old state can be relied upon as the prime ranad thum culture has had no chance. We mover in constructive thinking and action, are back to the push-button culture which including such measures as the passage of is situated at the other extreme of the the Music Law as far back as 1966.15 dream cherished by the likes of Lord Yehudi Menuhin. 15 Viola E. Hornilla, "Music Education in the Philippines’ Primary and Secondary Schools," Articles on Culture and Arts. [National Commission for Culture and the Arts]
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Thailand can certainly learn from the groups of concerned parents, is taking experiences (the successes as well as the concrete measures to regulate TV setbacks) of our ASEAN friends. But who programming by allotting prime time to cares about those music-loving monks at more constructive programmes suitable innumerable temples who have, as also for children. A plan to launch a Public managers and impresarios, kept classical Television Station is also being initiated.16 music alive? In the formal sector, the As far as music, especially Thai classical teaching and learning of the arts have not music, is concerned, they need not worry received sufficient attention, and the about a dearth of able musicians and learning of the various arts is combined ensembles to create meaningful into one weekly session. We need a large programmes. Those music-loving janitors pool of amateurs out of which professional and their pupils can get together anytime, musicians can be formed. The schools can and the above-mentioned repertoire of be instrumental in this endeavour. In one 20,000 pieces is there to serve the needs of particular area, namely the training of the listeners. "Management" of the arts has marching bands, they have excelled almost become a dirty word, because we themselves, even at the international level, only know the kind of management driven but the craze for winning competitions can by cupidity. We need a new concept of go too far. In any case, the standard of management intent on promoting a broad- playing brass instruments is high in our based education for the public good. country, and the brass sections of our symphony orchestras often astonish Epilogue: An idealistic aside visiting Western conductors. It should not be too difficult to emulate our "top brass" In an effort to combat the exploitation of in other musical sectors. Furthermore, to music to satisfy materialistic ends, I began have a substantial number of amateur this paper by drawing analogies from the musicians is a guarantee that there will be notion of Augenblick as expressed in sufficient listeners who know how to Goethe's Faust. I must clarify that I do not appreciate good music, for those who play mean to say that music, as the other arts, an instrument or sing are, more often than must of necessity be an end in itself. I am not, better listeners than those who do not. not prepared to go as far as Roger Scruton, Besides, a school is a tightly-knit who in his book The Aesthetics of Music community that can encourage meaningful categorically states that "we must consider interaction between performers and a work of art as an end in itself; only then listeners. does it become a means for us."17 I do not think that in real life we distinguish ends In terms of education for the public, the and means in a categorical manner at all. media have been indifferent, to say the In his recent work, Late Beethoven: Music, least, and television must be branded as the chief culprit. Prime time is devoted to tasteless soap operas, and at the time of 16 The idea has since been realized with a this writing, the government, pressured by substaintial state subsidy. The new channel is trying very hard to create meaningful programmes that other commercially driven
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Thought, Imagination (2003), Maynard Chapel confirm that he had had a good Solomon demonstrates how a shift in the education (though his was a thorough composer's thinking about life and art has home-schooling), which enabled him, a bearing on his mature creation. Instead even at that tender age, to anchor his of referring to scholarly authorities, I shall music and music-making in a relevant and return to the musician I most admire. Lord meaningful cultural context. Let us face it: Yehudi Menuhin reminisced about his we are dealing here with an idealistic childhood in a very thought-provoking aspiration. way: The facts of life may not be as rosy as one As a small child playing the would like them to be. The exterminators violin, my naïve dream was to be of Auschwitz too were fervent music able, thereby, to heal the suffering lovers and saw to it that a chamber heart, fulfilling thus the Jewish orchestra consisting of female prisoners mission. Ever since I can was set up under the direction of Alma remember, I have tried to relate Rosé. When she unexpectedly died of the beauty of great music to the food-poisoning, they did her the kind of harmony of life. As a small child I honour usually due to a highly respected even imagined that if I could play person.19 How are we to explain such a the Chaconne of Bach inspiringly paradox in human nature? Another story enough in the Sistine Chapel could perhaps better illustrate the power of under the eyes of Michelangelo, music to create friendship, and this was all that is ignoble and vile would told in a television interview by the French miraculously disappear from our composer Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992). world.18 While a prisoner of war in the camp at Görlitz (a town now split into two halves, The young Menuhin was not overly one German and the other Polish), where, concerned with the philosophical question he maintained, the Germans treated their of whether music is an end or a means. prisoners well, although food was very What sounds most assuring is that here scarce, Messiaen composed a deeply was a child who had already mastered the religious work, which has since been difficult Chaconne of Bach, who was immortalized in the repertoire of chamber conscious of the immense possibility of music, known as the Quatuor pour la fin music and also of his own prowess as a du temps, which was performed in the musician, and who was filled with an prison camp on January 15, 1941. The aspiration to rise beyond the common run audience consisted both of prisoners and of music-making to an ideal world. The German officers of the camp, who were references to the Jewish mission and united in brotherhood under the spell of Michelangelo's masterpiece in the Sistine this music. (The temperature outside the
18 Transcribed from Yehudi Menuhin: The Violin of the Century DVD - EMI CLASSICS (DVB 4 92363 9). 19 Richard Newman with Karen Kirtley, Alma Rosé: Vienna to Auschwitz. Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press, 2000. 303.
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improvised concert hall was –4 degrees!)20 Messiaen was trying to convey in this work his vision of the Apocalypse, but, in all modesty, he admitted that this "vision" might have come from the hunger he was experiencing at that time!
We could multiply the stories about the pros and cons of music indefinitely and never be able to reach a definitive conclusion on the healing and redemptive power of music. "The child is father of the man," an English Romantic poet once said.21 And I for one would be ready at any time to align myself with the child prodigy Yehudi Menuhin, who ideally believed that the aesthetic and the moral value of music are identical. A little grain of idealism can carry us very far.22
20 Rebecca Rischin, For the End of Time: The Story of the Messiaen Quartet. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2003. 61–70. 21 From William Wordsworth's poem "My heart leaps up when I behold / A rainbow in the sky." 22 Keynote Address presented at the 6th Asia- Pacific Symposium on Music Education Research (APSMER 2007) at the Faculty of Education, Chulalongkorn University, July 25, 2007.
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