Pulse: Journal for Music and Interdisciplinary Practices

GITAMEIT AT 21 BIRTHING AND RAISING A COMMUNITY MUSIC SCHOOL IN MYANMAR REFLECTIONS AND HIGHLIGHTS FROM NAY WIN, NE MYO AUNG AND KIT YOUNG

2025-01-07T09:44:54+07:00

In the early 2000s, the founders of Gitameit Music Institute in Yangon, Myanmar sought ways to build community and confidence for young Burmese with synergies of learning creatively through music and art. Years of societal isolation - enforced by a repressive military dictatorship - prevented contact with their peers in other countries pursuing advanced music studies in higher-level institutions. The founders grappled with seminal questions: how to teach creatively, initiate new ideas in performance with outsiders, and build new local audiences within the confines of constant military surveillance; examine why, yet respect that western music cultures were valued over those of Myanmar’s indigenous groups and traditional Burmese music; how to convince donors and sponsors of why developing higher level musical aspirations for young people in Myanmar is fundamental to growing a healthy society.

These conversational reflections celebrating the 21st anniversary of Gitameit glance at specific events and people in Gitameit’s community history. These are pivotal stages as the participants assess not only educational growth but emotional valences of both danger and joy and how this growth will be cultivated in Myanmar’s uncertain future.

HARMONIZING COLLABRRATION: THE ROLE OF ACADEMIC CONFERENCES IN THE WIND BAND COMMUNITY OF SOUTHERN THAILAND

2025-01-08T13:25:34+07:00

The Southern Thailand Wind Band Conference is designed to cultivate musical potential and enhance the knowledge of participants at the local level. The conference served as a platform for exchanging insights, experiences, and development strategies in wind orchestral music through a series of lectures, workshops, and performances. For the conference to be effective, it is essential to have a well-defined plan that includes selecting a relevant topic that meet participants’ needs, choosing expert speakers, and organizing activities that encourage active engagement.

Furthermore, the conference offers significant benefits to attendees, such as improving their musical skills, establishing connections within the music industry, and inspiring the creation of musical works.

The conference aims to enhance the potential of local musicians by providing targeted training and sharing valuable knowledge in areas such as instrument playing techniques, orchestra management, and new music creation. Following the event, an evaluation will be conducted through a questionnaire and an analysis of participants’ feedback to access the conference’s success and identify opportunities for improving the organization of future events.

CONCERT SNARE DRUM MADE BY THAI WOOD

2024-07-12T10:00:45+07:00

This Research is inspired by the production of traditional Thai drums and local craftsmanship, aiming to produce Concert snare drums made from three types of wood in Thailand Plum Mango wood, Jackfruit wood and Padauk wood.
The objective is to demonstrate that Thai wood can be used to produce high-quality concert snare drums comparable to Concert snare drum from other countries.

In this research, the origins and history of the Snare drum are studied, along with information on Concert snare drums from other countries. The researcher collaborated with WASANA Drum Factory, a manufacturer with expertise in drum production, to create the Snare drums from Thai wood.

Furthermore, feedback and suggestions from experts were gathered to analysed, providing options for choosing Concert snare drums andunderstanding the differences in sound produced by different types of Thai wood. The study found that the three types of Thai wood produced distinctly different tones when used to make Snare drums, each suitable for various musical contexts. To disseminate the findings, the researcher created a video explaining the background and significance of the project, accompanied by a solo musical performance, making the content accessible to interested individuals and serving as a guide for future enthusiasts.

This research was funded by Princess Galyani Vadhana Institute of Music Graduate Student Research Fund, 2024 Fiscal Year.

LATERAL PRACTICE AND DECENTRALIZED SOUND: REFLECTIONS ON CHIANG MAI’S SONIC ART SCENE FROM THE 2010S TO THE PRESENT

2024-12-11T18:42:09+07:00

This paper briefly examines sound-based art practice in Chiang Mai from the 2010s to the present, focusing on its socio-political dimension and departure from centralized, institutional aesthetics. Central to this discussion is the concept of what I refer to as ìlateral practice,î an approach where aesthetico-localized experimentation, collaboration, and adaptability take precedence over traditional methods that prioritize technical proficiency and, more importantly, strict adherence to established disciplines. Through examining key works by Chiang Mai local sound artists such as Anusorn Tunyapalit, Anurak Tunyapalit, and Arnont Nongyao, I reflect on how lateral practice could challenge centralized aesthetics, provide spaces for cultural resistance, and create dialogue through socially engaged commentary. This paper, developed from my panel discussion ìSound and Singularityî at PGVIM International Symposium 2024, also positions sound-based art practice in Chiang Mai as a vital framework for rethinking sonic artís role in addressing power dynamics and promoting collective agency in a localized context.

PLAY AND INTERPLAY: MODELLING PARAMETERS OF INTERDISCIPLINARY COLLABORATION OF MUSIC AND VISUAL ARTS

2024-12-12T15:54:31+07:00

This collaborative project brings together artistic expression of musical performance with painting, building both one-way and two-way connections between the art forms, with video recordings emerging not just as documentation, but creative products in its own right.

The project has had three iterations, or “episodes”, thus far; each expands the parameters of the collaboration. Music began as half preset with solo works of J.S. Bach and eventually became purely improvised interplay between two musicians. Videography began with the intent of recording the event and eventually became live projection and an active element in the performance. The first episode was under pandemic restrictions, the second included an audience, and the third was a three-day event comprising exhibition, workshop, and performance — and the expansion of the team to include a new musician and an assistant to the videographer.

Throughout this experimental engagement now in its third year, our mission was to explore interdisciplinary crossroads: how do people from different art forms collaborate? Does this collaboration bring out creativity or expressiveness or both that would not be the case with each art form in isolation? How does the performative element and the inclusion of audiences influence the painting or the music or the way these interact?

In some ways, we find more questions than answers, but even so there is value in knowing which new questions to explore. In other ways, we create a model of interdisciplinary engagements of this nature, to visualise some parameters within which artists, performers, and audiences find play and interplay: as the title of the project suggests, a Garden of Sight, Sound, and Surprise.

THE WONDERFUL MISHMASH OF CENTRAL JAVANESE DANCE AND MUSIC

2024-12-11T18:42:45+07:00

By 2010, I had been studying Javanese classical music and performing arts fulltime since 1992 (with two years of Ph D research in 1976-77).

I found a plethora of European, Chinese and Muslim costumes, music, objects, and word play in delightful and confounding mixture of elements which seemed arbitrary.

So, I presented my observations as “mishmash”—completely with tongue-in-cheek—with full respect that underlying is something serious.

Here, in 2024, I find that things change but the foundations remain.

I still do not understand how and why the Javanese easily accept, use, and combine elements in their arts. It doesn’t match my way of doing or creating music or art, but I love it, and am certain their creativity is strong and flexible as ever.
I hope my observations can give some insight about a different way of doing.