Birmanie: Musique du théâtre classique/Burma: Classical Theatre Music (review)

Zat and yokthay theatre of Burma/Myanmar has an important and distinguished place in the culture of the lowland Burmans. The conspicuous absence of available quality recordings of these traditions has at last been remedied by this valuable two-CD collection. Birmanie: Musique du théâtre classique/Burma: Classical Theatre Music samples a rich array of vocal and instrumental music from the theatre of the Burmans (the ethnic Burmans make up about 60 percent of the population of the country renamed Myanmar in the early 1990s).

Zat, the term used to denote the traditional live-actor dance drama, derives from the Pali word jataka that refers to stories recounting the past lives of the Buddha. There are reportedly 550 jataka tales, ten of which are well known, that are employed in multiple theatrical and storytelling contexts. Burmese zat also contains many more local stories, myths, legends, and historical tales of Burma’s renowned rulers. Burma’s yokthay (marionette) theatre also maintains the transmission of these jatakas and other tales. The yokthay marionettes preceded the zat classical drama and, in days past, even superseded them in public esteem.

Both of these traditions are at risk today. The marionette theatre has dwindled most significantly and is only rarely found outside of brief, edited presentations for tourists. While today’s zat performances maintain a popular audience, they only sparingly include the stories from the classical tradition (the jatakas). The musical accompaniment for the shows has been radically altered to incorporate electronic instruments (guitars, keyboards, and turntables) and is structured much like a vaudeville show with short, often unrelated, skits, songs, and comic routines in quick succession. Increasingly rare in the contemporary zat world is a performance of the nauk paing (last part) classical story, usually in the wee hours of the morning of the nightlong event. Given audiences’ changing tastes and expectations, zat and yokthay troupes capable of performing the classical repertoire are increasingly scarce. With such significant and rapid change the repertoire is vanishing.

The music found on these two CDs captures some of the richness of these fading sounds. Anthropologist Ward Keeler, whose passion for Southeast Asian theatre generated the 2005 recording project, provides detailed description and commentary in the accompanying 43-page, French and English liner notes. Philip Yampolsky, whom many will know from his important collection of diverse Indonesian music, engineered the recordings and U Than Aung (Saya Lei), retired dance teacher from the state school for the arts, corralled and rehearsed the musicians and designed the repertoire.

Accompanying both traditions is the hsaing waing orchestra with voice. Liner notes (with striking photos by Daniel Ehrlich) describe the unique instruments of the ensemble, which include the lead patwaing (drum circle) of 19–21 tuned drums and the reedy hne (shawm). These two prominent instruments (and a number of other tuned drums and gongs) play in acrobatic rhythmic and melodic dialogue. Of particular help for the beginning listener of Burmese music are Keeler’s descriptions of not just the instruments but also the relationship between the melodic and rhythmic parts of the ensemble, the hierarchy of the parts, and the exchange between instruments of the malleable lead melody. Notes also offer a description of a generalized zat performance as well as an account of the logistics of this particular recording session. For those interested in a supplement to the CDs and further insights into the confusion of doing fieldwork in Burma and/or the production of high-quality ethnographic audio, Keeler has documented his experiences in a two-part essay titled “Recording Theatre Music in Mandalay,” found in the Bulletin of the Burma Studies Group (Keeler 2005, 2006) published several years before these recordings were released.

The carefully selected CD tracks provide samples of several different song and instrumental genres...