A Cross-Cultural Composition with Myanmar and Western Musical Languages

Abstract

In the 21st Century Myanmar, mahar gita, a once highly regarded and sophisticated form of Myanmar music, has fallen out of favor. No new mahar gita has been composed since Daw Saw Mya Aye Kyi, the last great mahar gita composer, passed away in 1968. There is little scholarly research and public interest has been on decline since Colonial times.

This study aims to address this and grow interest in mahar gita by 1) bringing mahar gita into today’s contemporary context via cross-cultural composition, and 2) through providing transcribed scores and music analysis for younger generations of Myanmar musicians. The musical elements for this research are collected from four sources: 1) books and documents; 2) interviews with the mahar gita experts; 3) study with Myanmar music educator; and, 4) transcription of key works.

There are two key results. Firstly, a comprehensive discussion of the musical elements of the pat pyoe derived from the systematic analysis of the transcribed score of Hman Ya Wai, a pat pyoe song. Secondly, pat pyoe musical elements are combined with Western musical elements in Kyatthayay, a cross-cultural composition that brings mahar gita into contemporary context.

This study provides the starting point for future research that might include analysis other highly regarded pat pyoe songs for their musical characteristics or the study of the idiomatic playing techniques and orchestration of Myanmar traditional instruments.

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