Classical Music Traditions of Burma

The orthodox Theravada Buddhism frowns upon the music as being corrupt, but the Burmese monarchy as well as brew of various regional music patterns make up the several classical traditions of Burmese music. The oldest powers may perhaps come from China that shares a similar pentatonic musical scale as classical Burmese music. Other powers include Mon music (which is called Talaing than or sounds of the talaing mon), particularly in the Mahagita, the complete body of classical Burmese music. A prevailing one is known as Yodaya which is important as a classical of Burmese adaptions to songs accompanied with the saung gauk and come from the Ayuthaya kingdom (which is the modern day Thailand) during the periods of Bayinnaung from 1551 to 1581 and Hsinbyushin from 1753 to 1776, it brought back a species of cultural traditions, including the Ramayana, which is the main indigenous form and is known as thachin.

source of picture: en.wikipedia.org

The Burmese classical music collection can be divided into outdoor and indoor collections; the outdoor musical collection is the sidaw, also known sidawgyi was an outdoor collections in the royal courts that is used to mark the significant ceremonial functions like the royal ploughing ceremony. It comprise of a hnegyi that is a large double reed pipe and sidaw, a pair of ceremonial percuss, as well as the si and wa and a bell and also a clapper and the gandama, a double headed drum. Now, sidaw music is played at festival, other musical instruments used in the classical music include the saung 9a harp, and pattala, a xylophone. The indoor way is the chamber music collection which is basically done by a female composer accompanied by a traditional collection consisting of the saung, pattala, migyaung, (a zither), palwe (a flute) and in the past including the tayaw (a fiddle) and the hnyin (a small mouth organ).