Mainland Southeast Asian music traditions have received comparatively limited attention in global music scholarship. The region hosts a wide array of culturally diverse and sonically distinctive practices that move fluidly between tradition and innovation, court and rural repertoires, music and dance, ritual forms, and contemporary performances. These musical forms are deeply embedded in the everyday lives of communities, reflecting and shaping social relationships and cultural values.
Building on ongoing dialogues within ethnomusicology, sound studies, and performance studies, this panel explores contemporary music theories, performance practices, and sound aesthetics across the varied cultural contexts of Mainland Southeast Asia. Drawing on ethnographic, historical, and analytical approaches, the panel presents case studies and cross-regional comparisons that examine the roles of musical instruments, modes of transmission and learning, performative techniques, ritual soundscapes, and culturally embedded listening practices in shaping musical expression.
(Click on the titles to read the abstracts)
Lorenzo Chiarofonte (University of Bologna), “Finding the dramatic voices: A preliminary analysis of Burmese ngo chin (wailing songs)”
In Burmese performing arts, ngo chin (wailing songs) are used to express grief, sorrow, and longing within performative narrations (pya zat). Supported by the sound of the traditional hsaing waing music, the singer articulates the lament using characteristic falling-pitch melodies, vocal ornamentation, and rapid, continuous shifts between speech and song, often accompanying the vocal performance with bodily gestures that amplify the meaning of the words. These elements are essential in achieving the intense dramatic expression and emotional resonance that make this genre especially popular among Burmese audiences. By comparing different cases of ngo chin performances from various contexts – yokthe pwe (marionette shows), nat pwe (spirit possession ceremonies), and aye yin kyu (Buddhist funeral eulogies) – this paper highlights the interrelation between traditional theatrical and ritual genres in Burma. It looks at the main performative elements of Burmese wailing songs, examining how singers use their voices, body movements, and gestures to express emotion, working together to create a powerful performance.
Supeena Adler (UCLA), “Family Heirlooms as Social Objects: The Thai Musical Instruments at UCLA”
In her compelling study, Supeena Insee Adler, a highly skilled performer of Thai classical music and an accomplished instrument technician from Thailand, shares her profound insights into a remarkable collection of Thai musical instruments housed at UCLA. This investigation is anchored in a pivotal project she undertook from 2014 to 2015, where she painstakingly restored a historically significant collection of instruments that had long been the responsibility of UCLA. Thanks to her expert care, these instruments are not only restored to their former glory but are also actively used in her Thai ensemble course and performances, enriching the university’s cultural landscape. Adler provides a unique artisan’s perspective on the intricate repair process, emphasizing the deep cultural practices intertwined with these instruments. She vividly recounts the rituals involved in tuning a reluctant gong, showcasing the connection between craftsmanship and cultural heritage. Furthermore, she explores the rich histories of these instruments prior to their arrival at UCLA in the 1960s, highlighting that many were once owned by the legendary Luang Pradit Phairoh, a revered Thai court musician of the early twentieth century, which significantly elevates their importance. In her conclusion, Adler delves into the dynamic social networks that these instruments have traversed throughout their histories. She illustrates how they have fostered connections within Thailand, nurtured collaborations between the musical and scholarly communities in Bangkok and UCLA, and are now bridging a cultural gap with the burgeoning Thai diaspora in the United States – a community that was scarcely present when these instruments first arrived. Through this exploration, Adler not only honors the legacy of these musical treasures but also illuminates their ongoing role in connecting people and cultures across time and space.
Supeena Adler (UCLA), “Family Heirlooms as Social Objects: The Thai Musical Instruments at UCLA”
In her compelling study, Supeena Insee Adler, a highly skilled performer of Thai classical music and an accomplished instrument technician from Thailand, shares her profound insights into a remarkable collection of Thai musical instruments housed at UCLA. This investigation is anchored in a pivotal project she undertook from 2014 to 2015, where she painstakingly restored a historically significant collection of instruments that had long been the responsibility of UCLA. Thanks to her expert care, these instruments are not only restored to their former glory but are also actively used in her Thai ensemble course and performances, enriching the university’s cultural landscape. Adler provides a unique artisan’s perspective on the intricate repair process, emphasizing the deep cultural practices intertwined with these instruments. She vividly recounts the rituals involved in tuning a reluctant gong, showcasing the connection between craftsmanship and cultural heritage. Furthermore, she explores the rich histories of these instruments prior to their arrival at UCLA in the 1960s, highlighting that many were once owned by the legendary Luang Pradit Phairoh, a revered Thai court musician of the early twentieth century, which significantly elevates their importance. In her conclusion, Adler delves into the dynamic social networks that these instruments have traversed throughout their histories. She illustrates how they have fostered connections within Thailand, nurtured collaborations between the musical and scholarly communities in Bangkok and UCLA, and are now bridging a cultural gap with the burgeoning Thai diaspora in the United States – a community that was scarcely present when these instruments first arrived. Through this exploration, Adler not only honors the legacy of these musical treasures but also illuminates their ongoing role in connecting people and cultures across time and space.
Raja Halid (Universiti Malaysia Kelantan), “The Intersection-Contestation of Zauq, Wajd and Performative Sufism as the Embodiment of Sufi Spirituality in Malaysia”
This paper attempts to delve into the state of zauq and wajd in Sufi or Tasawwuf tariqa (Sufi order) practices. Dhikr, the remembrance of God through repetitive utterance of praise, singing songs/poems in praise of the Prophet Muhammad (mawlid), accompanied by rhythmic movements would often induce a person into the state of zauq. This experience is believed to signify closeness or connection with the divine and manifested through intensified bodily gestures or aural expressions. This is usually followed by wajd, a spiritual condition when a person loses the awareness of self, immersed in an altered state of consciousness. Sufis consider this as beyond sensorial experience, an extraordinary feeling (rasa) that is difficult to comprehend and describe. However, this embodiment of spirituality is not without contestations among Muslims in Malaysia. There are differences among scholars as to the permissibility of dance, music and excessive bodily movements while doing the dhikr leading to the state of zauq and wajd. Despite the controversy, Sufi tariqas continue to perform dhikr, mawlid and salawat, sometimes involving foreign Sheikhs and with the support of certain state religious authorities. Drawing upon Sufi texts, interviews and observations, this paper looks into current tariqa spiritual expressions, the zauq and wajd experiences and how negotiations are made by Sufis to maintain their esoteric practices.
Gavin Douglas (UNC Greensboro), “An Ontology of Buddhist Musics”
This project seeks to explore the relationship between musical/sonic activity and Buddhist practice in Myanmar (Burma). For both the ordained monks and the laity, sounds play an active role in Buddhist practice. In addition to many Buddhist-inflected traditions that are recognized as music (zat theatre, thachin gyi, dhamma gita), there are numerous other situations where sounds not labeled as music are, nonetheless, organized to further Buddhist goals (paritta chants, prayers, sermons, bells and gongs to mark ritual moments, etc.). Sometimes these sounds are labeled and discussed as music (gita), however, the term “music”, complicates understanding of how intentional sound is used, understood, and perceived. Throughout both lay and monastic Buddhist practice, sounds sculpt the architecture of rituals, invoke apotropaic spells for protection or warding off evil, proclaim sutras, mark time for daily activities, denote the acquisition and the distribution of merit, aid in the cultivation of particular states of mind and through group sounding create a community of practitioners. Buddhist monasteries, pagodas, and other Buddhist spaces are acoustically rich places that contain a wide variety of chants, prayers, gongs and bells, sculpting the sonic environment. This work attempts to organize different categories ontologies of music in the Theravada Buddhist context and argues for an expansion of sound scholarship beyond ‘music’ to include other aspects of sound that are contextually situated. Interviews with Burmese monks, devote laity, instrument makers, and musicians reveal many contradictory perspetives. For Buddhist scholars, I aim to highlight the significant and largely unacknowledged role that sculpted sound plays in Buddhist practice. For music scholars, I travel the peripheries of music to where the concept dissolves into other sonic behavior.
Ne Myo Aung (Gitameit Yangon), “Keeping memories fresh: Learning sandaya, Burmese piano, and the obstacles in the process of studying”
This lecture-demonstration introduces the Burmese piano, or sandaya, a tradition that blends Western instrumentation with the musical aesthetics of the Burmese court. Through performance and guided commentary, pianist Ne Myo Aung explores the process of learning to play the sandaya, highlighting its rhythmic flexibility, melodic elaboration and ability to adapt and reflect the expressive nuances of traditional Burmese instruments.
Presenters’ bios
Lorenzo Chiarofonte (University of Bologna)
Lorenzo Chiarofonte is Assistant professor in Ethnomusicology at the Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna. He received his PhD from SOAS University of London in 2020, researching the functions, meanings, and ritual efficacy of music and dance in spirit possession ceremonies in central Burma/Myanmar. He collaborates with the Intercultural Institute of Comparative Musical Studies at the Giorgio Cini Foundation Onlus (Venice) and is Research editor for the academic journal Analytical Approaches to World Music. His first monograph, Nat hsaing: Etnografia e analisi musicale di un rituale per gli spiriti in Birmania (Roma, NeoClassica), has been recently published.
Supeena Insee Adler (UCLA)
Supeena Insee Adler studied Thai classical music performance and instrument maintenance at Mahasarakham University in northeast Thailand before earning her Ph.D. in ethnomusicology at the University of California, Riverside, in 2014. She is the curator and conservator of the World Musical Instrument Collection at UCLA and an adjunct associate professor in the Department of Ethnomusicology, where she directs the Music of Thailand ensemble. She is also active as a performer, teacher, and instrument technician among the Thai community of Southern California. She has produced major concert events in conjunction with the Royal Thai Consulate General and has consulted with the U.S. Library of Congress as well as the British Library concerning their collections of Thai instruments and audio recordings. Her publications and research interests lie in ritual, classical, and folk music of Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia.
Raja Iskandar Raja Halid (Universiti Malaysia Kelantan)
Raja Iskandar bin Raja Halid, PhD, is Associate Professor in the Department of Heritage at Universiti Malaysia Kelantan where he has been a faculty member since 2009. He is the author of The Malay Nobat: A History of Power, Acculturation and Sovereignty (Lexington Books, 2022) and The Royal Nobat of Perak (UMK Press, 2018). His research interests lie in the areas of Malay court music, performative Sufism and popular culture.
Gavin Douglas (UNC Greensboro)
Gavin Douglas holds BMUS and BA degrees from Queen’s University, an MM from the University of Texas, and a PhD from the University of Washington. He is currently professor of ethnomusicology in the School of Music and adjunct professor of anthropology at UNC Greensboro. He is the author of Music in Mainland Southeast Asia (Oxford), a text that explores diversity, political trauma and globalization across Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. His other writings can be found in a variety of journals and edited volumes on topics such as state patronage of the arts, music and politics, ethnic minority traditions, and the sound worlds of Theravada Buddhism.
Ne Myo Aung (Dean, Gitameit Music Institute, Yangon)
Ne Myo Aung is a performer of Sandaya (Burmese-style piano technique/repertoire), an ethnomusicologist, composer, and educator. His collaborations include music for a documentary film with British director Alex Bescoby (We Were Kings: Burma’s Lost Royal Family), with pianist Kit Young on the music of the Nat spirit worship, and with Chris Miller in the transfer of 3000 Myanmar 78 rpm records into digital format. He has received commissions to compose Burmese piano music with Israeli pianist Yael Weiss, and another sandaya piece, “Padethar”, for a premiere performance at New York-based National Sawdust. A Fulbright scholar with MA degree in Ethnomusicology from the University of Washington, Ne Myo Aung teaches piano and serves as Dean of Gitameit Music Institute in Yangon, and continues to document the music and dance of elderly musicians in Yangon and across the Burmese countryside.
