This is my first piece to combine the khaen, a bamboo free-reed mouth organ from Laos and Northeast Thailand, with Western instruments. Instead of contrasting Western and Lao musics against one another, I have combined the three instruments into one larger meta-instrument that plays only one kind of music at a time. The word "lai" refers to the melodic modes on which traditional solo improvisations are based. This piece is a suite of three different approaches to the combination of khaen music and Western music. In the first section the khaen plays in a traditional mode (lai noi) while the strings expand its range and polyphonic capability; the second section departs from traditional music altogether with all instruments forming a tapestry of longer tones; and the third section is an idiomatic khaen melody (in lai yai) played in close canon by all three instruments.

This piece requires khaen in G.

Three Lai has been released on the CD Epilogue for a Dark Day (Tzadik, 2004)

Performed by:
Christopher Adler, khaen, Curtis Macomber, violin, Lois Martin, viola (Da Capo Chamber Players)
Christopher Adler, khaen, Zhang Yanjun, violin, He Ziying, viola
Christopher Adler, khaen, Branden Muresan, violin, Chia-Ying Hsu, viola
Christopher Adler, khaen, Carmel Raz, violin, Chia-Ying Hsu, viola
Christopher Adler, khaen, Todd Reynolds, violin, Ralph Farris, viola
Christopher Adler, khaen, Eric Pritchard, violin, Jonathan Bagg, viola (premiere)