Music for a Royal Palace

Music for a Royal Palace

(Essays on Architecture 3)
for sheng, viola, marimba, and percussion (1-3 players)
2006
15-17 minutes

The Bang Pa-In Palace in Ayuthaya Province, Thailand

The royal palace at Bang Pa-In, also known as the “summer palace,” was established during the Ayuthaya period, in the mid-17th Century, but abandoned when Ayuthaya fell and the kingdom re-established near Bangkok. The fourth king of the present Chakri dynasty, King Rama IV, rediscovered the site in the mid-19th Century, restored existing buildings and expanded the palace. Between 1872 and 1889, King Rama V added extensive new construction in European styles and Thai-European hybrid styles and used the palace for the reception of foreign dignitaries and as a suburban retreat.

The Phra Thinang Isawan Thippha-art (“The Divine Seat of Personal Freedom Royal Residence”) Pavillion, which stands in the middle of an artificial lake, exemplifies classical Thai archiecture, with a multi-layered and multi-colored tile roof, a central spire and elaborate gold decoration. Nearby, among mansions in a European Classic Revival style stands the Ho Withun Thasana (“Sage’s Lookout”), an observatory tower in a European-inspired style, built by King Rama IV for surveying the countryside and for astronomical observations. Such a building represents an architectural innovation in Thailand and King Rama IV’s dedication to modern Western principles of science and geography, marking an early moment in the dramatic shift from traditional cosmography to European rationalism and nationhood. Immediately adjacent to the Ho Withun Thasana stands the Phra Thinang Wehart Chamrun (“Heavenly Light Royal Residence”), a large and extremely ornate throne hall in an entirely Chinese style, built in China and given to King Rama V by an association of Chinese merchants living in Thailand.

The jarring stylistic juxtapositions now preserved at Bang Pa-In reflect a kingdom and monarchy in transition and are a physical manifestation of the relations of power and ethnic and national identites at play in the late 19th Century. In the mid-19th Century, the tributary relationship with China waned as royal relationships with European counterparts rose. King Rama IV began a project of modernization intended to establish an international reputation for the Thai monarchy, to reconceptualize Thailand as a nation in the modern European sense, and to preserve the kingdom’s independence from colonial occupation. Although the tributary relationship to China waned, ethnic Chinese living in Thailand comprised a substantial economic class and provided much of the funding and labor required for the construction of royal architecture and other modernization projects for much of the 19th Century. Donations such as the Phra Thinang Wehart Chamrun were meant to express loyalty, preserve economic relationships and secure social status as Thai ethnic identity became the basis for the modern concept of nationhood. The inclusion of traditional Thai architecture in royal palaces affirmed the Thai ethnic identity as central even as dramatic cultural changes were unfolding. European architecture in Thai royal palaces, as well as in public works, embodied the royal desires to be regarded as equals among European royalty and marked a shift in the symbolism by which authority as a national leader was asserted, away from decreasingly relevant Brahminic rituals and towards conspicuous consumption of European goods and styles.

Music for a Royal Palace is both for and about the Bang Pa-In Palace, a musical reflection of the multiethnic stylistic juxtaposition, and an imaginary tribute to a moment in time now frozen as a museum. The ensemble of Chinese and Western instruments performs a traditional Thai composition in Chinese style, arranged from my contemporary Western perspective and framed by original music which is informed by my music for Western instruments and the Lao mouth organ, khaen. The hidden presence of the khaen, which has contributed to my style of writing for the sheng, is fitting as the ethnic Lao provide labor for the Thai nation but are traditionally marginalized and their influence is conspicuously absent from palace architecture.

Jin Khim Lek

Jin Khim Lek was composed by one of the most important teachers and composers known in Thai history, Mi Duriyangkul, also known as Khruu Mii Khaek. He composed it during the reign of King Phranangklao (Rama III, 1824–1851), based on a melody he heard performed by a Chinese musician playing the khim (dulcimer). As there was already a composition in the Thai repertory entitled Jin Khim (‘Chinese-style khim composition’) dating from the Ayuthaya period, this new composition became known as Jin Khim Lek and the older piece as Jin Khim Yai (lek and yai meaning ‘small’ and ‘large’, respectively, here in the sense of ‘lesser’ and ‘greater’ in terms of historical age).

This composition is the basis for the second half of Music for a Royal Palace, in which it serves as a theme presented in variations in a conventional Thai classical form. Thai ensemble music consists of variations of a single melody performed simultaneously with percussion accompaniment. Each melodic instrument in the ensemble performs a variation idiomatic to that particular instrument as understood within the Thai tradition. In Music for a Royal Palace, newly-conceived instrumental idioms for the sheng, viola and marimba are based upon the combination of instrumental idioms in the Western, Chinese (in the case of the sheng) and Thai traditions. In the manner of virtuoso arrangements in the Thai classical tradition, all the variations are newly-composed including ensemble and solo variations.

In addition, the original ‘second-level’ composition is followed by a ‘first-level’ variation, in which the structure of the melody is rendered in double-time while the rate of rhythmic subdivision remains constant. Although first- and third-level variations of Jin Khim Lek exist within the Thai tradition, the first-level variation in Music for a Royal Palace is newly-composed. Here, a modified repetition structure is used for the first-level variation, in which the third section is not repeated, making the 24-measure original into a 9-bar version, which is then varied and extended.