Good Stuff Happens in 1:1 Meetings: Why you need them and how to do them well
Kurt baer
1. I wanttodance, tobeJ-Lo
To gointerlikea stuperstar,likeI wasfrom heaven
LikeMaraiah,likeSpears
OrBeyonce, I’m coming and refusetobackdown
Practicingthesteps, practicingtheboomboom
Takingtheboom and beem morethananyone else, foreignersstill enjoy
The coastof England toAmerica
We’llgoon tour,thewholeworldis waitinglikethat
Turnand lookatyourself and find thetruth
In fact,it’s somethingthatsuits me
This is moreenjoyable likethis
Ohoh oh oh ohoh lanor
Uncommon Thaistyle, you can laughand play togetherwithus
You can dance withthedolphins
This is Pong LangSa Orn
Deung deungdeung deungdeung
Ohoh oh oh oh lanor
This is moreenjoyable, frombabiestoelders
Let’slaughloudly andbe satisfied morethanyou thoughtpossible
Deung deungdeung PongLang Sa Orn
This is thebest, deung deungdeung
Click on the video below
2. ThePerformance and Negotiationof Thai Culture
PongLang Music andMeaning Making
Kurt Baer
Ph.D. Candidate, Ethnomusicology
Indiana University-Bloomington
kwbaer@Indiana.edu
13. Modernity
Stop a second, meet PongLang
Just go toThailand, that’s enough, if you’re too lazy togoanywhere else
Mariah, Spears
J-Lo, and Beyonce, forget ’em, they’re through
It’s a symptom, it’s a sign!
Continuing on the trend-setting Isan tradition
Thai music byThai people
Make peopleallover the country happylikethat
14. ThePerformance and Negotiationof Thai Culture
PongLang Music andMeaning Making
Kurt Baer
Ph.D. Candidate, Ethnomusicology
Indiana University-Bloomington
kwbaer@Indiana.edu
Editor's Notes
PL Sa-On Example
40 Seconds
Hello, my name is Kurt Baer. I’m a Ph.D Candidate in Ethnomusicology at Indiana University. I am doing my Fulbright in Thailand about the performance of a type of Northeastern Thai, or Isan, music known as Pong Lang. The piece I just played was by a band named pong lang sa-on, the winners of a Thai reality TV talent competition and the most well-known performers of a type of music known as pong lang. Pong lang, sometimes known as Isan local or traditional music is commonly performed in schools, at festivals, and in competitions throughout—and to some extent beyond—the Isan region.
The pong lang ensemble is a versatile musical group comprised of singers, dancers, musicians playing instruments endemic to the Isan region, such as the eponymous pong lang, a log xylophone, the khaen, a mouth organ; the phin, a three stringed lute; long drums, and the wode, a circular panpipe. The groups performs a repertoire of traditional instrumental pieces, morlam songs, and Northeastern Thai popular music. While Pong lang Sa on is certainly the best known pong lang ensemble, having several popular albums, international tours, and even movies, the vast majority of pong lang ensembles are found in schools and universities throughout the region.
40’
Here’s a more typical performance, by Mahasarakham University’s ensemble, performing at the art and culture performance stage at the Mahasarakham Red Cross Fair.
40’
Now that I’ve given a very brief introduction to pong lang, I want to give a brief story about why I am interested in studying it. On July 17, 2013, I was at Rhajabhat Mahasarakham University, prepping for a banquet that was to be attended by the international visitors to the University’s International Conference in the Sciences and Social Sciences. After the equipment had been set up and the guests had arrived, a pong lang ensemble started playing. The band, made up of music education students from the Faculty of Education clad in matching traditional outfits, was a different one from the one that had played at my farewell party the previous night, which was held by members of the Faculty of Humanities and featured a band made up of students from that department.
On the 18th, one could walk right outside the conference to find a market that had sprung up for the occasion, complete with a raised stage upon which a lineup of performers—from primary school children to professional troupes—performed pong lang music throughout the day. If one decided not to go outside into the heat for the performances, a number of dances were sprinkled throughout the conference proceedings that featured Isan dancers who danced along to prerecorded tracks of the pong lang. The reception after the end of the conference proceedings for the day was held at an Isan culture museum, which featured a room dedicated to pong lang xylophone, as well as several other Isan instruments scattered throughout the museum. The dinner after the museum tour that day featured another pong lang ensemble performance. Other times that I, as an international visitor, have traveled to the region, I have similarly been exposed to pong lang ensembles being used as a means of cultural performance, although, on the whole, pong lang ensembles are largely confined to schools and people tend not to listen to pong lang in their everyday lives.
1’35
My research focuses on representation and meaning in pong lang performance and discourse about this music: the ways that different people and organizations use pong lang to represent and shape diverse and sometimes conflicting ideas, places, people, histories, and futures. Through observing aspects of performances such as repertoire, dress, dance, and the context of and discourse surrounding these performance, as well as interviews with performers, teachers, and organizers, I am trying to understand the different meanings and representations that people attach to pong lang and understand how these different significances are tied to the ensemble. While I am still mid-way through my research, I wanted to outline a few of these different strands of discourse around meaning that often arise within pong lang performance
40”
These general themes center around issues such as regional identity,
The instruments of the ensemble are all specific to the Isan region, the Isan dialect tends to be used in songs, and the lyrics and musical pieces all tend to represent Isan life and culture. Close ties between specific instruments within the pong lang ensemble, such as the vode and the province of Roi Et, The Khaen in Khon Kaen, and the Pong lang in Kalasin go even further in connecting the ensemble to the region by creating ties that emplace the instruments in the pong lang ensemble within the Isan region and allow the ensemble to serve as a sort of musical map of the Isan region.
30”
The genre is also used to convey specific national identities, primarily through tie-ins with national tourism campaigns and, more obviously, frequent use of royal Iconography. Most pong lang competitions actually require ensembles to perform at least one piece that is specifically about the royal family.
20”
Additionally, pong lang performance also comments upon ethnic identity within the Isan region through tie-ins to the Lao ethnic and cultural identities of the majority of Isan residents and also by having performers dress up as and perform pieces associated with other minority groups in the region such as the Phu Tai or Tai Dam.
25”
While much of the excitement about ASEAN has died down over the past few years among the people that I have been working with, as ASEAN funding to schools has started to dry up, pong lang has been used in discourse about ASEAN Identity, both as an example of an important form of Thai cultural expression within ASEAN and as a sort of pre-ASEAN cross-border Thai-Lao cultural form.
20”
While I’m only just beginning to address it in my own research and can’t comment all that much at the moment, pong lang involves issues gender and sexual identity through things such as acting out courting rituals, dress, cross-dress, and through gendered roles within the ensemble.
15”
As a genre of “traditional” or “folk” music, pong lang perhaps most explicitly deals with issues of tradition, heritage, and history. Ensembles dress in traditional garb, perform a repertoire of canonical pieces, and even serve as a sort of meta-cultural performance, enacting events such as festivals, possession ceremonies, hunting methods, or even Isan musical performance on stage.
15”
Finally, these performances deal with issues of modernity. Bands perform popular Thai country and pop tunes along with the more “traditional” pieces and also address how aspects of Isan heritage and identity relate to modern life. The song I started this presentation with, for example, continues:
Mariah, Spears J-Lo, and Beyonce, forget ’em, they’re through
It’s a symptom, it’s a sign! We’re Continuing on the trend-setting Isan tradition Thai music by Thai people Make people all over the country happy like that
40”
