Bamar Folk Music

Bamar folk music is the vernacular music of the Bamar majority of Myanmar's central plains: the outdoor festival repertory of the hsaing waing orchestra, byaw songs sung to drum at religious festivals, and the theatre, puppet and spirit-medium repertories the ensemble serves. The hsaing waing combines the pat waing circle of twenty-one tuned drums, bronze gong frames, the piercing hne oboe and time-keeping bell and clapper in heterophonic textures marked by abrupt shifts of tempo and colour. Distinct from the refined chamber song of the old royal courts, it is the sound of nat pwe spirit festivals, anyeint dance and village celebration.