Burmese Classical Music

Burmese classical music is the court tradition of Myanmar, centred on the Mahagita, a corpus of several hundred songs (thachin gyi) composed for the royal courts of the Burmese kings. Its emblematic instrument is the saung, the Burmese arched harp, played with voice in intimate chamber settings; the same repertory also feeds the hsaing waing, the outdoor ensemble of tuned drums and gongs led by the patt waing drum circle. A later branch, sandaya, adapts the songs to the piano. Sustained by court musicians until the monarchy's fall in 1885, the tradition survives through master teachers, state schools and radio.