THE IMPACT OF PHIBUN’S NATIONALIST POLICY: A CASE STUDY OF PHLENG RABAM CHUMNUM PHAO THAI

Abstract

The paper examines the use of Thai classical music in Phibhun’s nationalist policy through the background of phleng Rabam Chumnum Phao Thai. Framed under Thai music analysis and modified orientalism, the data are drawn from various sources. These include correspondences during 1941 between the then Prime Minister and the Director of the Fine Arts Department regarding the urgency of cultural preservation, national archives, shellac disks, interviews, and focused group discussion.

The finding revealed that Thai classical music was used as a political tool to construct modernity in Thailand on par with the colonial countries. Phleng Thai Yai, one of the “ethnic” songs in phleng Rabum Chumnum Phao Thai, is based on a ngiao tune of Thai Yai ethnic minority from Northern Thailand. Montri Tramote “revised” the original melody and used it to accompany a prelude performance for Anuphap Haeng Kan Siasala (The Might of Altruism) play in 1955. Sanctioned by the government, the play was a response to the then Prime Minister Phibun Songkhram’s nationalist policy. In this study I point out the cultural force that emerged from a composer’s musical imagination to stimulate nationalist sentiment and belief. The process is accomplished through appropriating the music of ethnic minorities to benefit the dominating few.