Royal court music in The Ratanakosin period

Abstract

This article aimed to discuss the significance of Thai royal court music performed in royal ceremonies and rituals resided by the king during the Ratanakosin Period. According to Thai traditional beliefs, music is a form of sacred communicative medium that links man’s spirit to invisible and supernatural beings. Ceremonies and rituals are viewed as a path to connect with those spirits. Music is an important element of such ceremonies that it completes the ceremonial process, honor and, moreover, gives blessings to the nation and its people. Royal court ceremonial music has a significant role that it is performed to indicate the actions of the participants of the ceremony. In a royal ceremony, there are many different steps of the whole procedure and uniquely, each step has a different music performed by the ensemble while it is being undertaken. Such royal court ceremony is called ‘demarcation’ and different songs are performed to indicate what step being played is related to the characteristics of the undertaken actions in each step of the ceremony. Such intensity of the music played in accompany with each step can also invoke the participants’ enthusiasm and unite them with the spirit of the ceremony.