Traditional Thai Music Competition: History, Development and Values in Thai Society

Abstract

The purpose of this research was aimed to examine the history and development of Thai music contests from the past up to the present, and to study the value of Thai music contests towards the culture of Thai music. Data was gathered from documents and interviews with people involved in the research issue. The results showed that:1) the traditional Thai music competition was first established in the form of the Thai music band contest during the reign of King Rama IV, due to the royal preference of the monarchy and the ruling class to include Thai music bands under their affiliation of the monarchy and led the music band to show performance in the important festivals, and developing the pattern of instrumental performance, lyrics, instrumental performance procedures, new musical instruments that become a traditional pattern for Thai music, until after the governmental transformation, the word "Thai Music Contest" was introduced in the year 1949.  After that, the traditional Thai music competition have been organized both in the form of bands and musical instruments by government and private agencies as competition organizers as widely as we’ve seen today, 2) the value of the Thai music contest includes as follows: 1) person - musical instrument makers and musical coaches, 2) song - old songs are reproduced and new songs are created, 3) agency - a developed experience of organizing events, establishing standards and acceptance, and lastly, 4) Thai music culture has been developed in the new standard and maintain a national identity.