Sounding the Center: History and Aesthetics in Thai Buddhist Performance - Softcover

Wong, Deborah

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0226905861 ISBN 13: 9780226905860

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2001

Synopsis

Sounding the Center is an in-depth look at the power behind classical music and dance in Bangkok, the capital and sacred center of Buddhist Thailand. Focusing on the ritual honoring teachers of music and dance, Deborah Wong reveals a complex network of connections among kings, teachers, knowledge, and performance that underlies the classical court arts.Drawing on her extensive fieldwork, Wong lays out the ritual in detail: the way it is enacted, the foods and objects involved, and the people who perform it, emphasizing the way the performers themselves discuss and construct aspects of the ceremony.

About this title

About the Author

Deborah Wong is an associate professor of music and director of the Center for Asian Pacific America at the University of California, Riverside.

Review

"The most compelling aspect of the book, for me, is the ethnographic description. Whether she is describing performances of the ceremony, the elaborate preparation of food and floral offerings, conversations with practitioners, or even her own learning process, Wong writes with a sure eye for color and detail."
(Margaret Sarkissian Ethnomusicology)

"This book provides a new perspective to the study of music in mainland Southeast Asia by connecting music and dance with social structure and history of Thai society. . . . [The book] not only provides new insight into the role of music in contemporary Thai society, it also serves as a useful reference for corresponding research in other areas of mainland Southeast Asia." (Giovanni Giuriata The World of Music)

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0226905861
• ISBN 13: 9780226905860
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336