Noise, Music, Peace: The Collaborative Compositions Inspired by Pattani's Folk Culture
Paper Presentation
21 August 2024
15:45 - 16:15 hrs (GMT+7)
C303
Noise is the sound experience, Music is a part of life, and Peace is a co-exist." A volunteer creative music project in Pattani province, on Thailand's southern border, was funded by the Ministry of Higher Education, Sciences, Research and Innovation (MHESI), Office of the Permanent Secretary, and the Princess Galyani Vadhana Institute of Music (PGVIM). The project aimed to delve into the rich folk cultures of Pattani, a multicultural area, through the sounds of the Pattani old town and the Ronggeng, a traditional music and dance that includes the fundamental Melayu (Yawi) language. This creative process was a collaborative effort involving brainstorming and categorising the collected data into facts, opinions, or feelings, then generating word clouds from the participants, who included volunteers from PGVIM students, Prince of Songkhla University (PSU) students, and young students residing in the specific site area. The collaborative compositions combined this data into songs, focusing on musical elements such as lyrics, melodic lines, harmony, and rhythm. The project was under supervision by Suppabhorn Suwanpakdee and Pongthep Jitduangprem, PGVIM faculty.
Five songs in different musical styles, including the Southern folk elements, found in that music follow 1) Lhong (ล่อง), multicultural words of Melayu, Chinese and Thai to approach people to visit Pattani, the land of peace; 2) Hown (หวล), or Nostalgia to explain the geography and the way of life at Pattani; 3) Bhasa Phuen (ภาษาเพื่อน), or Friend to show Melayu language and Thai meaning, representing the empathy translated through lyric; 4) Na Pattani (ณ ปัตตานี), or At Pattani, and 5) Doen (เดิน), Walking, both songs illustrated the old town, beliefs, folk tunes, and local food. It then curated a programme to showcase at the MACCaB –Music Art Craft Coffee and Book, an annual project to welcome the first-year students at PSU, Pattani Campus. The study found that the project can provoke the perception of sounds through the creative music process for the volunteer students, and the audience engaged through experience participation. This project always happened in a two-way learning process through all the activities that reflect the concept of intention.