Pleasing Melody 2
9 tracks, 58 minutes
Soundcloud playlist (this album makes up the first nine tracks of this playlist – I’m not sure what the rest are!)
Before hearing this album, my only exposure to Burmese music was that of the pat waing, an instrument that consists of a circle of tabla-like drums that are tuned to play melodies. Very cool, but it left me with the impression that Burmese music was perhaps similar in many ways to Indian music. Then my flatmate’s mum visited Myanmar and brought him back this CD, and that’s not what it sounds like at all.
Hlang Win Maung is one of the foremost players of the saung, the Burmese classical harp. While traditionally the instrument accompanied voice, this album is almost completely solo – joined only by a pair of finger cymbals and a woodblock keeping time. In terms of timbre, the saung sounds a lot like a West African kora, probably due to their nylon strings. I actually find that the playing style is strangely reminiscent of the kora too, the way that the melody, harmony and basslines are sounded and interact with each other.
The music that it is used to play, though, is clearly more in the South East Asian cultural sphere rather than the South Asian as I expected (and yes, it’s obviously not in the West African sphere either…). The pentatonic melodies have much more in common with Thai classical music, and even sometimes put me in mind of Chinese sizhu (silk and bamboo) music. Similar to the Chinese style, most of the pieces on this album aim to evoke feelings and emotions of witnessing particular natural phenomena, with titles such as ‘Rain’, ‘Sagaing Hill’ and the wonderfully Communist-sounding ‘Myanmar Nationalities' Innate Nature & Myanmar Scenery’.
As with harp music from anywhere in the world, Hlang Win Maung’s saung has a very relaxing quality, and as it welcomes you to picture stunning scenery and beautiful nature as you enjoy it, Pleasing Melody 2 is a lovely listen. It is, indeed, a Pleasing Melody.
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