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Sounding the Center: History and Aesthetics in Thai Buddhist Performance
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Sounding the Center: History and Aesthetics in Thai Buddhist Performance Hardcover - 2001 - 1st Edition

by Deborah Wong


From the rear cover

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. Only those who have been initiated by a master can manifest the divine in the human realm. The power held by the master musicians, Wong shows, is both ritual and social; they are not just ritual experts, they are also leaders at the government-run national conservatory. This combination of political recognition and esoteric knowledge, Wong suggests, has helped Thai classical music endure in the face of changing patronage and the challenges posed by the urban environment that supports it.

Details

  • Title Sounding the Center: History and Aesthetics in Thai Buddhist Performance
  • Author Deborah Wong
  • Binding Hardcover
  • Edition number 1st
  • Edition 1
  • Pages 336
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher University of Chicago Press
  • Date 2001-08
  • Illustrated Yes
  • Features Bibliography, Glossary, Illustrated, Index
  • ISBN 9780226905853 / 0226905853
  • Weight 1.55 lbs (0.70 kg)
  • Dimensions 9.32 x 6.36 x 1.07 in (23.67 x 16.15 x 2.72 cm)
  • Themes
    • Cultural Region: Southeast Asian
    • Religious Orientation: Buddhist
  • Library of Congress subjects Bangkok (Thailand) - Social life and customs, Rites and ceremonies - Thailand - Bangkok
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 00033775
  • Dewey Decimal Code 306.484

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.
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Sounding the Center: History and Aesthetics in Thai Buddhist Performance
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Sounding the Center: History and Aesthetics in Thai Buddhist Performance

by Deborah Wong

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New. "Sounding the Centre" is an in-depth look at the power behind classical music and dance in Bangkok, the capital and sacred centre of Buddhist Thailand. Focusing on the ritual honouring teachers of music and dance, Deborah A. 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. Only those who have been initiated by a master can manifest the divine in the human realm. The power held by the master musicians, Wong shows, is both ritual and social; they are not just ritual experts, they are also leaders at the government-run National Conservatory. This esoteric knowledge, Wong suggests, has helped Thai classical music endure in the face of changing… Read More
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Sounding the Center – History & Aesthetics in Thai  Buddhist Performance +CD
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Sounding the Center – History & Aesthetics in Thai Buddhist Performance +CD

by Deborah Wong

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Univ of Chicago Pr, 2001. Hardcover. New. 1st edition. 336 pages. 9.00x6.25x1.00 inches.
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Sounding the Center : History and Aesthetics in Thai Buddhist Performance
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Sounding the Center : History and Aesthetics in Thai Buddhist Performance

by Wong, Deborah

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Sounding the Center: History and Aesthetics in Thai Buddhist Performance (Chicago Studies in...
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Sounding the Center: History and Aesthetics in Thai Buddhist Performance (Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology)

by Wong, Deborah

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Sounding the Center: History and Aesthetics in Thai Buddhist Performance (Chicago Studies in...
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Sounding the Center: History and Aesthetics in Thai Buddhist Performance (Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology)

by Wong, Deborah

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University of Chicago Press. Hardcover. New. New. In shrink wrap. Looks like an interesting title!
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