View source for Mahāgīta

{{Short description|Complete body of Burmese classical songs}}
{{Infobox music genre
| name              = Mahāgīta
| native_name       = {{lang|my|မဟာဂီတ}}
| etymology         = [[Pali]] for 'great songs'
| other_names       = Thachingyi ({{lang|my|သီချင်းကြီး}})
| image             = 
| alt               = 
| caption           = 
| stylistic_origins = 
| cultural_origins  = {{hlist|[[Pyu]]|[[Bamar|Burmese]]|[[Mon people|Mon]]|[[Thai music|Ayutthayan]]}}
| instruments       = {{hlist|[[Saung]] |[[pattala]] |[[hne]] |[[fiddle]] |[[piano]] |[[drum]]s}}
| derivatives       = 
| subgenres         = 
| subgenrelist      = 
| fusiongenres      = 
| regional_scenes   = 
| local_scenes      = 
| other_topics      = [[Music of Myanmar]]
| footnotes         = 
| current_year      = 
}}
{{Culture of Myanmar}}
'''''Mahāgīta''''' ({{langx|my|မဟာဂီတ}}; from {{langx|pi|Mahāgīta}}; {{lit|great songs}}), also rendered into Burmese as '''''Thachingyi''''' ({{langx|my|သီချင်းကြီး}}), is the complete body or corpus of Burmese classical songs.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.umbc.edu/eol/garfias/mahagita.html|title=The Maha Gita|date=30 October 1995|website=University of Maryland, Baltimore County|access-date=2018-09-13}}</ref> The songs descend from the musical traditions of the Burmese royal court, and form the basis of Burmese classical music today.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Garfias|first=Robert|date=2004|title=Review of Mahagitá: Harp and Vocal Music of Burma|journal=Ethnomusicology|volume=48|issue=1|pages=151–152|jstor=30046252}}</ref> ''Mahāgīta'' songs continue to be played during Buddhist rituals, weddings, and public festivals, and performers frequently appear on state-run television shows.<ref>{{Cite book |last=MacLachlan |first=Heather |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/774293885 |title=Burma's pop music industry : creators, distributors, censors |date=2011 |publisher=University of Rochester Press |isbn=978-1-58046-737-7 |location=Rochester, N.Y. |pages=2-4 |oclc=774293885}}</ref>

== History ==
The ''Mahāgīta'' evolved into a single style from Pyu, Mon, and Burman musical traditions.<ref name=":2" /> The ''Mahāgīta'' also incorporates musical traditions of conquered kingdoms; the ''Yodaya'' songs are modeled on the musical style of the [[Ayutthaya kingdom]], while the ''Talaing'' songs are based on the songs of the [[Mon people]].<ref name=":0" />

===Pre-colonial origins===
''Kyo'', ''bwe'', and ''{{transl|my|thachingan}}'' songs are considered to constitute the oldest parts of the ''Mahāgīta'' repertoire, serving as the main court music before the [[Konbaung dynasty]].<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":0" /> The earliest genre of ''kyo'' songs date to the late [[Kingdom of Ava]] era. ''Kyo'' songs, which literally means "string," were used as repertoire to teach traditional classical singing and the [[saung]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://waing.org/kit-young-conference-mahagita/|title=Kit Young: Conference on the Mahagita|date=2017-01-01|work=WAING|access-date=2018-09-14|language=en-US}}</ref> The oldest songs of the ''kyo'' genre are the "Three Barge Songs," which describe a king's passage up the [[Irrawaddy River]] to [[Tagaung, Mandalay|Tagaung]] in {{Circa|1370}}, have variously been dated to the late Toungoo period (1531-1752).<ref name=":4" /> The "Three Barge Songs" include "''Phaung Ngin Kyo,''" ({{lang|my|ဖောင်ငင်ကြိုး}}) played as the barge is towed out; "''Phaung La Kyo''," ({{lang|my|ဖောင်လားကြိုး}}) played as the [[royal barge]] is underway; and "''Phaung Saik Kyo''," ({{lang|my|ဖောင်စိုက်ကြိုး}}), played when the barge makes port.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://folkways-media.si.edu/liner_notes/folkways/FW04436.pdf|title=Burmese Folk and Traditional Music|date=1953|publisher=Ethnic Folkways Library}}</ref>

''Bwe'' songs honor the king, while ''{{transl|my|thachingan}}'' songs honor the Buddha or the king as a protector of the [[Śāsana|Sāsana]].<ref name=":4" /> Both genres date to the [[Konbaung dynasty]], {{Circa|1738}}. [[Myawaddy Mingyi U Sa]] was the most prominent composer of songs in the ''bwe'' and ''{{transl|my|thachingan}}'' genres.<ref name=":4" />

''Patpyo'' songs were popular in the late [[Konbaung dynasty]], and are the most numerous in the corpus.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":1" /> These songs have a rhythmic foundation resembling drumbeats, and require the highest level of performance technique and knowledge.<ref name=":4" /> ''Ledwethankhat'' songs constitute a minor genre, and are characteristically sharp and active, with fast, short rhythms.<ref name=":4" /> These songs are always followed by ''{{transl|my|myingin}}'' songs traditionally performed at equestrian, martial arts, and archery events.<ref name=":4" />

''Bawle'' songs, which are plaintive songs, date to the 1800s; the earliest song, "''Sein Chu Kya Naung''" ({{lang|my|စိန်ခြူးကြာညောင်}}), composed by a Konbaung princess to persuade her husband to return to her side, was composed after 1838.<ref name=":4" />

===Colonial era evolution===
From the 1910s to the 1950s, with the advent of British colonial rule in Burma, a new genre of traditional music, variously called ''khit haung'' ({{lang|my|ခေတ်ဟောင်း}}; {{Lit|old era}}), ''hnaung khit'' ({{lang|my|နှောင်းခေတ်}}, {{Lit|late era}}), and ''kala paw'' ({{lang|my|ကာလပေါ်}}, {{Lit|current [era]}}) emerged.<ref name=":5">{{Cite journal |last=Douglas |first=Gavin |date=2007-01-11 |title=Myanmar’s Nation-Building Cultural Policy : Traditional Music and Political Legitimacy |url=https://minpaku.repo.nii.ac.jp/index.php?active_action=repository_view_main_item_detail&page_id=13&block_id=21&item_id=1528&item_no=1 |journal=Senri Ethnological Reports |language=ja |volume=65 |pages=27–41 |doi=10.15021/00001520 |issn=1340-6787}}</ref> While the roots of this genre lie in the pre-colonial court tradition, compositions from this genre gradually incorporated Western musical instruments (e.g., the piano, guitar, banjo, etc.) and foreign musical influences in terms of melody, tunings, and rhythm (e.g., harmony in thirds, accented rhythm in vocals), which did not adhere to the strict rules of the royal court musical tradition. From the 1920s to the 1940s, the introduction of recording technology created a sizable local market for ''khit haung'' music. The [[Ministry of Information (Myanmar)|Ministry of Information]] completed the first volume of ''khit haung'' music transcriptions in 1999.<ref name=":5" /> State-run [[MRTV]] publishes multi-volume written compilation of songs from this genre.<ref>{{Cite web|title=ခေတ်ဟောင်းတေး / နှောင်းခေတ်ကာလပေါ်တေးအတွဲ တေးသီချင်းစာအုပ်များ ဝယ်ယူနိုင်|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvCjmJUVPJI|website=MRTV|language=my}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=တေးရေးပညာရှင်ကြီးများ၏ နှောင်းခေတ်ကာလပေါ်တေးများ အတွဲ (၆)၊ (၇)၊ (၈) စာပေဗိမာန်တွင် ဝယ်ယူရရှိနိုင်|url=http://www.moi.gov.mm/ppd|website=Ministry of Information|access-date=2020-05-09|language=my}}</ref>

=== Modern-day preservation ===
The ''Mahāgīta'' has faced challenges with preservation. The oral tradition remains the primary mode of musical transmission.<ref name=":5" /> In the 1990s, the Burmese government, under the Ministry of Information, began to standardise and notate the entire repertoire of classical Burmese music.<ref name=":5" /> However, this approach has been limited by the [[Musical notation|Western notation system]], which cannot capture the flexibility of Burmese rhythm, the two-part style, and a loose floating rhythmic organisation, including free-style embellishments, all of which distinguish traditional Burmese music from other musical traditions in the region (e.g., Thailand, China, India).<ref name=":5" />

== Collections ==
The ''Mahāgīta'' is generally organised into songs by genre based on varying tuning methods, rhythmic patterns, frequently used melodies, preludes and postludes,<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal|last=Inoue|first=Sayuri|date=2014-12-01|title=Written and Oral Transmission of Burmese Classical Songs|url=http://www.burmalibrary.org/docs21/Inoue-2014-Transmission_of_Burmese_Classical_Songs.pdf|journal=The Journal of Sophia Asian Studies|issue=32|pages=41–55}}</ref> as follows:

* ''Kyo'' ({{lang|my|ကြိုး}})
* ''Bwe'' ({{lang|my|ဘွဲ့}})
* ''Thachingan'' ({{lang|my|သီချင်းခံ}})
* ''Patpyo'' ({{lang|my|ပတ်ပျိုး}})
*''Ledwethankhat'' ({{lang|my|လေးထွေသံကပ်}})
*''Natchin'' ({{lang|my|နတ်ချင်း}})
*''Yodaya'' ({{lang|my|ယိုးဒယား}})
*''Bawle'' ({{lang|my|ဘောလယ်}})
* ''Lwangyin'' ({{lang|my|လွမ်းချင်း}})
* ''Myingin'' ({{lang|my|မြင်းခင်း}})
*''Talaing than'' ({{lang|my|တလိုင်းသံ}})

In the ''Gitawithawdani'' anthology, the songs are grouped into 4 categories are known as ''{{transl|my|apaing}}'' ({{lang|my|အပိုင်း}}).<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |last=Ching |first=Tan Li |date=2008-07-29 |title=Transmission of Burmese Classical Music |url=http://scholarbank.nus.edu.sg/handle/10635/121048 |access-date=2018-09-14 |website=scholarbank.nus.edu.sg |language=en}}</ref> Each category has a specific tuning method, namely ''hnyinlon'', ''aukpyan, pale'', and ''myinzaing''. The remaining 2 tuning methods, ''duraka'' and ''chauk thwe nyunt'', are now extinct.<ref name=":4" />

==Ensemble==
''Mahāgīta'' songs are sung by a vocalist who controls the metric cycle by playing a [[bell]] ({{lang|my|စည်}}, ''si'') and [[Clapper (musical instrument)|clapper]]s ({{lang|my|ဝါး}}, ''wa'').<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last=Lu|first=Hsin-chun Tasaw|title=The Burmese Classical Music Tradition: An Introduction|date=2009|journal=Fontes Artis Musicae|volume=56|issue=3|pages=254–271|jstor=23512133}}</ref> The vocal performances are accompanied by a chamber music ensemble, which includes the following instruments:

* ''Saung'' ({{lang|my|စောင်း}}) - [[Burmese harp]]<ref name=":1" /><ref name="mna">{{Cite news|url=http://www.moi.gov.mm/npe/?q=article/23/09/2017/id-67125|title=မဟာဂီတကမ္ဘာသို့ အလည်တစ်ခေါက်|last=ကျော်ထက်|work=Myanmar News Agency}}</ref>
* ''[[Pattala]]'' ({{lang|my|ပတ္တလား}}) - xylophone<ref name="mna"/>
* ''[[Hne]]'' ({{lang|my|နှဲကြီး}}) - double-reed oboe<ref name="mmt">{{Cite web|title=Traditional artists face the music|url=https://www.mmtimes.com/lifestyle/14041-traditional-artists-face-the-music.html|date=2015-04-10|website=The Myanmar Times|access-date=2020-05-04}}</ref>
* ''Si'' ({{lang|my|စည်း}}) and ''wa'' ({{lang|my|ဝါး}}) - bell and clapper<ref name="mmt" />
* ''Bon'' ({{lang|my|ဗုံ}}) - double-headed drum<ref name="mmt" />
* ''Tayaw'' ({{lang|my|တယော}}) - fiddle<ref name="mmt" />
* ''Sandaya'' ({{lang|my|စန္ဒရား}}) - piano<ref name="mmt" />

The ''tayaw'' and ''{{transl|my|sandaya}}'' are historically recent additions dating to the [[Konbaung dynasty]] (mid-to-late 1800s).

=== Piano (''Sandaya'') ===
The [[piano]], called ''sandaya'' ({{Langx|my|{{linktext|စန္ဒရား}}}}), was introduced to the Burmese musical repertoire during the mid-19th century [[Konbaung dynasty]], first as a gift by the Italian ambassador to King [[Mindon Min]].<ref name=":02">{{Cite web |last=Young |first=Kit |title=The Strange, The Familiar: Foreign Musical Instruments in Myanmar/Burma |url=https://asiasociety.org/strange-familiar-foreign-musical-instruments-myanmarburma |access-date=2023-03-23 |website=Asia Society |language=en}}</ref> The instrument was quickly indigenised by Burmese court musicians and uses a novel playing technique adapted to play Mahāgīta compositions.<ref name=":02" /><ref name=":12">{{Cite web |last=Webster |first=Jonathan |date=2013-07-13 |title=Solitude and Sandaya: The Strange History of Pianos in Burma—The Appendix |url=https://theappendix.net/issues/2013/7/solitude-and-sandaya-the-strange-history-of-pianos-in-burma |access-date=2023-03-23 |website=The Appendix}}</ref> Prominent Burmese pianists often prefix their name with the honorific 'Sandaya' (e.g., [[Sandayar Hla Htut]] and [[Sandayar Chit Swe]]).

Burmese musicians use a "technique of interlocked fingering with both hands extending a single melodic line allowed for agogic embellishment, fleeting grace notes in syncopated spirals around a steady underlying beat found in the bell and clapper time keepers."<ref name=":02" /> This playing technique is based on the two-mallet technique of the ''[[pattala]]'', a bamboo xylophone, and the two-hand technique of the ''[[pat waing]]'', a drum circle.<ref name=":22">{{Cite web |last=Garfias |first=Robert |date=1995-11-05 |title=The Burmese Piano Music of U Ko Ko |url=https://www2.umbc.edu/eol/garfias/burma1.html |access-date=2023-03-23 |website=UMBC}}</ref> By contrast, Western playing styles feature melody with the right hand, and supporting harmonies with the left hand.<ref name=":12" /> The Burmese technique allows for very rapid playing, enabling musicians to layer complex and distinct [[Ornament (music)|ornamentations]], which evoke the expressive techniques used in traditional Burmese singing.<ref name=":12" /><ref name=":02" /> The Burmese style is characterised by prominent use of virtuosity and ornamentation, with alternating sections of free and fixed, but flexible, rhythm.<ref name=":22" />

== Anthologies ==
The national anthology, known as ''Naingngandaw Mu Mahagita'' ({{lang|my|နိုင်ငံတော်မူမဟာဂီတ}}) includes a selection of 169 songs, standardised and published in three volumes between 1954 and 1961 by [[Ministry of Culture (Myanmar)|Burmese Ministry of Culture]].<ref name=":3" /> The [[National University of Arts and Culture, Yangon]] uses the ''Naingngandaw Mu Mahagita'' as the official anthology for teaching Burmese classical music.<ref name=":4" /> This anthology is also used for the [[National Performing Arts Competition]] (also known as ''Sokayeti'') held annually in October.<ref name=":4" />

The ''Naingngandaw Mu Mahagita'' anthology is based on an earlier anthology, entitled ''Gitawithawdani'' ({{lang|my|ဂီတဝိသောဓနီ}}; from Pali {{IAST|Gītavisodhana}}, {{lit|purifying the songs}}), published in 1923, which was based on the repertoire of the last Burmese court harpist, Dewaeinda Maung Maung Gyi ({{lang|my|ဒေဝဣန္ဒာမောင်မောင်ကြီး}}).<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite book|url=http://waing.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/%E1%80%9C%E1%80%B0%E1%80%91%E1%80%AF%E1%80%B1%E1%80%92%E1%81%9A%E1%80%A1%E1%80%99%E1%80%AC-%E1%80%BB%E1%80%99%E1%80%94%E1%80%B9%E1%80%99%E1%80%AC%E1%80%B7%E1%80%99%E1%80%9F%E1%80%AC%E1%80%82%E1%80%AE%E1%80%90Myanmar-Mahagita.pdf|title=မြန်မာ့ မဟာဂီတ|last=အမာ|first=လူထုဒေါ်|year=1989}}</ref> The second edition was edited and recompiled by Ba Cho and republished in 1941, and is now in its sixth reprint.<ref name=":4" />

The oldest extant song anthology was compiled c. 1788 by the Monywe Sayadaw (1766-1834), and comprises 166 sets of song texts.<ref name=":3" /> Several [[Konbaung dynasty]] anthologies exist, including an 1849 anthology compiled by [[Myawaddy Mingyi U Sa]] and another 1870 anthology, ''Thachin Gaungzin Potye Hmatsudaw'' ({{lang|my|သီချင်းခေါင်းစဉ်ပုဒ်ရေးမှတ်စုတော်}}) with 1,062 song titles under 27 genres, both compiled at the behest of [[Mindon Min]], and an 1881 anthology named ''Mahagita Myedani Kyan'' ({{lang|my|မဟာဂီတမြေဓနီကျမ်း}}), compiled by U Yauk in [[Pyay]].<ref name=":3" />

==Modern-day usage==
The popularity of the ''Mahāgīta'' genre in modern-day Myanmar has declined significantly with the advent of popular music.<ref name="mmt" /> Some songs in the ''Mahāgīta'' corpus remain staples for various traditional ceremonies. A ''bwe'' song called "Aura of Immeasurable Auspiciousness" ({{lang|my|အတိုင်းမသိမင်္ဂလာသြဘာဘွဲ့}}, ''Ataing Mathi Mingala Awba Bwe'') is used as a wedding processional song in traditional [[Weddings in Myanmar|Burmese wedding]]s (analogous to the "[[Bridal Chorus]]" in Western weddings).<ref name="marry">{{Cite web |date=2019-02-02 |title=မင်္ဂလာပွဲထွက်တဲ့အချိန်မှာ အခါတော်ပေး သီချင်းဖွင့်မယ်ဆိုရင် |url=https://www.marry.com.mm/planning-idea/wedding-myanmar-song-for-myanmar-traditional-wedding-ceremony |access-date=2020-05-04 |website=Marry |language=my}}</ref> The style of ''Mahāgīta'' songs has also been adapted in more modern compositions, such as "Auspicious Song" ({{lang|my|မင်္ဂလာတေး}}, ''Mingala Tei'') composed by [[Twante Thein Tan]], and "''Akadaw Pei''" ({{lang|my|အခါတော်ပေး}}) by Waing Lamin Aung, both of which are commonly played at traditional Burmese weddings.<ref name="marry"/><ref>{{Cite web|title=ဂန္ထဝင်ဂီတဖြင့်ပရိသတ်ကို သိမ်းပိုက်ခဲ့သူ (သို့မဟုတ်) တွံတေးသိန်းတန်|url=https://myanmar.mmtimes.com/news/133814.html|date=2020-01-15|website=The Myanmar Times|access-date=2020-05-05}}</ref>

== Recordings ==
* ''Mahagita: Harp and Vocal Music of Burma'' (2003)

== See also ==
* [[Music of Myanmar]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mahagita}}
[[Category:Music of Myanmar]]
[[Category:Classical and art music traditions]]