The Making of Musicians and Musical Audiences in Thailand

’If the classical music of Thailand is to be preserved, then the traditional house schools of musical learning should be maintained. The modernized Thai schools can never hope to produce the quality of musicians to match the greatness of those who came before. ’ (From an interview with Chalermsak Pikulsri, Khon Kaen, Thailand) In the statement above, Pikulsri, a noted Thai musician, teacher, and historical musicologist, reflected the view of traditional musicians who took their training in the musical houses of the Golden Age of Thai music, from the middle of the nineteenth century to the first decades of the twentieth century. Thai music, with its systems of transmission and training is a reflection, for better or for worse, of the changes in Thai society itself. Today, music and musicians in Thailand are of two worlds: the old and the new, the dissolving past and the emerging present, the custom-made and the mass-produced. The palette of musical choices in Thailand today is predomi-nantly Western and Thai popular music, folk and traditional Thai music and the classical music of the royal courts. Yet, despite the preferential tilt away fro