The Strategy of Creating the Suntaraporn Musical Play from Eua Sunthornsanan’s Biography
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Abstract
The Suntaraporn music band is a private Thai big band that was founded in 1939 and has becomes the longest continuously performing band in Thai music history. There have been more than 2,000 songs created by the band, with the contents of songs being various and reflective of Thai society during the time they were composed. One of the unique characteristics of Suntaraporn’s songs is the literary nature of the lyrics that tell a story in a dramatic way. In addition, some songs were written based on the life of Eua Sunthornsanan, the founder and leader of the band. Thus, it is possible to develop the biography of Kru Eua and history of the Suntaraporn band as the plot for a musical play in order to present the value of Suntaraporn’s music, as well as to honour Kru Eua Sunthornsanan who was granted the World Personalities award by UNESCO in 2010.
Therefore, this research aims to examine the biography of Kru Eua Sunthornsanan and analyze Suntaraporn’s music in order to create a musical play that presents the unique characteristics of his songs and the band. The study included research on Kru Eua’s personal and career life, the history of the Suntaraporn band, interpretation of Suntaraporn’s songs and an analysis of the band’s identity. The script developing process was divided into four parts: establish the main message, develop the plot, create characters and select the songs list.
The play created based on Eua Sunthornsanan’s life is approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes long, divided into two acts, consist of 27 scenes and 42 songs. The song titled Pra Chao Tang Ha was chosen as the core message of the play. The main plot was developed from a conflict in the love life and career path of Kru Eua Sunthornsanan. The songs that were based on Kru Eua’s life were primary selected to be presented in the play, along with other songs that have lyrics that fit the situation and dialogue of the characters. The type and melody of songs was also considered that could affect the rhythm of the play. The unique characteristic of Suntaraporn’s music is presented through the variety in styles of the songs, the refection of Thai society in Suntaraporn’s songs and the characters in the play inspired by the band’s well-known musicians and singers.
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