The Development of Khim Solo Pieces in Thai Traditional Music Business

Abstract

The Development of Khim Solo Pieces in Thai Traditional Music Business” aimed to study the development of Khim solo pieces regarding the artists, the songs and the performance practice. The study was conducted through the research of documents and musical media of both primary and secondary data. In addition, the research was scoped into four eras of musical media: shellac disc era, longplay era, cassette era and compact disc era. The results revealed that the development began with the shellac disc era where the foreign companies recorded the Thai dulcimer solo pieces because of the popularity of the instrument and the artists: Mr. Put Nanthaphol and Mr. Montri Tramote. The pieces were the solo pieces according to traditional Thai music terms. In the era of longplay, it was the period that Thai Traditional music began to lose popularity because of the government's policy to push the country toward civilization, and also the hits of international songs and Thai pop songs.  At that time, the Khim solo pieces were presented as an intermission piece between other traditional Thai music. The songs which were performed during this era were Chinese accent songs and Sam Chan (solo) songs. The recording artists were Chawengsak Phosombat and Suwit Bawonwattana. During the cassette era, the amount of Khim solo pieces increased dramatically. Because the influence of the Sunset at Chaopraya made the Khim favorite; some popular Thai pop songs were chosen to play in the Khim solo; and some Northern Thai songs were played also. Hence, the number of truly solo pieces decreased comparing to the total song number. There were eight recording artists. In compact disc era, there were the pieces which the performance practice was changed with the use of Western musical instruments and synthesizers in Khim performance. Moreover, Khim solo was used in the Spa music style which was gaining popularity from the spa business. The traditional pieces still increased by the older and newer publishers. There were 14 recording artists. Therefore, the development of Khim solo pieces changed according to the social conditions, so that Khim solo pieces would be able to keep interesting and existing in the Thai traditional music business.