Since 2013 our fieldwork has focused on the Kachin of Northern Myanmar – in Myitkyina and the Putao region of Kachin State.

Kachin music between tradition, church and politics

Kachin music today is shaped by Baptist Christianity, by decades of armed conflict and by globalised pop. Traditional instruments such as the sum pyi flute and the drum-and-horn bands of the manau festival live alongside church choirs and rock bands.

Kachin and Uyghur compared by computer

Timbre and tonal-system analysis of recordings shows how close or distant the music of the Kachin and of the Uyghur in Xinjiang is – two groups at opposite ends of the old trade routes.

The pat wain drum circle

The Burmese pat wain is a circle of tuned drums. Each drum is tuned with a paste on its head; a finite-difference model shows how this paste changes the drum’s vibration patterns. More on the page Pat wain.

Literature

Bader, R.: The music of Northern Myanmar Kachin ethnic group, facing politics, religion, and globalization. Preprint 2021. https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/ezr3p

Bader, R., Blaß, M. & Franke, J.: Computational timbre and tonal system similarity analysis of the music of Northern Myanmar-based Kachin compared to Xinjiang-based Uyghur ethnic groups. arXiv:2103.08203, 2021.

Bader, R.: Finite-Difference model of mode shape changes of the Myanmar pat wain drum circle using tuning paste. Proc. Mtgs. Acoust. 29, 035004, 2016.