Tha Nat Khar Parr Dot Pwe is by Mar Mar Aye. She is revered as one of the best female Burmese classical singers. She was born in Burma and lived there until 1998 when she moved to the United States. She was very politically active, which is the reason she had to leave Burma. She went back to Burma in 2012 for a solo concert after living in exile for 14 years, however, she is still located in the United States. During her time in the United States, she wasn’t allowed to release her albums and her music was banned from being played on the radio in Burma. This is why it says that all of her albums were released in 2013, that is when her music was unbanned. I chose this piece because I felt it had examples of the music we have been hearing in class while also exhibiting a little bit of western influence, I also thought that Mar Mar Aye’s story is very inspiring and interesting.

The instruments in the song are vocals, some sort of reed instrument, a xylophone-sounding instrument, a pitched metal drum, what sounded like a membranophone drum, and some sort of brass ensemble. The song follows a very clear tune and rhythm that is different from our listening examples. The instruments are similar to what we have heard from the region except for the brass instruments that indicate Western influence. The introduction is fast and has a very clear pattern but then mellows out and slows down as our singer comes in. The instrumentation also follows the singer. Each note is very clear and intentional, unlike the improvisational-sounding examples we’ve been listening to in class. The singer is also singing in the scale that we are used to hearing with the addition of accidentals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ef5_3ctyUMw&list=OLAK5uy_nHcZthMrqnfQlDe8bvx6m_eXQouhe0uWE