Our International Music CD for this month is Mahagita: Harp & Vocal Music From Burma by Myint Maung and Yi Yi Thant.
Mahagitá: Harp and Vocal Music of Burma is a 2003 album of traditional Burmese classical music, performed by harpist Inle Myint Maung and vocalist Yi Yi Thant. Released by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, it offers a rare introduction to Myanmar's centuries-old royal court music.
The title Mahagitá refers to the great classical song tradition of Burma, historically associated with royal courts. This repertoire, known as thachìn gyì, developed over several centuries and is distinguished by its intricate melodies, ornamentation, and refined vocal expression.
Burma's preeminent player of the arched harp and one of Burma's most respected singers provide a beguiling sampling of the Burmese thachìn gyì (classical song) repertoire in these stunningly beautiful recordings made in Rangoon in 2000. The Burmese arched harp, a little known treasure among Asian musical instruments, figures prominently in Burma's classical music tradition. That tradition, developed over several centuries in Burma's royal courts, exhibits the restraint, subtlety, and elegance of many aristocratic traditions—but in an idiom uniquely Burmese. "—Folkways Records.
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