Interview with Master Musician
Kyaw Kyaw Naing

LOTUS Fine Arts Productions: Tell me about how you became interested in playing pat waing and in traditional music in general.

Kyaw Kyaw Naing: My father was a well-known pat waing musician and so was my grandfather, U Tin Pe, who came from Pantanaw township, Irrawaddy division, the lower part of Myanmar. So, as long as I can remember there was music around the house.

LFAP: How old were you when you started to play?

KK: I have a brother who is a few years older. My father was teaching him pat waing. I remember, when I was about four years old, I was sitting and watching a lesson. My brother was trying to play the piece my father was teaching, but he was having a hard time. Somehow, just from sitting and listening, I realized that I already knew the piece. I could do it. When my brother got up to take a break, I got behind the pat waing and I played. From then on, my father decided that I would study pat waing and patala, and my brother would specialize in vocals.

I started learning the classical repertory when I was six I placed second at a patala (bamboo xylophone) competition in Mandalay. Then I won first prize at the Burmese Era 3000 competition and some other prizes too. Eventually I went back to school and continued my regular studies. My mother wanted very much for me to be a musician, but my father didn’t. He did want someone to carry on his legacy, but he didn’t want me to suffer the hardships he endured.

LFAP: What is so hard about being a musician in Myanmar?

KK: Playing pat waing takes a lot of effort and diligence. Even though you are skilled and you have already learned the technique, you need stamina, and you must be strong because you often have to perform all night. Sometimes your fingers become swollen and get hurt when you play for long hours. A ceremonial performance will usually go on from 8 a.m. until 3 a.m. or 4 a.m. Then, you have to get up at 5 a.m. to play the byaw: a big drum that calls the people to the morning ceremony. This is a tradition. After playing byaw you go back to playing pat waing at 8 or 9 a.m. and resume playing until about 1:00 p.m. Even when the ceremony is over, you often have to go immediately to the next ceremony. So when you have that kind of consecutive performance, you get really tired. You don’t get regular sleep or meals. For these reasons my father did not want me to become a musician.

LFAP: Are there so few pat waing players that one person has to do all of this?

KK: No, but the leader of the saing waing ensemble is responsible for all of these ceremonial events.

LFAP: So why did your mother want you to do this?

KK: My mother was so enthusiastic and so interested in music, so she wanted me to acquire this skill.

LFAP: She married a musician.

KK: My mother also wanted me to maintain the legacy of my father’s generation.

LFAP: Despite the difficult situation for artists, she knew this was a great profession.

KK: Yes. My mother was also a well-known dancer.

LFAP: You have an elder brother. Any sisters?

KK: I have two elder sisters. They were not interested in music. They work in offices.

LFAP: Your father came to NY in 1975. Do you remember that? Do you remember him coming home to Yangon?

KK: At that time I was ten or eleven. I was sort of hyperactive. From when I was six until I was ten, everybody knew me in my world. Whenever there was a quarrel it was me, and if someone was climbing to the top of a coconut tree, it was me, and if there was a rough game of football in the playground, I was in it. I wasn’t interested in my father’s visit. I was absorbed in my play. But I remember that soon after he came back from his visit my mother passed away. From then on I never returned to my study and I became a musician.

LFAP: As she hoped you would be.

KK: Yes.

LFAP: In Myanmar popular music seems to be gaining ground and pushing the traditions out. What is the saing waing’s place now? How many people are studying traditional music?

KK: The government holds an annual music competition that produces some good, skilled musicians. Music that is hardly performed elsewhere, ancient music, is performed there, and they introduce new styles that come from tradition. But audiences request certain music and when you are playing outside you have to be able to perform in many different styles depending on the taste of the audience. Often someone from the audience or someone in charge of the occasion wants modern or western style music.

LFAP: Most American orchestras only play classical music. They couldn’t and wouldn’t play rock.

KK: Saing musicians have their integrity. Even though we are offered money to play something we don’t like, we won’t do it. There are some, of course, who are unskilled or inexperienced who will do anything to be popular. But, in general, we travel around the country and play for many different occasions and we want to respond to the request of the audience.

LFAP: When I hear traditional Burmese music, it doesn’t sound like Indian music; it doesn’t sound like Thai music; and it doesn’t really sound like Chinese music. What can you say about Burmese music? Why is it so unique? Or is it?

KK: It is our own music so... just as the Burmese language is different from Chinese so the same thing goes for Burmese music.

LFAP: In Burma you see musicians playing piano -- you play piano -- slide guitar, but the music retains the same Burmese sound as the music played on traditional instruments. Do you think that Burmese musicians are especially adaptable?

KK: Nowadays in the Western world there are computer systems and computers everywhere. In Myanmar, we have fewer computers or good quality systems, but still, some Burmese who specialize in computers are really good. I’m just giving you an example of adaptation.

LFAP: When you play Burmese music on piano, do you have to re-tune the instrument?

KK: Previously they re-tuned it but nowadays they don’t. Actually, all of the notes for saing waing can be found on the piano keyboard, so you don’t need to re-tune. In a live theatrical performance, in a tragedy or love story, you won’t hear piano accompaniment, but you often hear it as background music in the movies.

LFAP: What are your plans in the US? Here you are in New York, one of a very small number of Burmese musicians. What do you hope to do?

KK: I first came to America because I was invited by UCLA. First I went to England, and then I came here along with musicians from seven or eight Asian and European countries. We exchanged skills and learned each other’s music. My intention was to stay for a while and go home. When I was at UCLA, I toured around the museums and the music halls on campus. I was amazed. It was as if Burmese music did not exist. I saw musical instruments of various countries, but not a single Burmese musical instrument. Not even a harp or a xylophone. So I got the idea to introduce Burmese music to America and to do something for people in the Burmese community here. I see that few Americans are familiar with Myanmar or Burmese music, and that is why I have dedicated myself to this.

LFAP: Is there anything else you want to say?

KK: Until now, in the U.S. I have mostly been performing alone. Normally when you perform pat waing with an orchestra there are at least 7 performers. So, it was hard and I had to use a synthesizer to make it sound like several people are playing. Now that I have learned that LOTUS and Asia Society are working together to make this event possible, I am really glad. It will be wonderful to play with real musicians. I expect to enjoy myself, and I hope we will be able to collaborate with some western musicians. When I was young I had a dream. I always had a dream that I would play my pat waing with a western orchestra. I still hope to do it.