{"id":121594,"date":"2026-01-26T12:57:49","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T11:57:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cini.it\/?post_type=cini_publications&#038;p=121594"},"modified":"2026-01-28T12:35:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T11:35:06","slug":"music-for-spirit-possession-cults-in-burma-myanmar","status":"publish","type":"cini_publications","link":"https:\/\/www.cini.it\/en\/cini_publications\/music-for-spirit-possession-cults-in-burma-myanmar\/","title":{"rendered":"Music for Spirit Possession Cults In Burma, Myanmar"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This first number of<em>\u00a0The World Music Listening Guides. Intercultural Music Education Courses<\/em>, <\/span><strong><i>Music for Spirit Possession Cults in Burma (Myanmar)<\/i><\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, is devoted to the Burmese <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">hsaing waing<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> ensemble and the role it plays in the spirit possession ceremonies of the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">nat <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">cult. The contents presented here derive from audiovisual materials collected during the event <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nat pwe. Music and dance in spirit worship in Yangon (Myanmar), <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">organised by the IISMC in 2017 as part of the series <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Music and rites<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, here reworked and presented in a series of multimedia animations that constitute the core of the guide. To convey the meaning that music assumes within these possession rituals, the contents are arranged to provide a general overview of the cult and its ceremonies before progressively focusing on performative aspects and the sound dimension. The interwoven, driving rhythms of the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">hsaing waing<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2013 an ensemble made up of gongs, tuned drums, oboes and voices, described here through fieldwork images collected by the author \u2013 generate the energy that sustains the possession dances of the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">nat kadaw<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (mediums), facilitating communication with the spirits. The interaction between the action of the instruments, the movements of the medium, and the participation of the audience is illustrated in an animation that reconstructs the unfolding of the different phases of the possession of the famous Brothers of Taungbyone, highlighting the ritual sequence of invocation, dance, entertainment, and the spirits\u2019 dismissal. A specific section is devoted to the song \u2018Shwe Byone Maung\u2019, part of the repertoire of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">nat thachin<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (\u2018songs for the spirits\u2019), in which a video animation highlights the various sections and musical structure of the piece. Finally, particular attention is given to the rhythmic interplay between the two main drums of the ensemble: the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">pat waing<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a circle of drums that leads the performance, and the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">pat ma<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a large suspended drum. Their interaction, one of the most distinctive features of this tradition, is analysed through a combination of diagrams, musical transcriptions, and video animations that demonstrate in detail how the dialogue between the two instruments shapes and energises the performance.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This first number of\u00a0The World Music Listening Guides. Intercultural Music Education Courses, Music for Spirit Possession Cults in Burma (Myanmar), is devoted to the Burmese hsaing waing ensemble and the role it plays in the spirit possession ceremonies of the nat cult. The contents presented here derive from audiovisual materials collected during the event Nat [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":121597,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"cini_tax_authors":[1967],"cini_tax_pub_cat":[1772,1811],"cini_tax_collections":[1968],"cini_tax_institutes":[1435],"cini_tax_publishers":[1719],"class_list":["post-121594","cini_publications","type-cini_publications","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cini_tax_authors-lorenzo-chiarofonte","cini_tax_pub_cat-online-publications-en-2","cini_tax_pub_cat-saggi-en","cini_tax_collections-the-world-music-listening-guides-intercultural-music-education-courses","cini_tax_institutes-institute-of-comparative-music","cini_tax_publishers-fondazione-giorgio-cini-en-2"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Music for Spirit Possession Cults In Burma, Myanmar - Fondazione Giorgio Cini<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cini.it\/en\/cini_publications\/music-for-spirit-possession-cults-in-burma-myanmar\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Music for Spirit Possession Cults In Burma, Myanmar - Fondazione Giorgio Cini\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This first number of\u00a0The World Music Listening Guides. Intercultural Music Education Courses, Music for Spirit Possession Cults in Burma (Myanmar), is devoted to the Burmese hsaing waing ensemble and the role it plays in the spirit possession ceremonies of the nat cult. 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