Abstract
The slide-guitar’s history in Burmese culture is interlaced with narratives that bind together themes of romance, modernization, royal patronage, and colonial maritime economies. Drawing from fieldwork with the last Burmese slide-guitar master, Man Yar Pyae U Tin, this paper details the instrument’s adaptation to Burmese musical tonalities and aesthetics and its role in the performing arts renaissance of the early twentieth century. This ethnographic project connects to a discussion on the framing of cultural exchange and the rhetoric of terminological choice, promoting a symbolic, functional, and material approach to understanding the slide-guitar’s navigation through Asia.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 27-58 |
| Number of pages | 32 |
| Journal | Asian Music |
| Volume | 51 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Jan 2020 |
User-Defined Keywords
- Guitar
- Myanmar
- Indigenization
- Burmese