ABSTRACT
In part because Westerners fi nd Burmese music less immediately alluring than some other musical traditions of Southeast Asia, and in part because entry into Burma for Western researchers has been diffi cult since the early 1960s, outsiders know much less about Burmese music than about, say, Javanese, Balinese, or ai music. Each of Burma’s ethnic groups has its own language and musical traditions. e ethnic Burmans, native speakers
of Burmese, have enjoyed some degree of political preeminence within a region roughly corresponding to the present nation since the days of Pagan, the kingdom that ruled from a city by the Irrawady in Upper Burma in the tenth through the twelfth centuries. is article focuses on the music of the majority Burmese, especially because there is relatively little literature on other types. Burmese music can be divided into two styles: an outdoor type and an indoor, chamber type.
