The Making of a Thai Paschal Troparion
This is the making of a paschal troparion, the hymn “Christ is risen from the dead…”, in the Thai language and from the Thai culture. For obvious reasons—my wife is Thai and the whole family is highly affected by our ties to Thai culture—we have closely watched the progress of the Orthodox Church in Thailand. If there had been a paschal troparion in Thai, we would have been using it in our house years ago. But instead, every year, we bemoan the lack of a Thai troparion and talk about how wonderful it would be to have one. It is a small consolation that we have a Chinese paschal troparion that we love, one that feels Chinese, and thus a little bit closer to our Asian home.
And then, a Thai troparion appeared. A few weeks ago, my wife showed me a Facebook post with a Thai paschal troparion, sung by Matushka Ksenia, wife of a Russian priest serving a parish in Thailand. (In that video, he is singing the isan, the drone note, but it is my understanding that she wrote the troparion.) Just the fact that they had created one spurred the thought in my head that we could do the same.
............
In the past couple years, I fiddled around with creating “American” church tones. That was partly in jest and partly serious; my classmates and I would start with a popular rock song or maybe a melody from a movie or TV show and then convert it to a “church style”. Most of the time...actually, almost every time, listeners could not recognize the original. Is this music appropriate for church? Well, that comes down to the people; “it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us”. If it is accepted by people and they use it in church, then it is appropriate for church. If it is not appropriate or fitting or fulfill all the necessary “requirements”, it will fall out of usage.
My initial approach was to do what I did with some of the selections of American music in turning them into Church tones. I first looked for a tune from a genre of Thai music that I would call Thai crooner music, a sort of Thai “Frank Sinatra”. I loved the sound, but I could not seem to get any traction on any of those musical phrases. Thai people are so smiley and fun-loving, I next thought of starting with something a little more “pop” sounding, though I had to change it back into something not at all pop sounding. In searching around online, especially not knowing specific names of music or musicians that would help me find what I was looking for, I just could not find that sound that I had in my head, remembered from my times in Thailand.
Not totally leaving that idea, but just keeping the general feel of that music in my head, I decided to see if the words themselves might inspire some music. So, I opened up that Thai paschal troparion video from Mat. Ksenia, and asked my wonderfully understanding wife to help to transcribe it for me. Then, over a period of a couple weeks, I tried some musical phrases on her to see how she reacted: “too emotional”, “too fast”, “maybe this phrase should move up, like this…” Her comments were invaluable...but they became even more invaluable later.
She helped form it into something that sounds a little more acceptable to Thai ears, and eventually, a little more acceptable to a Thai church instead of background music at some restaurant in Thailand. At first, she was certainly not a big fan of the music. But, as I kept using it in my own prayers and (when I could sneak it in) in the family’s prayers, I could see that she was not fully comfortable with it. Partially, it was my substandard pronunciation, since I was struggling to think about the music and the words and the correct pronunciation of those words all at the same time. And partially, she wondered if it was acceptable to make up your own church music. But mostly, she just did not quite like the music; it did not sit well with her.
Then, one night, with the kids and me occupied in another room, my wife sat alone on the sofa, humming to herself. I did not think much of it, till she announced, “I have changed up your tune some.” Once she had the mental space to just think about it some and once she saw that it is ok to just make something up on your own, even for use in our prayers, she adjusted my initial tune to fit better with the phrasing in Thai. Interestingly, she also shifted to a pentatonic scale, not purposefully, but just because those were the notes that felt more right. In essence, she created a variation of my theme; you could clearly hear the original theme, but she had made it more solemn, better phrased, and more Thai.
As we were talking about it, her still feeling a little apologetic for changing my tune, she ended up saying, “I feel like this is mine, like it belongs in Thai, not like I have to learn it in some other tongue.”
Feel free to listen to the Thai Paschal Troparion from the Strange family. And here is the sheet music, if you would like to have it:
And then, a Thai troparion appeared. A few weeks ago, my wife showed me a Facebook post with a Thai paschal troparion, sung by Matushka Ksenia, wife of a Russian priest serving a parish in Thailand. (In that video, he is singing the isan, the drone note, but it is my understanding that she wrote the troparion.) Just the fact that they had created one spurred the thought in my head that we could do the same.
............
In the past couple years, I fiddled around with creating “American” church tones. That was partly in jest and partly serious; my classmates and I would start with a popular rock song or maybe a melody from a movie or TV show and then convert it to a “church style”. Most of the time...actually, almost every time, listeners could not recognize the original. Is this music appropriate for church? Well, that comes down to the people; “it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us”. If it is accepted by people and they use it in church, then it is appropriate for church. If it is not appropriate or fitting or fulfill all the necessary “requirements”, it will fall out of usage.
My initial approach was to do what I did with some of the selections of American music in turning them into Church tones. I first looked for a tune from a genre of Thai music that I would call Thai crooner music, a sort of Thai “Frank Sinatra”. I loved the sound, but I could not seem to get any traction on any of those musical phrases. Thai people are so smiley and fun-loving, I next thought of starting with something a little more “pop” sounding, though I had to change it back into something not at all pop sounding. In searching around online, especially not knowing specific names of music or musicians that would help me find what I was looking for, I just could not find that sound that I had in my head, remembered from my times in Thailand.
Not totally leaving that idea, but just keeping the general feel of that music in my head, I decided to see if the words themselves might inspire some music. So, I opened up that Thai paschal troparion video from Mat. Ksenia, and asked my wonderfully understanding wife to help to transcribe it for me. Then, over a period of a couple weeks, I tried some musical phrases on her to see how she reacted: “too emotional”, “too fast”, “maybe this phrase should move up, like this…” Her comments were invaluable...but they became even more invaluable later.
She helped form it into something that sounds a little more acceptable to Thai ears, and eventually, a little more acceptable to a Thai church instead of background music at some restaurant in Thailand. At first, she was certainly not a big fan of the music. But, as I kept using it in my own prayers and (when I could sneak it in) in the family’s prayers, I could see that she was not fully comfortable with it. Partially, it was my substandard pronunciation, since I was struggling to think about the music and the words and the correct pronunciation of those words all at the same time. And partially, she wondered if it was acceptable to make up your own church music. But mostly, she just did not quite like the music; it did not sit well with her.
Then, one night, with the kids and me occupied in another room, my wife sat alone on the sofa, humming to herself. I did not think much of it, till she announced, “I have changed up your tune some.” Once she had the mental space to just think about it some and once she saw that it is ok to just make something up on your own, even for use in our prayers, she adjusted my initial tune to fit better with the phrasing in Thai. Interestingly, she also shifted to a pentatonic scale, not purposefully, but just because those were the notes that felt more right. In essence, she created a variation of my theme; you could clearly hear the original theme, but she had made it more solemn, better phrased, and more Thai.
As we were talking about it, her still feeling a little apologetic for changing my tune, she ended up saying, “I feel like this is mine, like it belongs in Thai, not like I have to learn it in some other tongue.”
Feel free to listen to the Thai Paschal Troparion from the Strange family. And here is the sheet music, if you would like to have it:
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