The pattala ( my, ပတ္တလား ''patta.la:'', ; mnw, ဗာတ် ကလာ) is a Burmese

xylophone The xylophone (; ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Like the glockenspiel (which uses metal bars), the xylophone essentially consists of a set of tuned wooden keys arranged in the ...

, consisting of 24 bamboo slats called ''ywet'' () or ''asan'' () suspended over a boat-shaped resonating chamber. It is played with two padded mallets. The pattala is tuned similar to the

diatonic scale In music theory, a diatonic scale is any heptatonic scale that includes five whole steps (whole tones) and two half steps (semitones) in each octave, in which the two half steps are separated from each other by either two or three whole steps, ...

. In modern days, classical Burmese chamber music is accompanied by either the pattala or the

saung The ''saung'' ( Burmese: စောင်း, MLCTS caung: ; also known as the ''saung-gauk'' ( စောင်းကောက်), Burmese harp, Burma harp, or Myanmar harp), is an arched harp used in traditional Burmese music. The saung is re ...

(the Burmese harp), both of which are capable of performing a harmonic countermelody. The pattala is also a key instrument in the Burmese ensemble orchestra, the

hsaing waing The ''hsaing waing'' ( my, ဆိုင်းဝိုင်း, ; also spelt ''saing waing''), commonly dubbed the Burmese traditional orchestra (မြန်မာ့ဆိုင်း), is a traditional Burmese folk musical ensemble that accompan ...

. The pattala is also prominently featured in Burmese drama,

anyeint Anyeint (; ; my, အငြိမ့်; also spelt a-nyeint) is a traditional Burmese entertainment form that combines dance with instrumental music, song, and comedy routines, in theatrical performances.Seekins, Donald M. (2006) "Anyeint (Anye ...

Etymology

The Burmese term ''pattala'' is a calque of

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

(ဝါဒျ, "musical instrument") and Mon (ကလာ, "chest"). The Mon equivalent is called ''patkala'' (ဗာတ်ကလာ). In the Karen languages, it is called ''paw ku.''

Origins

The earliest extant mention of the ''pattala'' is in the ''

Kalyani Inscriptions The ''Kalyani Inscriptions'' ( my, ကလျာဏီကျောက်စာ), located in Bago, Burma (Myanmar), are the stone inscriptions erected by King Dhammazedi of Hanthawaddy Pegu between 1476 and 1479. Located at the Kalyani Ordinatio ...

,'' which dates to CE 1479, followed by a reference in a treatise during the reign of

Bayinnaung , image = File:Bayinnaung.JPG , caption = Statue of Bayinnaung in front of the National Museum of Myanmar , reign = 30 April 1550 – 10 October 1581 , coronation = 11 January 1551 at Toung ...

. During the Nyaungyan era, the pattala was referenced in the poet-minister

Padethayaza Padethayaza ( my, ပဒေသရာဇာ; –1754), also spelt Padesarājā, was a minister who served the last three monarchs at the Nyaungyan court, and was a prominent writer and poet. He is known for composing ''pyo'', lyrical poems based ...

's verse poem, " Thuza Pyo" (သူဇာပျို့) as an instrument played for royal court affairs. The pattala is similar to other mainland Southeast Asian instruments, including the Thai ''

ranat ek The ''ranat ek'' ( th, ระนาดเอก, , "also xylophone") is a Thai musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of 21 wooden bars suspended by cords over a boat-shaped trough resonator and struck by two mallets. It is us ...

'' and the Cambodian ''

roneat ek The ''Roneat Ek'' or Roneat Aek ( km, រនាតឯក; also called ''Roneat Rut'') is a xylophone used in the Khmer classical music of Cambodia. It is built in the shape of a curved, rectangular shaped boat. It has twenty-one thick bamboo or ha ...

''. In pre-colonial Burma, the pattala was used in royal court music. In fact, when the

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

was first introduced to the Burmese court in the late 1800s, it was tuned to the scale of the pattala.

Construction

The bamboo slats are typically made from the wood of giant bamboo (''

Dendrocalamus giganteus ''Dendrocalamus giganteus'', commonly known as giant bamboo, is a giant tropical and subtropical, dense-clumping species native to Southeast Asia. It is one of the largest bamboo species in the world. Description A very tall, large-culmed, grayi ...

''), which is durable and produces a stable sound. Slats are occasionally made from

brass Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other with ...

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...

. The mallets are made from hardwoods such as

teak Teak (''Tectona grandis'') is a tropical hardwood tree species in the family Lamiaceae. It is a large, deciduous tree that occurs in mixed hardwood forests. ''Tectona grandis'' has small, fragrant white flowers arranged in dense clusters (panicl ...

padauk ''Pterocarpus'' is a pantropical genus of trees in the family Fabaceae. It belongs to the subfamily Faboideae, and was recently assigned to the informal monophyletic ''Pterocarpus'' clade within the Dalbergieae. Most species of ''Pterocarpus ...

, black cutch, yindaik, or pyinkado. The resonance box is made from

and decorated with inlaid glass or gold leaf. The ''pattalas components have specialized names in the Burmese language: * ''Pallin'' (ပလ္လင်, lit. "throne") - the base of the ''pattala'' * ''Phanat'' (ဖိနပ်, lit. "shoes") - the foot of the ''pattala'' * ''Bedaungbya'' (ဘဲတောင်ပြား, lit. "flat duck feathers") - the resonating chamber * ''Myinmo taing'' (မြင်းမိုရ်တိုင်, lit. "

Mount Meru Mount Meru (Sanskrit/Pali: मेरु), also known as Sumeru, Sineru or Mahāmeru, is the sacred five-peaked mountain of Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist cosmology and is considered to be the centre of all the physical, metaphysical and spiritu ...

pillars") - decorative protrusions from the resonating chamber * ''Myinmo peik'' (မြင်းမိုရ်ပိတ်, lit. "

closure") - either end of the resonating chamber

References

{{Burmese musical instruments , state=autocollapse Burmese musical instruments Keyboard percussion instruments my:ပတ္တလား

Etymology

Origins

Construction

See also

References