Creative Perpetuation of Thai Luk Krung Songs

Abstract

The literary style of texts of Luk Krung songs corresponds to Thai classical literature in prosody and content, by composers who are well-versed in Thai literary tradition. This article studies the creative perpetuation of Thai Luk Krung songs. Data was gathered from Luk Krung songs composed by national artists in performing arts from 1986 to 2019. Results were that conventional prosody was employed and adapted in Luk Krung songs. Song content was based on Thai classical literature. Songwriters also extended stories from original texts, adapting characters, traditional images and descriptions while incorporating motifs and scenes from Thai classical literature. They also used original texts in creating Luk Krung song content, through modification, adaptation, parody, allusion, combination and reinterpretation. In addition, Thai Luk Krung songs were employed to create new songs for contemporary Thai society by modifying, adapting, parodying, and composing inspired by original songs to combine and apply Luk Krung songs to other lyric genres. This revived the Luk Krung heritage for new generations of listeners.