Musical Composition of Ranad Ek solo version of ‘Thewa Prasit Song Chan’, for a Thai National Musical Instrument Solo Competition for Elementary Level Students

Abstract

This academic article’ aim is to present a Ranad Ek solo version musical composition guideline that has been used in a Thai national musical instrument solo competition, Serm Prasobkarn Seubsan Sangkitsil Thai, organized by Bansomdejchaopraya Rajabhat University, in 2021, during its Bansomdej Music Center 50th anniversary and the death anniversary of Somdej Chaophraya Borom Maha Sri Suriyawongse’s (Chuang Bunnak). Each if the contestants picked one out of three song chan musics: Karawek Lek, Krop Jakrawan, and Thewa Prasit. In this competition, Thewa Prasit was the choice of the contestant sent by our team. Then all contestants had to recompose the chosen song as Ranad Ek solo version chan diao music. Thewa Prasit contains two sections with beautiful melodies and easy to memorize. Our re-composed version contains all techniques of playing Thai classical Ranad Ek. In the first section of the song various techniques were used such as, Sabat, Sadaw, and Kayi. Then the first section was played for a second round, but with different techniques, Rua Kab Luk Kab Dok, and Dtee Keb Ku Paet. The whole round of the second section was played through trembling beat technique, Dtee Rua, which was quite a challenge for an elementary student to do, as it required a higher level of skills to do it. The music composer was well aware about the difficulty of this Dtee Rua technique, so he chose not to add any extra notes into the music sheet, but rather keep it as original and simple as possible for the musician. And finally, the whole second section was played again using Dtee Ku Paet technique. This time around, the composer composed this melodic section in a more interesting style, Klon Faak (Goal-delayed melodic phrases). After all, the musician has very well played the re-composed version of Thewa Prasit song and won first prize, a gold medal, of this competition.