Music and Recording in King Chulalongkorn’s Bangkok

In Music and Recording in King Chulalongkorn’s Bangkok, James Leonard Mitchell provides the first comprehensive history of Siamese music during the celebrated reign of Rama V. Following up on his previous exploration of Thailand’s most popular music genre, luk thung, Mitchell focuses on the brief period from 1903 to 1910 when gramophone recording came to Siam and almost failed to capture valuable performances. Compiling research from the EMI Archive in London and the Ethnologisches Museum in Berlin, along with years of fieldwork in Thailand, the book contains eighty-eight photographs, a discography of all known recordings from the era, and links to YouTube videos. This compelling volume reveals a story of Siamese musicians, European recording experts, and Chinese middlemen that will be of interest to scholars of Asian studies and music history.