The Thai Elephant Orchestra is a musical ensemble consisting of as many as fourteen Thai elephants near Lampang in Northern Thailand. The elephants play music, essentially as conducted improvisations, on specially designed heavy-duty

musical instrument A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person who pl ...

s. The orchestra was co-created by elephant conservationist

Richard Lair Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'str ...

of the

National Elephant Institute The National Elephant Institute was founded as the Thai Elephant Conservation Center (TECC) in 1993. In January 2002, in order to enlarge the scope of conservation efforts and address the issues facing Thailand's elephants, it was proposed that ...

and the American musical artist and neuroscientist Dave Soldier. They have released three CDs on the Mulatta Records label with an orchestra ranging in size from six to fourteen elephants. The orchestra currently performs for visitors at the center.

Background

It has been noted since ancient times that elephants seem to have an affinity for music. Performing circus elephants commonly follow musical cues, and early American circuses such as Adam Forepaugh and

Barnum & Bailey The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus (also known as the Ringling Bros. Circus, Ringling Bros., the Barnum & Bailey Circus, Barnum & Bailey, or simply Ringling) is an American traveling circus company billed as The Greatest Show on Ear ...

even featured "elephant bands." In the 1950s, German evolutionary biologist Bernard Rensch found that elephants can distinguish 12 tones on the musical scale and remember simple melodies, even when played on different instruments at various pitches, timbres, and meters. Three albums of music created by elephant musicians was conceived by New York-based musical artist Dave Soldier (a.k.a.

David Sulzer David Sulzer (born November 6, 1956) is an American neuroscientist and musician. He is a professor at Columbia University Medical Center in the departments of psychiatry, neurology, and pharmacology. Sulzer's laboratory investigates the inter ...

, PhD) and elephant expert Richard Lair, who works at the Thai Elephant Conservation Center in Lampang.

Traditional Thai music The music of Thailand reflects its geographic position at the intersection of China and India, and reflects trade routes that have historically included Africa, Greece and Rome. Traditional Thai musical instruments are varied and reflect an ...

is a genre familiar to the elephants, so they chose Thai music scales with a few blues notes. According to Lair, many of the elephants took to their assignment "with gusto".

Music

The Thai Elephant Orchestra primarily uses the ''Lanna'' Thai five-note scale, and most instruments are heavy-duty versions of traditional Thai musical instruments; additional instruments include drums and harmonica. Their musical works are of two general types. The first type, which are on the recordings, features the elephants individually improvising on the instruments with the only human interaction being cues as to when to start and stop. The other type is compositional and requires mahouts to teach or train the elephants to perform human tunes as a hocket, with each elephant playing an individual note on angalungs: there is only one such piece, "Chang, Chang, Chang". ;Discography * (2002) – ''The Thai Elephant Orchestra'' * (2005) – ''Elephonic Rhapsodies'' * (2011) – ''Water Music''

References

External links

* — Story, photos and 4-part documentary
Kinship with Animals : Thai Elephant Orchestra
article by Dave Soldier
2013 Interview with Dave Soldier on Thai Elephant Orchestra on BBC

2013 Interview about ''The Thai Elephant Orchestra''
NPR: '' All Things Considered'' by Jacki Lyden
Interview on WNYC Radio
by John Schaefer
The Thai Elephant Orchestra
in '' The Economist'' {{Authority control Zoomusicology Individual elephants Thai musical groups Animals in entertainment Elephants in Thailand