There is a lot of other positive surprise, the somehow only strange "noise" is coming from the metal flute, sounds very Indian.

Very often the Myanmar Music of today is a usual copies of "western music" with Myanmar music lyrics there is a wide pool of creativity bringing lots of real good music, pop music and for the connoisseur very pleasant Myanmar classic music.....
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He also composed thirty seven “Nat” songs. Marionette theatre and “Myay-Waing” dance also emerged at about this time. The latter dance was performed on a circular plot of ground on the same level as the audience...

In 1767, King Hsinbyushin conquered Ayutthaya, the capital of Thailand, and brought back many craftsman and artists including court dancing girls who introduced and taught Thai dance forms in Myanmar. Thus Myanmar dance and music styles have been enriched by absorbing techniques and styles from neighbors.

Myanmar music harp player

Interest in all forms of Myanmar music and arts and crafts declined during British rule. To revive and promote the performing arts and Myanmar music after the country regained independence, the government opened the State School of Music and Drama in Yangon in 1954 and the State School of Fine Arts, Music and Dancing at Mandalay, in 1955. The present basic Myanmar music dance course known as “Ka-byar-lut,” is performed with drum beats as the only accompaniment. A stone figure in the Shwezigon pagoda from the Bagan period portrays the “Ka-byar-lut” dance style, suggesting that this basic dance has been in existence for a very long time. There are a number of popular Myanmar music dances performed for state guests, visitors and the general public at festivals or at restaurants. One is the “Bon-she” or long drum dance featuring two long drums, a pair of cymbals, a bamboo clapper and a “Hne,” a wind instrument similar to an oboe.

The Myanmar music “Ozi” or pot drum dance includes a drummer who may carry and play from one or many drums, two bamboo clappers, a cymbals player, an oboe player and an “Ozi” dancer usually garbed as a prince or a royal page boy......more at e-books

The music of Myanmar or Burma 

is close in spirit to those of the Southeast Asian civilizations of Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. The Indian influence is less perceptible here than in the nation's mythology and religious beliefs, or than in such other arts as the shadow-theatre and dance-drama.

The most complete Myanmar or Burmese instrumental music ensemble is the hsaing-waing, which consists basically of a set of from eight to twenty-one drums suspended by leather thongs on a circular rattan frame, and of a circular array of gongs. In addition there may be anything from seven to twelve other instruments, among them oboes, bamboo clap-sticks, hand-cymbals, flutes and mouth organs, bells, xylophones and zithers.

As in Myanmar and all other countries of the region, however, music drums and gongs predominate. In traditional orchestras, they come in many shapes and forms: double-headed drums struck with wooden sticks, double-headed horizontal drums played by hand, single-headed pottery drums. The gongs may be flat or bulbous, suspended or supported on wooden frames. Most of these instruments, including the drums, produce an unvarying sound. For that reasons, they normally come in pairs, one for sharp tones and the other for flat.

Myanmar or Burmese music practice, in which the notes are identified in descending order, resembles that of other Southeast Asian countries: the octave is divided, theoretically, into seven equal intervals. Whatever mode is used to play a melody, the structure of the scale remains the same.

Improvisation plays an important part in traditional Myanmar or Burmese music. Whereas in most parts of the world the instruments of the orchestra are meant to be played in unison, in the traditional Burmese orchestra, instrumentalists start from a common melody but are free to play whatever variations they like, provided they join up with the ensemble from time to time. Sometimes the results could be called "heterophonic", but they do not lack harmony for all that.

In Myanmar, as in the rest of Asia, music is closely linked to the performing arts, notably plays, puppet-shows, shadow theatre, dance-drama and opera. In drama, the Indian influence is preponderant. All the characters, whether heroes or gods, originate in the Ramayana or Mahabharata epics, or in the Jataka, narratives relating episodes from the Buddha's previous incarnations. Performances, which often take place in the open air, may last for several hours, sometimes even for days.

Ancient instruments, modern rhythms

 all at e-books