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As the product of a distinctive national culture, Thai classical music has preserved its unique identity stemming from ancient roots. This music is grounded in a folk wisdom accumulated on the basis of a long tradition handed down through generations of Thai artists and musicologists and collected and preserved for succeeding generations. This beautiful art form has been created on the bedrock on a Thai consciousness imbued with song, dance, and music celebrating a vision of life based on living together for centuries. Regardless of the culture, musical instruments are divided into three basic categories with four fundamental types of instruments: percussion, wind, and string divided into plucking and strumming instruments. Percussion instruments are considered the oldest (Panya Rungrueang, p. 1). Next, in descending order, are wind, plucking and strumming instruments. In Thai classical music, we find all four types of instruments. These instruments are used in different types of orchestras: Pi Phat Mai Khaeng, Pi Phat Mai Nuam, Krueang Sai Thai, mixed Krueang Sai, Krueang Sai Pi Chawa, and Mahori. At present, Thai classical music combined with international music can be heard as well as pure Thai classical music. In view of a paucity of historical evidence, a detailed account of the background and historical evolution of Thai classical music is beyond the reach of historically-oriented musicologists. This may well be because written records were not kept in ancient times. In lieu of writing, continuity was maintained through rote memorization of oral presentations. There is ample evidence that this technique of cultural preservation was used throughout the world. Thus, it was for centuries that the Thai people could have more meaningful lives through having a heritage passed down that would at once instruct and entertain them while preserving historical and cultural continuity. According to Montri Tramot (1995, p. 20), the early history of Thai classical music illustrates human happiness in oral and physical forms through the clapping of hands in unison and through shouting at different volumes and pitches. From such primitive beginnings, music became more complex in tandem with greater social and political complexity. However, there is no evidence that can be used to give us concrete and visual ideas of the appearance of the earliest Thai musical instruments. For it is only with the Sukhothai period that we have definite evidence concerning the appearance of earlier Thai musical instruments.
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