From Sam-rab to Sound: Reimagining Musical Form through Thai Eating Practices

This artistic research project investigates whether the relational structure of Thai sam-rab can serve as a model for musical composition. Emerging from a question of curiosity—can the structure of a meal become a model for musical form?—the project explores how Thai eating practices offer an alternative approach to musical architecture beyond conventional Western formal models. Inspired by conversations with a food expert and research into Thai culinary traditions, the study examines how cultural practices of dining can be translated into compositional thinking. Unlike Western dining, which often follows a linear sequence of courses, Thai eating culture is organised around the concept of sam-rab, a communal set of dishes served simultaneously and centred around rice. Diners navigate the meal according to personal preference, creating a non-linear experience shaped by relationships, coexistence, and individual choice. This flexible and relational organisation becomes the conceptual framework for a musical form in which musical events emerge through interaction rather than predetermined sequences. The project focuses on khao chae, a traditional Mon-influenced Thai dish consisting of rice soaked in scented water accompanied by various side dishes. Rather than imitating flavour literally, the work translates the organisational principles of the meal into a chamber composition for rammana drum, cello, and guitar. Musical materials are distributed across the ensemble like dishes within a sam-rab: each instrument assumes a distinct role while interacting through shifting relationships instead of fixed melodic or accompanimental hierarchies. The flexibility of diners’ choices informs the composition’s non-linear form, layered timbres, rhythmic interaction, and evolving musical focus. By transforming Thai eating practices into compositional strategies, this project proposes an alternative model of musical form rooted in cultural experience and multisensory perception. It demonstrates how everyday cultural practices can generate new approaches to musical organisation and artistic inquiry, inviting us to reconsider where musical ideas originate and how composition may emerge from knowledge systems beyond music itself.