Practice as Inquiry in Thai Theatre Music: Reconceptualising Musical Accompaniment through the Interaction of Music, Dance, and Narrative

Traditional Thai theatre music is often viewed mainly as accompaniment to dance and dramatic performance. However, this paper argues that musical accompaniment in Thai theatre is more accurately understood as an interactive practice in which musicians actively help shape movement, dramatic narrative, and emotional expression. Focusing on the theatre genre lakhon phanthang and the play Phra Lo as a case study, the study examines how Thai theatre musicians generate artistic knowledge through interaction and artistic decision-making in live performance. The analysis draws on ethnographic fieldwork, participant observation, interviews with experienced Thai musicians and dancers, audiovisual analysis, and the author’s reflexively considered autoethnographic insights as a musician at Thailand’s National Theatre. These approaches demonstrate that musicians are not passive accompanists but rather continuously negotiate tempo, phrasing, timing, and expressive nuance in response to dancers, singers, dramatic action, and their fellow performers. They engage in ongoing artistic decision-making that actively shapes the performance as it unfolds. The findings suggest that musical accompaniment functions as a form of collaborative meaning-making rather than fixed supporting role. Within the framework of artistic research, and informed by embodied knowledge, the study proposes that performance itself is a process of inquiry. Musicians rely on embodied knowledge while adapting to the unpredictable demands of live theatre, where listening, anticipation, and interaction are key creative practices. Curiosity is expressed through the continual questioning of how inherited musical knowledge can be realised in performance, while courage is reflected in the interpretative decisions made in each live event. By re-examining musical accompaniment as an interactive performance practice, this paper contributes to wider discussions of performance practice and artistic research. It offers a perspective from Thai theatre music that reaches beyond local traditions and engages with broader debates about how musicians collaboratively create meaning in live performance.