(b Suphanburi, Thailand, 1900; d 1995). Thai musician and scholar. He was drawn to music as a boy and moved into the home of his teacher by the time he was 13. During the mid- to late 1920s, he studied with Luang Pradit Phairau and played supporting ranāt thum (xylophone) in his teacher's pī phāt ensemble. He was a court musician during the reigns of Rama VI and VII (1917–35) and then moved immediately into a position of importance in the newly formed Department of Fine Arts. By then he was already known as a prodigious composer and he eventually wrote about 200 works in the classical Thai style; he was also trained in Western music styles and notational practices, and he wrote many pieces in phlēng Thai sākon (‘Thai music in the Western style’), using Western harmonic practices. Unlike many composers, he was also an accomplished poet and wrote most of the lyrics for his pieces; these are in a variety of traditional Thai verse forms and are much admired.
He was named the head of the Thai Music Division at the Department of Fine Arts in Bangkok in 1940 and served in this position for several decades. An avid music historian, his major books (all in Thai) include Thai Music History (1938), Thai Entertainment (1954), Music Terminology (1964) and Explanations of the History and Meaning of Thai Musical Pieces; his numerous essays have been extensively republished. He contributed to the journal Sinlapakon (‘Fine Arts’), including in nearly every issue a piece transcribed into Western notation and accompanied by historical information and analysis. He retired from the Department of Fine Arts in 1962 but held a special position as ‘Thai Music Expert’ until his death. In 1985 he was named one of the first National Artists. His son, Silapi Tramote, continues to work in the Thai Music Division at the Department of Fine Arts.
DEBORAH WONG