SERI’S ACCENT, SUPHAN ACCENT

Abstract

          In this article, I examine and analyze the singing style of Seri Rungsawang, an established figure in lukthung music who has won several awards and has a large fanbase. Seri's singing style is interesting because it is based on phleng phuen ban, a traditional half-singing, half-recitation genre, combined with the heavy influence of lukthung style accumulated through Seri's 44-year experience in the industry. This study focuses on Seri's singing techniques in the song "Plew Fai Thi Plai Thian" (The Candle's Flame), which premiered in 2021 under a collaboration with Singto Khamram Records. The song won the Khom Chad Luek Award for the best lukthung song and the Amazing Suphanburi Award in 2022. Ethnographic methods were used to collect and interpret field data. The findings reveal that Seri is self-taught and has been a hardworking singer for the most part of his career. His singing process begins with studying the song's melody and closely reading its lyrics, which leads to him imagining a specific mood and tone upon which the singing is predicated. 1) Seri described his singing in his own terminology as follows: 1.1) sculpting of words (kan pan kham), 1.2) vocal articulation, 1.3) rhythmic variation of the voice, 1.4) distributing the lyrics against the assigned beats (kan chat chaung fai), 1.5) shortening of words (kan khamuat kham), 1.6) shaken words (siang khluen krasao), 1.7) engorging words (khayauk kham), 1.8) singing to kick the rhythm (raung te changwa), 1.9) singing behind the beat (raung lang changwa), and 1.10) cheating the wind (kan lak lom). 2) Seri's singing approach includes 2.1) controlled vocal articulation, 2.2) comprehending lyrics, and 2.3) creating lyrical melody, while projecting the sung words in a Suphanburi accent. This study illustrates a set of singing techniques and approaches that allow a lukthung singer to thrive in the fast-changing industry while retaining the genre's traditional singing practices. Seri's musical experience demonstrates one of many variants of the lukthung musical genre from central Thailand that is worthy of preserving and passing on to aspiring singers of the next generation.