Mingalaba! Auspiciousness to you!

Our talent show today involves a maze of Myanmar bamboo xylophones. The name maze is fitting in the sense that there will be 5 xylophones, arranged in the normal order from lower to higher octaves, and then in the reverse order from higher to lower octaves. A song will be played using all these xylophones.

Anyone familiar with a xylophone knows how to play the conventional straightforward method, but this combination of the regular and reverse ordering of the leaves is too challenging except for the very few who have a complete mastery of xylophone techniques.

Now, the 5-xylophone maze will be employed on our talent show to play a song titled “Kyaysetaman” (the messenger parrot). It sings of how a princess, who longing for her lover serving on a battlefield at the frontline, writes a missive and sends a little parrot to deliver it.

Each verse will be played in accordance with the arrangement of the xylophones_ first, in the normal order and then in the reverse order_on all 5 of them, before proceeding to the next verse.

This involves a higher degree of technical expertise from the other xylophone programmes just presented, and it has to be seen to appreciate the dexterity and the subtlety required for this performance.