Passing of A GIANT

World Beat remembers Prof Terry Miller who spent years researching Isan music

- ■JOHN CLEWLEY

Sad news reached the World Beat desk this week that Prof Dr Terry E. Miller of Kent State University in the US passed away on Oct 1. He was 80 years old.

He was recognised as one of the leading ethnomusicologists in Southeast Asian music, particularly for his groundbreaking research on molam and the iconic khaen (free reed bamboo mouth organ) in Thailand and Laos.

Ajarn Terry was part of a friendship and research partnership with Assoc Prof Dr Jarernchai Chompairot of Mahasarakham University, who died in July.

Born in Dover, Ohio in 1945, he majored in organ performance at the College of Wooster before being drafted into the US Army in 1969. He was sent to Long Binh Base as an assistant chaplain and it was in Vietnam that he began to develop a deep interest in Southeast Asian traditional music.

Upon his return, he completed a master's degree at Indiana University (with a thesis on American traditional shape-note singing) and then returned to Southeast Asia to do the field work for a doctoral degree; he took his family to Maha Sarakham for two years (1972-74). His research assistant was Ajarn Jarernchai who he later helped study for a master's and doctoral degree in the USA.