You play your Chopin, I’ll stick to my trumpet!
British pianist tickles the ivories to soothe distressed elephants
JUST lugging his piano into the remote jungle on the banks of the River Kwai was enough of a performance.
But as soon as Paul Barton unloaded it from the pickup truck and started tickling the ivories, he was rewarded with an appreciative – if unusual – audience.
For in his outdoor concert hall in Thailand, the elephants were all ears.
In fact they look so entranced by his soothing renditions of classical masterpieces it is probably a moment they will never forget.
Debussy’s Clair de Lune does it for some of the heavyweight crowd, Beethoven’s Sonata No 8 – commonly known as Sonata Pathetique – for others.
Gentle passages of Chopin, Satie and Rachmaninoff are jumbo hits too, as is Bach.
Which is all just as well. For as each audience member weighs around three tons or more, the last thing you’d want is a stampede for the exit in displeasure.
Luckily the elephants – all elderly, injured and distressed inhabitants of a nearby sanctuary – find it a relaxing experience and listen attentively, some swaying with the rhythm.
As our photograph shows, a trunk occasionally reaches over the upright piano as if its owner is keen to join in with the performance – Chaichana, a 40-yearold bull elephant who is the sanctuary’s alpha male, clearly found Albinoni’s Adagio in G Minor soothing.
Originally from Yorkshire, Mr Barton, 57, studied at the Royal Academy of Arts in London and moved to Thailand 22 years ago, to teach piano.
‘I made a shortened Adagio arrangement to play to Chaichana while he was having his favourite breakfast of bananas and pumpkins,’ he said. ‘His name means victory in Thai. I love this elephant very much.
‘He is an extremely dangerous elephant – as most bull elephants are – and is kept well away from people for their safety. Like all those I play to, he is not chained or tethered and is free to walk away if he chooses.’
Mr Barton has been playing regularly at the Elephants World sanctuary near Kanchanaburi, 100 miles north-east of Bangkok, for seven years since he first performed there as an experiment.
In Thailand, elephants traditionally worked with humans in the logging industry until it was banned by the government in 1989 after devastating floods due to deforestation.
Sanctuaries such as Elephants World were set up to care for elderly and injured elephants whose owners struggled to support them. In some cases, the animals had been pressed into further service in the tourist industry. The first elephant Mr Barton played to was a blind male called Plara. When he heard the music, he stood motionless, fascinated by the sound.
Mr Barton has gone on to play for 28 elephants, each of which has its own favourite pieces.
The oldest is Ampan, a female who is thought to be aged 80 – about ten years older than the natural lifespan of an elephant in the wild.
Malee, a 50-year- old female whose name means beautiful flower, worked as a street elephant in Bangkok, where she was hit by a car.
She suffered serious injuries to her left back leg and was one of the first arrivals at Elephants World in 2008.
Mr Barton said: ‘Almost all elephants react to music in a visible way. Some elephants have an extraordinary sense of rhythm.
‘Not only do elephants feel the music, they can also pick up on emotions. Elephants feel love and grief just as we do.’