Musical Monarch No. 2

Among the world's few remaining kings, the monarchs of Southeast Asia are unique in one respect: they write music. King Phumiphon Adundet of Siam sold five songs (Falling Rain, Blue Night, etc.) to Mike Todd for his Broadway Peep Show. Phumiphon's neighbor. His Majesty Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia (TIME, July 21), though affairs of state keep him on the run, also composes.

Once or twice a week the 29-year-old monarch puts on a gay, all-night party in his palace at Pnompenh. The guests are treated to ice cream, Coca-Cola and pink champagne, music by the royal band and free-hand composing by His Majesty. The king picks out tunes on the piano, saxophone or accordion; the band picks up and elaborates his themes and a professional musician jots them down.

Donald R. Heath, U.S. Minister to the Indo-Chinese states of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, knows his diplomatic sharps and flats. Last June, he carried five of King Norodom's more serious compositions to Washington, where they were turned over to the Air Force Symphony Orchestra to be harmonized and orchestrated. Last week at a regular summer concert, Colonel George Howard, the orchestra's conductor, played a miniature suite made up of three of Norodom's pieces: an animated waltz with a few tinkling, Cambodian effects, Berceuse; a contrasting movement, Nostalgia, and a lively beguine, Cherie. The king's music won the loudest applause of the evening. Cherie might, with popular orchestration (and perhaps another diplomatic assist) provide King Phumiphon's show tunes with some stiff competition.

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