One Last Music Culture

Cambodia

Before I begin, if you didn't know I was Cambodian with how much I talk about it in my blogs and comments, you'll really know now. I'll try to keep my words to fit within this assignment, but I can't help it. Here goes:

The history of Cambodia is vast and long, dating all the way back to the 9th century. Here's a really quick overview of its origins: 

Khmer= Cambodian in the Cambodian language 

Traditional Orchestral Music - Pin Peat

Khmer music uses similar techniques that we've seen in other Asian countries. It consists of heavy polyphony and is based on a series of pentatonic scales. It has no correlation to western tonality as its built linearly. In the Pin Peat ensemble, musicians have a melody in mind but no one musician actually plays it. The melody in this case serves as a kind of road map they follow to a common endpoint. It also serves as a guideline for embellishment and ornamentations. Like the many musical cultures we've studied in class, the drum plays a significant role in Pin Peat, regulating the pace of the ensemble. You'll notice in the video a couple things; they aren't using music, they are sitting down, some of the instruments look really similar to the Javanese Gamelan and they don't look at each other while they play.

How do the musicians learn the music?

Khmer music is part of an ancient oral tradition that is passed down from teacher to student from student to memory. These musicians like us spend hours learning from the masters in order to play in the ensemble. 

What is Pin Peat and What is is used for?

Pin Peat's main function is the accompaniment of court dances and masked plays, shadow plays and religious ceremonies. It is one of the oldest Khmer music ensembles in existence and can even be seen in carvings on the walls of Angkor Wat temple, dating back at least a thousand years ago. There are two main names in Pin Peat repertoire: phleng skor, drum music and phleng laim, dance music. In an article on Khmer Music by Sam Ang Sam he states that "each piece is associated with a particular ‘action’ with prescribed drum patterns used to support an action on stage."

The ensemble consists of the following instruments: srarlay (quadruple-reed oboe), roneat ek (xylophone), roneat dek (high-pitched metallophone), kong tauch (high-pitched circular frame gongs), kong thomm (low-pitched circular frame gongs), chhing (small finger cymbals), sampho (small double-headed barrel drum), skor thomm (large double-headed barrel drums), and chamrieng (vocals).

Classical Ballet 

Pin Peat ensembles also serve as accompaniment in Khmer Classical ballet, dance and shadow plays 

Classical dance is traditionally performed in the Royal court and its a popular art form that many Khmer people enjoy. Girls who learn this type of dance usually start young to train their hands and feet into the curvature needed to perform. The dancers in this video use very similar hand gestures to the ones we saw in the India module. 

Shadow plays, or Sbek Thom, is another art form that will feature Pin Peat. Contrary to the small shadow puppets that you may be used to seeing in western culture, Khmer shadow puppets are very large. They are sometimes up to 2 meters in size and are made in intricate patterns out of leather. Here's a close up picture and a Sbek Thom performance:

In an article by UNESCO, they describe the process of puppet creation as "made from a single piece of leather in a a special ceremony foe each character representing gods and deities. The hides are dyed with a solution made from the bark of the Kandoal tree, The artisan draws the desired figure on the tanned hide, then cuts it out and paints it before attaching it to two bamboo sticks enabling the dancer to control the puppet."

Cambodia before the 21st century 

Cambodia became a protectorate of France in 1863, which lasted for about 90 years. It gained independence in 1945 contributing to a changing music culture.In the 50s, Khmer musicians began to drawn ideas from local, national and international influences, referred to as transculturation. The leaders of this musical movement, later known as Khmer Rock, were Sinn Sisamouth, Ros Soreysothea, So Savoeun, Penn Ran and others. They were focused on creating great tunes and lyrics creating many popular songs from the 1950s-1970s. 

This a song titled "Sra Muy Keo" which is translated in the literal sense, alcohol one cup. Its about a women who wants her darling to have just a glass of whatever they're drinking and comparing how good it is to herself. (Khmer lyrics are a little difficult to translate and it makes it even harder because it's drawn out melodies not speaking!)

I've also include the "King of Khmer Music," Sinn Sisamouth and his rendition of Hey Jude by The Beatles. You'll notice that he says something different from the name Jude, that's because that name doesn't exist in the language. Instead, he uses the word for woman which is 'Srey.'

Khmer Rouge 

Khmer music came to a halt in the year 1975 when the Khmer Rouge, a radical communist party, took over the country. Under the harsh dictatorship of Marxist Pol Pot, at least 2 million Khmer people were killed over the span of 5 years. His goal was to create a 'superior' Cambodian race through social engineering causing many to be executed as enemies of the regime, or dying from starvation and overwork. This would later become known as the 'Cambodian Genocide.' In my last blog, I spoke briefly on this because many people in my family were in Cambodia at the time. Living conditions were terrible and even today my grandparents never speak of it.

 

The main takeaway about this genocide that I would like you to know is that Pol Pot and his soldiers killed up to 90% of all artists, musicians, dancers, scholars and monks. Basically, they were set on taking out the people that had the power to influence the common people. This, as you can image, caused major setbacks in the countries development, which even today affect the people in Cambodia. The loss of so many teachers was detrimental to Khmer arts and was almost lost forever. Today, there has been a steady growth of Cambodians who are focused on the cultivation of the arts. Whether it's in Cambodia or in the United States, the Khmer youth are starting to take charge and take back their history. 

Karaoke and Modern Music 

I'm not exactly sure as to why Karaoke is so big in Asian cultures, but I know from firsthand accounts that it is a 'must' at any party. I grew up listening to karaoke (kara-okay) because my grandparents would buy tons of cds. It's like music videos instead of songs burned onto a cds and I probably own 60-80 of them. Some of them are really cringe, but they mostly feature romantic or dance music. The singer in the video is not always the same person singing on the track because they are prerecorded and the same goes for the instrumentalists. Here's an example of romantic music:

Ands here's an example of the dance music. This is unusual because he's actually the one singing. He's pretty famous among the Cambodians of my mom's generation and she's seen him in person with my aunts: 

Artists today are trying to break away from the mainstream karaoke styles as its prerecorded and are the same songs just remixed every time. As its purpose is solely for entertainment, they allow people who are well known/ famous in the country to be the face in the music video. Some are really focusing on writing their own music and releasing original songs into mainstream media. One artist in particular I like is VannDa, who is a Khmer Hip Hop rapper and influencer of the younger generation. He fuses together traditional Cambodian tunes with western Hip Hop styles to create a new sub genre, Cambodian Hip Hop.Here is probably his most popular video, featuring Master Kong Nay, a Chapei dong veng (plucked chordophone) player. Master Kong Nay is a modern bard, very similar to that of an African Griot, and he's also completely blind. In the opening of the song, he offers a short blessing to the younger generation of musicians and artists hoping that they continue to evolve Cambodian culture.

Lastly, I've included this video of Master Kong Nay giving Covid-19 safety tips, of course with English translations.

If you have any questions or want to know pronunciations please let me know. :) 

References

Sam, Sam-Ang. n.d. “Khmer Music.” Asia Society. Accessed January 28, 2022. https://asiasociety.org/education/khmer-music.

“Sbek Thom, Khmer shadow theatre - intangible heritage - Culture Sector - UNESCO.” n.d. Intangible Cultural Heritage. Accessed January 28, 2022. https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/sbek-thom-khmer-shadow-theatre-00108.