Cambodian Music History

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Cambodian music history

A distinction must be made between "music in Cambodia" and "Cambodian music," for the former embraces all ethnic groups within the national boundaries while the latter is limited to the majority, Cambodians. The northern provinces of Rattanakiri and Mundulkiri include hilly plateaus which are home to the Pnorng (Pnorng), an upland Mon-Khmer speaking group, while in the southwest along the Koulen and Cardamom ranges are found the Kuoy (Kui), Por, Samre, and other upland Mon-Khmer speakers. Their musical expression emphasizes gong ensembles, drum ensembles, and free-reed mouth organs with gourd windchests. In the west, around the great lake (Tonle Sap) live Cham, Chinese, Vietnamese, and other lowland minorities, but the extent to which these groups maintain their traditional musics is not largely known.
Cambodian music flourished in both court and village settings, some associated with specific
functions, others with entertainment. In villages weddings are celebrated with kar music, communication with spirits is accompanied by arakk music, and entertainments include ayai repartee singing, chrieng chapey narrative, and yike and basakk theaters. At the court, dance, masked play, shadow play, and religious ceremonies are accompanied by the pinn peat ensemble and entertainment is provided by the mohori ensemble. Temples--urban or rural--often possess a pinn peat ensemble as well, but also a korng skor ensemble for funerals.

Historical Perspectives
Cambodian music reflects both geographical and historical relationships to neighboring cultures. The Indianization of Southeast Asia nearly 2,000 years ago included the area that became Cambodia and deeply influenced lowland peoples, especially the ruling elites. In later periods Chinese, French, Vietnamese, Cham came as well, all leaving their mark. The early ocean port near the Mekong delta known as Oc-Eo and called by later observers a "crossroad of the arts," was the most likely point of infusion. The Cambodians absorbed diverse influences from these peoples--language, concepts, writing systems, literature, religion, art styles, and musical instruments. But the Cambodians absorbed and adopted Indian, Chinese, European and other cultures to suit their own traditions and tastes, resulting in a distinct Cambodian Culture.


Travelers from India offered the Cambodians languages, writing systems, the concept of the god-king, literature, styles of art, especially sculpture, Hinduism and Buddhism and their rituals, musical instruments, and likely the concept of cyclical time. The Chinese introduced cuisine, and musical instruments, i.e., two-stringed fiddles and hammered dulcimers, and a theatrical style which the Cambodians adapted into basakk theater. Europeans, especially the French, brought Roman Catholicism, technology, and much musical influence, including notation, classical European music and instruments, and popular music which the Cambodians adapted into the phleng samai (modern music).

Overview of Historical Periods
Little is known of the pre-historical period, before the coming of Indian traders and missionaries. Upland Mon-Khmer speakers living in the mountains straddling Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, where Indianization made little penetration, likely preserve the oldest strata of Cambodian culture. Animistic rites require music. The bronze gong ensembles and dancers of the Pnorng in Rattanakiri and Mundulkiri provinces are associated with Kapp Krabey Phoeuk Sra (Buffalo Sacrifice Ritual). Other dances, such as the Kngaok Posatt (Peacock of Pursat) and Tunsong (Wild Ox) preserved by the Por of Pursat and Kampong Chhnaing provinces, likely derived from rituals. Other musical instruments, such as the sneng (free-reed buffalo horn) used on elephant hunting expeditions and the ploy (free-reed mouth organ) with gourd windchest are survivals from the earliest periods.
Indianization occurred during the Founan-Chenla period (first to ninth centuries), when the Cambodians juxtaposed prehistoric animistic rituals with those of newly adopted Hinduism, the co-existence of which continues among villagers to teis day. Court rituals were created. The blowing of a conch shell (saing) by a Brahmin priest created a propitious vibratory environment for divination, propitiation, or to signal the arrival of the sovereign.
Cambodian civilization reached its peak from the ninth to the fifteenth centuries. The great temple city of Angkor marked the apex of Cambodian glory. In it stand gigantic masterpieces symbolizing the union of celestial and earthly beings. Carved on the walls of the great temples of Angkor and vicinity are the apsara (celestial dancer) figures along with musical instruments: the pinn (angular harp), korng vung (cicular frame gongs), skor yol (suspended barrel drum), chhing (small cymbals), and sralai (quadruple-reed shawm). These are believed to have developed into the present pinn peat ensemble used to accompany court dance, masked play, shadow play, and religious ceremonies. Among Cambodian ensembles, the pinn peat is the most significant of the powerful period of Angkor.

Harp bas-reliefDrum bas-relief

In 1431, Angkor was looted by conquering Siamese armies, abandoned, and overrun by vegetation. The Cambodian king and his court musicians fled. Subsequently the capital was moved to Lungvek. Once again, in 1594 Lungvek was sacked by the Siamese. Little is known of this period, the most obscure in Cambodian history. This second eradication shocked and weakened the Cambodians. After this humiliation of the Cambodian empire, music and its functions were deeply affected, and a new style of melancholic and emotional music is said to have emerged.
The period from 1796 to 1859 was the renaisssance for Cambodian music. King Ang Duong, the greatest of the monarchs of this period, ascended the throne in 1841 in the capital of Oudong. Under his rule, Cambodian music and other art forms were revived and began to flourish again.
For the Cambodians, the twentieth century has been a period of conservation, preservation, and revival of traditional arts. The surviving art forms from the past were carefully conserved under the watchful eyes of many traditional masters. At the turn of the 20th century, there were some foreign influences on Cambodian arts, which resulted in new art forms. Chinese theater is now presented in a modified Cambodian form, called basakk. Islamic-influenced theater appears in modified form, called yike by the Cambodians. As in the ealy period, we see the modification of imported forms into Cambodian style. Costumes, languages, performing styles, decor, song and music of both the Chinese and Muslim have been greatly Cambodianized to suit local needs and tastes

Music in Cambodian Religious Context

The state religion of Cambodia is Theravada Buddhism, to which the majority of the population subscribes. Buddhism constitutes the moral fibre of Cambodian lifestyle, and includes tenets of Hinduism and animistic religions as well. Buddhists believe that life is a cycle of death and rebirth in which the individual passes through a succession on incarnations. Depending upon the person's conduct in previous lives, an incarnation may be in a higher or lower status. Buddhists strive to perfect their souls in order to be released from the cycle of death and rebirth and on to the state of enlightenment, or nirvana.
In the traditional Cambodian society, men must enter the monkhood for at least three months during their lifetime, often at the age of twelve or thirteen. During this time, they learn Buddhist philosophy, social morality, and practice chanting. The wat (temples) where they study are centers of Cambodian life, not only for prayer but also for education, medical care, and administrative organization. Since the 1950s, the Buddhist education has been systematically organized to include general modern knowledge from the primary level of education to the university level. The religious institution where Buddhist knowledge could be acquired included the High School of Pali, the Buddhist Institute, and the Buddhist University. The monks (bonzes) who reside in these wat are at the highest level for achieving nirvana. They wear their distinctive saffron robes and shaven heads, and set out each morning to collect food from the local people.

Cambodian Poetic Texts in Religious Recitation
One meter, when being applied to different styles, will change its rhyme-structure. The manner in which all the techniques are used determines the quality of a poem. By and large, the more patterns, variations and combinations used in a poem, the better the poem will be. A good poet is he who has the ability to demonstrate many different patterns in his poems. However, in general, the plain, or basic, meter tends to predominate.

Pathya Vat
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 13 14
15 161718 19 20
21 22 23 1625 26
27 1629 30 31 32

In the pathya vat meter, the end-syllable 8 of the third line must rhyme with end-syllable 8 of the second line. When having more than one stanza, the end-syllable 16 of the second line of the new stanza must rhyme with the end-syllable 16 of the fourth line of the previous stanza.
Khnhomm saum bangkumchampuoh Preah Puth trung kung khpuoh phottleu trai loka Neam Preah Kodammbaramm sasdachambang leu mohaneak prach taing lay

Translation
I salutethe Lord Buddhawho resides the highestof the tri-world.The name is Preah Kodammthe Supremewho is greater thanall sages.

All the existing materials on Cambodian poetry indicate that only those traditional meters of the early periods have specific designations in their usages, as described earlier. The more modern meters of longer forms, consisting of twenty-eight syllables or more, have been used in various situations according to the poet's intention.
Of all sources, only Pich 1987 and Sam 1988 mention the pathya vat meter--one which serves as the basis of about seventy percent of all Cambodian song texts. The pathya vat meter, as well as "Cambodian poetry" as a whole, is perhaps known more to teachers and students of the Faculty of Choreographic Arts of the Royal University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh than to others, as it was taught there by the respected professor and former monk Mr. Thach Prang (poetry class: 1970s).

Cambodian poems are written to be read aloud, but are more often recited. As recitation could perhaps be considered the most ancient form of utterance which transmits, for instance, the famous epic of Ream Ker (Ramayana) is executed in many different styles. They are kmeng vatt (temple boy), piporanea (description), tumnuonh (grief), smaut (reciting), kamhoeung (anger), chbapp (traditional code), ka-ek lot (crow hops), and ka-ek baul (crow calls), etc. In fact, the beauty of Cambodian poetry lies not only in the writing styles--internal and end-rhymes and various stylistic meters--but also in the rich reciting styles, which provide the final touches to evoke the soul of Cambodian poetry.

From Buddhist scriptures to classical literature, from epics to fables, from books of games to dance manuals, the written forms are sometimes in prose, but most often are in verse. In dance and theatre, the poetic writing is adapted and set to song and music.

The recitation of Cambodian poems is perhaps better referred to as "singing," as we really sing the poems rather than recite them. Cambodian recitation is therefore considered to be sweet, melodious, and musical. The poetic singing is executed in a rubato style devoid of strict pulsation. Its melody is not found in any musical piece. The songs, on the other hand, have their own melodies and are set to their prescribed rhythm. The distinction between the recitation and song is that the former is sung in a rubato style, whereas the latter is more metrical (sung in musical meters). It is not that recitation is less musical; the Cambodians can simply tell the difference between the two styles and refer to them accordingly.

Chanting in Pali (mostly), some in vernacular Cambodian.
Today, many Cambodians feel that chanting in Pali does not make much sense as Buddhists who do not have a mastery of Pali do not understand it. More and more, chanting in Cambodian has increased.