The New Music Group

On Sunday, I journeyed to the town of Pourk to meet a group of musicians that my co-teacher knows. Since he mentioned the existence of the group, I had been dying to meet them and possibly to play with them. As luck would have it, the group really likes the Khmer music that I can produce on the violin. They want me to come back on Sunday, and I hope that this can become a part of my normal week’s schedule.

The group consisted of several instruments, with the addition of myself on the violin. The name of this kind of ensemble in Khmer is a vung phleng kar, which usually can be found at weddings. All of the musicians played chordophones, which means that they had strings, and they played with a good amount of skill. There was a kimm (a small hammered zither), a krapeu (three stringed zither), a tror chhe (spike fiddle tuned to G-D), and a tror so tauch (D-A), and one or two drums.

I was curious to see how the group would receive the western violin, but the fact is that the instrument is so similar to its eastern cousin, the spiked fiddle, that the members of the group warmed to its sound. My salvation in gaining acceptance was in the fact that I had a copy of a book containing many Cambodian children’s songs transcribed into western notation. Although many of the songs were in a different key, I was able to slide my hand up the fingerboard of the violin and transpose in my head while we were playing. It was a little difficult at first, but I soon got the hang of it. Many in the group were familiar with these songs, and I spent nearly three hours sitting cross-legged on the floor of a wooden hut going from one to another. After the three hours, I had to excuse myself for want of rest and luncheon.

The song uploaded here is of the first time the group and I played the song “Oh Pray Tey Srok Khmer” (Homage to country-state of Khmer people), and was recorded after one guy was asked not to play to spike fiddle because he played out of tune. I plan to do a more full analysis on the recording, but judging from its sound the music is largely homophonic. This is that the melody is followed throughout the song, which is repeated several times, but that there are slight deviations from it.

(My apologies for the picture at the beginning of the movie, but it is the only way to upload audio files to blogger.)

My ethnomusicology skills are admittedly rusty, but I am hoping to learn more about music of this kind. I have no idea where this discovery of musical tradition will lead me to, but I am pretty excited about it.