Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-7drxs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-18T13:32:43.536Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

“A Crow Jumps on Rocks”: Indigenous Approaches to Composing and Performing Text in Lao Vocal Music

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 March 2019

Adam Chapman
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

This article explores three fundamental aspects of text in the performance of Lao vocal music in the southern Lao province of Champasak:

  1. (1) the relationships between poetic structures and creativity;

  2. (2) extemporaneous composition of texts; and

  3. (3) repertory and its relationship to performance context.

I aim to provide an overall insight into the creativity and repertory of Lao khaplam texts with an emphasis upon indigenous concepts of textual structures, compositional methods, and thematic conventions and their associated terminology. Before exploring textual aspects it is necessary to provide the reader with some contextual information. Firstly, a general overview of Lao vocal music in Laos today is provided, locating this study within a broader tradition of Lao vocal music, and secondly, musicological information pertinent to the performance of Lao vocal music to remind the reader that the central topic of textual composition takes place within a musical framework.

Type
Articles
Information
Yearbook for Traditional Music , Volume 35 , 2003 , pp. 97 - 130
Copyright
Copyright © 2003 By The International Council for Traditional Music

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Abhay, Thao N. 1959 Versification. In Kingdom of Laos. The land of a million elephants and the white parasol, ed. Rene de Berval, 345–58. Saigon: France-Asia Press.Google Scholar
Brandon, James R. 1967 Theatre in southeast Asia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Brengues, J. 1904 Les mo lam: La chanson au Laos. Revue Indochinoise 2(8): 588–92.Google Scholar
Chapman, Adam 2001 Lexical tone, pitch and poetic structure: Elements of melody creation in khap-lam vocal music genres of Laos. Context: A Journal of Music Research (21): 21–40.Google Scholar
2002 Regional vocal music traditions of Laos: Lam siphandon and khap ngeum. PhD Thesis. Monash University.Google Scholar
Compton, Carol J. 1979 Courting poetry in Laos: A textual and linguistic analysis. Special report no. 18 ed. Northern Illinois University.Google Scholar
1992 Traditional verbal arts in Laos: Functions, forms, continuities, and changes in texts, contexts, and performances. Selected Reports in Ethnomusicology 9: 149–59.Google Scholar
Fox, James J. 1988 To speak in pairs: Essays on the ritual languages of eastern Indonesia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rattanavong, Houmphanh 1992 Music and instruments in Laos: Historical antecedents and the democratic revolution. Selected Reports in Ethnomusicology 9: 193–201.Google Scholar
Kartomi, Margaret J. 2001 The classification of musical instruments: Changing trends in research from the late nineteenth century, with special reference to the 1990s. Ethnomusicology 45(2): 283–314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kiangkhamso'ni, Kavin 1997 Khap ngu'm: Silapa vannakhadi phu ‘n mu ‘ang lao. [Khap ngu'm: A traditional Lao literary art.] Vientiane: Department of literature and mass culture.Google Scholar
Kerr, Allan D. 1992 Lao-English dictionary. Second printing, edition. Bangkok: White Lotus.Google Scholar
Koret, Peter. 1994 Whispered so softly it resounds in the forest-spoken so loudly it can hardly be heard: The art of parallelism in traditional Lao literature. PhD Thesis. University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies.Google Scholar
1999 Books of search: The invention of traditional Lao literature as a subject of study. In Laos: Culture and society, ed. Grant Evans, 226–57. Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books.Google Scholar
2000 Books of search: Convention and creativity in traditional Lao literature. In The canon in southeast Asian literatures: Literatures of Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, ed. David Smyth, 210–33. Richmond: Curzon Press.Google Scholar
List, George 1961 Speech melody and song melody in central Thailand. Ethnomusicology 5(1): 16–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mendenhall, S. T. 1975 Interaction of linguistic and musical tone in Thai song. Selected Reports in Ethnomusicology 2(2): 17–23.Google Scholar
Miller, Terry E. 1980 Laos. In The new Grove dictionary of music and musicians, eds Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell, 460–65. Washington: MacMillan.Google Scholar
1985 Traditional music of the Lao: Mawlum singing and kaen playing in northeast Thailand. Westport and London: Greenwood.Google Scholar
1998a Laos. In The Garland encyclopedia of world music, Vol. 4, eds Miller, Terry E. and Williams, Sean, 335–62. New York & London: Garland Publishing.Google Scholar
1998b The past as future for the regional music of Laos. New Laos, new challenges, editor J. Butler-Diaz, 87-95. Arizona State University.Google Scholar
2001 Laos. In The new Grove dictionary of music and musicians, second edition, eds Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell, vol. 14, 258–67. Washington: MacMillan.Google Scholar
Phinthong, Pricha 1989 Saranukrom phasa Isan-Thai-Angrikt [Isan-Thai-English Encyclopedia]. Ubon Rachathani: Siritham Press.Google Scholar
Proschan, Frank 1992 Poetic parallelism in Kmhmu verbal arts: From texts to performances. Selected Reports in Ethnomusicology 9: 1–31.Google Scholar
Sila, Viravong 1935 Grammaire Laotien. Vientiane.Google Scholar
1961 Vainyako'n Lao, phak thi si [Lao grammar, part four: Versification]. Vientiane: Literature Committee.Google Scholar
Swales, John M. 1990 Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Swangviboonpong, Dusadee 2003 Thai classical singing. Aldershot: Ashgate. SOAS Musicology Series.Google Scholar
Sweeney, Amin 1987 A full hearing: Orality and literacy in the Malay world. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Tanese-Ito, Yoko 1988 The relationship between speech-tones and vocal melody in Thai court song. Musica Asiatica 5: 109–39.Google Scholar
O'nmaniso'n, Tho'ngkham 1992 Vatcananukom phasa Lao [Lao language dictionary]. Vientiane: Vientiane Printing House.Google Scholar
1998 Mo'ladok lam siphando ‘n-lam som [The heritage of lam siphando'n and lam som]. Vientiane: Ministry of Information and Culture.Google Scholar
Titon, Jeff T. 2003 Text. In Eight words for the study of expressive culture, ed. Burt Feintuch, 69–98. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois.Google Scholar
Whiteoak, John 2001 What is improvisation? In Musicology 2001: 24th National Conference of the MSA. Abstracts Booklet, 56. Melbourne University.Google Scholar
Yung, B. 1983 Creative processes in Cantonese opera 1: The role of linguistic tones. Ethnomusicology 27(1): 29–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar