e

For Th

The 78 rpm Era in

Southeast Asia
Essays and Annotations by

Jason Gibbs, David Harnish, Terry E. Miller, David Murray, Sooi Beng Tan, and Kit Young

ATLANTA:
Dust-to-Digital
2013

CONTENTS
Track List. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
PART I

THE RECORD INDUSTRY IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

The First Wave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
The Rise of the Local Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

PART II

SOUTHEAST ASIA AND ITS MUSIC

Vietnam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Laos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Cambodia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Thailand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Burma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

PART III

THE RECORDS
Disc A: Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Disc B: Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Disc C: Burma, Thailand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Disc D: Malysia, Singapore, Indonesia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Selected Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266

About the Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
Acknowledgments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

VIETNAM LAOS CAMBODIA

THAILAND CAMBODIA LAOS VIETNAM

BURMA THAILAND

MALAYSIA SINGAPORE INDONESIA

1. Tn Tn Gi in V I ET NA M

1. Phleng Boran C A M BODI A

1. Maung Kyaw Ei Sandaya Nyunt: Ah Hson BU R M A

1. Lambaresik I N DON E SI A

2. Phleng Boran C A M BODI A

2. Ht Mu V Ht Ni V I ET NA M

2. Ffawn Jao Sri Oi T H A I L A N D

2. Dji Hong I N DON E SI A

3. X Ti Bng Qu Phi, Th Nh V I ET NA M

3. Khaek Lopburi T H A I L A N D

3. Doi Rup T H A I L A N D

3. Dondang Sayang M A L AYSI A /SI NGA POR E

4. T Cnh C u Thua Bc V I ET NA M

4. Khap Ngeum Thang Khaokan L AOS

4. Mingala Ma Thein Nyunt. . . BU R M A

4. Ile-Ile I N DON E SI A

5. Thawai Phaka Thi C A M BODI A

5. Danse Ancienne L AOS

5. Mingala Ma Thein Nyunt. . . BU R M A

5. Tumba Lela-Lelan I N DON E SI A

6. Nang Nak L AO S

6. Chant de Bateliers V I ET NA M

6. Mon Ap Son T H A I L A N D

6. Angkat-Angatan I N DON E SI A

7. Khaek Mon L AO S

7. Promenade en Foret C A M BODI A

7. Hnit Kan Pyaing Hpuza BU R M A

7. Pengantin Berarak M A L AYSI A /SI NGA POR E

8. Nam Nh-T V I ET NA M

8. Khmer Kroak C A M BODI A

8. Pleng Khrawp Chakar. . . T H A I L A N D

8. Tjikadjangan I N DON E SI A

9. Gap Pa Pheng L AO S
10. Khng Minh, Mu Tm T V I ET NA M

9. Thet Mathi/ Sthu Ku Lak-kham-kaeo L AOS

10. Cha Pi C A M BODI A

9. Son Nant Tha Myaing: Sha Pon Gyi BU R M A

10. Lakhon Rueang Kraithong T H A I L A N D

9. Gambos Ya Omar M A L AYSI A /SI NGA POR E

10. Lagu Daerah Sumatera I N DON E SI A

11. n Vng C V I ET NA M

11. Zhan Zhao Bi Jian T H A I L A N D

11. Lao Phan T H A I L A N D

11. Shier Zhulei M A L AYSI A /SI NGA POR E

12. X Ti Bng Qu Phi V I ET NA M

12. Pleng Sen Lao T H A I L A N D

12. Thet Hta BU R M A

12. Ka Abdi I N DON E SI A

13. Thong Yon . . . C A M BODI A

13. Lam Toei Jep Saep T H A I L A N D

13. Tap Phraw Law T H A I L A N D

13. Babarlajar Mataram I N DON E SI A

14. Khap Salang L AO S

14. Homrong Chan Chao T H A I L A N D

14. Sanda Min Yodaya BU R M A

14. Gambos Sri Mahkota Kelantan M A L AYSI A /SI NGA POR E

15. Vn B D T V I ET NA M

15. Srey Sroh Mien Thrung C A M BODI A

15. Hpon Taw Bwe BU R M A

15. Poetih Poetih Sapoet Andoek I N DON E SI A

16. Nang Khluan L AO S

16. n Hu, C Bn V I ET NA M

16. Shit Hkan Palin BU R M A

16. Chek Siti I M A L AYA SI A /SI NGA POR E

17. Lom Phat Sai Khao L AO S

17. An Nangsue Thawng Kan L AOS

17. Khap Mai Ban Doh T H A I L A N D

17. Titipati I N DON E SI A

18. T Di Cnh/Kim Tin V I ET NA M

18. Chc Anh i V I ET NA M

18. Ba Ba Win BU R M A

18. Kitjir Kitjir I N DON E SI A

19. Hi Tri CaoXng X V I ET NA M

19. Rabam Dawadoeng T H A I L A N D

19. Son Taw Myaing BU R M A

19. Ogingo Mamangka Vuhan M A L AYSI A

20. Khap Thum Lao L AO S

20. Huang A-lai L AOS

20. Taw Hnit Taung Swe BU R M A

20. Wak Daing M A L AYSI A /SI NGA POR E

21. Aer Mata Djato Berlinang I N DON E SI A

21. Teb Bantom C A M BODI A

21. Khaek Khao T H A I L A N D

21. Miss Whiskey BU R M A

22. Gi Th V I ET NA M

22. Phram Dit Nam Dao T H A I L A N D

22. Mi Ba Myitta BU R M A

23. Lam Khaen T H A I L A N D

23. Yodaya Bwe Gyi BU R M A

24. Nyut Nyut Hsaing Hsaing BU R M A

Mek

VIETNAM

ong

Bangkok

CAMBODIA
Tonle Sap Lake

CHINA

addy
I r r aw

MAINLAND SOUTHEAST ASIA

Mandalay

en

al
ac

ca

Sal

we

of

Hue

sa
n
Mek

CAMBODIA

ong

Bangkok

Sulawesi

Palembang

VIETNAM

Jakarta
Semarang

Phnom Penh
Gulf of
Thailand

Borneo

SINGAPORE

Sumatra

Tonle Sap

Sea

MALAYSIA

Kuala Lumpur

PHILIPPINES

Sabah

BRUNEI

MALAYSIA

it

Hainan

Vientiane

THAILAND

Andaman

PHILIPPINES

Taiwan
ra

LAOS

Rangoon

Ho Chi Minh City

Gulf of
Thailand

St

BURMA

Andaman
Sea

Hong Kong

Ha Noi

MARITIME SOUTHEAST ASIA

Phnom Penh

INDIA

Bandung

Ho Chi Minh City

(formerly Saigon)

IND

Java

New Guinea

ONE

Surabaya

Bali

Indian Ocean

SIA

Lombok

EAST TIMOR
Timor

AUSTRALIA
8

MALAYSIA

BRUNEI

Sabah

10

11

PREFACE

IN THE EARLY 1980S, pioneering record collector and researcher Dick

Spottswood purchased a small cache of eleven Indochinese recordings from the estate of a former Victor record company executive. The
records passed from one collector to the next, eventually landing in
my own collection. The records, two Vietnamese and nine Lao, were
obviously very rare, and like the collectors before me, I was unable to
make any significant progress in researching them. I contacted Terry
E. Miller, one of the worlds leading researchers of Lao and Thai music.
Terry was not aware of these recordings, but his interest was piqued
and he agreed to annotate the material.
While Terry was digging into the music, I continued to hunt for
information about the Victor series. Surprisingly, there seemed to be
no information about this series, despite the fact that Victor is one of
the largest and most researched 78 record companies. Finally, with the
help of collector/researcher Jonathan Ward, as well as David Seubert
and his colleagues working on the Encyclopedic Discography of Victor
Recordings (University of California, Santa Barbara), we discovered
details about the series among the thousands of Victors yet-to-becataloged history cards. These handwritten index cards, which
Victor kept for all of their issued discs, included detailed information
taken by the engineer at the time of the recording session. With this
new information and Terrys knowledge of the region we were able to

12

reconstruct a basic itinerary for the expedition that resulted in these

records. Inspired by these discoveries, our research grew to include
records from Thailand, and eventually all of Southeast Asia.
"Longing for the past" is a common translation of vng c, a type
of Vietnamese aria, described in this collection by writer Jason Gibbs
as the single most important musical work in 20th century Vietnam.
Although vng c was itself a new musical framework in the late teens,
it evoked a powerful nostalgia for the people of southern Vietnam. It
makes a fitting title for this collection since many of the pieces heard
here represent a musical era that, to varying degrees, no longer exists.
Styles become obsolete, instruments fall into disuse, Western influences seep in, cultures assimilate, and artists fade into obscurity or, as in
the horrific case of Cambodia, are wiped out by war or genocide. As a
collector, my interest is in these older styles, and their surviving traces.
Although this collection is the first to present 78 rpm recordings
from across the entirety of Southeast Asia, it is not intended to be a
survey of all the musical forms found there, nor is it even meant to be
representative of the wide variety of Southeast Asian music recorded
during the six-decade reign of the 78 rpm format. Many genres of
popular and traditional music are not included here, and many cultures were never recorded in the first place. The records presented here
reflect one collectors view of the traditional, obscure, and sometimes
obsolete styles captured on the medium of 78 rpm records.
A few words are in order regarding the organization of this book
and the CDs. It is difficult to neatly categorize the recordings by country of origin since Southeast Asian borders were in flux throughout

the decades in which these recordings were made. We have organized

the annotations by the current name of the country from which the
music originates. In the case of Malaysia and Singapore, the two were
not separate at the time of these recordings, and although nearly all
recordings from the Malay Peninsula were made in Singapore, it is
not usually clear where the musicians were from. Therefore, we have
labeled these Malaysia/Singapore. In the case of Burma, we have chosen to use the name Burma instead of Myanmar for reasons detailed in
the Burma introduction.
The CDs are organized loosely in a westerly direction. Beginning
with what was formerly called Indochina (Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia), then moving to Thailand, Burma, and finally southward to
Malaysia and Indonesia.
Although some of these records are in less than ideal condition,
we believe that their extreme rarity warrants their inclusion. While
professional transferring and restoration techniques have been judiciously applied, we hope that the historical importance outweighs the
inconvenience of audible noise.
Because of the archaic nature of many of these recordings, I felt
it was important to describe the contents in great detail, perhaps
more than is necessary for the casual listener. I enlisted the help of
several researchers and ethnomusicologists to describe the music.
I am most indebted to Terry E. Miller, who not only authored the
sections on Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand, but provided much help
and advice along the way. I would also like to thank the other contributing authors: Jason Gibbs (Vietnam), David Harnish (Indone-

sia), Sooi Beng Tan (Malaysia/Singapore), and Kit Young (Burma).

Their contributions are indicated by their initials. Part I: The Record
Industry in Southeast Asia, and the track introductions (in italics)
were written by me (except were noted by author initials). Many other
researchers have contributed as well and are listed in the acknowledgements (page 271).
The images in the book come primarily from old postcards. The
postcards range from photographs of authentic musicians to staged
portraits, sometimes promoting exotic stereotypes for Europeans.
Nonetheless, there are interesting elements in even the most exoticized
images, such as rare old instruments or costumes. The images are captioned, unless there is some form of caption on the original image.
Id also like to offer special thanks to Jonathan Ward for his help
transferring records, research, advice, and the loan of several records
from his excellent collection. Additional thanks to Will Summits and
Michael Robertson for contributing records from their collections.
It is my hope that this collection of old, sometimes obscure sounds
will not only provide engaging surprises for listenerswhether they
are new to Southeast Asian music, students of the region, or those who
share a cultural history with this musicbut also remind us of the
depth and beauty of the past, as we move inexorably forward.
David Murray
Oakland, California

13

14

15

INTRODUCTION
Their voices and their long bamboo instruments produced music both sympathetic and harmonious.
They danced, waving wands or garlands of flowers, and posed, almost without effort, in a series of graceful attitudes.
Maxwell Sommerville, Traveler 1897

OVER 2,000 YEARS before the first recording in this collection was

made, the ng Sn people, of what is now northern Vietnam, were

making large bronze drums, some weighing nearly 200 pounds. The
bronze drums are interesting not only as instruments and ritual
objects but also because they are decorated with scenes of elaborate
rituals, warriors, and musicians. Some
of these musicians are pictured holding
what appear to be bamboo mouth organs
similar to the bamboo khene heard in
this collection and still played in Laos
and Thailand today. Unfortunately, we
can only guess how those instruments
sounded.
Since the time of the ng Sn drums, the long centuries have
left us only musical hints as to the sound of Southeast Asian music,
until the first recordings finally gave us concrete evidence. Hinduism
and Buddhism spread throughout the region, and with these religions
came their stories, dances, and other cultural influences. Both the

Ramayana, a Hindu epic telling the story of the god Rama, and the
Jatakas, a collection of stories about the various lives of the Buddha,
provided major themes for dance, theater, storytelling, and song across
Southeast Asia.
Stone carvings from Hindu and Buddhist temples provide more
details. Due to the ephemeral
nature of the palm leafs on which
writing was done, and the vulnerability of bamboo and wooden
instruments in the tropical environment, temple carvings provide
some of our only glimpses at the
Tracings of ng Sn drum
state of music during these centuries. Bas relief carvings at Angkor Wat, the massive Khmer temple
built in the early 12th century, depict many instruments reminiscent
of those used today. The Khmer Empire was eventually overrun by the
Siamese kingdom of Ayutthaya, which itself was later defeated by the
Burmese. In each case, we know that it was customary for the victors to

Lao khene player, ca. 1870

16

17

Detail of Angkor Wat bas relief

absorb the court musicians and dancers from their conquests, spreading musical styles and ideas.
Yet in Indonesia, where Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms thrived
until the rise of Islam in the 16th century, carvings at the 9th century
Javanese temple of Borobudur show Indian-influenced instruments
that are no longer used in the region.
The lure of lucrative spices brought Europes attention to Southeast
Asia. Intending to bypass the Silk Road, the Portuguese established a
trading settlement in Goa, India, in the early 16th century. An inexorable stream of Europeans followed, adding more layers of musical

influence. The Dutch East Indies Company was established in Indonesia in 1602 and took control of much of the spice trade.
As Europeans began visiting Southeast Asia, descriptions of theatre, music, and instruments began to appear in the accounts of their
travels. Although these accounts often suffer from ethnocentrism and
lack of musical vocabulary, many of todays instruments are clearly
described.
Temple carvings continued to document music; some from the late
1700s clearly show the khene, gong circle, xylophone, and other instruments that are common today.
Expanding from India, the British began occupying parts of
Burma in the late 1700s, taking Rangoon in 1824, and finally succeeded in colonizing in 1886. The British East India Company established
the Straights Settlements in 1826 in parts of the Malaysian Peninsula,
becoming a British colony in 1867.
French missionaries began to establish themselves in Vietnam in
the mid-1600s, leading to French colonization by 1864. Cambodia and
Laos soon were consolidated with Vietnam to form French Indochina,
before Siam, which had managed to avoid colonization, could gain
control of those regions,
With the 20th century drawing near, and the Dutch, French, and
British controlling most of the region, Southeast Asia was on the cusp
of entering the age of recorded sound, when its musical legacy would
finally begin to change from mere hints and guesses to something
more tangible.

Burmese ensemble, ca. 1892

18

Laos, 1870 (following pages)

19

20

21

PART I
THE RECORD INDUSTRY IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

22

23

THE FIRST WAVE

In those days, natives of the countries where we set up our temporary laboratories wanted
records of their songs, their bands, and storytellers.
Harry Marker, Recordist for Columbia Records from 19051930

THE EARLY RECORD COMPANIES never intended to be ethno-

musicologists. They had no interest in documenting the

worlds music or preserving cultures. They were simply
in the business of selling expensive phonograph machines. However, they quickly realized that in order
to sell machines they had to sell records that appealed to people in different locales. So in the first
years of the 20th century, a handful of European
and American record companies began sending
recording teams to far-flung regions to establish
themselves in the emerging marketplaces. At first,
the record companies werent sure what would sell and
they seemed willing to record almost any type of music they could find. This purely commercial approach led to
the recording of a startling number of musical styles in a wide array of languages, inadvertently creating a vast and invaluable archive of
global music.

24

Recording came to Southeast Asia during this original

wave of world-music recording. In 1902, only a few short
years after the birth of the recording industry, the British Gramophone Company sent recording engineer
Frederick Gaisberg on a trailblazing trip to the
Orient. Sailing first to India, Gaisberg, with his
young assistant George Dillnutt, made hundreds
of recordings in Calcutta before continuing on
to record in Tokyo, Shanghai, and Hong Kong.
From there he sailed to Singapore, Siam, and then
Rangoon. The records were pressed in Germany and
then sent back to be sold to the local public. When
Gaisberg returned to London in August 1903, he had
been gone nearly a year.
The company and the industry were growing rapidly, especially in India. The following year, the Gramophone Company sent two
young recording engineers, William Sinkler Darby and Max Hampe, to

25

make another series of recordings in several cities across India, as well

as Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and Burma, building on the many technical
and cultural lessons learned on the first trip.
To satisfy the publics growing interest in the phonograph and its
desire for new records, Gaisbergs younger brother Will led a third
recording tour from 1906 to 1907, with George Dillnutt as
his assistant. Together, they made a large assortment of
recordings throughout India, as well as Cantonese
recordings in Hong Kong. However, they ventured
no further into Southeast Asia than Rangoon.
Because competition was fierce, the Gramophone Company made a strategic move and
opened a pressing plant and gramophone
cabinet factory in Calcutta in 1908. This gave
them the advantage of being able to build phonograph cabinets faster, cheaper, and better
suited to the climate and to deliver records more
quickly to the market. This was the only pressing
plant in India well into the 1920s and where their
Southeast Asian records were manufactured.
Also in 1908, the Gramophone Companys George
Dillnutt graduated from assisting to leading his own expedition. While in Rangoon, he recorded Po Sein, Burmas most famous
singer and actor. Po Sein and his troupe recorded a series of traditional
Burmese musicals called zats, some in lengthy sets of over 40 records.
The recordings were destroyed by mold, due to the tropical heat, and had

26

to be completely redone. Dillnut also recorded in Singapore, Java, Siam,

Ceylon, and India and soon after, with nearly a decade of Asian recording experience, became the Gramophone Companys head recording
expert in India, the home base for all their Asian recording activity. By
this time, the Gramophone Companys catalog included hundreds of
Southeast Asian recordings from Burma, Singapore, Java,
and Siam.
Although the Gramophone Company was first
to record in Southeast Asia, others soon followed.
Germany was on the forefront of phonograph
technology and there were several German labels involved in the early recording scene. The
Beka label made its first Southeast Asian recordings in 1905 when the recording team of
Willy Bielefeld, Heinrich Blumb, and William
Hadert made recordings in Constantinople,
Cairo, and Calcutta before arriving in Rangoon
on Christmas day. Like the Gramophone Company, they also recorded Burmese theatrical works
in sets of 4060 records, as well as shorter pieces.
They left Burma for the Dutch East Indies where they
recorded Javanese gamelan ensembles as well as the popular
stamboul songs, a type of theatre music influenced by European music.
An emergency stop in Bangkok yielded no recordings, unfortunately.
Instead, after a few days they left for Singapore where they continued
recording. Their next stop was Hong Kong (where they made record-

ings above an opium den) and then on to Shanghai and Tokyo, finally
returning to Berlin in July of 1906. A follow-up expedition took place in
19061907, which included Singapore, Siam, the Dutch East Indies, as
well as India and China. A third Southeast Asian tour was conducted in 1909.
Odeon was another important German label, first making recordings in
India, Siam, Burma, and the Dutch East
Indies in 1907 and 1908. They, too, recorded a wide variety of styles: traditional
Javanese gamelan, stamboul, and another
genre of popular music known as kroncong. Odeon soon came to dominate the
Indonesian market. While other companies sent agents to set up offices, Odeon
used local agents to find and record talent. Eventually, the other labels followed
suit and came to rely on local talent scouts
or agents. Some of these agents went on to
form the first locally-owned labels.
A third German company, Lyrophon,
was also recording in Southeast Asia.
Lyrophon had started out making cylinders before switching to the flat
disc format. Very little is known about their activities in Asia, but advertisements from 1913 listed records in many Asian languages, including
Siamese, Burmese, Annamite (Vietnamese), Malay, and Javanese.

Between 1910 and 1913, the German record industry experienced

a restructuring. Lyrophon, along with Beka, Odeon, and others, were
acquired by the German holding company Carl Lindstroem A.G.
The American record companies
Columbia and Victor were not as involved
in Southeast Asia. Victor made no recordings in the region during these first years
of recording. Columbia, as early as 1904,
had sent recording engineer Charles Carson
to Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Tokyo. In
1907, Carson was joined by Harry Marker
and continued making Chinese recordings.
Marker went on to record in Singapore and
Bangkok later that year. While in Bangkok
he conducted a recording session at the
palace of King Rama V. Marker returned
again in 1910, making hundreds of Javanese, Arabic, and Chinese recordings in the
Dutch East Indies. In Singapore he recorded
more Malay and Chinese records.
As with most of these ground breaking
early recording pioneers, there is scant information on the actual details of their experiences. Marker was one of
the few who left us a brief account of his travels. He was nothing if not
tenacious. A short New York Times article from 1912 recounts his suffering burns from an oil lamp explosion in Shanghai, being quarantined

27

in Port Arthur, and losing trunks on the Trans-Siberian Railway. He

even claimed to have once smoked opium to lure a famous but reluctant
Chinese singer.
With oppressive temperatures, monsoons, mosquitoes, fever, dysentery, and language and cultural barriers, not to mention
hauling hundreds of pounds of fragile equipment and
wax masters across the continent, its astonishing
that these recording engineers were able to overcome the many obstacles before them.
One strategy to make expeditions easier
and more efficient was to travel along the ancient maritime trade routes. Rangoon, Bangkok, Singapore, Jakarta, and other port cities
were easily accessible by ship. Because roads
inland were sparse (if there were any at all) and
railroads had not yet been built, the music of the
interior was neglected.
French Indochina was under-recorded by the
major labels in this initial wave of recording. Tending
to do business in colonies to which they were related, English,
German, and American companies never recorded in the French colonies of Indochina in these early years.
The French Path label began as a manufacturer of cinema equipment just before the turn of the century. At first they released cylinder
recordings before switching to the flat disc in 1906. In 190809, Path
recordists Henri Lachappelle and M. M. Saife traveled to India, Siam, Ja-

28

pan, China, and French Indochina where they made a significant number of recordings. Unfortunately, there is very little surviving documentation of these expeditions other than the discs themselves, which are
quite rare.
Path established offices in Tokyo, Shanghai, Bombay, and
Singapore and continued to record in Siam and Indochina
for the next few years until the outbreak of World War I
ended the first phase of recording in Southeast Asia,
as elsewhere.
Although recording by the Gramophone
Company continued through the teens, engineer
Fred Gaisberg himself noted that it was not a
productive time for the industry. The German
labels, Beka, Odeon, Lyrophon, and others (now
controlled by Lindstroem), suffered the most as international shipping and commerce were disrupted
and the German economy left in ruins.
Conversely, the 1920s was a period of growth for
the record industry; new electrical recording technology
was being developed that significantly improved the sound of the
records. Economies were rebuilding after the war. In Germany, the labels controlled by Lindstroem had begun to recover as well. Both Beka
and Odeon released a series of records from Indochina and recorded
in the Dutch East Indies. An Odeon catalog from 1926 lists over 300
Vietnamese records. In 1928, both made historic trips to Bali, where
each made a series of historic Balinese gamelan recordings. Indochina

continued to be an important market for Path. Columbia was active

in Burma, Siam, Singapore and Dutch East Indies. Victor would finally
venture into Southeast Asia in 1924, when engineers Jack Linderman
and Fred Elsasser made recordings in French Indochina. A second
series of Victor recordings were made in 1927 on a trip that included
Tonkin, Hue, and Saigon, and included the first ever recordings of
music from Laos.
Meanwhile, the Gramophone Company had switched to their His
Masters Voice trademark in 1916 and continued recording heavily
in India, Burma, the Dutch East Indies, and Singapore. By 1930 their
Southeast Asian catalog was very large, and yet dwarfed by the staggering number of Indian records they had made. They opened a new,
modern pressing plant at Dum Dum, outside of Calcutta, that greatly
improved their production capabilities through the 1930s. But the rebound of the 1920s came to a halt with the stock market crash in 1929.
Shockwaves rippled through the worlds economy, seriously damaging the record industry. In order to survive, the recording industry
undertook a complicated series of legal maneuvers that led to a massive
merger. The Gramophone Company, Columbia, the Lindstroem labels,
and Path (both had recently been acquired by Columbia), as well as
other labels, merged to form the conglomerate EMI. The various imprints continued to release Southeast Asian records during the 1930s,
but struggled with the effects of the Depression as well as competition
from radio and cinema.

29

30

31

THE RISE OF THE LOCAL LABELS

LOCAL ENTREPRENEURS often lacked the resources

to break into the record business. Recording, mastering, and pressing discs required a large investment, as well as advanced engineering capabilities. The only option for most aspiring
record producers was to establish a partnership with a European record company as an
agent. This was a symbiotic relationship, to
varying degrees, in which the agent would
assume duties such as the choosing of artists and repertoire, as well as the arranging
and supervising of recording sessions. In exchange they would become the sole sales representative for their region.
Merchants often came to record production
through the selling of general merchandise or musical
instruments. For example, the Katz Brothers were general
merchants and music importers with a head office in Singapore and
branches in Penang, Sumatra, British Borneo, and Siam. Around 1907,

32

they appear to have made a deal with the German record label Beka to release recordings under their own
Katz Brothers label and began issuing Siamese records under their own name, presumably manufactured by Beka with Beka matrix numbers.
Although they acted as agents for Odeon in
Singapore, Siam seems to be the only area in
which their label operated.
Tio Tek Hongs company in the central
Javanese city of Semarang sold everything
from clothes to motorcycles and was an agent
for Odeon before World War II. Unlike Bekas
arrangement with the Katz Brothers, Tio Tek
Hong did not have his own label, but instead the inscription made by Tio Tek Hong and Company store,
Semarang was printed at the bottom of the Odeon label.
As with the Katz Brothers, its not clear to what extent they were
involved in selecting artists or supervising recording sessions. Tio Tek
Hong eventually started his own eponymous label in the mid-1920s.

33

Although these early agent relationships were more akin to marketing strategies by the larger record companies than they were independent
operations, the 1920s saw the emergence of several local companies with
a higher degree of autonomy. These companies would often arrange
their own recording sessions locally in one of the major labels studios, and send off the masters to be manufactured abroad, often by German pressing factories.
Singapore had been an important center of
recording activity since Gaisbergs first recording tour, and likewise became fertile ground
for the emergence of new local labels. Moutrie and Co. were sole agents for the Gramophone Company in China as early as 1904,
and in Singapore in the 1920s and 1930s.
Like other agents, their business included
music related items such as sheet music, radios, as well as the sale and repair of musical
instruments. They graduated from mere distributors to selecting and arranging artists, and
releasing them under their own label, yet they were
still closely linked to the Gramophone Company. In
1934, Moutrie and Co. released their first Chap Kuching records, which specialized in a popular theatrical music called bangsawan.
The wax master recordings were sent off to the pressing at the Gramophone Companys plant at Dum Dum, India, to be pressed, and returned
for sale in Moutrie shops.

34

Chap Singa was started in 1937 by M.E. & T. Hemsley Co., another
local distributor of the Gramophone Company, also based in Singapore.
Tom Hemsley had previously supervised Moutries Chap Kuching label
before starting Chap Singa. The main focus of the labels was popular
theatrical music, such as stamboul, kroncong, and bangasawan. Their artists included stars of the day, and they
would promote their recordings by holding kroncong contests and other public events. Neither
Chap Singa nor Chap Kuching survived WWII.
Hemsley later started the Delima label, which
featured Javanese singers. He was also the
distributor for the Canary and Tjap Angsa
labels, both of which were introduced in 1939.
While some local companies used the
Gramophone Companys pressing services
at their Dum Dum plant, others were pressed
in Hanover, Germany, by Deutsche Grammophon. Mong Huat & Co. of Singapore was
a distributor for the Hindenburg label, owned
by Deutsche Grammophon and aimed specifically
at the Southeast Asian market. When the Hindenburg
label ceased production in the 1930s, it seems that Mong
Huat made arrangements to continue with his own Pagoda label, still
pressed by Deutsche Grammophon. Pagoda featured operas of Singapores thriving Chaozhou immigrants from the Guangdong province of
Southern China, as well as various Malay recordings.

In Siam, Rabbit was one of the first truly independent labels.

T. Ngek Chuan started his career as part of a traveling outdoor cinema
troupe that exhibited films throughout southern Thailand and northern Malaysia. He eventually opened a cinema and store. The records in his store sold
so well that, in 1925, he decided to start his
own label. Arranging his own recordings, he
would send the masters off to be pressed in
Germany. The Rabbit label proved successful and throughout the 1930s40s released a
wide variety of music: folk, classical and popular, even Chuans own Malay String Band.
In the years leading up to WWII, Rabbit also
released cultural propaganda songs of Luang
Wichitwathakan, songs with a Western approach intended to modernize the country.
The wars effect on Germany caused Rabbit
to falter, and soon a new group of independent labels sprung up in Bangkok.
Even more so than World War I, WWII
was a turbulent period for the music industry
in Southeast Asia. Recording, pressing, and
distribution were greatly disrupted. The Japanese invasion of Southeast
Asia had a devastating impact on the types of music allowed to be released, and recording came to a halt in the occupied countries. But after
the war, the end of the colonial period opened up new opportunities. At

the same time, many of the major labels discontinued or drastically reduced activity in Southeast Asia, instead pursuing larger, international
mainstream pop markets. The vacuum created by the exit of the major
labels was quickly filled by a new generation
of independent labels.
Two important developments after the
war made the local record business more affordable: the establishment of record-pressing facilities in Southeast Asia, and the use
of magnetic tape for recording. Although the
development of magnetic tape began in the
early 1930s , it wasnt until the 1950s that it
began to gradually replace the cumbersome
method of recording onto wax masters. It became realistic for a small operation run by
just a few people to set up in a basement or
the back room of shop and produce recordings that were less costly and better sounding
than the major labels releases just a decade
earlier. The Rangoon label Toe Na Yar was
owned by Daw Than Yin and was recording
to tape in her basement by the mid-1950s.
Revered Burmese singer Mar Mar Aye stated in a recent interview that
some recordings were pressed in as little as 500 copies. While the biggest
hits might have sold as many as 10,000 copies, the affordability of tape
and local manufacturing allowed them to release these limited runs.

35

With the reduction of cost and the absence of major label competition, independent record companies began to sprout up around Southeast Asia throughout the 1950s.
Since the mid-1930s in Vietnam, the Asia label
had been releasing recordings of ci lng, a form
of musical theatre from southern Vietnam.
They were soon joined by many other labels
based in Saigon, where the popular ci
lng dominated the market.
Thailands luk thung craze spawned
a bewildering number of labels with distinctive, colorful graphics. Luk thung
was a form of popular music with ties
torural culture and whose star singers
would often start their own eponymous
labels. Thailand also had several labels
dedicated to Thai classical music.
Burmas thriving film industry helped
lay the groundwork for a music scene that
combined old and new sounds. As in Thailand, some labels focused on traditional music
and dramas.
Irama was one of the largest post-war labels in Indonesia. Started in 1954 by jazz impresario Suyoso Karsono, Irama released a wide variety of music and controlled a number of subsidiaries.

36

Irama continued to be successful into the microgroove era. However,

theIndonesian music industry came to be dominated by Lokananta, the
national recording company ofIndonesia. Lokananta tried
to counter Western influence by promoting Indonesian cultures and popular music with a local influence. A little-researched aspect of this era is
the degree of influence imposed by governments. Nearly every Southeast Asian countrys record industry was affected to some
degree by government control, from the
softer cultural manipulations of Thailand and nationalism of Indonesia, to
Burmese songs glorifying the military
or Vietnams communist propaganda.
Only Cambodia and Laos were left
out of this wave of locally owned recording. While Cambodia had a handful of
labels, Laos had none at all.
By the 1960s, many of these indigenous
labels followed the global trend and transitioned to the new microgroove LP and 45 rpm
format. The 78 rpm record, recorded musics primary
medium for six decades, faded into history.

37

38

39

Add Rabbit Label

40

41

PART II
SOUTHEAST ASIA AND ITS MUSIC

42

43

VIETNAM
Vietnam is located in mainland Southeast Asia along the eastern coast
of the Indochinese peninsula, bordered by China to the north, Laos and
Cambodia to the west, the South China Sea to the east, and the Gulf of
Siam to the south. While the Vit (or Kinh) people make up nearly 90
percent of the population, Vietnam is also home to more than 50 ethnic
groups. There are sizeable Chinese and Khmer minorities, and a variety

44

of highland ethnic groups live along the Annamite Cordillera and in the
mountains bordering China and Laos.
The Vietnamese people trace their origins to the ng Sn culture
present in the Red River basin during the centuries before the common
era.This region was captured by the Chinese in 111 BCE and remained
under Chinese control until 938 AD. China has remained a strong cultural influence to this day. From the 15th century, Vietnam began its
southern advance, over several centuries seizing and settling in the
kingdom of Champa (located along the coastline of the
Annamite Cordillera) and later in the Khmer territories
of the Mekong delta.
In the 16th century, Vietnam came into contact
with European culture through Catholic missionaries.
In 1858 France began a military campaign that would
eventually seize all of Indochina. During the early 20th
century the French constructed a commercial and administrative infrastructure to consolidate their control
of the colony. They divided present day Vietnam into
three regions: Tonkin in the north, Annam in the center,
and Cochinchina in the south, which along with Cambodia and Laos comprised French Indochina.The major
cities of Vietnam that correspond to the three regions
are Hanoi (the present day capitol), Hu (the royal capitol), and Saigon (the commercial hub of the country).
Though Vietnam continued to resist the French,
they also sought to learn from the West in order to mod-

ernize their nation. The August Revolution in 1945 was

the prelude to a war of resistance that led to Frances defeat and exit from Vietnam in 1954. From that time Vietnam was split into two nations, the Democratic Republic
of Vietnam in the north and the Republic of Vietnam in
the south. After decades of conflict, the county was unified as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
Vietnamese music is influenced by both Chinese
and South Asian elements, the latter through long-term
contact with the Cham and Khmer kingdoms. Prior to
colonization, popular musical entertainments included
ht bi (also known as ht tung or ht b), a court-supported musical theatre with origins in Chinese opera;
ht cho, a folk theatre of the north, the ritual and entertainment music of the court and ceremonial music used
in local festivals; ca tr (or ht o), a form of chamber
music from the north featuring the musical recitation of
poetry; and nhc ti t (music of talented amateurs), a
style of chamber music originating in the central region that emphasized instrumental creativity and virtuosity.
From around 1910, a new syncretic musical theatre form that used
elements of ht bi and nhc ti t as well as folk songs and the music of
that regions ethnic Chinese. First known as ca ra b (literally, "gesture
coming out of song"), it developed into a popular new theatrical genre
called ci lng, the dominant genre of the 78 rpm format. Originally,
plots were based on Chinese stories used in ht bi, but soon there were

also stories influenced and adapted from French literature and from
motion pictures. Vietnamese also composed new songs in the style
of nhc ti t, most notably D C Hoi Lang (At the Night Drum
Thinking of Him, 1918) by Cao Vn Lu, which developed into the extremely popular aria type, vng c (longing for the past) represented
on a number of recordings included here. JG

45

LAOS
Laos is Southeast Asias only landlocked nation. It is 236,800 square
kilometers, slightly larger than the state of Utah, with a population of
about 5 million people concentrated along the Mekong River in several modest-sized cities. Outside
of the cities, the population is
sparsely settled in the rural areas, including the mountains
that dominate much of the country. About half the population is
ethnically Lao, lowland-dwelling
people who practice wet-rice
agriculture, with the remaining people scattered through the
mid and upper elevations of the
mountains.
During the 19th century,
Siam sought to control much of
what is now Laos. An invasion by
Siamese King Rama III in 1827
destroyed much of the city of Vientiane and forced most of the population to the Khorat Plateau in what is now northeast Thailand (Isan) as
well as to the central plains in an arc north of Bangkok. With Lao people
now living in Thailand, the central Thai began to take note of Lao music
and culture. While those who moved to the central plain gradually as-

46

similated into Siamese culture, those on the Khorat Plateau maintained

their Lao cultural identity, and as a result much of northeast Thailand
today is culturally (and musically) Lao. Because of its orientation to
Bangkok, however, the northeast has experienced much more modernization than did the area across the Mekong in Laos proper.
Laos came under French
protection in 1893 as part of the
expansion of French Indochina,
along with Vietnam and Cambodia. Because the French resisted
Siamese claims to much of Laos,
it has remained less developed
and more conservative culturally
than northeast Thailand. Largely
administered by Vietnamese civil servants trained by the French,
Laos suffered benign neglect
through its independence in
1954 and fell further behind during the destructive Vietnam War.
During the war, whole cities and
towns were obliterated, and today long-forgotten cluster bomblets continue to kill and maim Lao children and farmers. As a result, Laos still
lacks more than a rudimentary infrastructure in terms of roads, communications, and economy, although it is slowly improving in spite of
its conservative, old-style communist government. Until quite recently,

the only way to reach Laos from Thailand, other than by air, was by
ferry across the Mekong. Now there are three bridges, at Pakse, at Sawannakhet, and at Vientiane. In each case drivers from left-side driving
Thailand must convert to the right-side driving of Laos.
Musically, Laos is one of the most under-researched countries in
the world. Having only one small
teacher college, it has not produced any of its own music scholars. Although there have been
government agencies charged
with supervising research by foreign scholars, until around 2000
their efforts hampered more than
encouraged fieldwork. The geography of the country itself has also
discouraged research. Although
the lowland Lao population is
only around 3 million, there are
10 to 15 regional musical styles
(depending on what is counted).
In the southern region a given
artist may perform several local
styles, but in the north, each tends to be isolated from others. Given the
difficulties of travel to each regionparticularly into the many mountain villages that are inaccessible by roadit comes as no surprise that
few scholars have documented these styles beyond a superficial level.

To the inexperienced listener, all Lao music probably sounds pretty

much alike. So what distinguishes around 13 named regional forms?
First, the names of each genre are preceded with either khap or lam.
Khap denotes genres in the Vientiane region and all areas to the north.
Lam denotes genres in the south. Both terms essentially mean to sing
but carry the implication that the
melody is closely related to the
linguistic tones of the poetry. The
names of each genre connote either a place name, a geographical
feature, or the name of an ethnic subgroup. For example, khap
phuan, found in Xieng Khouang
province in north-central Laos,
denotes singing of the Phuan, a
Lao subgroup. Khap ngeum, a
genre found just north of Vientiane, refers to its location along
the Ngeum River, which flows
into the Mekong just east of Vientiane. Lam khon sawan, found in
south-central Laos, refers to its
locale near the city of Sawannakhet on the Mekong.
Making musical distinctions requires an experienced ear, especially in the south. The genres preceded by lam differ in terms of a
basic melodic form that singers vary slightly to fit different texts and

47

to accommodate the
linguistic tones. The accompaniment for all lam
genres may be the khene
(pronounced something
like
can)free-reed
mouth organ alone, but
the addition of a local
fiddle or plucked lute
plus small drum and
small metal percussion
is also possible. Other
than the khap genre of
Luang Phrabang, those
in the north are normally accompanied by
either khene or a single
free-reed pipe simply
called pi.
The essential feature that defines all Lao genres is repartee, a vocal
version of the war of the sexes in which male and female singers alternate. Their texts may be related to (feigned) courtship, but others depict
competition, insults, and asking each other questions about cultural
practices, religion, history, or old stories. While some skilled singers
can improvise passages of poetry, though based on previously memorized models, most singers perform memorized poetry taught to them

48

by their teachers. Because many Lao are nonliterate, most teaching has
been by rote. A performance, then, features a pair of male and female
singers, at least one khene player, with the pair alternating throughout.
Such performances remain a common feature of national, local, and
temple-based festivals.
Less representative of the Lao culture, but often prominent in recorded anthologies, Lao classical or court music was cultivated
in the royal capital, Luang Phrabang, in the administrative capital,
Vientiane, and to lesser extents in other centers such as Champassak.
Whether its origin came from Angkor in Cambodia or from Ayuthaya
in Siam/Thailand, by the end of the 19th century it was only an echo of
Thai practice, with one exception. The Lao sometimes added khene to
the classical instruments (xylophones, gong circles, fiddles, flute, oboe,
drums, and other percussion), and while there was a contradiction between the equidistant classical tuning and nonequidistant khene tuning, it was minor enough that few noticed. Recordings from before 1975
show that playing levels in Laos were far simpler than those in Thailand.
Following the abolition of the monarchy in 1975, classical music was extinguished until well into the 1980s when it was slowly and reluctantly
revived for purposes of representation at foreign festivals. Since then it
has slowly recovered but remains simple in style to this day. TM

CAMBODIA
By nearly any measure Cambodia, a small nation of only 14.7 million
people, underdeveloped, poor, governed by an entrenched single-party
government, would not seem to
be very significant, but considering its glorious past as one of the
worlds greatest empires centered
around Angkor, it cannot be ignored. Even as the Khmer (the
proper adjective) culture has suffered near extinction twice, first
in 1432 when the Siamese inflicted their final defeat on Angkor, and second when the Khmer
Rouge reign of terror (1975
1979) attempted to extinguish everything Khmer and recreate the
nation as a simple agrarian society obedient to its blood-thirsty
rulers, it has also demonstrated resilience. There remains to this day a
lively and distinctive musical culture.
Because of its history, Khmer music was unable to develop the level that Thai music did, and indeed everything had to be rebuilt nearly
from scratch following Vietnams invasion of Cambodia in 1979 when
the Khmer Rouge were ousted and the now entrenched regime of Hun

Sen started. But ironically, the oldest layers of Khmer music still live,
though transformed, as Thai classical music. This is so because when
the Siamese, centered at Ayuthaya, conquered Angkor in 1432 and its
successor capital, Longvek, in 1594, they not only destroyed the empires
great temples and palaces but forcibly
carried off much of the population,
including its musicians, dancers, and
artists, resettling them in Siam where
they gradually morphed into Siamese
indistinguishable from earlier layers
of Siamese. Since there is no record of
Siamese music from before the conquest of Angkor, there is no way to
know to what extent Siamese music
changed under Khmer influence. Asserting that this influence was either
extensive or defining raises touchy issues of cultural nationalism.
The relationship between Siam
and Cambodia is therefore quite
tangled. The Khmer people brought from Angkor would have noticed
remnants of the Angkor Empire within Siam, because before the rise
of Sukhothai (13th century) and Ayuthaya (14th century), Siams earliest power centers, most of present-day Thailand was part of the Khmer
Empire. Evidence of this is easily seen in the many temple ruins to the
west nearly to the Burmese border and north towards present-day Vien-

49

tiane, Laos. These include a number of magnificent temple complexes at

Phimai, Phanom Rung, Muang Tam, and Preah Vihar in the northeast
and a more modest one at Muang Sing in the west, as well as many small
hospitals (resting places for travelers) scattered throughout. Because
the empire was so far-flung and communication with the center so difficult, it is not certain that the Khmer subjects at the fringes were more
than local people who had adopted aspects of the empire. But as a result,
many aspects of Siamese/Thai culture
today reflect the Khmer Empires influence.
In terms of music there is also
a reciprocal relationship. Assuming that Siamese music was indeed
remodeled under Khmer influence
in the 16th century, it seems ironic
that the Siamese, led by Thailands
most famous composer, Luang Phradit Phairaw, later helped restore and
remodel Khmer court music in the
early 20th when the modest court in
Phnom Penh sought to reestablish its court music and dance. As a consequence, virtually the entire repertory of Khmer classical music is of
Thai origin, even if titles are in Khmer and the performance style differs
in certain respects. But classical music constitutes only part of the picture, for Cambodia has a variety of distinctive local genres played by village musicians for specific occasions, especially for weddings and spirit

50

ceremonies. In these one hears Cambodias most distinctive timbres,

rhythms, and textures. That we can continue to hear all of these today
is nothing short of a miracle, considering that the Ministry of Culture
estimated in 1988 that around 80 percent of Cambodias musicians and
dancers had been killed, died of disease, or fled the country during the
Khmer Rouge period. Clearly, then, the recordings included here are
additionally valuable because they document Khmer music before these
grievous losses.
Thanks to its French colonial
masters, Cambodia came to be circumscribed by fixed boundaries with
Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand, but like
borders elsewhere in the region, they
mask the ethnic makeup of the land.
There are significant numbers of Khmer
in the Delta of the Nine Dragons, what
the Mekong River is called in southern
Vietnam, including temples and remnants of court music. Three provinces
in Thailands lower northeastBuriram, Surin, and Srisaketare predominantly Khmer speaking to this
day, and the greatest Khmer temple beyond Angkor sits on the border of
Thailand and Cambodia, where access remains in disputethe United
Nations declared the temple to be within Cambodia, but entry can only
be gained through Thailand because the temples Cambodian side is a
sheer cliff. Many Lao live in the northwestern provinces bordering Laos,

and Cambodias northeast mountains, the Dangkrek, are inhabited by

upland peoples, some speaking languages unrelated to Khmer but culturally close to many groups in nearby Vietnams Central Highlands.
Perhaps the most intriguing question to ask of the living traditions of
Khmer music is its relationship, if any, to
the silent music depicted in the stone bas
reliefs of Angkor Vat and Angkor Thom.
Studies of the archaeological evidence
in relation to contemporary phenomena
remain preliminary, and drawing conclusions will always have risks. Nonetheless, at least one modern instrument
is clearly depicted at Angkor Vat, a semicircular gong circle, doubtless an early
version of what became the kong thom
in Cambodia, khawng wong yai in Thailand and Laos, and kyi waeng in Burma.
Many military-like scenes depict hanging gongs and numerous figures appear
to be playing wind instruments. The
small cymbals used to mark time (ching
in Thai and Khmer, sing in Lao) are also
seen. Most intriguing is what appears to
be a bowed monochord, now thought to be the highlands kni, which has,
in addition to the bowed string, another running from the bridge to the

players mouth, giving the instrument a most unusual timbre.

Today in Cambodia many of the institutions that support music and
dance have been restored. Others persist as best they can. Cambodia still
has a king and thus a court-music establishment. The Royal University of Fine
Arts teaches music, dance, and theater.
The many tourists around Angkor support performers in restaurants and other
venues. Many of the land-mine victims
living around Angkor play local wedding-style music for tourists. Wedding
musicians play gigs for ceremonies, and
presumably the spirit ceremonies have
resumed. In Thailands lower northeast
there are remnants of classical music and
much ceremonial music associated with
spirits.
The selection of recordings offered
here reflects but a small part of this heritage, but does so in memory of musicians
who lived in the past and of those who
died during the Khmer Rouge period. TM
From a distance Thailand may seem
like a small country, but like most nations, the closer you get, the more complicated it becomes. That is true
of Thailand both generally and musically. Putting the music heard in

51

THAILAND
this collection into perspective requires keeping multiple perspectives
within view: some cultural, some historical, and some as particular as
the prime minister in power.
Geographically, Thailand is defined by officially recognized borders, but as is true of most of its neighbors, these boundaries seem arbitrary in relation to factors such as language, culture, and even geography. Before the age of European colonialism, Southeast Asias kingdoms
expanded and contracted continuously based on how much power each
ruler could project and hold. Power extended outwards as far as possible, but the further from the court, the more amorphous
that power became, and much of the territory between kingdoms was ambiguous in terms of loyalty. National boundaries
came about as a result of the colonial expansion of the British and French, the former extending their power from India
east into what became Burma (now Myanmar) and down the
Malay Peninsula including what is now Malaysia. The French
controlled the southeastern parts of the subcontinent, comprising what is now Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. Thailand
(called Siam until 1939), through the adroit leadership of its
kings during the 19th century, escaped colonialization, but
had they failed, it is clear that either (or both) the French and
the British would have happily absorbed Siam. Conversely,
the Siamese rulers had been laying claim to vast territories
extending to the south as well as east and north of the Me-

52

kong River all the way to northern Vietnam based, at least in the latter
case, on language relationships. This is because the Tai language family
includes the Lao and some of the main minority groups in northern
Vietnam. Siamese expansion was stopped by the French in a series of
treaties and French expansionism was resisted successfully by the Siamese kings. As a result, the modern borders were compromises, and the
Thai nation includes three Malay provinces in the south, a host of Laospeaking provinces in the northeast, three Khmer-speaking provinces
in the lower northeast, and a great variety of non-Tai minority groups
along its northern and western borders. Consequently, music in Thailand demonstrates much greater variety than Thai music, especially

if the latter is defined as that of the central Thai

culture alone.
Modern Thailand, while unified through the
imposition of central Thai as the national language and power concentrated in Bangkok, still
consists of four distinct cultural regions, though
those distinctions are less and less pronounced as
a result of modernization. The central plain, to the
east, north, and west of Bangkok, is the nations
main culture, but musically distinguishes the
aristocratic (or court) tradition from localand
mainly ruralmusic. The north, northeast, and
south each have distinctive music types and styles,
in fact the northeast is subdivided into three musical areas: one Khmer based, one Lao, and one
centered around the city of Nakhon Ratchasima
(aka Khorat).
Besides the factors of differentiating classical/court from local, and one region from another, there are the
factors of modernization and globalization. These too are reflected in
music, including some of the selections heard here. Kings Mongkut and
Chulalongkorn (Rama IV and V, respectively), ruling from 1851 to 1910
and the prime architects in maintaining Siams independence, used
modernization to counter any European ideas of imposing manifest
destiny in order to civilize their expanding empires. It was especially
King Chulalongkorn who brought Western patterns of administration,

education, communication, and living patterns to his subjects, and this

included Western music brought about both by plan and through the
influence of the growing community of Western diplomats, traders,
military advisers, and missionaries. The lesser of the two was the development of Western classical music through the formation of Siams
first symphony orchestra in 1911. Even with support from the court (and
later the Fine Arts Department) and the training of Thai to play Western classical instruments, symphony orchestras have always struggled

53

in the kingdom, even today. Popular music, on the other hand, flourished. The Western community brought social dance music, and later
Thai learned both to play this music and to dance. The first major genre
of popular music, called luk krung (songs of the city), was primarily
ballroom dance music sung with sophisticated poetry. These songs were

54

made famous by the band Suntharaphon

founded in 1943 and led by Bun-Uea Sunthonsanan, who both arranged and played.
From this other kinds of songs developed
with more down-to-earth lyrics expressing
the lives of ordinary people, including farmers, the beginnings of what is now Thailands
most prominent popular genre, the luk thung
(songs of the fields). Although luk thung
songs were originally from central Thailand,
those that developed to express the experience of northeastern Thai, who are culturally
Lao, have come to dominate (luk thung isan).
The present compilation, while not comprehensive, nonetheless includes Thai classical, both played by traditional ensembles
and instruments as well as by instruments
representing newer influences, as well as an
example from the northeast and one popular song. Some of these tracks offer surprises
too and fill lacunae in our history of music in
Thailand. TM

BURMA
At this point in time (2012), there is no internationally accepted convention for referring to the country, which, during the era of these recordings, was known as Burma. As several observers have pointed out,
both Myanma and Bama have been used interchangeably throughout Burmese history, with Bama
or under British rule Burma used
colloquially and Myanmar used
in more formal contexts in Burmese
writing. In the 1990s, the Burmese
military government decided unilaterally to change the official name
of Burma to Myanmar. Various opposition groups, exile publications,
and academic organizations and
journals still use Burma. Because
we focus here on recordings from
the early to mid-20th century, we
will use Burma.
Burma, with its borders delineated by British Imperial Rule in 1885,
fronts the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea, framing the western
coast of mainland Southeast Asia. With China to the north, India (Assam) and Bangladesh to the west and Thailand and Laos to the east and
south, Burma todaywith its inheritance as a busy crossroads by land
and seais host to an extraordinarily diverse group of cultures, com-

munities, and languages. The Burmans, predominantly Theravadan

Buddhists, comprise 68 percent of the total population.
Both lowland (Mon, Burman, Rakhine, Karen, and others) and
mountain peoples (Shan, Kachin, Karen, Chin, Naga, Wa, and others) in Burma over the centuries have adapted instruments arriving via
trade routes from other countries and kingdoms to flavor indigenous
musical culture. The duty of every
victorious monarch in kingdoms
throughout Burmese history was to
appropriate foreign artisans, musicians, and performance genres upon
conquest.Of particular relevance for
these recordings, was the Burmese
conquest of Ayudhya in Siam in 1767.
Siamese performers were forced into
slavery and brought to the Burmese
court where they taught their arts
to Burman musicians and dancers.
Siamese songs from the Ramayana
(Thai Ramakien) were reinterpreted
in Burmese language and musical style. These Yodaya songs became a
core genre popular into the 20th century and used extensively in the
first years ofrecordings.
Over the centuries Burmese musicians have joyfully embraced
instruments from Persia, China, India, Thailand, Europe and Burmanized them with new tunings and sometimes imaginative recon-

55

figurations. Several instruments on these recordings are of particular

interest.A set of tuned drumsoriginally a collection of seven and said
to be from Indiawas extended in the 1860s to 19
tuned drums hung on a wooden frame circle with
enough space for a player at the center.This larger
drum circle, known as the hsaing waing, enabled
the evolution of virtuosic techniques still in use today. The cornet, slide guitar, mandolin, concertina,
violin, banjo, lap harp, piano, and iron-barred xylophone all folded into use in Burmese ensembles
in the late 19th and early 20th centuries but were
adjusted to accommodate Burmese tunings and
modes and techniques of playing. The national
iconic arched Burmese harp (saung gauk) shares its
shape with other cultures, has a cousin used among
the Karen, and was long the favored chamber instrument of the Burmese court accompanying the
earliest songs extant: theKyo.
The structure of the Burmese language is more
closely related to Tibetan than Thai in the SinoTibetan classification of languages.In representing
its tones through song, singers must obey certain
caesuras and glottal stops to be understood, in
addition to making other words longer and fluid through melisma (a
group of notes sung to a single syllable) for both expression and clarity
of meaning. To an outside ear, the abrupt, stopped toneswith their

56

corresponding motion in instrumental accompanimentdictate a

rhythmic propulsion and deceleration distinct from surrounding musics in Burma.The mark of an extraordinary singer
is his or her ability to timemelismas and stops correctly to the regular meter of the bell and clapper
(si, wa)a relationship to timing common to other
musics of Southeast Asia.
The early introduction of both silent film and
recording technology by the British yielded a remarkable creative response among the Burmese,
which was initially among the Burman majority
and later expanded to other groups incorporating
their own languages and music.In the 1920s, some
Western, and later Burmese silent films, were accompanied by Burmese musicians. Singers and
instrumentalists emerged who later received great
acclaimand fostered a renaissance of Burmese performing styles, both popular and classical.
With silent films requiring constant live background music, ensembles began to compete with
one another to attract audiences to particular
movie theatres. Demonstrating ones improvisatory
skills through virtuosic display in instrumental
interludes became a prerequisite for sandaya (piano) and hsaing players leading their groups. The great sandaya, hsaing waing leaders, the
slide guitar and sang gauk players, all performers and composers of the

1930s, and onwards were able to create music that carried both the flavor of the old Mahagita classical canon, but also introduced complexity and greater ingenuity in instrumental patterns, incorporating more
range on their instruments.
As with instruments, vocal techniques from other cultures were
imported and adapted to Burmese singing styles. Popular
movie stars would record hit
songs from movies, the sales of
which would ensure a large audience. Often, both Burmese and
Western styles would be mixed
in one song: verses in Burmese
style with refrains accompanied by a Western harmonized
vamp. As more western popular
styles were absorbed into the
Burmese music of the 1940s and
onward,less melisma was incorporated into singing styles.
In Burma, hand-cranked record players were used into the
1970s, replaced by cassette machines which were more portable and
cheaper than long-playing record players.Studios at the Burma Broadcasting Service in Rangoon (which became known as the Myanma Radio and Television Service in the 1960s) broadcast Burmese classical and

music based on classical styles known as khi' haung with an accompanying lecture series by well-known writers on music.
As the Burmese generations born in the 1920s and 1930s pass on
those who remember listening to some of these recordings as children,
the musicians among them even remembering meeting or working
with some of the performing artists
a proverbial golden age of Burmese
musical intricacy that connected audiences across generations will gradually
recede. However, the good news is that
some younger musicians are learning
the music of the hsaing waing, learning to sing songs from the Mahagita
and khi haung song styles. Ensembles
around Burma are active at Pagoda festivals, issuing DVDs, uploading their
work to the Internet, playing for theatre
performances, and even collaborating with popular musicians. Work on
archiving the thousands of recordings
represented by this current selection
has begun in Yangon (formerly Rangoon), which will be accessible to younger Burmese and international
audiences online: for all who wish to soothe their ears and awaken to
history in a legacy of remarkable music and poetry. KY

57

MALAYSIA, SINGAPORE & INDONESIA

Indonesia is part of island Southeast Asia, and Malaysia is both part
of island and mainland Southeast Asia, usually respectively called East
Malaysia (Sabah and Sarawak, located on the island of Borneo) and
West Malaysia (the Malay Peninsula). There are approximately 245 million people in Indonesia and 28 million in Malaysia. The majority in
both countries is Muslim, particularly in Indonesia where over 85percent or about 208 million people follow Islam, making Indonesia the
country with the most Muslims in the world. Singapore, the city-state
in between Malaysia and Indonesia, is a secular state (with Buddhists,
Confucians, Muslims, Christians, and Hindus) and has about 5 million
people. In sharp contrast with Malaysia and especially with Indonesia,
Singapore is an economic powerhouse with one of the worlds highest
per capita GDP.
The majority of Indonesians and Malaysians are Malay peoples
speaking very similar Austronesian languages. Malay was the lingua
franca among the diverse types of Malays living in the archipelago (Malaya, Borneo, Indonesian islands, Southern Philippines, and southern
Thailand). Songs recorded in Malay were popular among the Malays in
the archipelago. The Indonesian language was largely adopted in 1928
from the Malay language spoken in the ports in Java and Sumatra. Today, virtually all Indonesians speak Indonesian, though it is still normally a citizens second language. Indonesia is much more diverse than
Malaysia with some 300 ethnic groups spread over thousands of islands.
Malaysia is officially multiethnic and multicultural with a much higher

percentage population of Chinese and Indians than Indonesia. Singapores majority people are Chinese descent with sizable Malay and Indian minorities; English heads the list of official languages, which also
includes Malay, Chinese, and Tamil. Both Indonesia and Malaysia have
indigenous peoples (orang asli) speaking distinct languages.
Indonesia and Malaysia had different colonial masters: Indonesia
was colonized over stages by the Dutch, while Malaysia (and the area
of Singapore) was colonized by the British. Both nations were also occupied by other foreign powers: the British for Indonesia and the Portuguese for Malaysia (Portugal also occupied areas of East Indonesia for
centuries). The distinct Dutch and British backgrounds further separated Indonesia and Malaysia in terms of politics, legal systems, development, and music. Malaysians also speak English much better than
Indonesians. While Indonesia achieved independence from the Dutch
soon after the end of World War II, the Federation of Malaya was declared as an independent federation of the Malay states in 1957 and the
name Malaysia was adopted in 1963 when the existing states of the
Federation were joined by Singapore, North Borneo, and Sarawak. Singapore left Malaysia to form its own nation in 1965.
Both Malaysia and Indonesia are considered gong cultures, with a
plethora of gongs used in music ensembles. The musics of Java and Bali in
Indonesia are characterized by gamelan ensembles, consisting of gongs,
metallophones, gong-chimes, drums, and flutes in a variety of combinations. Smaller ensembles, often with fewer numbers of bronze or metal
instruments, are found throughout both countries. Gamelan traditions
were seemingly first introduced to Malaysia in the early 19th century

as a wedding gift of the royal family of Riau (Indonesia). The bamboo

flutes, suling, are found in both nations as is the rebab, a bowed lute purportedly of Arab or Persian origins, which has a particular importance
in the Malaysian mak yong and the Javanese and Sundanese gamelans.
Other shared traditions include the shadow puppet play,
wayang kulit, an a cappella popIslam style, nasyid (which began
in Malaysia), Malay opera, Islamic music using the gambus (Malay
oud), martial arts (pencak silat),
and certain Sufi traditions, zikir.
Both countries also have other
theatrical traditions and masked
dancing. In some states in Malaysia, religious groups have managed to ban pre-Islamic traditional arts, such as wayang kulit,
and such efforts are sometimes
attempted in Indonesia. The position of women in public performance has come under scrutiny in both
countries, though at the same time a number of traditions that used
only to be available to men are now also available to women. While both
countries have a sizable Chinese minority, that in Malaysia has had a
larger impact in the recording industry. In Singapore, Chinese influence is much more pronounced and Chinese artists are more promi-

nent. During the 78 rpm era, Singapore was a major center of recording
activity, with performers traveling from different parts of Malaya and
the Malay archipelago to record, while in Indonesia, recordings were
made in various Javanese cities. Most of the recordings available in this
collection are either relics of history
or are antecedents of the traditions
we can still hear today.
The Malaysian and particularly the Indonesian governments
have frequently tried to preserve
traditional performing arts, such
as gamelan and wayang kulit, and
teacher-training programs have
sometimes been established to
transmit the arts. It is not only
religious leaders that challenge
traditional arts, but also a new
generation of media-savvy and
globally oriented youth who tend
to be drawn to globally circulating styles (e.g., reggae, metal) and new hybrid popular styles such as
campursari (Javanese gamelan with Western instruments) and the Indonesian megaphenomenon, dangdut (combining Indian film music,
Western instruments and rock, Malay orchestra elements, and Arab elements). Films and media, including MTV outlets, have been supporting
most of the popular styles. DH
Singapore harbor, ca. 1920s (following pages)

58

59

60

61

PART III
THE RECORDS

62

63

DI SC A

VIETNAM LAOS CAMBODIA

64

65

A1 V I E T N A M

Tn Tn Gi in

ca. 1946

Sun Bin Feigns Madness

Performed by t Tr n, voice
Hu, guitar
Thy (or Thy), violin
A sia 16 5 8 -1
Asia was the first label run by a Vietnamese ownerNg Vn Mnh, a.k.a.
Thy Nm Mnh (ca. 19081957).He originally worked in his fathers bicycle
and rickshaw repair business.In 1936 he bought some used and slightly
out of date recording and pressing equipment from Path, then set to work
on learning to record.Asia was originally located at ng Danel, Bnh Ty
(Ch Ln), then later moved to 324 Bn Hm T (the current location of the
X Nghip Bng T Si Gn Video Audio). Specializing in ci lng, the label
primarily released records from 1936 or 1937 through the early 1950s. In the
early days, their recordings were apparently not as state-of-the-art in sound
quality as the foreign labels. Ng Vn Mnh is reputed to have gotten along
very well with the artists. Asia had a near monopoly on Vietnamese recordings during the war and its immediate aftermath. JG

The first decade of the 20th century saw the birth of a new style of
popular musical theatre in southern Vietnam that came to be known
as ci lng (meaning reformed theatre). Its popularity grew to such
an extent that by the 1940s ci lng was the main genre of Vietnamese music being recorded in the 78 rpm format. These ci lng

66

recordings most often consist of a type of aria called vng c (meaning

longing for the past), a type of musical form that allows for much improvisation. Vng c is the single most important musical work in 20th
century Vietnam.It evolved from a piece entitled D C Hoi Lang
(Hearing the Night Drum I Think of My Husband) written by Cao
Vn Lu (Su Lu) in the late 1910s (see track A3).D C Hoi Lang
is relatively simple and brief, employing 20 musical phrases that are
each two measures in length (articulated by the song lang, a castanet
played with the foot). Over the years, the phrases gradually doubled,
the expansion providing greater distance between structural points in
the melody and allowed for more melodic elaboration.
t Tr n (19192001) is one of the greats of recorded ci lng
and is often called the King of vng c (vua vng c).His actual name
is Nguyn Thnh t t meaning "the last born child." He was the
youngest of 10 children in his family. He added the appellation Tr n,
the name of the district in Cn Th province where he was born.He
sang this version of Tn Tn Gi in (Sun Bin Feigns Madness)
early in his career and it was this work that cemented his reputation as
a performer and established Asia as a prestigious label. Asia came into
existence as an indigenous label when the multinationals began to leave
the Vietnamese market at the outset of World War II.This record set is
supposed to have sold like hotcakes in 1947.
t Tr ns singing was especially admired for his technique and
breath control, as well as the sweet sound of his voice.This work is a
tour de force for t Tr n where in this state of madness he sings the
melody, brings in folk songs, and recites verse.Tn Tn Gi in is

67

68

69

here presented in a 16 beat form (16 nhp), where the structural beats
are spread allowing more melodic elaboration and variation.The first
and sixteenth beats are marked by a tapping of a song lang.
Tn Tn was a general of the Qi state that was allied with the
Zhou state and is believed to have died in the year 316 BCE. He feigned
madness to avoid betraying his knowledge of military strategy and
to escape from the Wei. He was the author of Sun Bins Art of War,
which is sometimes conflated with Sun Tzus Art of War.
The ensemble is made up of guitar and violin.Both of these
Western instruments are played in an distinctly Vietnamese manner. According to H Trng An, the violin was introduced to the
ci lng ensemble by Mi Cn in the late 1930s. In this music, the
guitar is known as a ghi-ta phm lm and is an acoustic Spanish guitar
with the space between frets dug out (or concave: lm) that allows
the player to add microchromatic embellishments to fit a compositions
mode.This manner of modifying the guitar to play the ornaments of
Vietnamese traditional music is said to have been invented in the 1920s
by a music master named Su Tin from Rch Gia, a city located on the
Gulf of Siam near the Cambodian border. JG

70

A2 C A M B O D I A

Phleng Boran

A3 V I E T N A M

X Ti Bng Qu Phi, Th Nh

1930

Old Song
Performed by Sak Som Peo Ensemble

1924

Sentencing Precious Consort Pang, Part 2

Performed by Vn H Ban with the Vn H Ban Troupe

Columbia GF 6 8 4, W LI-310

V ic tor 4 3 419 -A

Little information has surfaced about this obscure series. Columbia recorded

The American record company Victor was based in Camden, New Jersey, and

the GF series in what was then Indochina, and pressed the records in France for

was not a big player in the Southeast Asian record market. Although they had

sale in both regions. The series included Vietnamese and Cambodian record-

an affiliated headquarters in Shanghai that made many recordings of Chinese

ings. Unfortunately, the series does not seem to include any Lao recordings.

opera and popular music, and could have easily mounted recording trips to
Southeast Asia, Victors first foray into the region was lead by two American

The traditional music of the Cambodian villages is strikingly different from the classical court tradition. Whether for weddings, spirit
ceremonies, repartee entertainment, or narrative singing, it emphasizes the use of stringed instruments, including one with a distinct
timbre, the khse diev, a chest-resonated monochord, unfortunately not
heard in this collection and likely not recorded during the 78 rpm era.
Both classical and village traditions suffered grievous losses during the
Khmer Rouge period but both have rebuilt. Interestingly, much village
music is now played by those known as land-mine musicians. The
long period of warfare involving different factions within Cambodia,
the Vietnamese, Thai, and Americans resulted in Cambodia being
thoroughly sewn with land mines, which continue to kill and maim
people to this day. Some of these victims now play village music at the
various temples at Angkor to attract donations from tourists.

recordists, William Linderman and Fred Elsasser. The team left the Port of San
Francisco on June 24, 1924, bound for Shanghai, Teintsen, Peking, Hong Kong,
Canton, and French Indochina. Although there is little information about their
recording trip, some recently discovered archival evidence shows that they
made this record, and others, in Saigon in December of 1924. The following
month they made recordings of Cambodian music (likely in Vietnam) before
eventually arriving in Tonkin, in Northern Vietnam, in February. They returned
to San Francisco on June 10th, 1925, almost a year after their departure from
the same port. Oddly, the recordings they made were released in Victors wellknown series of Chinese opera recordings, yet turn up very rarely.

This recording features a village string ensemble. The instruments

include vertical bamboo flute (khloy), three-stringed fiddle (tro khmer),
a two-stringed fiddle (tro ek or tro u), small cymbals (ching), and singer.
The piece is simply titled Phleng Boran, meaning Old Song, and is
likely from the phleng kar category, songs sung at weddings. TM

This disc excerpts the same play about Precious Consort Pang as track
A12. However this recording is of ci lng instead of ht b theatre. It
also is an early recording of the aria known as vng c.The melody is
D C Hoi Lang (Hearing the Night Drum I Think of My Hus-

71

72

73

band) written by Cao Vn Lu (Su Lu) in the late 1910s. Cao Vn Lu

was born in 1892 in Long An province but grew up and lived in Bc Liu
province.He loved ti t (talented amateur) music from his youth and
later became a musician in a local ci lng troupe.
The original lyrics of D C Hoi Lang are based on a poem by
Nguyt Chiu with a theme similar to the famed Vietnamese novel
in verse Chinh Ph Ngm Khc (Lament of a Soldiers Wife). It is
thought that Cao Vn Lus words also reflect the separation from his
wife that his parents mandated when she proved unable to bear children.
This melody, separated from the lyrics, became the basis for the
aria Vng C Hoi Lang (Remembering Things Past Thinking of My
Husband) that is sung on this record side.This is probably one of the
earliest recordings of any form of vng c.The lyrics from Precious
Consort Pang follow the form and melody of D C Hoi Lang.
According to the discs label, the performers are a quartet Annamite.Annam (meaning pacified South) was a generic name that the
French gave to the three regions of Vietnam that they controlled.However, a 1926 Victor Catalog lists the performers as belonging to the
Vn H Ban Troupe.The Vn H Ban Troupe, based in Ch Ln, was
managed by Hunh Kim Vui.They presented some of the best staged
performances of the early 1920s.
The recording opens with recited dialog, with the melody starting
at the 0:55 second mark.The vng c melody concludes at 2:35 and is
followed by more recited dialog.The work consists of 20 measures that
accelerate slightly.Although it is sometimes difficult to hear, the song
lang foot castanet punctuates the end of many of the measures. JG
Dan tranh player

74

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A4 V I E T N A M

T Cnh C u Thua Bc

1927

Describing the Scene of a Songstress Losing at Gambling

Performed by o Nh (actress Nh)
V ic tor 4 0 0 2 7-A-1

It seems that Victor made only two recording tours of Indochina, the first in
1924/25 (see track A3), and the second made 2 years later. While we know that
the first expedition was led by two recordists from America, the second recording team remains anonymous. Victor kept what they called history cards
for all of their issued discs. These handwritten index cards included detailed
information taken by the engineer at the time of the recording session. While the
cards for the second expedition do not include the names of the recordists, the
dates of each recording allow us to reconstruct the itinerary. They reveal that
114 sides were recorded, using recently developed electrical recording equipment, in the fall of 1927 and released in 1928 and 1929 in a series numbered
40000-40113. Based on the performers names, song titles, and recording dates,
it appears that the team began recording in Hanoi, in northern Vietnam, on
September 8, 1927. From there they traveled south to Hue, in Vietnams central
region, and began recording on October 3. The final recording sessions took
place in Saigon from October 29 to November 11.

The troupe in this recording was based at the Rp Ci lng H vin

H Ni. This theatre still stands at the intersection of Hng Bc (Silver
Street) and Ph T Hin and is today called the Rp Chung Vng (The
Golden Bell Theatre). Its an example of a form called cho ci lng

that was created by Nguyn nh Nghi in the 1910s or 1920s. o Nh

was the star actress of his troupe.
Ci lng in Vietnamese means "renovate" or "reform," so cho ci
lng refers to renovated cho.Confusion arises because the predominant musical theatre genre of the south became known as ci lng
(or renovated theater), and it is this meaning of the word that is most
common today. Cho is a form of musical theatre thought to have
originated in the 18th century in rural northern Vietnam. The subject
matter often pokes fun at societal mores.
Nguyn nh Ngh was born in 1883 in Thu Li village, Tin L
district of Hng Yn province (about 80 miles southwest of H Ni)
and died in 1954 in H Ni.In originating cho ci lng he expanded
the musical ensemble (traditionally often only two musicians playing
the two-string fiddle called n nh and various percussion) and incorporated melodies from outside of traditional cho.He also wrote plays
that incorporated current social themes.He was especially famous for
his comedic performances known as Trn Ci or laugh attacks.
This excerpt is entitled T Cnh C u Thua Bc (Describing
the Scene of Songstress Losing at Gambling). The songstress, or c
u, would be a performer of ca tr or ht oa geisha-like entertainment where cultivated poetry is recited according to melodic rules
to the accompaniment of the n y (plucked lute with three strings)
and a praise drum performed by an audience member.See tracks A22
and B2 for examples of this musical form. JG

Victor catalog pages

76

77

78

79

A5 C A M B O D I A

Thawai Phaka Thi

have been waiting for the Lao musicians to arrive in Hue? Searches of Vietnam1930

ese newspapers from the time do not mention any sort of festivals that visiting

Offering Flowers to a Monk

Recited by Lad Un

musicians might have attended. Its unlikely that Lao musicians would have

Columbia GF 6 9 3, W LI-3 3 2

upon by the Vietnamese at that time.

been invited to such a festival anyway, Lao music was very much looked down

This recording is from a genre of solo song unknown in the literature

today. This song of offering is sung by a former high-ranking monk
(khruba) named Lad Un in Phnom Penh, listed as a krou balad or
deputy teacher. The Khmer language is only minimally tonal, and
consequently Khmer vocal music tends to be plainer than that of tonal
language singers, such as Lao, Thai, and Vietnam. TM

The possibility that the team traveled to Laos seems even more unlikely.

Laos is extremely remote and undeveloped, even today. The journey into Laos
would have been arduous and difficult to make in the nine days between sessions, involving hauling heavy equipment and blank discs across the Annamite
Cordillera mountain range and the rice fields of south central Laos. To continue
on to Saigon would have required maneuvering around unnavigable rapids and
waterfalls on the Mekong River at Khong. During much of the year, the weather is
hot and humid and travelers at that time risked contracting a variety of diseases,
especially malaria and cholera. The question of where the recording sessions oc-

A6 L AO S

Nang Nak

curred remains a mystery.

1927

Lady Snake
Performed by the Ensemble of the Governor of Vientiane
V ic tor 4 0 0 71-A

The recordings made during the Victor expedition detailed in track A4 are
mostly of Vietnamese music, but 36 of the 114 sides contain what appear to
be the earliest known recordings of Lao music. What isnt detailed on Victors
history cards is where the Lao recordings were made. The cards indicate that
Vietnamese recordings were made in Hue on October 3, 1927, and then nothing

Eleven sides from the Lao series are included in this collection.

This composition, of Thai origin, is Nang Nak, but only the first of
two sections was recorded. Nang translates as Lady and Nak is the
Lao pronunciation of the Indic word naga, the mythological snake
deity of Hinduism. In spite of these allusions, the composition has
nothing to do with religious ritual. The ensemble mixes classical instruments with the Lao khene, a practice peculiar to Laos. The classical
instruments include bamboo flute (khui), fiddle (so i), small cymbals
(sing) and xylophone (lanat ek). TM

until the 36 Lao recordings were made on October 12. Could the recording team

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A7

A8 V I E T N A M

L AO S

Khaek Mon

1927

Performed by the Ensemble of the Governor of Vientiane

V ic tor 4 0 0 71-B

Everything regarding the previous track applies here except that the work
is an excerpt from a much longer piece entitled Khaek Mon, given on
the label in French as La Malaisienne (The Malaysian). The Thai/Lao
classical repertory includes a number of compositions whose titles begin
with Khaek Mon but are completed with more words, e.g., Khaek Mon
Bang Khun Phrom. The composition performed here (in part), however,
is simply an independent composition called Khaek Mon whose title
has no translation. Khaek refers generally to Muslim people and could
allude to Muslims in southern Thailand, in Malaysia, from India, or even
the Middle East including Persia. Mon refers to the original people, civilization, and language of Burma, a people who now occupy the Mon State
in Burma, areas of western Thailand, and pockets elsewhere in Thailand.
The terms also refer to specific scales or modes in Thai music. The
khaek mode (thang khaek) is normally notated as G-A-B-D-E-F#-G (with
the understanding that F# represents a tone halfway between E and G,
lower than F# and higher than F) while the mon mode (thang mon) is
written as Bb-C-D-F-G-A-Bb. Compositions in khaek mon mode constantly switch between these two scales, as is true of this performance.
This excerpt comes from a later part of the composition, not near the
beginning, but since sing (small cymbals) cannot be heard, it is difficult
to know exactly where. TM

Nam Nh-T 

ca. 1930

A Great Man
Performed by Nguyn Vn Minh, tc Minh-Con
(a.k.a Minh, Junior)
Columbia GF 52 9, W LI- 57

If one sound had to be chosen to evoke Vietnam, for many it would

be the sound of the n bu, also known as the nc huyn (meaning single-string instrument). The word bu means gourd and refers
to the dried gourd fastened to the handle, surrounding the string
at the point where it connects to the handle. In the past this gourd
may have served as a resonator, but today it survives as a decorative
feature.
The n bu is played exclusively with harmonics that are produced at nodes at 1/2, 1/3, l/4, 1/5, and 1/6 the length of the string.
A small bamboo plectrum held in the right hand plucks the string
while the lower side of the hand stops the string at the appropriate
node. The left hand moves the handle to bend the pitch downward
by moving in the direction of the instrument, or upward by pushing
the handle away from the instrument. The pitch can bend as much
as a fourth or fifth in either direction. The left hand also produces a
variety of vibratos, glissandi, and grace notes. The instruments virtuosity and expressiveness are to be found in its left hand technique,
which should have a subtlety that mimics the sound of the Vietnamese singing voice or declaimed poetry.
n bu player, left

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Traditionally, however, the n bu was looked down upon and

was kept out of court ensembles. The Vietnamese also have a saying
Lm thn con gi ch nghe n bu (If youre a girl you shouldnt listen to the n bu) because of the instruments melancholy tone.Traditionally the n bu was played by itinerant blind musicians (ht
xm) but it was also incorporated intoVietnamese chamber music,
known as music of talented amateurs (nhc ti t).More recently it
also takes part in the ensembles of cho and ci lng.
According to musician and scholar Bi Trng Hin, the musician
heard here is either a very talented ht xm performer, or possibly a
performer of Hu styled chamber music. In any case, the music is the
Nam, or southern style, in the manner of a Hu musician.
The title on the records label is probably a misprint instead of
Nam Nh-T it should read Nam Nhi T which translates as A
Great Man.
The sticker affixed to the record label reads bn my a ht v
sa cha / Phc, 92 Hng Bng. It advertises the Phc store on
Hng Bng street in Hanois old quarter that sells phonographs and
makes repairs. JG

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A9 L AO S

Gap Pa Pheng

1927

Chanting with Song

Performed by Molam Som
V ic tor 4 0 0 2 5 -A-1

The most typical form of repartee singing among the Lao (both in Laos
and Northeast Thailand) is called lam in southern Laos and Thailand,
and khap in central and northern Laos. A person who is skilled at singing is a molam, but the term is also used to refer to the genre generally.
The male singer, Molam Nai (Mr.) Som, is accompanied on a 14 tube
khene chet free-reed mouth organ by an unnamed musician, and the
notes imply it was performed at Muang Khong, the area of dramatic
rapids and falls in the Mekong River in the southern Lao province of
Siphandone, meaning four thousand islands.
The first side of this record, heard here, uses poetry that describes
nature, warning that by going into the woods one comes into danger
from many wild animals, in crossing the river to see the magic tree
(mai manikhot). The second side of the record (not included here) continues with the same poetry, describing the fruit on the trees, saying
whoever eats that fruit will become younger and that few gain access
to that fruit. He sings that even hearing the beautiful natural sounds of
nature cannot substitute for his beloved.
Musically, the style heard is known as lam som, an archaic style
that seems to have preceded that which is heard now, called lam siphandone. Although it is usual for the singer to begin with introductory

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87

poetry in a non-metrical delivery, here the singer goes right into the
main poem, which is sung in meter. The introduction was most likely
omitted in order for the poem to fit the duration of the record. The
body of the poem follows a scale pattern that can be expressed as A-CD-E-G, but at cadence points the mode changes to A-B-D-E, finally
descending from B to the tonic A. TM

A10 V I E T N A M

Khng Minh/Mu Tm T 

ca. 1929

Kong Minh, Mother Searches for Her Child

Performed by Van Thanh Ban (or Vn Thnh Ban)
Beka 2 013 7 I, 9 2 310

Although the German label Beka recorded in China, Burma, Siam, Singapore
and the Dutch East Indies beginning in 1905, it wasnt until the late 1920s that
they released Indochinese recordings. The recording engineer Heinrich Lampe
made this recording on a trip that included China, the Dutch East Indies, as well
as Indochina. A small symbol engraved in the dead wax," the area between the
label and the grooves, indicates that this record was made using Lindstroems
own electrical recording process, implemented in Berlin just a year earlier, in
1928, making this one of the first uses of that system in the field. Like Siegfried
Frenz for Odeon, Lampe also made historic Balinese recordings for Beka in 1928.
Although both Odeon and Beka were controlled by Lindstroem, they still acted
autonomously, sending separate teams to Bali.

88

This is instrumental ci lng music in the Guangdong Chinese

or h style.It is performed in
the qung mode, a pentatonic scale thought to be joyful
in affect.The instrumental
ensemble consists of a n
nguyt (a two-stringed
moon-shaped lute with
raised frets), a n nh (twostringed fiddle related to the
erhu) and a bamboo flute (a so or
maybe a ch). There is a bell playing
that is perhaps a penglinga pair of finger
cymbals connected by a string.
Khng Minh (181-234), whose real name was Zhuge Liang, was a
chancellor during the Shu Han dynasty known as a legendary strategist.On this side, the melody Khng Minh is coupled with another
composition entitled MuTm T, or A Mother Searches for Her
Child.
Ci lng in the h qung style flourished in areas like the Ch
Ln district of Saigon, as well as many towns and cities of the Mekong delta area, which had a considerable Chinese population, many
of whom often formed the affluent merchant class.The influence of
Chinese music upon Vietnamese traditional music has been lasting
and profound.Most of Vietnams string instruments correspond to

instruments in other East Asian countries.Many works in the nhc ti

t repertoire were drawn from Chinese melodies and were Vietnamized in their manner of performance.
Interestingly, the label of this disc has the words An-Lo-Man,
a phonetic representation in Vietnamese letters of Allemande, the
French word for German.Beka, of course, was a German label. JG

A11 V I E T N A M

n Vng C (6 cu)Km c Chic

Playing Vng C (6 measures)solo n km
Performed by Nm C

late 1950s

L amS on 13 7-1

Lam Son was one of the many postwar Vietnamese labels based in Saigon that
focused on cai luong. These small independent record labels throughout Southeast Asia continued to issue 78 rpm records in the 1960s.

Nm C, whose real name was Dng Vn C, was born to a very

poor family in 1919 in the village of Lc Thch in Tr Vinh province.
He learned music from the Chaozhou Chinese in this region who
appreciated his precocious talent and gave him chances to learn and
perform traditional ensemble music.He practiced music while tending
water buffalo in the fields.Listening to vng c recordings by C Nm
Cn Th and C Ba Bn Tre in the late 1930s inspired him to take up
the moon-shaped lute (n km or n nguyt).

Throughout his career he was active with theatrical troupes, on

the radio and in the recording studio. In 1946 he moved to Saigon to
perform with a ci lng troupe.From 1950, he was a musician for
traditional music performances on Radio France-Asie and later in
the 1960s for many groups on Radio Saigon.He was also a musician with the Hoa Sen and Kim Chung ci lng troupes.

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He might also be considered something of a session musician

who regularly recorded with several labels.He was dubbed one of
the The Three Foremost Musicians of Saigon (Ba nht danh
cm Si Gn) along with his close friends By B (who uses the
name Vin Chu when composing ci lng and vng c) and
Vn V.The three of them, in various combination and on interchanging instruments, were prolific recording artists.Nam C
died January 24, 1980, in Saigon.
Part of the success of vng c had to be due to the fact that
it was tailor-made for the 78 rpm and later the 45 rpm recording.Contemporary vng c typically lasts around 6 minutes or
a little longer and has a neat structural break half way through,
allowing it to be recorded on the two sides of a disc.
Below is a time chart mapping out the three phrases through
their duration on this recording.Each timing represents the clapping of the song lang and the articulation into phrases that results.
It sounds approximately three quarters through the phrase and
at the start of a new phrase.The duration between each sound of the
clapper is shown in parentheses and demonstrates the approximately
three to one ratio between segments, except in the case of the opening
phrase, which is shortened by the introduction.


introduction0:00-0:21 (21)

phrase 1 0:21-0:48-1:03 (27 seconds + 15 seconds)

phrase 21:03-1:47-2:02 (44 + 14)

phrase 32:02-2:42-2:56 (40 + 14)

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Nam C

In a 1963 interview Nam C said that traditional music at its best

did not stick too closely to a fixed framework and allowed for inspiration.His recording of the vng c form shows him working within a
pentatonic tonal realm, yet, through rhythmic variety, different types
of articulation and ornamentation, weaving a fascinating melodic
web.In the interview, he also noted that when he made records he often played with a slightly heavier touch because the technology did not
always pick up softer subtleties. JG

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A12 V I E T N A M

X Ti Bng Qu Phi

1928

Sentencing Precious Consort Pang (Part 6)

Performed by Ni Giam with the bn ht Vn H Ban
Odeon 157.0 61, 111

This is part of a Chinese tale also found in Chinese opera as part of the
Judge Bao stories (in Vietnamese he is known as Bao Cng).They are
set during the Song dynasty reign of emperor Renzong.Consort Pang
was the daughter of Pang Heng (Vietnamese: Bng Hng) who was
one of the Kings ministers and one of Judge Baos chief rivals.She was
evidently involved in her fathers conspiracy against the king and was
tried and executed for her crimes. These stories, though based upon
historic characters, are fictional.
Ht b, also called ht bi or ht tung, is the Vietnamese equivalent of Chinese opera.This form was adopted by the Vietnamese court
and also incorporated Chinese historical figures often as a way to extol
moral and virtuous actors in history.This classical theatre developed
very strongly during the Nguyn dynasty of the 19th and early 20th
centuries, but it began to wane with the popularity of ci lng.
Ht khch refers to the khch mode, one of the northern or Chinese modes.This system of modes is thought to be vigorous and happy
in affect, though if it is sad (like this work), its a strong sadness.
Although there is no artist information on the label, an Odon record catalog from 1928 states that the record is performed by Ni Giam
with the bn ht Vn H Ban. JG

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A13 C A M B O D I A

Thong Yon/Phleng Barang/

Rueang Khun Chang Khun Phaen

A14 L AO S
ca. 1929

Performed by Mr. Salat

Odeon 1575 3 4B, Tub 2 9 4

The important engineer Siegfried Frenz recorded this during an expedition that
lasted 4 years. Beginning in 1928, he made the first ever recordings of Balinese
gamelan (see tracks D6, D15), which were released in small numbers on the
Odeon label. His travels also included Africa, India, and Indochina, where this
recording was made.

Brass bands came to Southeast Asia during the 19th century with both
military and diplomatic delegations from Europe and the United States
and were copied by both Thai and Khmer. Heres a Khmer female
vocalist with a Western brass band. According to the label, there are
three songs: 1) Thong Yon, a Thai composition going back to the
Ayuthaya period (13501767), 2) Phleng Barang, a Western melody
composed by the King of Cambodia, and 3) Rueang Khun Chang
Khun Phaen, from the story of Mr. Chang and Mr. Phaen, disc 2. The
label refers to the singer as Mr. Salat, but she is clearly female. TM

96

Khap Salang
Salang singing

1927

Performed by Suphantha-amat and Pheng Bing

V ic tor 4 0 0 2 3 -B

Luang Phrabang was the royal capital of Laos, as opposed to the administrative capital in Vientiane, until the abdication of King Sisavang
Vattana in 1975, the result of the victory of the communist Pathet Lao
over the royalist government. Located along the upper Mekong River
in central northern Laos, the court supported a variety of classical music and dance drama, all comparable to the other great court traditions
of the area, namely Thailand and
Cambodia. Certain of the court
traditions have been revived
in recent years, mainly for
tourists.
Luang Phrabang
also retains several
styles of folk repartee
singing, most accompanied by a small classical ensemble, with a
small chorus of onlookers
providing choral interludes.
Among the many local styles

from around Laos, those in the north use the word khap for singing
while those in the south use lam.
This track is a continuation of Khap Lot Khai Long Khon, the
first side of this record (not presented here). The title means Singing
while going through the khai rushes, khai rushes being a plant that
grows in the Mekong River, and it is described on the label as wat
Luang Phrabang, meaning Luang Phrabang style. The singer, named
Suphantha-amat, is accompanied by a single so u, a two-string fiddle
with a coconut body.
This second part of the song is given the title Khap Salang,
which denotes the typical repartee singing performed today in Luang
Phrabang. A fuller term for the genre is khap salang sam sao, meaning salang in three tempos. The third section of a complete cycle is
known specifically as khap thum, thum referring to the evening period,
from 7 pm to midnight, in the old court time system still generally
used today.
The poetry says, Oh, you are from within the palace and you are
beautiful. Probably courting poetry, the words describe the scenes, the
rushes, and going down to the waterfalls. As is normal to this day, the
music uses a five-note (pentatonic) mode, C-D-E-G-A, with C as the
tonic pitch. TM

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A15 V I E T N A M

Vn B T

1931

Literature of the 4th Lady

Performed by B C Chung
Beka 2 0 3 6 0 -2 , 12 0 0 3 3

There are few details about the engineers who made 78 rpm recordings around
the world. Luckily, both Beka and Odeon engineers initialed their recordings in
the dead wax, and researchers have painstakingly correlated their initials with
matrix and catalog numbers to create a picture of their movements. The initials
on this record are that of Paul Thulcke, and while little is known about him
personally, he appears to have been the recordist responsible for this excellent
series of Vietnamese and Cambodian recordings made in the early 1930s (see
tracks A22, B2, and B16).

This is an example of ht chu vn, a form of spirit mediumship music

from northern Vietnam.Known for its bright sound and lively tempos,
ethnomusicologist Barley Norton has described this musical form as
vibrant earthy music with popular appeal. When a medium experiences possession she (and sometimes he) will manifest the spirit of a
succession of spirits who all have their own characteristics and personalities.In this recording the medium is representing the 4th lady of the
temples pantheon.
Ht chu vn and spirit mediumship has historically had its strongest presence in the Nam nh region, but was ubiquitous throughout
the north of Vietnam.This form of ritual practice incorporates aspects

98

of Daoism, Confucianism and Buddhism and is often associated with

fortune telling. The ensemble consists of a n nguyt player and two
percussionists playing bamboo clappers (phch), small cymbal (cnh)
and a small barrel-shaped drum with two heads (trng ci).
B C ChungMrs. Eldest Chungis listed as the singer and is
also the medium. All we know of her is that she lived in H Ni. The
other musicians are unattributed. JG

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A16 L AO S

Nang Khluan

A17 L AO S
1927

Mourning Lady
Performed by Nang Salit and Nang Nak, singers,
with the Ensemble of the Governor of Vientiane
V ic tor 4 0 0 2 4 -A-1

Two female singers, Nang Salit and Nang Nak, perform the Thai/Lao
classical composition Nang Khluan (Nang Khruan in Thai) accompanied by three instruments, lanat (xylophone with 21 bars), khawng
vong (gong circle, 17 bronze gongs mounted horizontally on a rattan
frame), and sing (small bronze cymbals). This minimal ensemble was
provided by the governor of Vientiane, but it is incomplete, lacking an
aerophone or drums. The instruments are in poor tune, especially the
gong circle. The idiom is from the Thai classical tradition but played
simply in sam san (Thai, sam chan), the slowest of the three tempo
levels as indicated in the cymbal pattern. Although some Lao wish
to claim Lao classical music as independent of Thailand, the Lao play
compositions by known Thai composers in the Thai idiom. It is known
that many Lao classical musicians had been sent earlier to Bangkok to
study, and, at least later, some Thai teachers were sent to Laos to teach.
The relationship between Lao style and Thai style, and the matter of the
compositions played, is a contentious one between Thai and Lao because of long-standing negative feelings stemming from, among other
things, the fact that the Thai king, Rama III, invaded and destroyed
Vientiane and carried off most of the population in 1828. TM

100

Lom Phat Sai Khao

1927

The Wind Blows Through the Mountains

Performed by Nang Salit and Nang Nak, singers,
with the Ensemble of the Governor of Vientiane
V ic tor 4 0 0 2 4 -B-2

Everything from the notes regarding Lao classical music from the
previous track applies, except that the composition is Lom Phat Sai
Khao, also a Thai composition. TM

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A18 V I E T N A M

T i Cnh/Kim Tin

A19 V I E T N A M
1927

Four Great Landscapes/Gold Coins

Performed by M Dinh and M Dung
V ic tor 4 0 0 2 8 -A

Ca Hu is the sung chamber music of Hu and is closely related to

nhc ti t (music of talented amateurs). There is speculation that Hu
music and music of the central region has been influenced by the music
of the Chm.The Chm kingdom flourished between the 7th and
15th centuries in the central region of Vietnam.The Chm continue
to live in Vietnam and Cambodia to this day.Of Malayo-Polynesian
descent, although they were originally followers of the Hindu religion,
the majority follow Islam today.Chm music uses scales similar to the
equal-tempered seven tone scales of Thailand.
In function, ca Hu is similar to ht o of the northit is an
entertainment combining poetry and music where women sing for
mens entertainment.It is the vocal side of n Hu, Hu chamber
music.Often the musicians entertained men on the boats upon the
Perfume River (Sng Hng). The poetry composed to these melodies
invokes an idealized friendship.
This side features two popular works of the ca Hu / nhc ti t
repertoire.T i Cnh is a composition in the Nam or southern
mode. Kim Tin is in the Khch or northern (or Hakka) mode.The
singing is accompanied by unattributed so (wooden flute), n nh
(two-string fiddle), and n nguyt (moon-shaped lute) players. JG

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Hi Tri CaoXng X

1940

Hail Heavens HighXng X

Performed by C Nm Cn Th
Beka 2 0 7 8 6, 12 0.8 9 7

C Nm Cn Th (literally fifth aunt from Cn Th)whose real

name is Trng Th Trcwas born in 1916 in the small city of Cn
Th, in the Mekong Delta.She died in 2007 in Saigon.While she
performed ci lng music she was not known as a stage actress.She
attained fame as a radio performer and for her recordings on the Beka
record label.She performed on Wednesday and Saturday nights for
many years on French Radio Saigon that later became Radio FranceAsie (i Php ). C Nm Cn Th was known as the nightingale of
traditional music (chim ho mi c nhc) and the songwriter L Thng
is said to have remarked that her voice was like wind rustling in bamboo branches (ting gi lao xao cnh trc).
Xng X is one of the Seven Grand Pieces (By bi ln) also
known as the Seven Ritual Pieces (Nhac l). It is performed in the h or
nhc mode, considered to be a variant on northern or Chinese modes,
which are conventional anhemitonic pentatonic scales (five note scales
with no semitones).The title comes from the names of two pitches of
the mode named xng and x. This piece is thought to be both majestic and gentle, but often expresses some sadness or grievance.While
C Nam Cn Th was a performer of music from the ci lng repertoire, this piece is more like a concert ariaa self-contained dramatic

C Nm Cn Th

work intended for a record or for broadcast.

C Nm Cn Ths performance is accompanied by the two-string
moon shaped lute (n nguyt called n km in the south) and the twostring fiddle (n nh sometimes called the n c in the south). JG

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A20 L AO S

Khap Thum Lao

A21 C A M B O D I A
1927

Khap thum repartee singing

Performed by Phuma and Pheng Bing
V ic tor 4 0 0 70 -B

The best known musical style from Luang Phrabang is khap thum,
khap meaning to sing and thum referring to the period of evening
from 7 pm to midnight. In todays performances, the male and female
singers are accompanied by a small classical ensemble, usually bowed
strings (so i and so u), dulcimer (khim), flute (khui), and small percussion (sing cymbals and kong drum). But in this recording, only one
instrument is used, the so u, a two-stringed fiddle with a coconut
body. Each singers section is followed by a chorus of onlookers. The
performers are the same as in track B17, though the chorus has a more
prominent role, especially at the tracks end. The words are hard to
decipher but suggest courtship, including the phrase I will never forget you. As is true to this day, the music uses a five-note (pentatonic)
mode, C-D-E G-A, with C as the tonic pitch. TM

Teb Bantom

early 1930s

The Sleeping Angel

Performed by Uncredited Pinpeat Ensemble
Beka B2 0 5 8 6 -1

Max Birckhahn was born in 1881 in Berlin. Both he and his older brother, Otto,
began as recording engineers for the Favorite label. Although original Favorite
documents no longer exist, researcher Hugo Strtbaum has discovered what
appears to be a series of recordings made by Max Birckhahn in China and Siam
in 1910. Favorite was folded into the Lindstroem group in 1913, but the Birckhahn
brothers continued to record for Lindstroems Odeon (see track D2) and Beka
labels. Birckhahn likely made this recording in Siam in the early 1930s.

Although someone marked dagger dance on the record label, this

is a long entertainment piece that means The Sleeping Angel and is
normally played by a mohori ensemble. Here a nonstandard ensemble
uses soft mallets for playing both xylophones (roneat ek and roneat
thom), the gong circle (kong thom), along with small cymbals (chhing)
but without a drum.
The roneat ek has 21 bamboo or hardwood bars and is played in
octaves. The larger roneat thom has only 16 bars and generally plays
counter to the roneat ek. Its been suggested that metallophones of this
sort were modeled on the Javanese saron and gender. TM

Max Birckhahn in Siam, 1932

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A22 V I E T N A M

Gi Th

1931

Sending a Letter
Performed by C Ba Thnh
Beka 2 0.3 8 0, 12 0 0 7 8

What Vietnamese today call ca tr was often called ht o in the

first half of the 20th century. Ca tr literally means singing with
cards, the cards being bamboo tokens given to performers as praise
and payment. Ht o means singing of songstresses, o being
the term for the singers, who are always women.This genre is made up
of poetry written in forms that are meant to be sung to the accompaniment of the n y (a three-string lute unique to Vietnam), phch (a
bamboo block performed by the singer with two small wooden sticks),
and the trng chu (a praise drum performed by a listener).
The history of ca tr is rather murky but the art appears to have
its origins in the court, which used it in ceremonies and festivals. It
became a music of the regional aristocracy, performed for both kings
and mandarins, and was organized according to a guild system.By the
19th century it had moved away from the court and into the private
homes of mandarins: scholar/bureaucrats following the Chinese model. This style became known as ht chi or singing for entertainment
and became the predominant venue for the art.It fostered a style of
verse that was individualistic, sometimes expressing discontent with
the existing political order; it contained a germ of liberal, independent
thought running contrary to Confucianism.

108

Stephen Addiss has sketched the creative context of ht o: A

literatus, for example, might write a verse and dedicate it to a colleague. Instead of simply giving the poem to his friend, he could take
it first to a singer. She would scan it for its form and note the tones of
each word, and then accompany the poet to his friends house with a
n y player. The friend would strike the small drum in such a way
that he could rhythmically comment on the poem. The drum part
added to the musical totality making the friend both performer and
critic.
There is no information about the author of this poem on the
recording.The poem is sung with a great deal of ornamentation and
padding syllables, making it difficult to understand. It is nevertheless
extensively alliterative, using wordplay heavily and featuring the starting consonant t. The title Gi Th is actually the title of the form
and suggests a literary style like a composed letter.
At the time of this recording, ht o/ca tr was strongly associated with Khm Thin Street (noted on the label).This was the
primary entertainment district for Vietnamese (not French) residents
of 1920s1940s H Ni, sort of like a Bourbon Street.It was known for
dance halls, restaurants, brothels, but especially nh c ohouses of
songstresses. JG

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111

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113

DI SC B

THAILAND CAMBODIA LAOS VIETNAM

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115

B1 C A M B O D I A

Phleng Boran

B2 V I E T N A M
1930

Old Song
Performed by the Sak Som Peo Ensemble
Columbia GF 6 8 4, W LI-311

This is the same village string ensemble heard in track A2, but without
the vertical bamboo flute (khloy). As with track A2, the title is Phleng
Boran (Old Song") and is likely a wedding song (phleng kar). TM

116

Ht Mu V Ht Ni

ca. 1930

Sung Prelude and Sung Speech

Performed by Mme. Ba Thinh
Odeon 157.7 6 0, T UB 8 6 0

This example of ht o shares the same singer as Gi Th (track

A22).On this track, she sings an unexceptional and unattributed poem
about the poets excitement at drinking tea and listening to the fine
singing of young ladies.
The mu form is an introductory poem that is composed of two
or four couplets of six and eight syllables.Mu is mispronunciation of
Chinese (mo), meaning face, and has a function of a heading for
the subsequent words. Its character is slow and relaxed, as it prepares
for the ht ni, literally meaning spoken singing, a part of the poem
where the poet expresses his innermost feelings in rhyme.
Ht o employs a uniquely Vietnamese string instrument, the
n y. The n y can be from 3 1/2 to 4 feet in length. Traditionally, it has three strings tuned at a fifth and octave, and 11 deep frets
to allow for vibrato and ornamentation. A listener plays the praise
drum (trng chu). The drummer is thought to be an aesthete rather
than a musician. His strokes (traditionally ht o was an entertainment for men only) both articulate the form and praise or criticize the
performers. JG

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B3 T H A I L A N D

Khaek Lopburi

1907

Lopburi (In Malay Accent)

Performed by Uncredited Ensemble
Beka 2 5 0 2 5

This recording was made during Bekas second expedition, in 1907. A third trip
was made in 1909 and soon after they were folded into the Carl Lindstroem
group of labels. Single-sided records like this were phased out
in Europe by 1906, but were still used in Asia for several
more years.

Khaek Lopburi is the title of a long classical composition fully presented as a phleng
thao, or composition in three tempo levels: sam chan (third) is an extended version of the original part (sawng chan,
or second level), where the number of
beats/measures is doubled through
elaboration. The final section (chan
dio, or first level) is a reduction of the
original by half. In this case the second level (original) is anonymous, but
the third level was composed by Mr.
Choi Suntharawathin and the first by Mr.
Montri Tramote. This recording, however,

118

includes only the beginning section (the third tempo level). Contrary to the label, which says it is a xylophone solo, the work is performed by a small piphat ensemble, likely of five musicians playing
ranat ek (xylophone), khawng wong yai (gong circle), pi (quadruple
reed), taphon (horizontal drum), and ching (small bronze cymbals).
The first word in the title, Khaek, indicates the works samniang
or ethnic character. The Thai repertory includes a great many works
whose titles begin with such a word, including Lao (Lao), Jin (Chinese),
Khamen (Khmer/Cambodian), etc. Each term references a
certain mode/scale, a particular drum pattern, and
in some cases, particular instruments associated
with the culture. Khaek vaguely references
Malaysia or India and indicates the particular drum cycle (nathap khaek), sometimes
a pair of drums (klawng khaek), the scale
pitch level, and the general idiom of the
melodic instruments. Lopburi references a small city in central Thailand that,
while never a capital, was important
historically as the residence of the future King Narai (16561688), and today
is a city offering numerous ruins going
back to the Khmer period. While the
recording is rather noisy, it is also among
the earliest recordings ever made of Thai
(or Siamese, as it was known then) music. TM

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121

B4

L AO S

Khap Ngeum Thang Khaokan

1927

Khap Ngeum Repartee in Questioning Format

Performed by Mr. Thi and Ms. Duang-di, singers
Mr. Mi, khene
V ic tor 4 0 0 7 2-B-2

Unlike many of the other tracks in this collection,

this record could have been recorded yesterday, for it demonstrates that khap ngeum has
remained stable over a long period. Khap
means to sing and is customarily used with
genres in central and northern Laos. Ngeum
refers to the Ngeum River, which flows into
the Mekong just east of Vientiane. It is possible, however, that khap ngeum originated
in central or northern Laos, for stylistically
it is very different from Lao lam in the Vientiane region while more closely resembling local styles far to the north.
The title in Lao means questioning khap
ngeum, for in this repartee the two performers ask
each other questions, but in fact the theme, as heard here,
remains courtship. In several successive rounds, the male, Mr.
Thi, sings accompanied by khene played by Mr. Mi, while the female,

122

Ms. Duang-di, answers in speech called pan-nya. The latter term

also denotes a form of formal, verbal courtship in which both males
and females speak to each other in memorized or partly improvised
poetry. In several Lao regional genres, especially khap ngeum, the
female customarily answers in pan-nya. The khene mode used
in this genre is either lai nyai or lai noi depending on the
singers range, and is best expressed as pitches D-FG-A-C-D. While ordinary khene playing uses one
or two drones, in khap ngeum style there are no
continuous drones, though short passages can
include one (the upper D).
On the first side of this record (not presented here), the male sings please dont
desert me and make me a widower. If you
have to ride on an elephant, dont forget
me. The female makes a short response,
and the male continues saying, if you dont
love me, you have many ways to say it or to
refuse what I offer, but she replies that shes
always ready to accept what he offers. In this
track, Mr. Thi continues by saying he wants to
settle down here but she refutes that, saying you may
pretend to say so, but you seem to have something in mind
but wont say it, but its different from what you feel. She says finally, As I said, I am single and have no relationship with anyone. TM

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B5 L AO S

Danse Ancienne

1931

Old Dance
Performed by Thao Keota and Thao Nnh, khenes,
with Thao Phou Xhon, Thit Oun, et al.
Phonothque Nat ionale/ Path 3 4 2 6

In 1931, musicians from Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam, along with musicians
from other parts of the world, traveled to Paris to take part in the Exposition Coloniale Internationale, a sort of Worlds Fair intended to promote and celebrate

accompaniment to the local repartee singing of the Luang Phabang

area, called khap thum luang phabang. A complete round usually
consists of the alternation of the male and female singers, but this track
includes only the male. While the introductory melody could perhaps
accompany dance, khap thum performers typically sit cross-legged
on the floor, dancing perhaps with only simple arm movements.
Although repartee singing is characteristic of the Lao generally, only
the Luang Phabang style is accompanied both by the khenethe most
characteristic of Lao instrumentsand instruments borrowed from
the classical or court tradition TM

French colonialism. The Exposition featured pavilions with foods, crafts, and
music from various French colonies and even included a massive reconstruction
of Cambodias famed Angkor Wat (see photo on opposite page). Fortunately, the
Institut de Phontique at the Muse de la Parole of the University of Paris was
on hand to make recordings, including some of the Southeast Asian musicians.
The recordings were eventually released on the Muses Phonothque Nationale
label in conjunction with Path in the late 1930s or early 1940s. In addition to
ensemble recordings, both Thao Keota and Thao Nnh each recorded solo khene
solos. Since these recordings were made in Paris, and the Lao Victor recordings
detailed above were probably made in Vietnam, it seems more than likely that
no 78 rpm recordings were ever made in Laos itself.

Following an introductory melody played by two or more free-reed

bamboo mouth organs (khene) and a coconut-body fiddle (so u), an
enlarged ensemble with at least two fiddles, bamboo fipple flute (khui),
and pair of small bronze cymbals (sing), the ensemble begins the
Lao khene ensemble (Paris Colonial Exposition, 1931)

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125

Lao so u players (Paris Colonial Exposition, 1931)

126

Thao Koeta, khene (Paris Colonial Exposition, 1931)

Khawng vong player (Paris Colonial Exposition, 1931)

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B6 V I E T N A M

Chant de Bateliers

1931

Song of the Boatmen

Performed by Orchestre Bat-m
Phonothque Nat ionale/ Path 3 8 0 5, Par t 5 6 01

All the other Vietnamese recordings included in this collection were

recorded for commercial purposes, with the intent of appealing to the
largest possible audiences.They often featured well-known stage performers presenting their most famous work.This recording, however,
appears to have been recorded for ethnological purposes and featuring performers who traveled to France as part of the Paris Exposition
Coloniale Internationale.
The label identifies this recording as Chant de Bateliers, literally
Song of the Boatmen.The recording features an anonymous male
vocalist singing to the accompaniment of a n nh (two-string violin)
and percussion, a drum and bell.
According the traditional musician Vanessa V Vn nh, this is
an example of nhc canh, or vigil music.This all but forgotten genre of
music was part of the funerary rites of northern Vietnam.The function of the music is to help guide the spirit to the next world.Thus, the
vocalist sings of the boatmen who undertake this journey across the
river to assure the deceaseds arrival in paradise.
The musicians who performed this music were of low social status
and were often itinerant street musicians on the side.In its commu-

From Orchestre Bat-m (Paris Colonial Exposition, 1931)

128

nication with the spirit world, this music has a certain similarity with
ht chu vn (see track A15 ), except the bowed n nh is substituted
for the plucked n nguyt.Years of war and campaigns undertaken by
the communist government of North Vietnam to eradicate superstition
and wasteful funeral customs ultimately led to the disappearance of
this once common musical form. JG

Orchestre Bat-m (Paris Colonial Exposition, 1931)

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B7 C A M B O D I A

Promenade en Foret

1931

Walking in the Forest

Performed by uncredited artists
Phonot hque Nat ionale/ Pat h 3 4 9 2

Khmer classical music, because it was restored

with the help of Thai musicians, closely follows
Thai conventions. Virtually all the repertory
is of Thai origin. But several factors distinguish Khmer performance. First is rhythm.
Where Thai musicians play in strictly even
time values, with or without syncopations,
Khmer musicians play in a lilting manner,
what could be heard as dotted patterns:
long-short, long-short. This gives Khmer
music a more casual feel than Thai, which
may be faster and sound more serious or even
aggressive. The second difference is in the style
of the aerophone. The Thai quadruple reed (pi)
plays an idiom that strays considerably from the
structure of the composition both in pitches and time,
making its idiom strikingly different from that of the other
instruments. It seems to float over the rest. The Khmer reed (sralai)
plays a more regular version of the melody along with the others. This
may stem from the singing practices of the two cultures. Thai classi-

cal singing (the style determinant for reed playing) is also distant from
the structure, with great latitude in rhythm and pitch. This is likely enhanced by the fact that Thai is a tonal language, and its inflections must
be made clear in the singing contours. Khmer is minimally tonal, and
thus lexical tones do not need to be coordinated with melodic
contours. Khmer singers do not just follow the melody
more closely and simply, but to the point that several
singers can sing in unison. Khmer musicians also
do not display the virtuosity heard commonly
in Thai music. This may stem from preference, but the fact that the tradition had to
be rebuilt several times is certainly a factor
as well.
Promenade en Foret (Walking in
the Forest) suggests that this is music
to accompany action, mostly used in the
masked drama or dance drama. Among
the most commonly used action tunes for
walking are Damnoeur Khmer (the Khmer
walking), Lao Doeur Prey (a Lao walking
in the forest), and Cheut Chhing (walking
using the chhing cymbals for accompaniment). Two
compositions are played here, the second being Cheut
Chhing. Khmer theater music includes numerous such action tunes
for specific situations. Listeners who know the repertory can often tell
from the music what is happening on stage, even without seeing it. TM
Cambodian roneat ek player (Paris Colonial Exposition, 1931)

130

131

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133

B8 C A M B O D I A

Khmer Kroak

B9 L AO S
1950s

Khmer People, Get Ready to Fight

Performed by Wohar Sam
Philips 5 9 0 41-A

Thet Mathi/ Sthu Ku Lak-kham-kaeo/

Wat Vientiane 1927
Buddhist Preaching for the Mathi Section
Performed by Buddhist monk Jan
V ic tor 4 0 0 7 9 -B

Cambodias greatest storytelling genre, chrieng, is performed by a male

singer, who relates epic stories in poetry accompanied by one of several
possible instruments. When the long-necked lute (chapey) is used, the
singer accompanies himself. In northeast Thailand, chrieng is sometimes accompanied by the Lao free-reed mouth organ (khene), a wind
instrument, in which case there is a separate accompanist. Here the
singer Wohar Sam accompanies himself
on the chapey, performing an excerpt of Khmer Kroak, roughly
Khmer People, Get Ready to
Fight. While the traditional
function was to relate ageold stories, the medium
was also ideal for didactic
texts designed to influence
peoples thinking, including
texts created by the government to serve its purposes. TM


134

Chapey player

This track consists of Buddhist preaching of the story of Prince

Vetsandon (sometimes romanized as Vessandara), the last of the 543
lives of the man who achieved nirvana, becoming a Buddha, thereby
escaping from the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. Prince Vetsandon
lived an exemplary life, and his story, divided into fourteen chapters
(kan) is read from a large palm-leaf manuscript written in the old Lao
alphabet during the Boun Prawet festival, which, in Laos, occurs during February or March. Each chapter of the story, individually sponsored by a family, is read by a different monk. In actual practice, even
though the monk holds the manuscript before him, he more often than
not preaches the section from memory, perhaps in his own version. In
contemporary practice it is also possible to preach the story using
memorized poetry in a highly melodic fashion, but because Buddhist
monks may not sing, they use the verb preach to describe this style.
Even when read from a manuscript, the monk must realize the linguistic tones in a way that suggests melody.
Here, a former monk named Jan, in Luang Phrabang style, chants
from the Mathi section (kan 10), Mathi being the wife of Vetsandon.
In this dramatic episode, Mathi went to the forest to collect fruits but

135

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137

finds little. On her way back to the cottage she met tigers and lions
blocking her path, but after hearing her pleas they allowed her to
safely pass. At home she could not find the children and began a futile
search. In deep sorrow, she fainted. Vetsandon returned and found her
and was able to bring her back to life. Then he told her the truth about
the children, that he had given them to an old man named Chuchok.
Mathi understood Vetsandons profound generosity and blessed him
for his deed. TM
(The first side of this record can be heard on Dust-to-Digitals Black Mirror:
Reflections in Global Musics.)

(lakhon). Because the music is classical, it could be either. In either

case, the singers are separate from the dancers and musicians. It is
usual for the dancers to act out the actions described in the song text
using a vocabulary of gestures and stances known to connoisseurs of
Khmer classical dance. TM

B11 T H A I L AN D

Zhan Zhao Bi Jian

1940s

Mr. Zhan Zhao in a Sword Competition

Performed by Zhong Zheng Shun Xiang Chaozhou Opera Troupe
Tiger L S. 10 4 8 D

B10 C A M B O D I A

Cha Pi

1930s

Old Drama
Performed by Ms. Taeng, Ms. Sam, Ms. Huch,
and the Ensemble of Mr. Soi Sang Wan

The Tiger label was produced by Leesong and Company and seems to consist
solely of folk operas of the Chaozhou immigrants, from southern China. Tigers
recordings were made in Bangkok, but Leesong and Company may have possibly
been headquartered in Singapore, which also has a large Chaozhou community.

Beka 7575 4 -1, 411

This record features three female singers alternating, with a classical ensemble. While the label provides the names of the three female
singers (Ms. Taeng, Ms. Sam, Ms. Huch) and the name of the ensemble
(pinpeat ensemble of Mr. Soi Sang Wanbut should be Ms.), it does
not provide the title of the theater piece from which it comes, referring
to it simply as Cha Pi or old drama. Also, the term used to describe
the genre seems to mix masked drama (khon) with dance drama

138

Even during the Ayuthaya period (ca. 1350-1767) there were significant numbers of Chinese in the old Siamese capital. Most came from
eastern Guangdong province and spoke Chaozhou (pronounced
Teochiu in dialect) Chinese. After the capital was reestablished in
Bangkok in the late 18th century, increasing numbers of Chinese immigrated to Siam, so many in fact that during the first few decades of
the 19th century, the Chinese outnumbered the Siamese in Bangkok.
As the Chinese worked their way up the economic scale from basic

laborer to shop owner to factory owner, they enjoyed not just their
own restaurants, clubs, secret societies, recreations, and products, but
their music and opera as well. Indeed, Bangkok Chinese had much
greater wealth than their counterparts suffering through civil wars and
economic malaise back home. Consequently, Bangkok became a center
of Chaozhou opera production, boasting of several permanent theatres
where new operas were premiered.
Probably recorded in the early 1930s in Bangkok, this side features
a somewhat unexpected phenomenon, a chorus of five young singers,
in fact, teenagers. Among Chaozhou operas many distinctive features
is the use of a childrens chorus, sometimes the children of the adult
actors, sometimes young Thai more or less given to the troupe by dirt
poor parents, especially from the northeast. Until 1937 Chaozhou opera had no women actresses in Thailand, their roles played by teenage
boys, but in that year the government banned teens from performing,
allowing women to enter the stage. The same restrictions did not occur
in China until 1950.
The opera from which this song comes is Zhan Zhao Bi Jian
(Mr. Zhan Zhao in a Sword Competition) performed by members
of the Zhong Zheng Shun Xiang Chaozhou Opera Troupe. Of the five
singers, all male teens, two play the role of qingyi (female) and three of
xiao sheng (young male). Their names are given, family name first: Li
Zhu, Xue Hen, Sheng Zhi, Qui Ying, and Ming Zhu. TM

139

Chaozhou Actors, Singapore

140

141

B12 T H A I L A N D

Pleng Sen Lao, Na 1

ca. 1950

Offering of Alcohol to the Gods, Part 1

Performed by the Thewaprasit Ensemble
S angthong S TC 10 2 2 , MSK 4 6 8 2

Sangthong was one of the many labels that proliferated in Thailand after World
War II. Most of these labels featured classical music but began to focus on the
popular luk thung and luk krung styles in the latter half of the 1950s.

Phleng Sen Lao, Na 1 (Offering Alcohol to the Gods, Part 1) is a

phleng naphat (action tune) from the highest class of repertory played by the piphat ensemble. Normally played
during a wai khru (teacher greeting) ritual, the composition is here played in the context of reading
or preaching the epic story of Prince Wetsandawn, the penultimate life of the Buddha just before enlightenment. As such the story is a Jataka
(Chadok in Thai). The reading of the story once
a year throughout much of Thailand is an important marker during the Buddhist calendar,
but in central Thailand, where it is called thet
mahachat (preaching the great Jataka), it occurs during the middle of the year. In the northeast, where it is called Boun Prawet and remains

142

very popular, it occurs early in the year, around February. In Laos such
chanting is also prominent, enough so to have been among the early recordings from Laos featured elsewhere in this collection (see track B9).
The reading requires either a Buddhist monk, or a former monk,
to recite the story from traditional palm leaf manuscripts, though in
the northeast it is more usual now for monks or laymen to preach
in a form of heightened speech called thet lae that resembles singing
(Buddhist monks are not permitted to sing, they preach, however
much it sounds like singing to laymen). Northeastern Boun Prawet
involves no music but central Thai performance, at least in the past, required a piphat ensemble to play naphat compositions between sections
of the story. In this case, the story comes from Part 5, Chuchok. It refers to an old man encountered by Prince
Wetsandawn who requests the prince give his children to the beggar. This he does to show his utter
generosity and obedience. Consequently, this is
also considered the saddest section of the story,
and the chants are sometimes given added
emotional weight with elaborate melismas. The
track included here, however, includes only the
piphat ensemble, this being a hard mallet
ensemble with both taphon horizontal drum
and a pair of klawng that barrel drums. TM
(Part 2 of this record can be heard on Dust-to-Digitals
Black Mirror: Reflections in Global Music.)

B13 T H A I L A N D

Lam Toei Jep Saep

ca. early 1960s

Stinging Pain
Performed By Molam Nuanchan and Amphon Sangachit,
with Thongsa Khrongsap, khene
Columbia GE T 10 3 0, CEI 319 3 8

Lam is the typical form of repartee singing for Lao both in northeast
Thailand (Isan) and Laos, though each area has distinctive characteristics. Lam klawn denotes lam in Isan and means the performance will
consist of three sections, called lam thang san, lam thang nyao, and lam
toei respectively, and performed in that order. Lam klawn was the most
prevalent form of repartee singing in Isan until eclipsed by luk thung
popular songs in the 1980s. As heard here, the typical accompaniment
is with a khene free-reed bamboo mouth organ with 14 or 16 pipes. If
the male and female voices have different ranges, the player can switch
modes between lai yai and lai noi, the two pentatonic modes (minor
sounding, A-C-D-E-G) used for toei. Here, however, both voices work
well with the same mode, lai noi. Male and female alternate four times
without break, but a complete stage performance could last as long
as 30 minutes. Toei is the conclusion for a feigned courtship between
the two singers, from their first meeting and getting acquainted, to
expressions of love, to parting. That their separation is difficult is borne
out by the title, which means Stinging Pain. Amphon Sangachit
was leader of the well-known Ubon Phatthana band, from Ubon
Ratchathani, Isans easternmost province. TM

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145

B14 T H A I L A N D

Homrong Chan Chao

ca. 1940s

Chan Chao Overture

Performed by Piphat Phataya-koson
Rabbit T 8 4 3 4 -3, CEI 31521

The Rabbit label was likely the first of Thailands independent record companies. It was founded by T. Ngek Chuan, a resourceful small businessman who
started out selling books and records. In 1925 he decided to begin making his
own records, sending the masters to Germany to be pressed. His company
thrived in the 1930s and 1940s, recording a remarkably wide variety of music:
classical ensembles, brass bands, string bands, folk music from all around the
country, even the government propaganda tunes of Luang Wichitwathakan.
When the German pressing plants he relied on were destroyed in World War II,
new local companies began to supplant his label.

One of four sides that together present a classical composition titled

Homrong Chan Chao, homrong means roughly overture. Such
works could be performed independently in any of a several circumstances. The ensemble, a piphat mai khaeng (hard-mallet piphat)
appears to be dominated by the pi because the microphone has been
placed too close, but there are at least two to four other instruments,
plus percussion. TM

146

147

B15 C A M B O D I A

Srey Sroh Mien Thrung

B16 V I E T N A M
1930

Beautiful Lady
Mr. Muean and Ms. Aet with the Sak Som Peo Ensemble
Columbia GF 6 75, W LI 313

Here is a typical village-type string ensemble with singers. This repartee song titled Beautiful Lady alternates a male singer (Mr. Muean)
and a female singer (Ms. Aet), who are accompanied by a pair of
two-stringed fiddles (tro ek and tro u) and small cymbals (ching). The
ensemble is described as a string ensemble (khrueang khasae) and its
name is Sak Samphao, which literally translates as sailing ship. The
genre is not clear from such a brief performance but may be ayaye, a
well-known genre of repartee song sung in villages. TM

148

n Hu, C Bn

B17 L AO S

An Nangsue Thawng Kan

1931

Hu Instrumental, Ancient Piece

Performed by Cu Tn t (Uncle Youngest Tn), n bu
Cu Qu (Uncle Qu), n nh
Cu Ba (Uncle Three), n nguyt

Reading a Book in repartee form

Performed by Phuma and Pheng Bing
V ic tor 4 0 0 70 -A

Beka 2 0 3 4 6 -1, 9 2 9 8 4

C Bn, meaning Ancient Composition, is an example of Hu

instrumental music (n Hu or n Hu according to the regional
spelling on the label).The musicians who played n Hu were usually
officials of the imperial court then located in Hu in the central region
of Vietnam.
This music was often derived from the ceremonial and entertainment music of the court. C Bn is part of a group of pieces known
as Su Bc, or Six pieces in northern mode.Northern, in this case,
means Chinathe Bc mode is a pentatonic scale that corresponds to
the typical Chinese modal pattern of C-D-F-G-A. C Bn is probably
a Vietnamization of a Chinese melody.It is moderate and soothing in
affect.
The music is heterophonic: the three instruments, n bu (the
monochord), n nh (a two-string fiddle related to the Chinese erhu)
and the n tranh (a 16-string zither related to the Chinese guzheng or
Japanese koto) perform the same abstracted skeletal melody.This music
starts with a brief introduction that explores the mode.One of the musicians strikes a castanet (song lang) every two measures as well.

1927

The three musicians are identified only by first name with an

appellation of cu, meaning a younger maternal uncle.This is a very
familiar and endearing way of addressing a young man.Its possible
that the n tranh player, cu Ba, is actually Nguyn Hu Ba, who
would have been 18 when this recording was released.As a teenager,
Nguyn Hu Ba studied music with the musical masters of Hu.Later
in life he became a leading scholar and pedagogue of traditional music
in the Republic of Vietnam.He later appeared on recordings released
by UNESCO and Musicaphon. JG

The track is described as an nangsue, which literally means read a

book. The book in question, however, would have been a palm-leaf
manuscript into which were scratched the texts for Buddhist sermons,
local stories, and other forms of literature. The scratches are filled
with lamp black. In the past it was customary at funerals for an older,
learned man to read the manuscripts of stories to entertain and teach
the mourners in a kind of elevated speech that, by realizing the tonal
contours required by the linguistic tones of the words, produced a
melodic style. But in Luang Phrabang there is a style of unaccompanied
repartee singing with the same name but not the same meaning. Its
singing, however, is little beyond the melody produced by old-fashioned
reading, and like speech, it has no fixed meter. But the singing genre
is a form of repartee consistent with other Lao forms normally called
khap or lam. Here a former Buddhist novice (siang) named Phuma
and a female, Pheng Bing, perform an nangsue in wat style, a term
unknown to us. Understanding the language of this poetry is difficult
for outsiders to the Luang Phrabang dialect, and consequently we
cannot provide a translation. Because the style of singing heard here is
otherwise unknown (because an nangsue as heard today is somewhat
different), we also cannot explain what is meant by wat style. TM

149

B18 V I E T N A M

Chc Anh i

1963

Zhu Yingtai
Composed by Vin Chu
Performed by L Thy, singer
Nam C, n sn
By B (Vin Chu), n tranh
L am S on 5 9 8 -1

The lyrics of this piece are based upon The Butterfly Lovers (Zhu
Yingtai , in Vietnamese Chc Anh i), a well-known
Chinese story from the late Tang period that is sometimes compared to
Romeo and Juliet.Zhu Yingtai is the heroine of this love story about a
young woman who disguised herself as a man in order to get an education.The furtive romance she has with a fellow student leads to tragic
consequences.
Vin Chu (a.k.a. By B or Hunh Tr B) transformed a scene
from this tale into a 6-minute work in the vng c form that the ci
lng actress L Thy premiered near the beginning of her career as
a teenager.Vin Chu, one of ci lngs most prolific authors and
recording artists, was born in 1924 in n Chu hamlet, Tr Vinh
province and as of this writing is still alive in Saigon.
L Thys full name is Dng Th L Thy. She was born May
20, 1948 in Vnh Long province to a poor family and was the oldest
of eight children.At the age of 10 her singing talent was noticed and
cultivated. She heard a vng c record and learned it by heart.A local

150

ci lng troupe leader heard her and

decided that she should be taught the full
repertoire of arias.She gradually worked
her way into performing troupes and
more important roles, establishing her
fame as a leading performer for the Kim
Chung troupe.This recording presents
her as a 15-year-old.The government of
Vietnam has recognized her as an eminent artist (ngh s u t).
This recording opens with the
Vin Chu
melody Hnh Vn (Floating Clouds)
thought to be light and relaxed in affect.At 0:53 seconds into the piece,
the vng c starts with a ro, an unaccompanied introduction, considered a chance to show off ones vocal prowess.The vng c melody
proper starts at 1:03.This work is a self-contained concert aria where
the Butterfly Lovers story is encapsulated, the heroine confiding to
the listeners her state of mind and emotions, often through metaphoric
scenes of nature. The mist expresses her reluctance to leave the school
and her true love:
Sng trng nhum rng thng vn vng
a tin em ln ng
White mist tints the pine forest, lingering
It sees me off on my trek

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153

As the blossom, she confides her wish that she and her love had
had a chance to clarify their feelings, but the current (lifes vicissitudes)
has carried them far apart.
For the audience, the Butterfly Lovers story could be transposed
into their own livestheir own hopes for love and marital harmony also
dashed by circumstances like the star-crossed lovers of the legend. JG

B20 L AO S

Huang A-lai

Worry
Performed by Nang Salit and Nang Nak, singers
and the Ensemble of the Governor of Vientiane
V ic tor 4 0 0 8 0 -A-1

B19 T H A I L A N D

Rabam Dawadoeng, Part 2

ca. 1940s

Dance of the Second Tier of Heaven, Part 2

Performed by the Duriyapranit Piphat Ensemble & Chorus
Columbia GE T 4 4 3 -2 , CEI 3 70 6 8 -1BT R

Here the composition Rabam Dawadoeng is performed simultaneously by a piphat ensemble and a chorus of females.Rabam means
dance, and thus this work likely accompanied a kind of dance drama
in which the singers tell the story.The piphat, however, is not a standard hard mallet type but the soft mallet form (piphat mai nuam),
which normally uses flute and fiddle instead of double reed.Thai
classical dance has roots in Indian dance.Both are vocabulary dances
in that the gestures and body positions convey the literal meaning of
the sung text. Dancers learn these gestures through imitation and as
a fixed vocabulary as the dance teacher calls out the terms denoting
them.The most basic vocabularies have been organized into student
compositions called, e.g., mae bot lek, or small basic lesson.The lyrics

154

1927

of this track describe the beauty, plenty, and comfort of Dawadoeng,

the second level of heaven according to the Buddhist concept of
heaven having seven levels.In addition, the lyrics describe the thewada
(angels) who inhabit this level of heaven. TM

Huang A-lai is a well-known Thai/Lao classical composition whose

title means worry or anxiety. It can be used in many forms of theatre
with words appropriate to the situation. In Thailand this piece would
normally be used in lakawn nai (inside [the court] dance drama),
lakawn nawk (outside [the court] dance drama), or likay, a form of
central Thai theatre. In this recording, members of the Governor of
Vientianes Ensemble, including two female singers, perform poetry
from the epic drama Inao, actually a series of episodic stories derived
from Java where it is known as Panji. Inao became a staple of Thai
literature after King Rama II (reigned 18091824), a skilled poet, created a 20,520 verse adaptation of Panji for use in the private court
dance drama (lakawn nai). Excerpts from Inao were, and continue
to be, performed in the above mentioned theater genres. Because likay
was not common in Laos, this excerpt is more likely from lakawn nai.
The song text describes the frustrated love between Prince Inao
and Butsaba. Earlier Inao had agreed to marry Butsaba but fell in love
with another elsewhere and abandoned Butsaba. Now he has returned
to the city and rekindled his love for Butsaba, but she says he came, not
because of love, but for war against the city, now under enemy control.

Although not presented here, she continues in the second side of this
record, accusing him of coming for war, not love, and finally tells him
to return to the other woman.
The ensemble alternates with two female singers, Ms. Salit and Ms.
Nak, who sing in unison accompanied only by small cymbals. The ensemble plays the same melody separately and consists of mouth organ,
xylophone, fiddle, flute, and cymbals, as heard in track A6 and A7. TM

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Vietnamese musicians

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B21 T H A I L A N D

Khaek Khao

1950s

White Indian
Performed by the Yot Silapin
Ensemble
Thep Nak hon T T 10 0 8, T S 16 9

B22 T H A I L A N D

Phram Dit Nam Dao

1950s

A Brahman Priest Plucks a Gourd

Performed by the Yot Silapin
Ensemble
Thep Nak hon T T 10 0 8, T S 18 9

These two sides, both played by mahori

ensembles (side B qualified as large), present compositions by known
composers. Khaek Khao, literally, White Indian, was composed
by Montri Tramote and refers to northern Indians, whom the Thai
considered to have lighter skin than southern Indians. Side B presents
Phram Dit Nam Dao, a composition in samniang khamen (Cambodian accent) by Thailands most famous historical composer, Luang
Phradit Phairaw. The fanciful title literally means A Brahman Priest
Plucks a Gourd, but the meaning, though having nothing to do with
the sound of the composition, is more complicated. A phram could be a
Hindu priest or a male ritualist who conducts the bai sri sukhawn ceremony when he calls back a persons khwan, or spiritual essence. The

158

ceremony has little to do

with Hinduism. The nam
dao could be a gourd, but
here it is a chest-resonated
chordophone from Northern Thailand related to the
better known phin pia.
Luang Phradit Phairaw, born Son Silapabanleng in the 1880s but later
known by his honorific
name, was Thai classical musics most famous
composer. Like all Thai
composers, he created
his compositions orally and dictated them to other members of the
ensemble, each then realizing the structure into the idiom of his
or her particular instrument. Thai music is transmitted from master
to apprentice through imitation and into rote memory. There is no
discussion of theory or principles. Much of this process can be seen
in the semifictional Thai film, Homrong (The Overture), produced and
directed by Ittisoontorn Vichailak and released in 2004. No other
film has ever portrayed Thai classical music in such a dramatic and
realistic way, and after an initial poor reception, the film went on
to win numerous international awards and has been released with
English subtitles. TM

159

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B23 T H A I L A N D

Lam Khaen

1966

Khaen Song
Phloen Phromdaen
Nok Iang 3 0 9

The late 1950s saw the birth of the luk thung craze that followed the rise to stardom of singer Suraphon Sombatcharoen. Many new labels emerged to promote
this popular new genre and Nok Iang was one of the most prolific. Nok Iang,
Nangfa, Dok Bua, Meuang Leung and other labels often shared the same numbering system, suggesting they were all pressed at the same factory, possibly
with the same owners.

Performed by Phloen Phromdaen and his accompanying musicians

using electric organ, drum, cymbals, and perhaps other percussion,
this is a ramwong song, one of the immediate predecessors to the
luk thung (country songs) that now dominate Thai popular music.
Ramwong, meaning "circle dance," originated from a central Thai
folk dance called ramthon (dancing with the thon drum) but was
formalized by (Than-phuying) La-iat, wife of Prime Minister and Field
Marshall Plaek Phibun-songkhram in the 1950s, as a distinctively Thai
ballroom dance that avoided violating the touching taboo characteristic of Western ballroom dance. Ramwong lyrics, unlike those of the

162

sophisticated phleng luk krung (songs of city people), addressed the

lives of ordinary people, including farmers. While there was a form
of ramwong advanced by The Fine Arts Department (called ramwong
matrajan), there was also a more popular form enjoyed by ordinary
people. Entrepreneurs founded troupes consisting of ramwong musicians and numerous young women who would dance with young
males on temporary stages at temple fairs upon payment of a small fee.
The present song, while sung in central Thai, inserts a northeastern
melody known as Toei Khawng as the second stanza while the rest
is newly composed. Why the main title of the track is Lam Khaen is
difficult to say because that was an old central Thai term for northeastern lam repartee singing, and except for the lam toei insertion, this is
not an example of northeastern style. Even though this is intended for
ramwong dancing, the tempo and style is for the Latin ballroom dance
cha cha cha, as heard at the end of each musical interlude.
Phloen Phromdaen was one of the biggest stars of the early luk
thung era. A farm boy from Aranyaprathet, a town on the Cambodian/Thai border, he became famous for his self-produced hit Chom
Thung (In Praise of the Fields), recorded when he was only 20 years
old. Lam Khaen was recorded at those same sessions. TM
(See Dust-to-Digitals Luk Thung: Classic & Obscure 78s from the Thai Countryside for more of Phloen Phromdaen.)

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DI SC C

BURMA THAILAND

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C 1 BU R M A

Maung Kyaw Ei Sandaya Nyunt: Ah Hson

1933

Maung Kyaw Eis Piano Style; Ending

Performed by Sandaya Maung Kyaw,
YMCA Music Competition First Prize Gold Level Champion
Columbia RE 201, WEI 5269

By 1826, Burma was divided by the British into upper and lower sectors. The British held lower Burma where they established their capital
in Rangoon and the Burmese King held upper Burma with courts at
Amarapura and later, Mandalay. In the 1870s, King Mindon had heard
of pianos owned by the British in lower Burma and was presented
with one by the Italian ambassador. The court musicians named the
instrument sandaya and immediately began using it with the hsaing
waing gong percussion ensemble, employing finger techniques derived
from Burmese instruments to play Burmese music. In the early 20th
century, sandaya was used extensively to accompany silent films and to
record as an accompaniment instrument for singers because of its loud
dynamic range that was easily picked up by early microphones. The
virtuosic styles of playing on the pat waing (set of 21 pitched drums)
and saung gauk (harp) were extended even further by sandaya players.
In 19311932, the Young Mens Christian Association held a contest for sandaya players to display their let swun pya, or solo improvisational styles. Maung Kyaw took the Gold Level First Prize at the age of

170

19 and added Champion to his stage and recording name. Audiences

at that time were astounded by his technique, creative ideas, and flourishes. Maung Kyaw made his first recording in 1933 with Ma Kyi Aung,
Burmas most popular recording vocalist. Maung Kyaw was known for
his classical Mahagita interpretations, especially his recording of Htu
Ma Cha Na, a Patpyo genre song.
Sagaing Hla Shwe, pianist and author, observed that of all the sandaya players at the time, Maung Kyaw was the most gifted in Burmese
sandaya techniques: ah twe ah pet (alternating left and right hands),
let pu ti (fingers intertwined on a melodic line or turn), ah ku ah set
(crossed hand playing), ah hpi ah hneit (delicacy of touch and pressure), and dalu dyan (particular sensitivity to including the use of the
rising third/falling fourth and to the falling third in composing finger
patterns).
In this recording, Maung Kyaws let swun pya playing is cheered
on by a female listener. The piano, an upright, is in better condition
than most pianos heard on early recordings. As was very common, his
extemporizations moved easily from Burmese figures to short displays
of chords and melodic patterns in Western style. What is always interesting to hear is that vamps stayed frequently on one chord, a harmonic pedal without harmonic motion to support right hand melody.
Champion Maung Kyaw died at the untimely age of 21 in 1934; his
last recording for Columbia was Thingyan Bwe Kyo,"featuring star
singer Ko Lu Kalay. KY

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C2 THAILAND

Fawn Jao Sri Oi

C3 THAILAND
1950s

Performed by Kotsanabanthoeng Paired Piphat Ensemble

Sunt haraphon S SP 0 0 8, K S S 3 2 9

The first side of this record presents the composition Fawn Jao Sri Oi,
a classical composition here played by the piphat mon ensemble, which
is immediately recognizable from its low-pitched, somber-sounding
quadruple-reed aerophone, the pi mon, along with its set of seven
tuned drums, the bueng mawn khawk. The piphat mon, though now a
Thai ensemble played by Thai musicians, originated with the communities of immigrant Mon who escaped from the wars in Burma going
back to the 18th century and were settled
throughout central Thailand. Although most
compositions played by this ensemble are in
samniang mon (Mon accent) and are primarily heard during funerals, the ensemble also
plays for unrelated occasionsfor display of
virtuosity and even to accompany the admittedly low-class likay theater. In this case the
label indicates the ensemble is sponsored by
the Khotasana Department, a now disbanded department of propaganda supported
by the Thai government. TM

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Doi Rup

1950s

Performed by Bunyong Ketkhong

Sunt haraphon S SP 0 0 8, K S S 3 4 4

Side B of the record heard in the previous track, Doi Rup, is played as
a ranat ek xylophone solo by the now deceased master artist Bunyong
Ketkhong. Ketkhong was formerly leader of the Fong Naam ensemble
which included American composer and performer, Bruce Gaston,
and which made a number of recordings on European labels. Thailands most characteristic instrument, the ranat ek is a xylophone
with 21 hardwood or bamboo bars suspended on two systems of thin
ropes over a hollow, boat-shaped resonator sitting on a pedestal. As for all classical
instruments, the player sits cross legged on
the floor. The ranat can be played with pairs
of either hard or soft mallets consisting of
long sticks with disc-shaped beaters on the
ends. While the standard style consists of
octaves, solo playing requires numerous
other techniques, including intricate ornamental patterns, hand crossing, glissandi,
and spectacular solo patterns. Males have
typically played with these flashy techniques,
though in recent years females have come
to prominence. TM

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C 4 BU R M A

Mingala Ma Thein Nyunt, Ma Sein Thin, Ma Sein Thi

A Ngyeint, Lay Pyay Htoh Lu Byet Ka, Ma Sein Hkaw
1911

Welcoming Ma Thein Nyunt , Ma Sein Thin, Ma Sein Thi and

Their A Ngyeint Dancers and Singers with Finale, Clown Dance,
and Introduction of Ma Sein
The Gramophone Comp. GC- 8 -113 3 8 ( H 8 8 0 5R)

clowns while singing and dancing for the audience.

The engineers when recording this instrumental introduction
placed a Burmese pattala, a lead instrument, in this case played in
exaggerated Thai style, and a bamboo flute close to the microphone.
In the background can be heard a let swe baja (concertina). The male
clowns welcome Yodaya Ma Sein Thin and her sorority of dancers.
Either she comes from Thailand or is of Thai background; hence, the
sobriquet Yodaya before her name and choice of song. KY

The next two tracks were recorded by Max Hampe in August of 1911. Hampe first
recorded in Asia in 1904 as the assistant to William Sinkler Darby. He went on
to become the Gramophone Companys resident recording expert in India from
1911 to 1913. India was used as a launching point for Southeast Asian recording
trips.

Both this track and the following are

recordings of a performance of a
ngyeint, a theatre form that developed popularity at the end of the
1800s and thrives today. The clowns
and musicians engage in a long session of jokes, gags, and satire when
allowed, before they introduce the
dancer or group of dancers whose
conceit is to treat the comedians as
pests, but will engage in repartee with the

174

C 5 BU R M A

Mingala Ma Thein Nyunt, Ma Sein Thin, Ma Sein Thi

A Ngyeint A Hsan Hhtoh 1911

Mingala Ma Thein Nyunt, Ma Sein Thin, Ma Sein Thi A Ngyeint

Presenting Some New Tunes
Gramophone Comp. GC-9 -13 2 3 9 ( H 8 8 0 6 R)

The a ngyeint presentation continues from the previous track, Ma Sein

Thin calls to the musicians, Listen to my song! and they all begin a
Yodaya Mahagita style song but with very pronounced Thai characteristics.
The pattala continues to play in Thai stylewhere the Thai ranat
players would play fast tremolos and long rolls with their mallets in
octaves, the Burmese pattala and pat waing players imitate with slower
repetitions. The bamboo flute takes a primary melodic role over the
usual outdoor obbligato line played by Burmese hne, hne gyi (or in Thai
piphat ensembles, the pi nai or pi nawk). KY
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C6 THAILAND

Mon Ap Son

C 7 BU R M A
1950s

The Fairy
Performed by the Yawt Silabin Troupe
Phillips BTC-10 12 2 , JOB-2 7 2

Mon Ap Son (The Fairy) is performed by an odd combination of a

vibraphone (substituting for a ranat ek) along with other piphat mon
instruments. This recording perhaps reflects the emphasis the Fine
Arts Department placed on performing Thai music on Western instruments during and after the administrations of Field Marshall Plaek
Pibun-Songkhram (1938-1944, 1948-1957), who banned many traditional activities, including the performance of classical music, in
the name of modernizing the country. The Fine Arts Department also
issued full scores of many Thai compositions that included instructions for playing these works on a Western percussion ensemble, since
the performance of classical music on authentic Thai instruments by
musicians seated on the floor was declared to be less than civilized. Because this track is neither fully Western nor Thai, it suggests a certain
ambivalence at the time about this process. TM

178

Hnit Kan Pyaing Hpuza

ca. 1964

Loves Double Destiny

Composed by Ko Bo Khin
Performed by Mar Mar Aye, singer
and the Mandalay Myoma Ensemble
Toe Na Yar T NC 2 9 9 B

Toe Na Yar was one of the many Burmese-owned labels that proliferated in
Rangoon in the 1950s and 1960s. The label was run by Daw (Mrs.) Than Yin out
of her house, where she had set up a tape-based recording studio. The records
were sold in record shops along Rangoons Bo Soon Pat Street, some pressed in
editions of less than 500.

Mar Mar Aye, one of Burmas most extraordinary singers, now living
in the United States, relates that she was 23 when she made this recording in the label owners home in Mandalay. The sandaya (piano) player
is U Sein Thaung who lives now in Los Angeles. The accompaniment is
filled out by a kyauk lon pat (six-pitched drum set), pat ma (large twosided drum), hne (shawm), and si wa (bell).
Each generation in postwar Burma referred to the prior generations music as khi haung, or old period, while the music of their contemporaries was kalarbaw, or modern. As early as the 1920s, the sit kyo
khi, or pre-WWII Burmese music for British and Burmese silent films
used elements from both Western and Burmese musical languages.
Frequently a Yodaya style melody would be followed by a chorus

179

employing a chordal vamp. Note the very last verse of Hnit Kan Pyaing Hpuza, with its brief altered piano accompaniment. Mar Mar Aye
sings of lovers who swear eternal fealty, never to suffer hatred in their
betrothed lives into reincarnation.
The Mandalay Myoma Musicians Associationa gathering of amateurs and professionalswas organized in 1925 by composer Myoma
Ngyein to address the need to understand more about Western music
through notation, begin to present Burmese music through notated
scores, and to provide music merging Burmese music with Western
harmonic structures for festivals, silent films, and recordings.
Toe Na Yar is the word for a mythical creature from the Himalayas
whose image is illustrated on the record label. KY

C8 THAILAND

Pleng Khrawp Chakara Wan Thao Tawn Abu

Hassan Taeng Ngan ca. 1930

Sida Cordifolia Flower in Three Tempo Levels,

from The Marriage of Abu Hassan
Performed by Nai Po & Thai Royal Page Military Brass Band
Columbia 510 6 8 -3, S 70 0 47 2- C

The use of a military brass band to play such a traditional classical

form is quite surprising. Brass bands first came to old Siam with visiting delegations from Europe and the United States in the early 19th
century. By the end of that century enough Siamese musicians had

180

learned to play these instruments to form bands connected with the

court and military. A few Western bandmasters visited Siam, some
staying long enough to teach in some of the ephemeral music schools
that arose. These bands were tuned in Western equal temperament
and played arrangements using a limited degree of harmony, but as is
heard, their tuning was not yet sure-footed. The custom of brass bands
playing Thai classical compositions continues to this day, in many secondary schools, in private organizations, and for funeral processions,
where the bands may be seen playing from flat-bed trucks.
King Rama VI (19101925), the author of this stage work, was
apparently more interested in the arts than in governing. His theatre
piece about Abu Hassan, taken from the Tales of 1001 Nights, included music, but it is doubtful that it was performed as theatre with the
accompaniment of a brass band. This track is only one side of a much
longer composition called Phleng Thao, in which a composed melody
is expanded proportionally into a drawn out version (sam chanthird
tempo level), then immediately played in its original form (sawng
chansecond tempo level), then reduced by half to a compressed form
(chan diofirst tempo level), each preceded by a vocal section accompanied only by drum and small cymbals. This track apparently begins
in sam chan with the vocalist, and although the ensemble normally
continues playing in sam chan, this recording has the ensemble speeding up greatly, then slowing for the return of the vocalist, evidently
singing the second section of the sam chan. Thus, this track is but a
small part of the whole. TM

C 9 BU R M A

Son Nant Tha Myaing: Sha Pon Gyi

ca. 1928

In the Fragrant Forest:The Princess Seeks Her Lost Consort

Performed by Yadana Myit, singer
Taung Dwin U Kyawt, saung gauk
HM V P 14 57 8, 8 0 - 8 52

The form of Son Nant Tha Myaing is a poetic recitation. Sometimes

sung, sometimes half-spoken/half-sung, it is known in Burmese as Ya
Du and is appended to songs or inserted toward the middle. The saung
gauk (harp) begins an ostinato pattern that frames Yadana Myits narrative of the story. When melodic figures appear, her voice intensifies
the than aet (the Burmese term for a dramatic style of breaking the
voice to represent crying), while in the lyrics she despairs of ever finding her lover as the ostinato accompaniment returns.
Listen to the gentleness of the saung gauk strings as they are
plucked. This is the sound of silk strings that older Burmese saung
gauk aficionados remember from their childhoods. Very faint is the
sound of the tayaw (horn violin) as it weaves its way, accompanying both saung gauk and voice. Yadana Myits singing led to her later
career as a film actress. KY

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C10 T H A I L A N D

Lakhon Rueang Kraithong, 6

1910

Kraithong, Part 6
Performed by Nai Chon & Nai Suk
with the Luang Sano Phinphat Ensemble
Gramophone Concer t GC 7-12 3 4 5, 12 5 9 3 o

The first Siamese recordings were made by Fred Gaisberg on his

famous 19021903 recording expedition to Asia for the Gramophone Company of England. Beginning in Calcutta, he
then traveled to Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Singapore, finally arriving in Bangkok in June of 1903.
Over the course of 4 days he made 100 recordings.
His assistant, George Dillnutt would eventually return to Bangkok while leading his own recording
tours. Dillnutt made this record in the spring of
1910, on a trip that included the Middle East, many
Indian cities, as well as Burma, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia.

Among the dance dramas of Thai classical music, lakhawn nawk (outside [the court]
dance drama) was most accessible to the broader
public, primarily played by males, and of a more
down to earth nature than the all-female lakhawn
nai (inside [the court]) heard only within the confines

184

of the court. Krai Thawng is a well known stage work by King Rama
II (18091824) whose protagonist is a mythical crocodile hunter. The
accompanying ensemble is described as the Luang Sano Phinphat Ensemble, using an old term for what is now called piphat; it is likely a
five-piece group (piphat khrueang ha) consisting of ranat ek (higher
xylophone), khawng wong yai (lower gong circle), pi
nai (quadruple reed aerophone), drum, and ching (small, bronze cymbals used to mark
the cyclic meter). Although recorded
in 1910, making it one of the oldest
extant recordings, stylistically it
could have been recorded today. This suggests performance
stability over a long period,
though there is no way to
know whether the style of
1910 was also long-standing.
Since the dancers do not
sing, their roles are spoken/
chanted/sung by male singers
in the ensemble. As is heard
in this track, the person speaking for the stage dancer ranges
seamlessly from normal speaking
to heightened speech, which, while
musical, is not considered melody. TM

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C11 T H A I L A N D

Lao Phan, Part 1

C12 B U R M A
1950s

Khaen Song, Part 1

Performed by the Honorable Mom Luang Thawi Watriwong
Rabbit 161-1, MSK 3 757

The mandolin, a small plucked chordophone of Italian origin, is hardly

Thai, but in this rare recording it is made to sound convincingly like a
Thai instrument. Its style comes closest to the krajappi long neck lute,
though without the lower pitches, but stylistically it is also similar to
the idiom of the jakhay, a three-stringed zither played horizontally on
the floor with a large buffalo horn plectrum. The anonymous composition, Lao Phan, likely originated in central Thailand after the two
invasions of the Lao capital, Vientiane, in the late 18th and early 19th
centuries, when the Siamese army forcibly resettled thousands of Lao
in the provinces surrounding Bangkok. Although they have long since
forgotten their original Lao musical culture, in which the khene freereed mouth organ is central, they certainly retained it through at least
part of the 19th century before transforming themselves into central
Thai. The composer created a short melody that is played in alternation
with other short melodies or in variation form; consequently, a performance can be short or long depending on what is included. TM

186

Thet Hta

late 1950s

Loving You with All My Soul

Performed by Hta
Thr ee Flags DP 117, MH 10 6 4

Though Shwe Taing Nyunt died when his daughter Htaa stage name
for Ma Tin Ayewas only 2 years old, his circle of friends, musician
colleagues, and fans were constantly in touch with Htas family. Her
earliest memories were of listening to her fathers recordings with
these friends visiting the house. She played the let swe baja (concertina), mandolin, saung gauk (harp), and sandaya (piano), which gave
her a firm basis in rhythmic precision. This recording, from the 1960s,
became a hit. Hearing her on radio, her fans were completely devoted
to the ayatha, or aesthetic nuances, in her vocal delivery. She was a
favored singer of the Sit Pyi Kyit post-World War II period famous
composer and sandaya performer Gita Lulin U Ko Ko and sang in his
ensembles on Myanmar Radio and Television. Many composers and
lyricists wrote songs for her, and she served for many years as a judge
on the government So-Ka-Ti-Ye annual competition for singers, dancers, musicians, and lyricist-composers. Hta still does some performing
on Myanmar Radio and Television and lives in Yangon.
Hta sings Thet Hta accompanied by a full hsaing waing ensemble: pat waing (21 pitched drums), kyi waing (small bronze gongs in
a circular frame), maun (brass gong set), kyauk lon bat (drums, gong,
and clappers). KY

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C13 T H A I L A N D

Tap Phraw Law 

C14 B U R M A
1930

Phraw Law Suite

Performed by Lady Charoen, singer
and the Bang Khun Phrom Palace Khene Band
Columbia 510 0 3 -15, S 70 0 0 4 2- O

Among all the recordings of Thai music presented here, this one is the
most surprising. The work, Tap Phraw Law, is performed by a khene
wong, that is, an ensemble of khene mouth organs from northeast
Thailand. Normally, the khene is played individually, both solo and
to accompany a singer, but for most Thai, khene ensembles were only
created in the 1970s for use in schools and consisted of instruments
either of the same pitch or an octave apart playing central Thai classical melodies in unison. Here the ensemble plays a suite of short central
Thai compositions related to the epic story of Phra Law, which originated in northern Thailand.
Bang Khun Phrom Palace was located along the Chao Phraya
River in Bangkok, but was an area inhabited by members of the old
Lao royal family who had been captured and exiled from Vientiane in
the 1770s. In addition, musicians, dancers, and artists from the court
were settled in Bangkok, while ordinary people were settled in villages
in the provinces surrounding Bangkok. We can only assume that the
Lao descendants still played khene but adapted it into an ensemble
to play central Thai music. Such ensembles are not only long gone,
but long forgotten. TM

190

Sanda Min Yodaya

C15 B U R M A
1929

Hpon Taw Bwe

1921

The Moon
Performed by Ma Sein Sin, singer
and Saya Htun Hpe, saung gauk
Arranged by Saya Htun Hpe
with lyrics from O Tha Tint Sone Yodaya

Homage to a Royal Eminence

Performed by Ma Thin

George Dillnutt began his career at the young age of 17, and soon joined

HM V N 3 2 4 6, 8 0 -2 210 ( bx 6 0 9 6)

Frederick Gaisberg as assistant on his first Asian recording tour in 1902. He then

HM V P 5 3 8 7, GC 13 -13 0 8 0

assisted Fredericks younger brother Will on a 1906 recording trip. Dillnutt evenArthur James Twine was the Gramophone Companys recordist in Persia in the

tually became the Gramophone Companys resident recording expert in India

late 1920s. He also made recordings throughout Iraq, India, and in Rangoon,

in 1908, leading his own expeditions in the region until he was relieved by Max

where this track was recorded.

Hampe, toward the end of 1910. With careful listening one can hear the engineers voices at the end of the song saying How was that? followed by good."

To bring songs to record companies quickly, sometimes musicians

would take traditional Yodaya tunes, mix and abridge them to match
the length of a record side as mentioned above. Of all the genres in
the Mahagita, the Yodaya songs were flexible enough to be drastically
edited in this way, and yet also become an occasion for creative use of
the song. Saya Htun Hpe was a harpist whose style in this Yodaya accompaniment keeps a staccato plucking style reminiscent of the early
BurmeseSiamese styles of presentation, imitating original mallet patterns on the Siamese ranat.
Ma Sein Sin was a well known a ngyeint dancer and singer. She sings
of the clarity of the night with a full moon shining over the earth. KY

Dillnutts voice is surely one of them. But which one? And who is the other?

The label description in English tells us that this is a Song with Piano,
but there is no description on the label in Burmese for the instrumentation. The piano sound (in fact, clanging more like a set of brass gongs
[kye waing] with a rhythmic thwack in the foreground marking the
timing) that we hear is actually typical for the upright pianos lingering from late 1885 when the Mesquith piano company, from Madras,
set up shop in Rangoon catering to British and rich Burmese patrons.
Because so many of these uprights were left untuned, unvoiced for
so long, the hammer felts saturated by tropical moisture, their sound
became the typical sandaya (piano) sound for Burmese audiences of

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the time. The thin bell-like textures on this recording were preferred to
pianos with heavier sound and tempered tuning.
The song form Bwe is found in the Mahagita and this performance
is an abbreviated version. The language is florid and typical of descriptions of homage paid to courtiers and the royal family. Although Ma
Thin made several recordings with HMV, there are no accounts of her
background. Her singing style is the heavy thrust of singers used to
outdoor performing and the early recording techniques of shouting
directly into the microphone. KY

C17 T H A I L A N D

Khap Mai Ban Doh

1940s

Singing with Percussion

Performed by Piphat Troupe of Khru,
with teacher Rawt Aksarathap of Chiangmai
DC J BAT-3 3, DG 15 8

D. Couper, Johnson & Co. (DCJ) of Bangkok was an early independent Thai
record label. It appears that at one point they were also a liquor importer/
distributor. They recorded both classical music and luk krung, a popular music
influenced by Western styles.

C16 B U R M A

Shit Hkan Palin (Ah Sa)

ca. 1940

The Eight Royal Thrones

Performed by Maung Pwa Gyi, singer
Composed by Shwe Taing Nyunt
HM V N 17 70 3, OMF 7 6 7 9

The Burmese collective psyche was deeply scarred by humiliation and

shame after the British sacking of Mandalay in 1885. Frequently, song
textseven up to independencefocused on the loss of the throne, the
court, the connection to royal lineage, and a grand history and culture.
In Shit Hkan Palin, Shwe Taing Nyunt speaks of the magnificence of
the royal thrones in Mandalay (the Lion throne, sole survivor now on
view at the State Museum in Yangon). The eight thrones also represented eight virtues of the king. The three noble supports connecting

192

the earth to the cosmos were the throne of Indra and the celestials, the
throne of the Buddha, and the thrones of human monarchs.
Nostalgia, yearning, and loss are frequent companions in songs
that grieve for Burmas sad history. As a composer, Shwe Taing Nyunt
was particularly gifted in using poetic images to move the singers of
his songs. A singer whose voice could evoke this yearning, or lunsaya,
was treasured by audiences.
Maung Pwa Gyi opens Shit Hkan Palin with a declarative description of celestial beings and their connection to Burmas kings. He
is accompanied by banjo, tayaw (horn violin), slide guitar, and a pat
waing (21 set drum circle). KY

Unusual in many respects, this recording presents Khap Mai Ban Doh
played by a piphat ensemble in northern Thailand, probably Chiangmai.
Because piphat ensembles were atypical of the north and required some
wealth for support, we speculate that this was the ensemble of Princess
Dararatsmi, the last member of the royal family of Lanna (the old name
for the northern kingdom). In addition, instead of using central Thai
pi, there are two northern aerophones used, likely pi nae in both small
(noi) and large (luang) sizes. The composition is one of the oldest in
the repertory and was probably derived from a northern composition
called Prasat Wai, but the form of this performance is odd in that the
sections are played: 1, 3, 2, 3, 1. The title alludes to the earlier use of the
ban doh drum, a small two-headed drum with a handle and string with
a small stone or other hard object attached to the end; when the player
twirls the handle back and forth, the ball swings back and forth hitting

the two heads. This instrument is now obsolete but was formerly used in
the old mahori ensemble that consisted of a saw sam sai fiddle, a krajappi
lute, and small percussion. Indeed, performance of this work by a piphat
sounds awkward because so many pitches must be sustained, and the
repeated strikes on the khawng wong gong circle do not blend well with
the somber character of this piece. TM

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C18 B U R M A

Ba Ba Win

1950s

Glorious Beloved
Performed by Pyi Hla Hpe, singer
Composed by Sein Wai Hlan
HM V A .1.F 16 0, OMH 7 3 2 2

Pyi Hla Hpe (19121990), from Pyay, (British: Prome) was well known as a recording
artist and made famous the song Nat
Shi Naun, about a historical figure
of great courage. Pyi Hla Hpe moved
to Rangoon for study and within a
short time, with his musical talent,
also quickly learned acting skills and
started working with the A-1 Film
Company. In 1936, he became director of the A-1 music ensemble which
became one of the finest in Burma. For
some of his silent films, he would stand
behind the screen and sing live while the
audience watched the film. At Burmese Independence in 1948, Pyi Hla Hpe left behind
recording, singing, and the stage to enter the
new army of independent Burma.

196

The opening structure of Ba Ba Win (known as Ba Ba Win Win

in song collections) combines new lyrics with a genre from
the Mahagita known as Teidat, performed in myinzain mode. In this version, the initial two
verses are followed by a chorus of Western chord changes which accompany
first Pyi Ha Hpe and then coronet/trumpet with a mute. The ti
kwet, or instrumental patterns,
are frequently played in unison by tayaw, sandaya, and
slide guitar after the chorus returns the song to its
Burmese musical home.
Songs of the Sit Kyo Khit
(pre-World War II) period would frequently mix
forms in this way: Burmese
tei thwa (melody) for opening lyrics and Western chord
changes or vamps for a chorus. This compositional practice continued into the 1970s, but
with chorus sections replacing cha
cha patterns with harmonic changes and
styles from rock and roll. KY

C 19 B U R M A

Son Taw Myaing 

1930s

The Forest Paradise

Performed by Ma Kyi Aung, singer
Composed by Shwe Taing Nyunt
Columbia V E 2 0 4 6, W EI 12 3 5 -1

This selection, Son Taw Myaing, and Mi Ba Myitta (track C22),

happily give us two opportunities to hear Burmas first widely popular female recording artist, singer Ma Kyi
Aung, and including Shit Hkan Palin
(track C16) three occasions to hear the
songs of composer Shwe Taing Nyunt (the
father of Hta, heard in track C12).
Ma Kyi Aung (18991956) came from
a family of theater performers and was
already a singer and dancer in an ah ngyeint
troupe at the age of 17. Her popularity as an
early recording artist was such that Columbia signed her on to an exclusive contract
for 8 years when she was 25.
Ma Kyi Aungs singing style set a standard for popular singing of the time: total
control of timing nuances, imaginative in
melodic decoration, strong in low registers,
using the breath to creative advantage,

always charming and conveying humor, irony, and finding the right
emotional textures for dramatic lyrics.
Because this recording is a continuation, there is no instrumental
introduction. We hear Ma Kyi Aung, a slide guitar as accompaniment, and in the far distance a Burmese horn violin (tayaw), most
likely played by Tayaw U Ko Ko Kyi, who famously played in Ma Kyi
Aungs ensemble. The role of the violin (in classical music usually the
palwe [flute] or hne) is to accompany the singer and saung gauk (in this
case, slide guitar) by coupling the same line, but weaving in different
melismas. The slide guitar, tuned to Burmese pitch, offers harmonic pivot points
in accompaniment.
Shwe Taing Nyunt adaptated Son
Taw Myaing from the Pat Pyo song
Phone Mya Mya Min (The ManyGloried Prince from the Ramayana). Pat
Pyo is a genre of extended song later added
to the compendium of genres in classical
Mahagita collections. The lyrics are in a
repeated verse style and describe how the
forest heals the hurt from the difficulties
that lovers experience. KY

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Burmese actors and actresses

198

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C20 B U R M A

Taw Hnit Taung Swe

ca. 1939

The Lure of the Forest and Mountains

Performed by Thaton Ba Hein
The Twin F T 7 2 6 5, OMF 8 2 3 2

The Twin Record Company began in India at the end of

1927 as a subsidiary of the Gramophone Company. At
first, the label was used primarily to reissue Indian
recordings, using pseudonyms, at a lower price.
There were many Burmese recordings included
during the 1930s and 1940s, some reissued
from the His Masters Voice and Zonophone
labels.

To fit onto a record side, the grand Mahagita songs had to be necessarily edited
and shortened from what in live performing circumstances would be at least a half
hour of repeated verse with ti kwet, or instrumental interludes, also repeated. The repetitions gave singers and instrumentalists opportunities to embellish with great skill a melody simply
rendered on the first iteration. Arrangers took liberties
with verses for recording, even adding lines from other songs to
better fit a record side.

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Only the first two verses of Taw Hnit Taung Swe are on this recording, both repeated. The lyrics on the recording have not been
changed from the original Mahagita text. This Yodaya piece was classified in Burmese as kye thwa from the Thai cheut klong, both
meaning procession on stage with gong for the original
Siamese characters from the Ramakien. The song describes the beauty of the forest, how the bird calls
beckon the royal personage to stay and abandon human company.
Singer Thaton Ba Hein (born 1909)
arrived in Rangoon from Thaton, in the
southern Tenesserim region, with fellow
musicians and actors at the beginning
of World War II. Thaton Ba Hein auditioned for the Anglo-Burmese manager
of The Twin (in Burmese Ah Hmwa Nyi
Naung) record company. At the audition, he was asked to sing at the loud and
soft extremes of his voice and was rewarded with a contract for his first song, Daung
Ya Byan, and a compliment of very good."
Thaton Ba Hein has a lovely, expressive
than aet, or glottal breaking in the voice, which is
always appreciated by Burmese audiences as evidence of
a singers emotional depth. In addition to his music career, Thaton
Ba Hein also acted in movies. He died at the age of 66 in Rangoon. KY

C21 B U R M A

Miss Whiskey

1930s

Performed and Composed by Myat Lay

HM V Brit ish Burma Film 8, O JB 6 015

Unlike other Southeast Asian countries, the beginnings of Burmas local record
industry grew out of its cinema. The British Burma Film Company began in
the early 1930s and were pioneers in the development of Burmese talkies. Like other companies, their records consisted solely of movie songs
(see track C18).

U Myat Lay, known as a charismatic actor in the 1930s, recorded

Miss Whiskey, which was also the title of a movie in which he
starred, produced by the British Burma Film Company. In the Burmese period of silent film, the wide distribution of 78 rpm records
with their hit tunes were excellent promotional tools to bring in
new audiences to the movies to see singers act. Frequently, the musicians who recorded a song would also perform when the movie was
shown in the big city theatres of Rangoon and Mandalay.
As for the intent of the song Miss Whiskey, Myat Lays character says, Whether youre pining after old things or looking for the
new, kindness doesnt show itself in this world where love is scarce. Miss
Whiskey will show you kindness. A trumpet, hne, pat waing, and sandaya spin into chromatic slides toward the end of this section (notably
experimental and emblematic of Western music to the Burmese) of the
song as U Myat Lay laughs in a pose of drunken stupor. KY

201

C22 B U R M A

Mi Ba Myitta

C23 B U R M A
1930s

Parents Compassion
Performed by Ma Kyi Aung, singer
Composed by Shwe Taing Nyunt

Yodaya Bwe Gyi

1906

The Grand YodayaSong

Performed by Mah Thane May, singer
The Gramophone Company 3 -13 3 7 7, E 4 5 8 4

Columbia V E 212 5, CEI. 815 3

This track was recorded during the Gramophone Companys third tour of India,

Shwe Taing Nyunt (19081942) had an extraordinary reputation as

musician and composer. His name, meaning The Golden Pinnacle,
was bestowed on him by Ma Kyi Aung because of the many songs he
composed for her with memorable lyrics, characterized by his keen,
insightful perspective on human foibles. Shwe Taing Nyunt was the
most prolific composer of the Sit Kyo Khit (pre-World War II) period.
He was brought in by Columbia, after he began his recording career at
HMV, to compose for Ma Kyi Aung.
As a child, he was lauded for talents on the pattala and as a hsaing
and sandaya player in his fathers ah ngyeint and zat pwe troupes. He
became fluent in the improvised musical responses to the patter of
clowns on stage, and he writes this into the opening of Mi Ba Myitta
as the repartee of Ma Kyi Aung with her listeners.
Mi Ba Myitta is extracted from a Jataka (stories of the lives of
the Buddha) tale reminding children of a parents love, no matter if
karma brings evil consequencesin this case the murder of a king by
his son, the prince. KY

202

led by Will Gaisberg, Fredericks younger brother. Will had been taken under his
brothers wing in 1901 and quickly worked his way up to recording engineer. This
third tour was focused mostly on India, where the Gramophone Company was a
market leader and therefore under pressure to keep up a steady supply of new
releases. Will Gaisberg, with his brothers former assistant, George Dillnutt,
made nearly 1,300 recording between May 1906 and the beginning of 1907 in
cities across India, as well as in Burma and Hong Kong.

Among the genres of song in the Mahagita, the Burmese traditional

classical canon, are the Yodaya (Burmese for Ayudhya, the old Siamese
capital) songs. These are Burmese adaptations of specific tunes known
as Nah Pat in Thai used in the Ramakien dance-drama and for honoring teachers.
During the reign of King Hsinbyushin, from 1763 to 1765, the
Burmese conquered Ayudhya and took hostage Siamese artisans,
theatre performers, and musicians who lived at the Burmese courts of
Amarapura and Inwa, near present day Mandalay. Myawaddi Mingyi
U Sa, the legendary musician and composer, adapted these songs in the
1780s from the Siamese musicians and rewrote lyrics in Burmeseno

203

longer always related to the Ramayana characters and actionpraising

the palace, courtesans, and forest scenes for the royal court. Myawaddi
Mingyi U Sa composed this Yodaya Bwe Gyi for court performance
of the Inao drama, originally from Java. Framing the story of a Javanese prince, it was adapted by the Siamese and brought to Burma.
Because of their relatively short verse forms, recognizable instrumental introductions (kyay sin), and interludes (ti kwet), the Yodaya
songs were easily abridged by musicians for recording in the studio on
a 3-minute record side. Later, composers would use a Yodaya style to
compose contemporary melodies known as khi hsan.
According to writer and singer Shwe Ku Nan Nwe Nwe, Mah
Thane Mays vocal quality in this recordingconstricted throat, nasal
delivery, shouted deliveryis indicative of an outdoor theatre voice
and singing loudly for the early microphones, but also characteristic of
singers from Mandalay who learned their craft from the descendents
of the Siamese teachers at the royal court. She remarks that Mah Thane
Mays melismas do not accommodate well to the Burmese language,
especially in the opening verse praising the palace, Nan Le, Hmyaw
ba Nan, suggesting that her style of singing is closer to earlier Siamese
prosody. Mah Thane Mays kwet sait, or interpretive embellishments,
are cropped and shortened, unlike other Burmese singers of the early
20th century whose singing style of classical music emphasized elaborate embellishment and more open-throated approaches.
Interesting to hear in this early 1906 recording is the prominence
of the clapper (wa la khot) in a steady duple meter on what Burmese

204

musicians hear as upbeats, but with inaudible downbeats played with

cymbals known as si. The kye waing gong circle and hne (double reed
shawm) perform the interludes, while the pattala (bamboo xylophone)
accompanies Mah Thane May in Thai style mallet playing of parallel
octaves rather than the right-left alternating distribution of intervallic
and melodic material in Burmese style. KY

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C24 B U R M A

Nyut Nyut Hsaing Hsaing

1930s

The Lingering Gloomy Atmosphere

Performed by Yadana Myit, singer
HM V P 14 6 2 3, 8 0 - 47 9 4

In this recording of Nyut Nyut Hsaing Hsaing, the microphone is

placed so that we can really hear the untempered tuning of Burmese
sandaya (piano): a lowered seventh and raised fourth. Both the banjo
and tayaw (horn violin) are played with Burmese tunings in pule mode
as they shadow the piano line. The lyrics are abridged from a Papyo Bawle song in the Mahagita. In the original Papyo, the lyrics focus on
the authors longing, unbearable on a gloomy day, asking the Rain God
if monsoon rain and storm is a punishment for human indiscretion.
The classical tempo would have been slower, the melisma more florid,
as each verse is repeated twice. The many Paypyo and few Bawle songs
were added to the repertoire of the Mahagita in the early 19th century.
Paypyo lyrics are more lengthy than the Yodaya genre and their instrumental accompaniment is more florid. In the text of Nyut Nyut Hsaing Hsaing, the Papyo form is extended by Bawle, a particular musical
introduction and short verse. However, in Yadana Myits version, the
Bawle section is left out. KY

206

Papyo
How gloomy the atmosphere, with a darkening fog,
Longing pierces my heart while my eyes try to see.
The northern wind blows and withered leaves fall through branches,
The orb of the sun behind clouds, like a peacocks eye, as summer
approaches with a new year, lighting up suddenly this forest glade.
Bawle
Thazin flower blossoms intoxicate the forest, awaiting royal collection.
Parakeets, wing on wing sing in chorus among the mountain cliffs.
Even the greatness of the Royal Palace cannot assuage this longing.
The lonely one languishes.
Blinding rain with its chill drops causes a blur of existence in all the eight
directions of the universe.
O, Rain God, what mightiness causes you to blind us with rain,
flash at us with lightening and deafen us with mighty roars?
O, Rain God, perhaps you cannot bear the lonely ones.
Your war on us who languish at the entrance to your celestial abode,
punishing us with your battle cries.
O, Asura the Great...muster your deafening and blinding battalions.

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MALAYSIA SINGAPORE INDONESIA

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D1 I N D O N E S I A

Lambaresik

1940

Pure Heart
Performed by Nji Ajat, singer, with Tjelempoeng Orkest
Panglipoer Galih
Canar y H S 131 (A 7 2 6 7 )

The Canary label was introduced in 1939 by Path Orient, by then part of
EMI. Canary recorded in Indonesia and pressed its records in China. It was
distributed in Indonesia and in Singapore by Tom Hemsley. Hemsley had
previously been involved with the Chap Singa and Chap Kuching labels. Canary was focused on Sundanese recordings as well as other popular forms.

This piece by a Celempung orchestra (Tjelempoeng Orkest) is essentially a Sundanese (West Javanese) gamelan salndro. These gamelans,
like most in Java and Bali, were symbols of prestige and power, even if
owned by families rather than by nobles. This ensemble and this piece,
however, are both unique and clearly of historical interest. Though
the orchestra names itself after the celempung, a zither used in some

214

gamelans, the instrument does not appear in the recording. The labeling
of these discs was not always accurate as the marketing agent or producer
or someone not in the ensemble sometimes developed the descriptions.
And, though this is a Sundanese gamelan salndro, one core instrument of
that ensemble, the bonang gong-chime, is absent.
The recording does, however, capture the spirit of a celempung
ensemble in featuring vocal music accompanied by a small ensemble. The
piece is a Sundanese tune (lagu kawih) featuring an arrangement to fit the
instrumentation available for the recording. The singer is closely recorded
probably because of the quality of her singing and the importance of the
poetry. One of the featured instruments, which sounds too close to the
microphone, is the gambang xylophone.

The piece is introduced by the rebab (two-string fiddle), and uses

a 16-beat cycle. Other instruments include kendang (drums), goong
(large gong), and kempul (smaller gong). One important Sundanese
characteristica syncopated kempul pattern during the last four beats
of the cycleis clear in each of the cycles. The tuning is the anhemitonic (five note scales with no semitones) pentatonic salndro and the
featured vocalist is Nyi Ayat (Nji Ajat). DH

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D2 I N D O N E S I A

Dji Hong (Lagoe Tionghoa)

1926

Performed by Miss Riboet

Beka B. 1510 7-2 , 2 7 7 75

Miss Riboet was popular enough as a stage performer that Beka started a Miss
Riboet Records series. This was recorded by Max Birckhahn (see
track A21).

This is a fascinating piece featuring the wellknown singer, Miss Riboet (also called Miss
Riboet Orion), who is credited with popularizing both stambul songs and tonil (Malay dramas with contemporary settings
and dramas based on everyday life). She
was so popular that there was even a
Miss Riboet II in a rival theater company. The song mainly uses Malay/Indonesian language with some Hokkien
words inserted. Such language mixing
was not uncommon but was usually restricted to Chinese Indonesian and Malaysian audiences during the early 20th century.
This is a song used in stambul theatre,
which is also known as the Malay Opera. Komedie Stambul (literally Commercial Entertainment Is-

tanbul) emerged in 1891 in Java and is a Eurasian/Malay hybrid largely

based on the stories of 1,001 Nights combining song, (sometimes
bawdy) comedy, and drama. Miss Riboet, whose career was pushed forward by the impresario Tio Tik Djien, was a famous drama and stambul singer in Jakarta and recorded a large number of songs in a variety
of forms. Tio Tik Djien was also well known for compelling the artists in his productions to play soccer as well as master their art.
Though a stambul song, this particular recording
omits some of the Western instruments normally
used and instead sounds more Chinese and
might have been featured in a Chinese play.
The instruments include violin, piano, and
woodblock; the latter is reminiscent of
Chinese music and controls the rhythm in
Chinese opera. The piano is played in octaves in a style to replicate the sonority of
the Chinese yangqin zither and the violin
might be substituting an erhu fiddle. The
melody, similar to what we find in opera,
is heterophonic; that is, the violin, piano,
and vocal perform nearly the same melody
without the use of functional harmony. The
gapped scale used is similar to both the Chinese pentatonic and the Javanese slendro. DH

D3 M A L AY S I A / S I N G A P O R E

Dondang Sayang, Part 1

1940

Love Song, Part 1

Performed by Miss Rohani, Pancharan Muda Kr. Party,
and the Chap Ayam Orkest
Chap Ayam / Pathe 610 2 6, A 7514

Path was one of the first labels to establish offices in China,

setting up in Shanghai by 1908. The Chinese branch of
Path was acquired by British Columbia, which soon
merged into EMI in 1931. While Path records in
various Chinese languagesincluding Hokkien,
Cantonese, Amoy, Chaozhouhad been distributed widely in Southeast Asia, it wasnt until the late 1930s that they began marketing
Malay language records with their Chap Ayam
series, which continued until about 1960.

Meaning "love song," dondang sayang is a

type of social syncretic music performed
by the Malays and Peranakan (Chinese
who have acculturated to Malay culture)
of Malaysia and Singapore. In a performance
of dondang sayang, singers create a good-humoured atmosphere as they exchange witty Malay
verses in repartee (jual beli pantun). The Malay pantun

verses are created spontaneously, and are based on themes such as love,
wisdom, the natural surroundings, luck, and fate. Each verse of the pantun has four lines: the first couplet is known as the pembayang (imagery)
and the second couplet as the maksud (meaning). Some lines of the pantun are repeated in the stanza. Because each side of the record is limited
to 3 minutes, only one female vocalist singing two verses of the dondang
sayang is featured in this Chap Ayam recording.
The dondang sayang singer is accompanied by the
ronggeng ensemble, which consists of a violin, two
rebana (frame drums), and a knobbed gong.
All dondang sayang songs are based on one
melody with an introductory motif played
by the violin, which is familiar to singers and audiences. As in asli music, the
singer and violinist carry the melody
heterophonically with variations in
ornamentation. The rebana drums play
interlocking patterns of the eight-beat
asli rhythmic cycle, which is marked
by the gong at beat eight The diatonic
major scale is employed in the pembayang
section. The melody of the second maksud
section modulates to a fourth higher before
returning to the tonic. SBT

Malay ensemble, Sundanese ensemble with blown gong (following pages)

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D4 I N D O N E S I A

Ile-Ile

1950

Way of Moving

also introduces the piece and plays in between verses. This music and
these instruments indicate indigeneity and are related to the preIslamic/Christian cultural strata. DH

Folk ways 14 3 6 a

Although ethnographic field recordings were made in 1890 by Jesse Walter

Fewkes, shortly after Edison invented the first cylinders, it wasnt until Moses

D5 I N D O N E S I A

Tumba Lela-Lelan

Asch started Folkways in 1948 that documentary recordings became widely

Playful/Wistful

available to the public. Harold Courlander, a novelist, folklorist and anthropolo-

Folk ways 14 3 6 b

1950

gist, served as the first editor of the Folkways ethnic series, producing over 30
albums during his tenure. The next two tracks first appeared on his 1950 Folkways set Music of Indonesia.

Batak is a collective term used to identify a number of ethnic groups in

North Sumatra, including Toba, Karo, Pakpak, Simalungun, Angkola,
and Mandailing, each of which are distinct but related in terms of
language and culture. The music styles of the various groups vary, as
do the religious practices. Some, like the Toba, are largely Christian;
most are predominately Muslim; and a few have held onto pre-Islamic
and Christian practices.
This piece features what appears to be a gambang xylophone and
male vocal accompanied by a drummer. A gong, and perhaps tube
zither in off-beats, along with the drum, create a static, four-beat cyclic
background structure in support of the music. The text in parts concerns longing. The gambang and vocal melody are related and generally move in parallel directions in a flexible heterophony; the gambang

220

The Minangkabau (Victorious Water Buffalo) are the worlds largest

matrilineal ethnic group located in the coastal and highland areas
in West Sumatra, famous for their architecture of peaked roofs in
imitation of curved water buffalo horns. In general, the Minangkabau
are Muslim, and often very strongly Muslim, but they have retained
pre-Islamic cultural customs (adat) particularly in the uplands area,
and Islam had to be tempered with matrilineal patterns. The people are
also known for their extensive, sung oral histories.
This upbeat piece is likely a song in the cheerful category,
distinct from sad songs and laments. It features a male vocalist,
childrens choir, fiddle (rabab), and hand-clapping that keeps the pulse.
The soloist sings four phrases and is joined by the childrens choir for
two phrases in a kind of responsorial structure, then he sings four
more phrases and is accompanied once again, and so forth. The vocal
and fiddle melodies are performed in close heterophony. DH

221

D6 I N D O N E S I A

Angkat Angatan

1928

To Depart
Performed by Gender Wajang, Koeta
Odeon 2 0 47 6 6, Jab 5 5 9

By the time Beka and Odeon first traveled to Bali in 1928, they had been recording in the Dutch East Indies for years, and were both controlled by the German
Lindstroem company. The initials in the dead wax of the records indicate that
each label used a different recordist; Heinrich Lampe for Beka and Siegfried
Frenz for Odeon (see track D15). It is not clear if the trips were made together
or separately, or in what order. The Balinese recordings were considered a
complete commercial failure: apparently the Balinese had so much live music
that they couldnt understand a need for recordings. Although these were the
only commercial Balinese recordings made during the 78 era, they had a wide
impact, inspiring Western composers such as Colin McPhee.

Gender wayang (note: the "g" in gender is hard) is a Balinese quartet of

10-keyed metallophones in slendro tuning, a nearly equidistant pentatonic scale. One pair of metallophones is an octave higher than the
other pair and musicians use two mallets each, unlike other gamelan
playing where musicians play a mallet with one hand and damp keys
with the other hand. In gender wayang, the musicians must play and
damp keys with both hands. The players left hands normally play the

same melody in unison and octaves while the right hands perform
melodies in interlocking figurations. The ensemble is used to accompany wayang kulit, the shadow puppet play in Bali; other wayang kulit
theatres with differing music accompaniment exist in Java, Sunda, and
Lombok. Gender wayang in Bali is also sometimes used to accompany life-cycle rites such as cremations, other rites for the dead, and
teeth-filings.
This piece is Angkat Angkatan, meaning in this case to depart,
and used in the theatre to accompany the travels of puppet characters
through forests or space when they leave from one scene, for example
at a palace, en route to another. Compositions for wayang kulit are divided between sitting pieces, performed before the beginning of the
story, and those pieces used to accompany the characters and action
as directed by the puppeteer or dalang. Though normally performed
within the story, this recording of Angat Angkatan was commissioned and performed outside of a wayang performance and features
most of the piece (these recordings were limited by the recording
medium to a maximum of 3 minutes or so), including brief dense moments of batel, a form used for battle and action scenes.
The performers are led by I Wayan Lotring, one of the most famous Balinese musicians and composers in Balinese history. Lotring
was a master not only of gender wayang, but also of a variety of
gamelan styles. He directed several gamelan groups in addition to this
gender wayang quartet in Kuta. DH

Balinese reyong players

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D7 M A L AY S I A / S I N G A P O R E

Pengantin Berarak
Wedding Procession

ca. 1911

HM V P 2 8 0 3, GC 8 -10 52 6 (mx:H 9 9 70 R)

Max Hampe, and his older brother Franz, were prolific recording engineers for
the Gramophone Company. Max Hampe began recording in 1904 and ended his
role with the company around 1916, after recording some 17,000 sides. Hampe
arrived in Batavia (now Jakarta) on December 1, 1910 to replace engineer
George Dillnutt. By January 1911 he had recorded 250 sides in Indonesia and
then left for Rangoon, and then India. By late October of 1911, he had returned
to Singapore where he most likely made these recordings. A group of five records featuring this ensemble were released:P 2801-2802-2803-2804-2805.

The traditional weddings of the Peranakan (Chinese who have acculturated to Malay culture) of Melaka, Singapore, and Penang comprised
a series of rituals that lasted 12 days. These rituals were brought by the
Hokkien who migrated from Fujian province in South China to Malaya. Pengantin Berarak (Wedding Procession) is a recording of the
instrumental music performed by a seroni ensemble during Peranakan
weddings. The ensemble is played at specific ceremonies, such as when
the groom is carried in a sedan chair in a procession to the brides
house, during the purification and initiation ceremony, the meeting of

the bride and the groom, or when the wedding couple pay their respect
to their elders. The seroni band resembles the regional drum and blowing music ensemble (guchui yue), which perform during processions,
festivities, weddings, and funerals in China, but the seroni band has
been localized.
The main instrument of the seroni ensemble is the Chinese
double-reeded shawm known as suona. The suona is made of wood or
metal, with the lower end shaped like a bell. The player rests his lips
against a small metal lip-disc. The Peranakan named this instrument
seroni after the Malay shawm serunai. Two different sizes of seroni are
used in the wedding ceremony. Other instruments in the ensemble
include the Chinese flute, a pair of small cymbals, drums, and flat
Chinese gongs. A Malay or Javanese knobbed gong has been added by
some ensembles, and some Malay melodies have been incorporated.
In this HMV recording, the seroni and a higher pitched flute play
the main melody while a lower-pitched flute replies in antiphonal style
with the other two melodic instruments. They are accompanied by
an eight-beat interlocking rhythmic pattern played on two different
pitched gongs and a small drum (woodblock). This softer style is usually performed during the quieter moments of the wedding resembling
the softer style of guchui yue. The larger seroni performed together
with the other percussion instruments is usually played for processions
outdoors. The latter is similar to the louder style of guchui yue. SBT

Chinese wedding ensemble

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D8 I N D O N E S I A

Tjikadjangan (pelog)

1939

Song in the Style of Cikajangan City

Performed by Oman, Doeleh, and K.O.E. Sabri
HM V NS7 2 4, OMG 5 8 8 4

Tembang Sunda, which features sung poetry accompanied by kecapi

(zither) instruments and suling (bamboo flute), is a classical vocal style
originating from the Sunda kingdom of highland West Java. Developed
in the court of the regent Kebupaten Cianjur in the late 19th century,
the tembang Sunda is one of the most serene of Indonesian ensembles.
The style began as an entertainment in which aristocrats would sing
in poetic meters derived from West Javanese or Central Javanese vocal
forms. A variant, kecapi suling, which arose in the 1970s and omits the
vocals, is performed in restaurants and hotels in many parts of Indonesia due to its soft and mellifluous sound.
There are normally two kecapi: the lower-pitched kecapi indung
and the higher-pitched and kecapi rincik or anak. Functioning respectively as mother (slower, outlining bridges and interludes) and child
(faster, filling in parts), the indung has 1820 strings and the rincik
(which often plays at twice the density of the indung) normally has
15 strings. One to eight vocalists might participate in performances
of tembang Sunda. Musicians traditionally hold performances in the
evenings and are not paid for their services. Pieces begin with free meter and heavily ornamented songs (mamaos), followed by fixed-meter
songs (panambih).

228

This piece, like most, features a vocalist singing poetry (tembang)

in the Sundanese language. The tuning is pelog. The male vocalist
sings in meter (panambih), and the kecapi players follow the vocal
melody. The suling player, who opens the piece, intersperses melodies
in between verses of poetry, thus never overlapping with the vocalist.
Tembang Sunda serves as a sonic link to the past for aristocrats. DH

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D9 M A L AY S I A / S I N G A P O R E

Gambos Ya Omar

1911

Performed by Salih

HM V P 2 7 8 4, GC 9 -12 8 5 4

This recording was made by Max Hampe in Singapore on the same trip as track
D7. Aside from one brief 1909 recording session conducted by George Dillnutt in
Penang, all other Malay recordings were made in Singapore.

Gambos Ya Omar is a love song from a Middle Eastern bangsawan

play. Omar, the male character, pleads with Siti not to be angry after they
had just quarrelled with each other. The song is sung in Malay using the
dance-song genre called zapin. The Malay zapin is an adaptation of the
Arabic zapin, which was brought to the state of Johore by Arab migrants.
The dance was performed by men only in the early days, but was modernized as the zapin was adapted and employed in the Middle Eastern
stories of bangsawan theatre. New zapin dance motives and choreography were created for both men and women dancers in bangsawan. The
Malay bangsawan, ronggeng groups, and later, Malay film, were responsible for popularizing the zapin and spreading it to other parts of Malaya.
As the title of the recording shows, the main instrument in the
ensemble is the gambus, a Middle Eastern oud, which has a wooden
pear-shaped body, a round back, and a short neck. The gambus has five
to eight strings in double courses and a single high string. The Arabic
mode and the style of plucking of the gambus strings give the song a
Middle Eastern essence.

230

This recording resembles the zapin in the village setting, where

the melody is performed by the vocalist, gambus, violin, and harmonium. The marwas hand drums and a cone-shaped drum dok play the
four-beat zapin rhythm. The song starts with a short gambus introduction, which is based on the melody of the song, emphasizing the zapin
rhythm. This is followed by stanzas sung in the AABB form. Section B
of each stanza has a tonal centre that is a fourth below that of section
A. The loud and sharp interlocking rhythms of the marwas at the end
are characteristic of the zapin tahtim (coda) for the dance ending. SBT

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D10 I N D O N E S I A

Lagu Daerah Sumatera

ca. 1955

Sumatran Song: The One Who Sits Has an Impeded Voice

Performed by Plah and Raslah
IndraVox 1.3 9 s.a., X R 2 4 3

Dutch-born ethnomusicologist Bernard IJzerdraat made this recording in the

mid-1950s. He was sponsored by Radio Republic Indonesia to take documentary
music recordings of peoples in remote areas of Indonesia, including Kerinci
and other areas of Sumatra, along with places like Makasar in South Sulawesi
and the isolated island of Roti (Rote). The 78 rpm discs were distributed to RRI
stations under the name Indravox, but were not sold publicly. IJzerdraat, who
was deeply immersed in Indonesian (particularly Javanese) culture, was in later
years known variously as S. Brata, Suryabrata, and Bernard Suryabrata. Indravox evolved into the well-known Lokananta label in the late 1950s.

This a cappella (without instruments) vocal piece by two females is

an example of regional entertainment from Kerinci in central Sumatra near Mount Kerinci, the highest peak and one of the most active
volcanoes in Indonesia. The singers perform a metric song in close
heterophony; one voice occasionally precedes the other in moving to
a new pitch or expresses slightly differing ornamentation. The performance both is melismaticthat is, the vocalists sing single syllables
of text while moving through a variety of tonesand features long,
sustained tones. DH

Sumatran dancers

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D11 M A L AY S I A / S I N G A P O R E

Shier Zhulei

D12 I N D O N E S I A

Ka Abdi

1930

Twelve Drops of Tears

Performed by Mei Yu

ca. 1957

To Me
Performed by Upit Sarimanah, singer
with Gamelan Sunda Pusaka, led by R. Tuteng Djobari

Pagoda V 3 2 0 2 a

Nusant ara 4 57- 4 2 , Imco 75 6

Shier Zhulei represents a type of narrative-style singing from the

southern Fujian provinces of Quanzhou and Amoy. Using the Minnan (southern Fujian) dialect, the female singer expresses her longing
for her lover who is far away. Known as kua-a in the Amoy dialect,
these songs were brought by the southern Fujian immigrants into
Taiwan, and were later developed into an operatic form called kua-ahi (also known as Taiwanese opera). Kua-a songs were passed down
not only through oral tradition, but were published in songbooks that
were widely distributed. Many of the songs were used in the famous
opera stories, such as San Bo Ying Tai, Chen San Wu Niang, and
Mengjiangnu Seeking Her Husband at the Great Wall. The stories
and music were introduced to Southeast Asia, and popularized by Chinese opera troupes and singers who performed in the region.
The kua-a songs often have 10, 12, 24, 28, 30, or even 48 verses. In
many of the songs, the singer will begin the first verse with the word
first, the second verse with the word second, and so on. This example has twelve verses: the first verse starts with the words first step,
the second verse with the words second step, and the last verse ends
with the words twelfth step. The song is accompanied by the nanguan
ensemble (known as nanyin in southern Fujian today). It consists of

234

Nusantara was one of the many subsidiaries of the Irama label.

the dongxiao (end-blown flute), erxian (two-string spiked fiddle), pipa

(four-string short-necked plucked lute), and sanxian (three-string longnecked plucked lute). SBT

This recording features the Sundanese (West Javanese) gamelan salndro, an ensemble of metallophones, gong chimes (bonang), gongs, drums,
a bowed spiked lute (rebab), xylophone (gambang), and vocalist. Gamelans emerged
in Sunda in the 16th century from the
courts of Cirebon and Javanese regents.
As elsewhere in Java and Bali, gamelans
were aristocratic symbols of prestige and
power. The gamelan salndro is very versatile and has been used for instrumental
performance, to accompany a female vocalist (as here), to provide the background
for life-cycle rites (weddings, circumcisions,
feasts, celebrations, and government occasions), and to accompany the rod-puppet theatre (wayang golek), dramas, dance-dramas, social

dances (jaipongan), and sometimes even martial arts. The drummer is

responsible for tempo and dynamic changes and leads the dance accompaniment. The Sundanese salndro (as well as the Javanese slendro) is
a pentatonic, anhemitonic scale (a five note scale with no semitones.).
The rebab player leads off this piece and the drummer and metallophones (saron) quickly enter in interlocking parts, playing patterns
determined by the patokan (structural outline) of the piece. The gongs,
consisting of the large goong, the smaller kempul and the horizontally mounted kenong kettles outline the form, in this case
a 16-beat cycle. The rebab part is important enough
that the player (Hamid) received a credit on the
record label. The vocalist, Upit Sarimanah, enters after the first cycle. A male vocalist adds
some commentary in the background.
Upit Sarimanah (19281992), featured
in this recording, was one of the bestknown female vocalists (sinden) in Sunda
during the 1950s1960s. Born with the
name Suyamah, she first appeared as a
vocalist on stage at age 7. She performed
extensively for both Dutch and especially
Indonesian radio and recorded a great
many songs. In addition to gamelan, she also
was famous for singing popular music. DH

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D13 I N D O N E S I A

Babarlajar Mataram

ca. 1940

Mataram Set the Sail

Performed by Gamelan Musicians of Yogyakarta, Java
Odeon 2 7 818 7a, Jab 2 3 9 7

This recording features the gamelan of Central Java. The title, Babarlajar (today Babar Layar) refers to a gendhing bonangan, a repertoire that features the bonang gong-chime. Gendhing bonangan
(or soran) are loud pieces omitting vocals meant to be
played outdoors and contrasting with what is sometimes called gadhon, a repertoire that feature vocals and soft instruments intended for indoor
palace enjoyment. The other part of the title,
Mataram, refers to the 16th18th century
powerful Islamic kingdom of Central Java.
This short recording features what is
generally performed as the second and last
part (inggah) of the composition. After an
introduction by the player on the bonang barung (featuring chimes in two rows), the musicians perform several cycles of the melody,
then the piece accelerates during the secondto-last cycle, and then quickly ritards in the last
cycle to the conclusion. The core melody (balungan)

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is played by the saron metallophones while the bonang plays a complementary leading melody and the kendhang (drum) player directs the
volume, tempo, and conclusion. In this recording all of the inner punctuation is clearly audible, as well as the bonang panerus, a gong-chime
pitched an octave higher than bonang barung and playing at twice the
density, and perhaps the bonang panembung, a gong-chime pitched an
octave lower than the bonang barung.
Javanese gamelan music includes forms that are irregular or short
in numbers of beats per gong cycles, or gongan (e.g., 8 or 16 beats
per gong stroke), up to compositions with 512 beats per
gong stroke. Babar Layar is a well-known gendhing tengahan (middle-size composition of the
large-size gendhing repertory), meaning in this
case that there are 128 beats per gong stroke
or gongan, in pelog tuning in pathet (mode)
lima. Interestingly, the piece emphasizes the
fourth pitch in pelog tuning (not found in
any pathet) toward the end of the cycle. The
peking (highest-pitched saron metallophone)
playing style indicates that the piece was
recorded in Yogyakarta; the piece Babar
Layar is often associated with that palace
tradition. The pre-World War II date may mean
that this was a palace gamelan of either Yogyakarta or the nearby minor court, Pakualaman. DH

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Javanese actors

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Sumatran musicians (right)

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D14 M A L AY S I A / S I N G A P O R E

Gambos Sri Mahkota Kelantan

ca. 1930s

Gambos Crown of Kelantan

Performed by Obid, singer
with the Special Singapore Malay Orchestra
Odeon A 2 0 619 3b (s t r 16 47 )

Gambus refers to the short-necked Middle Eastern lute called ud,

which is the main instrument used in the gambus ensemble. In
Malaysia, the gambus is played during religious occasions such as the
birthday of the Prophet Muhammad, the end of the Muslim fasting
month, and the Muslim New Year. It is also played at Malay weddings,
circumcisions, and other festivities. Because of its association with
Islam and the Middle East, it is performed in the bangsawan plays of
Middle Eastern origin.
Gambus Sri Mahkota Kelantan is a love song from the Malay
opera that is sung in Malay. Performed by an urban orchestra, the
piano has been added to the traditional gambus ensemble comprising
a gambus, violin, and hand-held marwas drums. In the urban orchestra, a flute, rebana frame drum, tambourine, and a knobbed gong can
also be used. Through the Malay opera, folk social ensembles such as
the gambus and ronggeng ensembles were modernized and popularized throughout British Malaya. The music of these ensembles that was
recorded became the first popular music in the country.
In this recording, the gambus performer does not improvise on
the Arabic mode in the introduction, but begins with a short preamble

242

based on the melodic theme of the song. However, it is interesting to

note that even though the piano has been introduced, it plays the same
melody (in octaves) as the gambus, male vocalist, and violin, thus
maintaining the heterophic texture of the melodic lines of village gambus music. Only a few triads are played by the piano at the end of the
piece. Short interludes between the verses are also played by the piano
in octaves. SBT

D15 I N D O N E S I A

Poetih Poetih Sapoet Andoek

1928

White White Bathing Towels

Performed by Ni Lemon, singer
with the group Djanger Abijan-Timboel
Odeon R A 2 0 47 9 0 b (JA B 57 3)

Another example from Siegfried Frenzs 1928 Balinese session (see track D6).

Among the many genres on the island of Bali is janger, which roughly
translates as infatuation and began as a youth style of music in the
1920s1930s, partially in response to stambul theatre. It was one of the
few non-gamelan styles of early 20th century music and featured equal
numbers of young men and women singing and performing choreography together, generally while seated in a square. Janger still exists as
a form today, though it is rare and considered quaint. This rendition is
typical of the style of janger as developed from the 1920s1950s.

Janger performances centered around social occasions, including

cultural and political meetings, and was also performed occasionally
for tourists in the 1930s. Women (called janger) were usually dressed
similarly to legong court dancers or rejang temple dancers, virtually
always including an arched headdress in the shape of a cili (rice goddess), while the men would dress in a hybrid styles wearing a kamben
or bapang cloth on top completed with Western dress, including
berets, tennis shoes, short trousers, knee socks, and sometimes even
sunglasses. The movements often included acrobatics, salutes, and

gymnastic exercises, and the flexible style

of music and dance gave young adults the
opportunity to interact and flirt.
This piece opens with men performing a style of kecak (rhythmic unison
vocal chant on the syllable chak; in fact,
the males are called chak or kecak), originating from the Sanghyang trance dance
tradition (this is about the time that
kecak was extracted to become its own
dynamic form). The males are quickly
joined by a rebab (bowed lute) playing
a repeating melody in the pelog scale
(hemitonic pentatonic form) in a 16-beat
cycle, and the men perform syncopated
vocal lines against the melody. The music
Kecak dance is punctuated by a frame drum (terbang
or rebana) and small gong (klentong or klenang) playing on offbeats.
At a signal from the lead male vocalist, this section ends and a group
of women enter singing a folk tune in pelog tuning with men responding with an interweaving countermelody and a suling bamboo flute
added, following the womens melody. The women sing text describing
the beauty of the janger intermixed with nonsense syllables. The music
in this section begins at a moderate pace and progressively accelerates
and grows in volume, then ends again with a male vocal signal. DH

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D16 M A L AY S I A / S I N G A P O R E

Chek Siti I

1935

Miss Siti 1
Performed by H. Dolmat and Saianah
Pagoda V3 6 6 6 a

Pagoda was active during the 1930s and resumed after the war with some
further releases during the 1950s. Some were reissued on Columbia with the
same V3000 series catalogue number. Based in Singapore, Pagoda recorded

The two singers enter into a dialogue in the second section of the
recording. The male vocalist asks Siti for her hand in marriage but
she rejects him. He then sings a melancholic slow asli song known as
lagu nasib (song of fate) in the third section, and is accompanied by
two violins, a piano, and a guitar. Lagu nasib depicts a sad situation in
bangsawan plays, such as the separation from or rejection by a loved
one. Rubato is used to express the heart-rending emotions. The final
section ends with a joget again, sung by the female vocalist. The male
singer says he wants to kill himself because of this rejection. SBT

Chaozhou and Amoy operas, as well as popular styles of the time, such as krontjong, stamboul, dondang sayang, and others.

Chek Siti is a duet from a Malay bangsawan play that consists of four
sections. The traditional ronggeng ensemble comprising the violin,
Malay frame drum (rebana), and gong is used in the singing sections.
The first part is sung by two well-known bangsawan performers,
H. Dolmat and Saianah. The male character announces the name of
the song in Malay at the beginning. This is followed by an exchange
between the two singers about love, using the joget dance song. Joget is
a fast and lively dance song performed by the ronggeng ensemble during weddings and other Malay festivities. A unique feature is the use
of the compound duple meter and a four-beat rhythmic pattern that
juxtaposes units of two notes and three notes played in succession. This
feature is also found in Portuguese music, showing a strong influence
of this music on joget. Joget uses the strophic form; each stanza of the
Malay pantun verse is sung with the same melody.

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D17 I N D O N E S I A

Titipati 

ca. 1930s

Bridge to Death
Performed by Mas Adjeng P. Laras Aroem
with Gamelan Tjakran of Tuan Liem Yoe Giok
Odeon A 2 0 4 4 4 3 b, JA B 157 1

The Central Javanese gamelan is perhaps the best-known type of

ensemble in Indonesia. Here, Titipati is performed by a smaller
gamelan in a quieter, refined, and indoor style. This style features the
soft instruments of Javanese gamelan, such as rebab fiddle, suling
flute, gender metallophones, gambang wooden xylophone, celempung
zither, and, especially, vocal poetry (tembang) sung by a female soloist (pesindhen).

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Central Javanese gamelan is

sometimes divided into loud
and soft styles. The recording displays the floating
quality of the soft style
without the prominent sounding of the
balungan, or skeletal
melody, featured in the
loud style. The melody
here is implicit and
sometimes referred to as
lagu batin (inner melody).
The musicians perform
cengkok, the melodic elaborations particular to their instrument, in interaction with each
other and with the pesindhen, whose melody floats more freely with
greater rhythmic and melodic independence from the musics pulse.
This piece also features ciblon drumming, the active middle-size
drum used to accompany some forms of action and dance. The two
bonang gong-chime instruments, the lower-pitched barung and higherpitched panerus, perform in an interlocking style called imbal (or
pinjalan). The piece uses the anhemitonic, pentatonic scale, slendro. DH

250

D18 I N D O N E S I A

Kitjir Kitjir

ca. 1955

Glorious Beloved
Performed by Jetty and Suhairi, singers
with Orkes Gambang Keromong
S enandung X BK 0 18 ( imco 2 6 3)

Senandung was another of Iramas many sublabels. Recordings might appear

on multiple Irama labels, such as Bamboo, Nusantara, Gembira, and Putri.

The Chinese communities around the Indonesian capital of Jakarta

(formerly Batavia) maintained or created a number of musical forms
to meet their needs. Among these is gambang kromong, an ensemble of
Chinese and Pribumi (native) Indonesians. This hybrid ensemble features one or two Chinese-style fiddles (tehyan), a side-blown Chinesestyle flute (using the Indonesian term, suling), an Indonesian 18-keyed
xylophone (gambang), an Indonesian gong-chime of ten kettle-gongs
(kromong), and various Indonesian percussion instruments. In addition, guitars are sometimes added. Gambang kromong once used
a large number of Chinese melodies as part of its repertoire, but the
events of the mid-1960swhen tens of thousands of communists
(and sometimes merely Chinese money lenders) were killed or brutalizedhave led to a gradual disappearance of Chinese pieces and their
replacement by local songs. The current ensemble normally performs
at weddings and other Peranakan (mixed-blood, Chinese Indonesians)
cultural events.

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253

This is a love song sung in Indonesian by a woman and man back

and forth to each other. They sing about the troubles and remedies of
love between a couple. One of the fiddles leads off the piece with the
gambang, kromong, and suling clearly audible in the background, and
this same combination, backed by dynamic drumming reminiscent
of that of gamelans in Sunda, separates the verses. The verses use a
strophic repeating melody with implied harmony going from a tonic
to dominant chord; the woman and man alternate singing verses two
times, then she sings a final verse. The lines for each verse, set in couplets, end with the same vowel, proceeding i, a, u, a, a. DH

D19 M A L AY S I A

Ogingo Mamangka Vuhan

The Forest Paradise
Performed by Irene Tungou

ca. 1958

Radio Sabah RS13

Although the state of Sabah was not established until 1963, when it joined the
Malaysian Federation, Radio Sabah began broadcasting in the early 1950s, in
what was then British North Borneo. The station broadcast in English, Malay,
two Chinese dialects, and eventually Dusun, the most widely spoken language
of the Kadazan people of North Borneo. This was part of a nine record set that
included popular music as well as traditional gong-based styles, and was in-

A type of secular Kadazan song from Putatan, an area near Kota

Kinabalu, the capital city of Sabah, this is a love song sung by a female
vocalist about someone who is beautiful. It uses the traditional pentatonic melody called sinding in Tambunan in the interior of Sabah
or hius in Penampang and Putatan, where this song originates.Sung
in the Kadazan language, this kind of song would have been sung for
entertainment in the home at night or during a social gathering or
drinking (tapai or rice wine) session.In the olden days it would have
been normally unaccompanied (but sometimes a long-necked lute
called sundatang was used).During the 1950s, these secular pentatonic
songs began to be accompanied by the guitar using the diatonic scale
as the instrument was introduced into the villages.
The accompanying band in this recording includes a banjo or a
ukelele, guitars, and a double bass, plus wind instruments.This kind of
traditional singing accompanied by a dance band became popular and
was played over the radio during the 1950s to 1980s. This gave rise to
the Kadazan Dusun pop music industry in the 1970s.
This song was recorded at Radio Sabah (now Radio Television Malaysia). Radio has been the most popular medium throughout Sabah
for more than 50 years, and even in the remote interior, people still
listen to the radio for information and entertainment.Radio Sabah, or
todays RTM, has several sessions in Kadazan Dusun, Timugon Murut,
and west coast Bajau. People like to tune in to these at certain times to
hear the news and also find out who has died. SBT

tended for airplay, rather than sale to the public.

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D20 M A L AY S I A / S I N G A P O R E

Wak Daing

1952

Performed by Saemah, singer

with the Osman Ahmad Orchestra
Chap Ayam P T H 13 9 ( PA 9 2 57 )

Paths Chap Ayam (Rooster Brand) series was aimed at the Malay language
market. They began with a series numbered 60000 in 1938 (see track D3). In
1951 they switched to a series with the prefix PTH. Both series were recorded
in Singapore.

Bangsawan is a form of Malay commercial theatre that developed

in British Malaya at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th
centuries. Also known as Malay opera, bangsawan was syncretic, and
incorporated Malay, Chinese, European, Indian, Arabic, and other stories and elements. The term bangsawan (meaning nobility) referred
to the stories and characters that mainly concerned royalty. Each
performance consisted of one or more stories accompanied by songs,
and interludes called extra turns were performed during set changes.
Depending on the type of story performed, the music adapted to the
musical influences from Malaya as well as other parts of the world.
Wak Daing refers to the name of a warrior in a bangsawan play
who has gone away to fight for his kingdom. In this song, the female
vocalist (probably the heroine in the play) sings of her love for him, and
about how she misses him, in the Malay language. As a song from the

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Malay repertoire, Wak Daing

combines Malay and Western
characteristics. The Malay
Orchestra (orkes Melayu),
led by Osman Ahmad,
mixes the instruments
of the ronggeng ensemble (comprising a
violin, accordion, rebana, and a knobbed
gong) with Western
instruments (such as
the piano, double bass,
and guitar). The ronggeng
ensemble accompanies social
dancing at Malay weddings and
other social occasions. Wak Daing is a slow ronggeng asli song that
is characterized by an eight-beat rhythmic pattern played by the rebana
and lower register of the piano, and marked by the gong on the seventh
and eigth beats. Other Malay characteristics include the independent
melodic lines by the singer, violin, guitar, and higher register of the
piano, and a tense and nasal vocal style. The melody of each stanza is
repeated with different texts that use the four-line Malay verse (pantun)
form. Western characteristics include the use of the diatonic scale and
triads played by the piano. SBT

D21 I N D O N E S I A

Aer Mata Djato Berlinang

ca. 1930

Tears Flow from the Eyes

Performed by Moh Aminor Aidjawi, singer
with Orkest Setia Pamoedah
Beka B 8 8 52 7-1, 12 3 4 4B

Another recording from the engineer Siegfried Frenz, possibly made near the
end of his expedition that began with his Balinese Odeon recordings in 1928.
While Beka and Odeon were both controlled by Lindstroem, its not clear to
what extent the labels were integrated. In this case, Frenz, who had made many
Odeon recordings, was also recording for Beka. In 1933, Frenz returned to the
Berlin studios where he recorded until 1941.

Are Mata Djato Berlinang is a sad song, or lagu nasib (song of fate),
associated with a Middle Eastern story in the Malay musical theatre or
opera. The singer tries to remember a loved one who has passed away.
He is accompanied by a modernized gambus ensemble comprising the
gambus, accordion, violins, double bass, marwas drums, and maracas.
The gambus begins with a short improvisation (similar to a taksim)
introducing the Arabic mode. This introduction is followed by the
singing section where the male vocalist, accordion, and violins carry
a similar melody but perform in heterophony. Each stanza consists of
four lines that are divided into two melodic sections.
The singer and melodic instruments are joined by the rebana
(frame drum), maracas, double bass, and plucked gambus that play the

four-beat masri rhythm. Masri is similar to the rhythmic pattern masmudi kabir of the Middle East and is often used in devotional Islamic
songs, such as nasyid. The gambus style of plucking, masri rhythm,
and mode used give the song a Middle Eastern essence. Compared
to the earlier versions of lagu gambus, the texture is thicker as more
instruments are played, with the double bass providing a jumping bass
line based on the masri rhythmic pattern. SBT

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

JASON GIBBS researches Vietnamese music and popular culture and

DAVID MURRAY is the curator of Haji Maji (www.HajiMaji.com), a

DAVID HARNISH is chair of the Music Department and director of

SOOI BENG TAN is professor of Ethnomusicology at the School of Arts,

is the author of the book Rock H Ni & Rumba Cu Long. He wrote

the entry for Vietnam in the Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular
Music of the World and has published articles in a number of journals,
including Asian Music, Journal of Vietnamese Studies, and Southeast
Asian Research.

Gamelan Gunung Mas at the University of San Diego. He is the author

of Bridges to the Ancestors: Music, Myth, and Cultural Politics at an
Indonesian Festival and cowriter/editor of Divine Inspirations: Music
and Islam in Indonesia.
TERRY E. MILLER is known primarily as a specialist in the musics of

Mainland Southeast Asia, especially Thailand and Laos. He has also

worked extensively in the United States, the West Indies, the United
Kingdom, and China. His most widely known work is as coeditor and
writer of The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music: Southeast Asia
and as cowriter of a survey textbook, World Music: A Global Journey.
Dr. Miller retired from Kent State University in 2005 where, in addition to teaching, he founded and directed both the KSU Thai and
Chinese Ensembles.

270

blog dedicated to the exploration 78 rpm Asian music. He previously

produced two LPs for Dust-to-Digital; Luk Thung: Classic & Obscure
78s from the Thai Countryside and Kassidat: Raw 45s from Morocco. In
addition to collecting and researching old records, he is a musician and
graphic designer in Oakland, California.

Universiti Sains Malaysia. She is the author of Bangsawan: A Social

and Stylistic History of Popular Malay Opera and coauthor of Music
of Malaysia: Classical, Folk and Syncretic Traditions. Current research
projects include the study of Malay 78 rpm recordings in Malaysia, the
development of popular music in Southeast Asia, and the comparison
of Chinese music in Malaysia and Indonesia.
KIT YOUNG began study of Burmese piano Sandaya styles in the 1980s

and as pianist and composer performs frequently with Burmese colleagues. She lived in Myanmar for 5 years and, with Burmese friends,
started Gitameit Music Center in Yangon, which, in 2007, began digital
archiving of Burmese 78 rpm recordings and video documentaries
featuring elderly Burmese performing artists.

Produced, edited, compiled, and designed by David Murray

Design and production consulting by Debbie Berne
Annotations and essays by Jason Gibbs, David Harnish, Terry E. Miller,
David Murray, Sooi Beng Tan, and Kit Young
78 rpm transfers by Jonathan Ward
Audio restoration and mastering by Michael Graves, Osiris Studio
Records and images from the collection of David Murray
Additional records from Jonathan Ward, Michael Robertson, Terry E. Miller,
and Will Summits
Additional images from Philp Drillien, Axel Ebenbck, Jason Gibbs,
and Hugo Strtbaum
Photograph of record sleeves (end papers) by Matt Knoth
Proofreading by Laurie Dunne

Thank you to everybody who contributed: Poonpit Amatayakul, Amy

Armstrong, Ne Myo Aung, Mar Mar Aye, Qu Bo, Debbie Berne, Jarernchai
Chonpairot, Peter Doolan, Philip Drillien, Laurie Dunne, Michael Graves,
David Harnish, Benno Hupl, Rick Heizman, Liam Kelley, Jacqueline PughKitingan, Laurentius Kitingan, Matt Knoth, Aileen Kuo, Wah-chiu Lai, Lance
and April Ledbetter, Rob Millis, Phong Nguyen, Shwe Ku Nan Nwe Nwe,
Michael Robertson, Panya Roongruang, Sam-ang Sam, Will Summits, U
Tin, U Toh, Bi Trng Hin, Vanessa V Vn nh, Su Wai, Jonathan Ward,
Andrew Weintraub, Sean Williams, Wang Yingfen, Wim Van Zanten.

A very special thanks to Terry E. Miller for so much input and effort.

Printed in China by Asia Pacific Offset

Color separations by iocolor, Seattle

Thank you to the contributing authors for sharing their time and expertise:
Jason Gibbs, David Harnish, Terry E. Miller, Sooi Beng Tan, and Kit Young.
I would like to acknowledge the following record researchers for their tireless and important work: Pekka Gronow, Alan Kelley, Michael Kinnear,
Ross Laird, Rainer Lotz, Christian Zwarg, Dick Spottswood, Hugo Strtbaum,
Paul Vernon, and Philip Yampolsky.

All text 2013 by the respective authors

This release 2013 Dust-to-Digital
Components under license from various sources

Dust-to-Digital
PO Box 54743
Atlanta, GA 30308-0743
www.dust-digital.com

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