INSTRUMENTS
There are many different traditional instruments in Cambodia and indeed traditional music is still played and enjoyed by many Cambodians. These traditional instruments are all hand made in rural or urban settings, they are works of Art for themselves. Theses instruments are organized in orchestras that will be present for all important moments of their lives; Weddings, funerals, boxing matches, folk songs and dances, Buddhist rituals, etc. They are various orchestras and each of them possesses particular sound properties and instrumentation, nevertheless the two more common are the pin peat and the mohori.
The pin peat is a predominant percussion orchestra, which is most common with the shadow theatre, court dance, all-male dance-drama, and temple ceremonies. It usually consist of the following instruments:
Sralai: quadruple-reed hard hood or ivory instrument, akin to an oboe.
Roneat ek: High-pitched xylophone with twenty-one wooden or bamboo keys.
Roneat thung: Low-pitched xylophone with sixteen wooden or bamboo keys.
Roneat dek: xylophone with twenty-one steel keys.
Kong Thom: Low-pitched circle of sixteen knobbed gongs set within a large rattan frame.
Kong Touc: Similar to kong thom, but with smaller gongs and frame, and a higher pitch.
Samph : double-headed barrel drum mounted horizontally on a stand; heads covered with calf skin and played with the hands.
Skor thom: large pair of barrel drums held in tilted position on stands; head covered with cow skin; sounded with mallets.
Chheung: small handheld brass cymbals.
The mohori orchestra, combining strings with wind and percussion instruments plays folks or entertainment music. The instruments usually found in this ensemble are;
Roneat ek: High-pitched xylophone with twenty-one wooden or bamboo keys.
Roneat thung: Low-pitched xylophone with sixteen wooden or bamboo keys.
Chheung: small handheld brass cymbals.
Khloy: Bamboo flute.
Tro Chhe: high-pitched, two-strings fiddle with cylindrical resonating box made from wood, ivory or buffalo horn.
Tro Sau: Two-stringed fiddles with cylindrical resonating box made from wood, bamboo, ivory, or buffalo horn and covered with snakeskin.
Tro Ou: two-stringed fiddle with resonating box made from a coconut shell.
Krapeu or Takhe: wooden, three-stringed plucked zither; in shape of crocodile.
Khim: Hammered dulcimer
Thaun rumanea: pair of drums; one goblet drum made from clay or wood with calf or snake skin head and one shallow frame drum; may replace skor areak.
Skor areak: goblet drum made from wood or clay; head covered with snakeskin; may replace thaun rumanea.
Other instruments;
Pey Bobos or Pey: bamboo flute with double reed.
Ploy: mouth organ fashioned from a gourd with bamboo pipes.
Dances in Cambodia
Dance in Cambodia is as ancient as the temples of Angkor. Indeed, many of the temples in the Angkor complex are decorated with Apsara dancers carved in bas-relief; a single gallery in Angkor Wat alone features over 1,500 of them. The word Apsara derives, like much of the culture of ancient Angkor, from Indian Hindu influences. Apsaras were lesser goddesses of unimaginable beauty, born of a sea of churning milk, whose job it was to dance for the entertainment of higher gods. The term "apsara dance" today is interchangeable with court dance and classical dance. All refer to the form of dancing and musical accompaniment that formed a central part of the culture of the Khmer Empire from its establishment, during the 9th century AD until its decline 400 years later. Some scholars argue that there was evidence of classical dance as long ago as the 1st century.
During the 12th century reign of Jayavarman VII, over 3,000 dancers are said to have performed at the Royal Court. The dances were mostly based on stories taken from the Hindu epic the Ramayana, and the dancers were trained, as they are now, to perform four parts: Neang (the male lead), Neang Rong (the male lead), Yeaksa (the giant) and Svar (the monkey). Originally all these parts where performed by women, until men began to perform the monkey role in the final century of the Empire. The dancers originally performed topless, and so they are often depicted in bas-relief. It was only due to later Chinese influence that they began performing clothed. The dances feature over 4,500 body movements known in Khmer as kbach. A pin peat ensemble provides musical accompaniment alongside singers who narrate the stories.
Aspara Dance
One of the major forms of Khmer dancing, Apsara dance incorporates parts of other, much older forms of traditional dance with its roots in animism and primitive magic, with Hindu forms introduced in the 1st century. Classical dance took on its own unique form, adding movements and meaning, during the reigns of Kings Jayavarman I to VII.
At the heart of classical dance are the graceful movements of the Apsara dancers, adorned with gold headdresses and silken tunics and skirts, as seen carved on the walls of many of the temples at Angkor. Estimates are that there were 3,000 Apsara dancers in the 12th century court of King Jayavarman VII.
Over the centuries Khmer dancing lent its influence to the classical ballet of neighboring countries, and some of its postures and movements are similar to other Southeast Asian dance forms. Apsara dancing is one of two elements of classical ballet. There are four typical roles in Khmer dance: male, female, giant and monkey; the first three being the domain of women and girls, leaving the monkey roles to the men. In the early days it is believed that all dancers were female. Most of the dancers in the Royal Dance Troupe today are female. Dancing holds great significance for the Khmer people, and the government considers the Royal Ballet in particular to be a national treasure.
The repertoire of Apsara dances is composed of dance-dramas representing certain sequences from the Reamker, other mythical-historical tales and stories of the lives of Buddha, as well as exclusively ceremonial dances and new, shorter pieces.
Stereotyped ideals of social behavior are communicated in the pure dance as well as in the narrative pieces. The shyness, gentleness, and intelligence prized in women, and the strength and bravery of men are all recognizable through gesture, story, and facial expression to a Khmer audience.
The Sback Thom: Cambodian Shadow Theatre
Sback thom means literally "large leather ", and refers both to the form of shadow theatre performed in Cambodia and to the cut-out leather puppets it employs. This traditional form of dance is believed to have come from the ancient Siamese court in the 15th century, which explains that is also known as nang sback (nang being the Siamese word for leather).
The panels used are up to 1 square meter and these differentiate the Sback Thom from other forms of shadow theatre. These panels are attached to one or two vertical wooden rods, which lend support, and serve as handles with which the player manipulates the sback above is head. Which also distinguishes the sback thom from other shadow theater is the complementary dancing of the players, which contributes to the dancing character of the sbacks.
Most of the representations in the Sback thom take its sources in the Reamker, one of the earliest known literary works to have been composed in Khmer, which is in fact a Khmer version of the Indian Ramayana. It is thought to have been a sort of libretto for dramatic performances, and the Sback thom is entirely dedicated to representations of episodes of this epic tale. It is usually performed at open space with no raised stage.
Ceremonial Dances and Theatrical Folk Dances
Ceremonial and theatrical folk dances distinguish themselves from court dances in terms of story line, costuming, and performance setting. The ceremonial dances, as indicated, are representations of ceremonial folk dances, including dances still performed as part of ritual celebrations today. The Theatrical folk dances, are mostly inspired from daily activities in the countryside, and also cover urban interpretation and adaptation of ritual performances.
[/B]Not all of the above information may be from our time period or useful, but I am putting it here because it is interesting culturally, until I can determine which parts can be useful and what they can be transformed into. Certainly a theatre-type building and various ancillaries are possible.
Life = Like a beanstalk
[Faction Discussion] Khmer Empire
Miles
Artifex
Originally Posted by Wundai
ز آفتاب درخشان ستاره می
Strat Map Models are kind off small, no real reason of putting alot of details in them what can't be already done with textures. Still this one would be a good basis for a Battlemap Model, I'd improve the shape of the towers ofcourse
Gürkhan
I think I should level with him, and tell him what we're doing is a mod-community project, but with strong possible educational uses (like EB?). Hopefully he'll still be interested. If he wants to publish/use AUH as a case study, we should definately let him. Wondered what your thoughts are on this? For more background on Tom check out this article.
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- champa
a thai general of some kind
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