This diverse cultural region encompasses the peoples living south of China, east of India, north of Australia and west of Papua New Guinea. Mainland South-east Asia consists of the nations of Myanmar (Burma), Laos, Cambodia (Kampuchea), Vietnam, Thailand, peninsular Malaysia and Singapore. Insular South-east Asia consists of the vast archipelagos of Indonesia and the Philippines, along with Brunei and two states of eastern Malaysia in western and northern Borneo (the remainder of Borneo, called Kalimantan, is part of Indonesia). This region is home to over 350 million people, roughly 200 million of whom live in Indonesia, the most populous South-east Asian nation and the fourth most populous in the world. Many hundreds of languages are spoken in South-east Asia, some by as few as several hundred people, others (such as Javanese and Vietnamese) by 60 or 70 million people. For more detailed information, see individual country articles.
4. Rhythmic structures and stratification.
7. Mass media and popular music.
R. ANDERSON SUTTON
Despite the extraordinary diversity among the peoples of this region and the long history of cultural influence from more remote major powers, the music and related performing arts that have developed share some broad characteristics that set the region off from neighbouring East Asia, South Asia and Oceania. Vietnam is the exception; its ethnic majority supports musical practices more closely resembling Han and other Chinese music than the musics of, for example, Malaysia and Indonesia. Foremost among the South-east Asian shared characteristics is the pervasive use of knobbed gongs, which produce fixed pitch, in contrast to the flat gongs of neighbouring East Asia. These are frequently arranged in sets (gong-chimes) and are used in ensembles, ranging from a few instruments to the large Gamelan ensembles of Java and Bali, Pī phāt ensembles of Thailand and similar ensembles in Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar. Also found throughout the region are ensembles dominated by drums, usually double-headed and played in combination with a double-reed aerophone. Ensemble music frequently serves as a core component in performances of theatre and dance. When music is performed without theatre or dance, it is most often in the context of community or family ritual and only rarely in a secular ‘concert’ situation.
Vocal music tends to be highly ornamented and, when sung in conjunction with instruments, to exhibit a heterophonic relationship between melodic instrumental parts and the vocal line. Scholars have debated the appropriate way to characterize the textures of multi-part ensemble music indigenous to the region, some (especially Hood and Morton) describing Javanese and Thai music, respectively, as polyphonic, or more specifically ‘stratified polyphony’. Others (including Sutton and Brinner) suggest that even the most complex ensemble music, such as that of Central Javanese court-derived gamelan music, is best understood as heterophonic, as the pitched parts heard simultaneously are constructed as variations of a single melodic entity, either sounded explicitly in one or more voices or held in the performers' minds as a basis for their varied realizations.
This region is home to a variety of unique tuning and scale systems, most of them either pentatonic or emphasizing a pentatonic core with several (usually two) auxiliary tones. One finds nearly equidistant pentatonic (e.g. sléndro in Java) and heptatonic (e.g. Thailand) tuning systems and gapped pentatonic ones (e.g. Sundanese pélog degung, Balinese saih lima). While some music is in free rhythm, with no fixed pulse, most music of the region is pulsed and organized into cyclical binary groupings with further binary subdivisions. Triple and additive metres, though they occur occasionally in some indigenous musical practice, are atypical of the region.
This article will elaborate on these and other elements found in many of the musical traditions of South-east Asia, though it should be stressed that musicians and their audiences in South-east Asia are likely to emphasize the differences rather than the similarities between styles that can be shown analytically to resemble one another structurally.
The global flow of Euro-American popular music, through commercial recordings (primarily cassettes) and radio and television broadcasts, has had a profound impact in nearly all areas of South-east Asia in recent years, resulting not only in a widespread familiarity with pop styles and stars of the West, but also in burgeoning indigenous popular music cultures. Many South-east Asian popular musicians have adopted the instruments, harmonies and vocal styles of Western popular music to create songs in South-east Asian languages. New South-east Asian musical styles have also developed, some combining diverse external influences (such as Indonesian dangdut; see Indonesia, §VIII, 1(v)), and others combining Western popular musical elements with indigenous ones (such as the Filipino combinations of Western guitars and vocal harmonies with indigenous percussion instruments in Pinoy folk; see Philippines, §III, 3(ii)).
Relatively few primary sources exist for the indigenous musical traditions of South-east Asia. Although writing has been known in both mainland and insular South-east Asia for over 1000 years, few early writings deal directly with music or related performing arts other than to mention and occasionally describe performances. Music has largely been transmitted orally; even the court and court-derived musical traditions have remained predominantly oral, despite efforts over the last century or so (often attributable to the impetus of Western colonial powers) to notate indigenous musical repertories. Notation of core melodic lines, often with indications for interpretation by various instruments, has been developed in Java, Bali and Thailand (among others), preserved in manuscripts and, more recently, in published collections. These serve primarily as records for reference by musicians and scholars, rather than as sources to be used in performance.
The musics of South-east Asia have been subjected to widely varying degrees of scholarly inquiry by indigenous and foreign scholars. Central Javanese gamelan music (karawitan) has been the subject of many major book-length studies, providing considerable historical depth and theoretical sophistication both on traditional musicological topics (e.g. mode, performance practice, creative process etc.) and those related to cultural studies (e.g. music in relation to nationalist and post-colonial discourses). These exist in various European languages, as well as Javanese and the national language, Indonesian. In contrast, very little has been written by either indigenous or foreign scholars concerning music in Myanmar or Laos, for example, despite the variety of unique musical traditions in both. Aside from a few brief studies on instruments, repertory, performance styles and mode by Lustig, Zaw, Becker, Williamson and Garfias, publications on music in Myanmar have been focused on the dissemination of classical song texts. Even less has been written about music in Singapore, a city-state whose population consists largely of peoples of Chinese descent (with sizeable Malay and Indian minorities), or about music in Brunei, which shares much with the eastern Malaysian states of Sarawak to its south and Sabah to its north. Music in Thailand, the only country of South-east Asia never to be colonised by a European power, drew scholarly interest in the late 19th century due to its equidistant heptatonic scale. Thai scholars have written about Thai music from at least the 1930s, followed by American scholars from the 1970s.
Work on music in the Philippines has consisted mostly of in-depth studies of music of the South (Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago), stressing kulintang music. This has been complemented by a few studies of upland peoples; little, however, has been written on the music of the Christian majority. Scholarly interest in the musics and related performing arts of Malaysia has been somewhat greater, including studies of popular and mass-media musics, although focus on the music of eastern Malaysia has been rare.
Musicological study of the other countries of mainland South-east Asia has been sporadic. Recent scholarship has turned to Vietnamese, Cambodian and Laotian (especially Hmông) communities overseas, particularly in the USA. (For detailed discussion of research, see individual country entries.)
Among the great variety of musical instruments indigenous to the peoples of South-east Asia, one can identify several instrument types whose prominence helps to define South-east Asia as a musical area. Foremost among these is the knobbed or bossed Gong, a metal idiophone that is usually sounded by a padded beater. These range in size from the gong ageng (large gong) of Java, which in some instances measures over a metre in diameter, to the small kettle-gongs used in the kulintang music of the southern Philippines, the engkromong of Sabah, the talempong of West Sumatra, the khong wong of Thailand and the kyì-waìng of Myanmar. The raised knob produces a focused pitch and allows the gongs to be used in sets (gong-chimes) to play melodies, as well as to mark periodicity in ensemble compositions (see §4 below). Flat gongs (i.e. without raised knobs) are also used in South-east Asia, primarily in isolated upland communities such as those in central Luzon (Philippines) and the highlands of Vietnam.
The preferred metal for knobbed gongs throughout South-east Asia is bronze, although brass and iron are also used, sometimes as less costly substitutes for bronze. In many South-east Asian societies, metal instruments, particularly gongs made from bronze, are imbued with spiritual power. Individual instruments or even whole ensembles of these instruments may be sacred heirlooms and are given offerings of incense, water, flowers and food in order to bring favour upon the community or the individuals who own the instruments. In Java, large bronze gongs or whole gamelan sets (consisting mostly of bronze percussion instruments) are often given names with the prefix kyahi, an honorific term for venerated Islamic teacher.
Also widespread (and often played in combination with gong instruments) are various kinds of double-headed membranophones, either cylindrical or barrel-shaped, played horizontally with both hands or sometimes with a stick beater in one hand. The heads are usually of unequal size, one providing lower-pitched sounds than the other. Several gong and drum ensembles feature drum-chimes: the pat-waìng (in the Hsaìng-waìng ensemble of Myanmar) and the taganing (in the gondang ensemble of North Sumatra, Indonesia). These are sets of small, single-headed drums of graduated size and pitch, on which are played relatively rapid melodic passages, comparable to those of the gong-chimes in many other South-east Asian ensembles.
A great many ensembles that consist primarily of gongs and drums also incorporate one or more melodic instruments capable of producing a sustained pitch: usually either a reed aerophone (e.g. the hnè in the Burmese hsaìng waìng and the puik-puik in the ganrangensemble music of south Sulawesi) or a bowed lute (several varieties of so in Thai pī phāt and Mahōrī, rebab in Malaysian ma'yong theatre music and various kinds of gamelan ensembles in Java, Bali and Lombok). Flutes, while widespread throughout South-east Asia, generally play a less prominent role in ensemble music than reed aerophones, with the notable exception of the core of large end-blown bamboo flutes in the Balinese gamelan gambuh.
Slab percussion instruments are predominant in some of the large ensembles of South-east Asia, the slabs (or keys) made of metal (bronze is preferred), wood or bamboo. In many of the gamelan ensembles of Sunda, Central and East Java, Bali and Lombok, instruments consisting of from as few as four to as many as 22 metal keys of graduated size and pitch serve as the core melodic instruments. Several medium and large ensemble-types (such as the pī phāt of Thailand, similar ensembles in Cambodia and Laos, and gamelan ensembles of Indonesia and Malaysia) also include a wooden xylophone (Ranāt in Thai, Gambang in Indonesian languages). Bamboo xylophones are also used, as in the gamelan gambang of Bali, the calung ensemble of western Central Java and the Angklung ensemble of Banyuwangi, East Java.
Small ensemble combinations of musical instruments are found throughout South-east Asia and are heard in a wide variety of contexts. These range from the loud and exuberant sounds of oboe and drum ensembles, found from Myanmar to eastern Indonesia, to the soft and intimate sounds of plucked chordophones (most often lutes, sometimes zithers), which are played in the upland Philippines, the cities of Vietnam, the forests of East Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo), rural North Sumatra, the homes of Thai aristocracy, and at Islamic gatherings in Sulawesi, among countless others. While it is difficult to generalize about either the structure or the function of these musical ensembles, several broad patterns emerge. Firstly, small ensembles are more likely than large ones to be used in secular (non-ceremonial) contexts. Ample exceptions to this pattern could be listed, but in general, South-east Asian societies tend to use their larger ensembles for important rituals. Secondly, small ensembles are less likely than larger ones to be used for the accompaniment of theatre or dance. Instead, small ensembles accompany vocal music that may either convey a story or consist of the singing of improvised or semi-improvised texts on a range of subjects, including love and courtship. Furthermore, small ensembles tend not to be structured around recurring cycles marked explicitly by the sounding of gongs or other time-marking instruments, although repetition and strophic form are common. Finally, in small ensembles with more than one type of instrument, one often finds contrastive layers of musical activity: one layer of melody (if not from a vocalist, then from a double-reed, fiddle or in some instances a gong-chime or plucked chordophone), a second layer of dense percussion (sometimes melodic, sometimes more timbral and rhythmic, but constantly active) and a third layer of sparser rhythmic activity, articulating the phrases.
Music employing only a single instrument, either by itself or accompanying singing, is not uncommon in isolated societies living far from urban centres, but it is relatively rare in South-east Asia generally, at least in comparison to other major world regions. Upland peoples throughout much of South-east Asia maintain a number of solo instrumental traditions, playing jew's harp, bamboo flute, polychordal tube zither, mouth organ and various other bamboo instruments. Some of these kinds of instruments are also played in small ensemble configurations as well.
In lowland areas, especially in and around urban centres, one also finds solo instrumental genres, usually involving a chordophone and as an accompaniment to singing. Among these are the sinrilik of South Sulawesi, in which a male singer accompanies himself on a two-string fiddle (késok-késok), as well as innumerable varieties of boat lute or zither known in Indonesia as kecapi (or cognate terms; see Kacapi (i) and Kacapi (ii)), kudyapiq in the Philippines, čhakhē (jakhē) in Thailand, and so forth. Among the countries of South-east Asia, however, a solo-instrument focus is most prominent in Vietnam, where the instruments and genres bear close relationships to those of Vietnam's East Asian neighbours (especially China). Here we find an extensive repertory of art music compositions for monochord (Đàn bấu, also known as đan đoc huyen) and large board zither (Đàn tranh), among others.
The musical traditions indigenous to South-east Asia employ an enormous variety of tuning, scale and modal systems. Even within the musical practice of a single ethnolinguistic group (e.g. the Burmese of Myanmar, the Sundanese of Indonesia), one finds a multiplicity of these systems even within one genre (e.g. tembang Sunda, with kecapi (zither) and suling (vertical bamboo flute) accompanying song; see Indonesia, §V, 1). The musical traditions nurtured by courts and other official institutions are those that tend to have the most elaborated theoretical systems; nevertheless, a keen sense of pitch and concern with pitch and intervals, and evidence of modal practice (contrasting sets of hierarchically ordered tones and/or melodic gestures), are by no means limited to the court traditions. In this overview article, it will suffice to consider several representative traditions and to indicate patterns of similarity and contrast.
At the outset it is necessary to distinguish between a ‘tuning’ system and a ‘scale’ system. The former refers to the set of tones available within a particular genre, or on a particular instrument. One tuning system is differentiated from another by the intervals separating these tones and, in some instances, by the absolute pitch of the tones. A scale system consists of the tones used within a given musical piece or passage and may involve fewer tones than those available.
An inventory of even the more prominent tuning systems in South-east Asia would require a lengthy exposition. Yet several characteristics seem widespread. The first of these is a tendency toward tuning systems of either five or seven tones per octave. The five-tone systems vary in intervallic structure from near equidistance, as in the case of Javanese sléndro (in which intervals are generally larger than a tempered whole-tone, 200 cents, but smaller than a tempered minor 3rd, 300 cents), to a gapped tuning that combines small and large intervals, as in the Sundanese pélog degung or Balinese saih lima (in which intervals range from close to a tempered semitone, 100 cents, to a major 3rd, 400 cents). The seven-tone tuning systems vary from the near equidistance of Thai classical music (played by the pī phāt, mahōrī, and khruang, saī ensembles) to gapped tunings consisting of small and large intervals, as in Javanese pélog.
It is important to note that the concept of a tuning system in South-east Asia generally does not carry with it an absolute standard, either of absolute pitch or of exact intervallic structure. In Java, for example, the ‘same’ tuning (e.g. sléndro or pélog) often differs from one set of instruments to another, both in intervallic structure and in absolute pitch, in some instances only very slightly but in others quite markedly. Musicians and listeners have no trouble identifying all the sléndro tunings as such, but the more discerning among them readily distinguish emotive nuances associated with particular intervallic configuration, as well as the overall pitch (high, medium, low) of one ensemble relative to others.
Although moderately flexible five- and seven-tone tunings are predominant in South-east Asia, one finds others, such as the Balinese saih angklung, the tuning used for the gamelan angklung, which consists of only four tones per octave and is interpreted by some to be derived (or derivable) from Balinese seven-tone saih pitu and by others to derive from the Balinese equivalent of Javanese sléndro, omitting the fifth degree of the scale. Regardless of its origins (which would be next to impossible to prove with any degree of certainty) the saih angklung tuning consists of one large interval (close to a 4th, 500 cents), and three medium intervals (each somewhere between a major 2nd and a minor 3rd).
In many parts of contemporary South-east Asia, whether as a result of extended contact during the colonial era or of more recent influence from Western music through the mass media, some ensembles have been created with Western equal-tempered or diatonic tuning; other ‘older’ ensembles have also undergone a process of alteration that has included retuning to these Western tunings. For example, in West Sumatra, Indonesia, where a great variety of pentatonic tunings can be found for the local drum and knobbed-gong ensembles known as talempong, teachers at the government-sponsored high school for the arts (SMKI, Sekolah Menengah Karawitan Indonesia) and the college-level academy (ASKI, Akademi Seni Karawitan Indonesia) developed a new talempongensemble consisting of the same kinds of instruments, but tuned to the Western seven-tone diatonic scale and known as talempong diatonik. In Vietnam, government-sponsored troupes, affiliated with the National Conservatory in Hanoi, routinely use indigenous bamboo idiophones and aerophones derived from Vietnam's many minority groups, but retuned to Western equal-tempered tuning. The ensembles comprised of these modified instruments play melodies supported by Western diatonic harmony. Outside formal arts institutions, similar kinds of modification have been made in many instances throughout South-east Asia. Other indigenous ensembles, such as the Kulintang ensembles of North Sulawesi, Indonesia, and the Rondalla ensemble of the Christianized areas of the Philippines, exist only in Western tuning.
Those derived from the various tunings found in South-east Asia are nearly always either pentatonic, or heptatonic with a pentatonic core. In many cases the scale may simply consist of all of the available tones in the tuning. For example, most pieces employing Javanese sléndro tuning use all five degrees despite greater emphasis on some tones than on others (often related to the pathet system; see §(iii) below). Where seven tones are available in the tuning system, musical passages or whole pieces often employ only five tones, or emphasize five tones, with an occasional substitution of one or both of the other tones. The Javanese pélog tuning system yields two basic scales, named bem and barang. Pélogtones are generally referred to by ciphers (from 1 to 7); the bem scale consists of tones 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6, while the barang scale consists of tones 2, 3, 5, 6 and 7. In actual practice, tone 4 may replace tone 3 in bem and replace tone 5 in barang. Tone 1 occasionally appears as a substitute for 7 in barang pieces and tone 7 as a substitute for 1 in bem pieces, although these are the defining tones of their respective scales (i.e. tone 1 in pélog is sometimes referred to as bem and tone 7 as barang).
In addition to the occasional appearance of substitute tones from outside the pentatonic core, some South-east Asian music may be pentatonically based but may modulate between two or more pentatonic scales. For example, the music most commonly played on the pī phāt ensembles of Thailand emphasizes five of the available seven tones per octave, at least within a given phrase or section. Often there can be a kind of tonal transition that David Morton has referred to as ‘metabole’, a term from Brailoiu (1955) and applied by Tran Văn Khê to Vietnamese music (1962) to indicate a change in pitch level, as distinct from the Western practice of modulation between harmonic or key areas. The practice of metabole involves the introduction of an auxiliary tone near the end of a pentatonic melodic phrase, serving as a pivot into the next phrase, which now uses a different pentatonic scale with the substitute or auxiliary tone becoming core, and one of the former core tones becoming auxiliary.
A great deal of scholarship on the music of South-east Asia has been devoted to the issues of modal classification systems and modal practice. One finds terms relating to what can be loosely called ‘mode’ in the practice of the Saùng-gauk (harp) and hsaìng-waìng (tuned-drum and gong ensemble) of Myanmar, the Khaen (mouth organ) music of Laos and north-eastern Thailand, many of the solo and small instrumental ensembles of lowland Vietnam, and the various gamelan and some other small ensemble musics of West, Central and East Java (among others). Determining criteria for modal classification in these systems include hierarchical weight of individual tones within a particular scale, melodic contour (especially at cadential points), pitch level of melodic contours, accompanying drones, tone clusters and final tones, as well as associative criteria such as mood, appropriate time of performance and place or culture of origin. Other musical traditions, such as the pī phāt and other ensembles of Thailand and the various gamelan genres of Bali, appear to operate under similar kinds of constraints and have been interpreted by analysts to exemplify ‘modal practice’ despite the fact that indigenous musicians and theorists do not identify particular modes or comparable categories explicitly (both Thai and Balinese musicians do, however, employ terms relating to scales).
Consideration of the scholarship on the Javanese modal concept pathet, for example, reveals a complex entity: one widely applied and discussed by indigenous practitioners, and one whose determining criteria are largely, but not entirely, agreed upon (see also Mode, §V, 4(i) and (ii)). Javanese generally identify three pathet for each of the two tuning systems and order them as they occur in the music accompanying all-night shadow puppet performances (wayang kulit). Regardless of time of day, outside the context of all-night shadow puppet performances, pieces in sléndro pathet nem or pélog pathet lima, mostly calm and subdued in mood, are usually played early in a performance, those in sléndro pathet sanga and pélog pathet nem are played afterward, and those in sléndro pathet manyura and pélog pathet barang are reserved for the final portion.
Scholars have mostly attempted to define pathet with reference to the melodies of gamelan pieces, particularly the main instrumental melody known as balungan, which is conceived of as multi-octave but played in single-octave form by several of the slab percussion instruments known as saron and slenthem (Kunst, 1934, Hood, 1954, and Becker, Traditional music in Modern Java, 1980). Javanese often emphasize register or pitch level in relation to pathet, equating this concept in some ways to the Western concept of ‘key’. Some Javanese pieces can be played in several pathet, ‘transposed’ from one pitch level to another; yet in the Javanese case, the exact intervals are not maintained. Singers and instrumentalists employ flexible melodic patterns, which they can perform (with modifications) at different pitch levels depending in part on the pathet of the piece or, on a smaller level, the pathetof the phrase. Sléndro pathet nem stands in a more complicated or ambiguous relationship to the other sléndro pathet. In some passages, the register of the multi-octave parts is indeed lower than is normally found in the pathet sanga or manyura, but in others it is felt to combine or modulate between phrases that feel like the other two sléndro pathet.
The concept of pathet in pélog tuning operates somewhat differently, for instead of one scale with five tones per octave, péloghas two basic five-tone scales, each with two alternate tones. There is little debate over pathet barang, which is easily recognized by the presence of tone 7 and the avoidance of tone 1. Yet pathet lima and pathet nem are often difficult to distinguish based on tonal criteria alone, since both avoid tone 7, employ five other pélog tones (sometimes with tone 4 substituting for tone 3) and are not simply one or more tones above or below each other. Many of the pieces most often categorized as pathet lima have passages in extremely low register and emphasize tones 1 and 5; otherwise, it is the perceived mood of the piece, including the playing style in which it is most often performed, that is often the major factor in determining the assignment of pathet classification when differentiating these two (calmer pieces as pathet lima, livelier ones as nem).
Lao-speaking players of the khaen (khene) in north-eastern Thailand and Laos distinguish five modal categories called lai in performance. These are based on a combination of tonal features: pentatonic core scale, chosen from an available seven tones per octave; two drone tones; characteristic final tone; and in most cases, special tone clusters. For instance, lai po sai employs a scale comprised of tones 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6 from what is the equivalent of a seven-tone Western diatonic major scale (the tuning of the khaen, from which this and several other five-tone scales are derived, is almost certainly not a result of Western influence); two drone tones (1 and 5, sounded by closing the finger holes on the appropriate pipes with wax); two tone clusters of open 4ths and 5ths (built on tone 6 and tone 1); and tone 1 as the final. Lai noi employs the same pentatonic scale but with different drones, tone clusters and final. The other three lai (sutsanaen, soi and nyai) can be distinguished on tonal criteria alone.
Javanese pathet and Lao lai are generally glossed as ‘mode’ in English; while they share some principles in common, the contrasts between them are striking and attest to the diversity of South-east Asia's musical traditions.
Attempts to generalize about rhythmic structures for such a vast area as South-east Asia run the risk of gross omissions and distortions. But aside from the prevalence in this region – and this region alone – of knobbed gong instruments, the other factors most widely shared by the musical traditions of South-east Asia are the binary, cyclical structures of many ensemble musics (repeating duple rhythms, marked consistently by one or more instruments) and the layering of musical activity in distinct strata.
Most fundamental is a pervasive duple or binary approach to rhythm, such that not only is the organization of pulse and subdivision in most indigenous music duple, but the phrasing at nearly every level is rigorously binary as well. The lengthy gamelan pieces of Central Java almost appear a majestic celebration of duple time: some have large phrases of 256 beats, which consist of four secondary phrases of 64 beats, these in turn consisting of eight groupings of eight beats, and each beat subdivided by 2, 4 or 8 beats, for example. The spirited asymmetrical rhythms of the interlocking kotekan in Bali's flashy gamelan gong kebyar, with the exception of some recent compositions, combine rhythmic cells that form units of even length (e.g. 8, 16). Even those genres typified by asymmetrical rhythm, such as the 5 + 3 of Balinese gamelan gambang, find their uniqueness in oppositional contrast with the prevailing binary norm.
In the music of mainland South-east Asia, such as the saùng-gaukand hsaìng-waìng of Myanmar, the pī phāt, mahōrī and khruang saī of Thailand, and related ensembles in Cambodia (pin peat) and Laos (piphat), the duple rhythm is marked by the sound of a small set of hand cymbals (Myanmar: sì, yagwìn; Thailand: ching, etc.), sometimes in alternation with a second hand-held percussion instrument of different size (the larger Thai cymbal chāp), or timbre (the Burmese wooden wà). It is the open, long-duration sound that marks the weaker beats and the closed, short-duration sound that marks the stronger ones. In the gamelan and related knobbed-gong ensembles of Malaysia and Indonesia, other instruments perform a similar function, although the role of punctuation is in some cases greatly elaborated.
Not all ensemble music in South-east Asia incorporates this same kind of explicit marking of binary time. The kulintang music of the southern Philippines, for instance, often involves repeating interlocking ostinatos played on one or more varieties of large gongs, with an evolving melody played on the lead instrument (the kulintang gong-chime). Yet this music is predominantly duple as well. Some of the ensemble music of South Sulawesi, such as the accompaniment for the mancak martial arts of the Makassarese, employs interlocking drumming in triple metre, albeit with duple subdivision.
Alongside the predominance of a binary orientation to rhythm is the prevalence of cyclical musical form. While not all South-east Asian music is cyclical, much of it is, particularly instrumental or predominantly instrumental ensemble music. Phrases are often repeated many times, with or without significant variation, and only end or proceed to a subsequent phrase when an aural signal is given by the ensemble director (usually a drummer). Many pieces consist of a group of phrases (e.g. ABCD), each with its own distinct melody filling one rhythmic cycle. As the music proceeds from A to B, the percussion patterns that mark rhythm are repeated while the melody changes, but at the conclusion of D, the piece usually returns to A, and the entire larger cycle (ABCD) is played through a number of times, until an ending is signalled.
Another prominent feature pertaining to the organization of time in some musical genres of South-east Asia is the performance of cycles at different tempi, which can also involve different densities of figuration. Judith Becker has pointed out important similarities between the Thai variation practice known as thao (thaw) and the Javanese practice of irama (‘A Southeast Asian Musical Process’, 1980). Said to have developed as a courtly game, some cyclical pieces can be performed at one-half of the original tempo or at twice or even four times the tempo of the original. The acute listener recognizes the piece in these altered rhythmic forms, with many melody tones interpolated in the expanded version and only the pillar tones retained in the compressed version. In performance, one often hears the expanded version followed by the original, which is followed by the compressed version. In similar fashion, many Javanese cyclical pieces are heard at several levels of expansion or irama level, measured by the ratio between the balungan (skeletal melody) beat and the parts that evenly subdivide it. The major difference is that in Thai performances the musicians simply jump from one level of expansion to the next, maintaining a steady tempo at each level, while the Javanese pieces move from one irama level to another through gradual slackening or quickening of the tempo, with the subdividing instruments adjusting their level of subdivision as the tempo demands.
The texture of much ensemble music of South-east Asia is ‘stratified’, consisting of multiple layers of contrasting melodic and rhythmic density. Allowing for great variation from one instance to another, one can nevertheless propose a general typography for the layers that constitute the various ensemble traditions of the region. This includes the presence of a melody, either sung or performed on an instrument with sustained tones, such as double reed or fiddle, but sometimes played on an idiophone or plucked lute; a pattern of punctuation, almost always played on tuned idiophones (most often knobbed gongs) and often symmetrical and interlocking, so that most of these punctuating instruments are heard in alteration rather than simultaneously; a repeating asymmetrical rhythmic pattern or series of patterns played by one or more drums; and dense percussive activity that may or may not relate heterophonically to a melody. Despite the widely different sound of a full Javanese or large Balinese gamelan, a Thai mahōrī, a Minangkabau talempong (west Sumatra, Indonesia), a Malaysian wayang kulit Kelantan ensemble, and a small Karo Batak gendang keteng-keteng quartet (north Sumatra, Indonesia), each has three or all four of these kinds of activity heard simultaneously. In some cases, such as the Makassarese ganrang ensemble, the asymmetrical rhythmic patterns and dense percussive activity cannot be readily separated, since the pair of interlocking drums fulfill both criteria.
In the large ensemble traditions with two or more melodic parts, often an underlying basic melody is said to be present, whether sounded explicitly by one or more voice or instruments or merely underlying the parts actually sounded. In these cases, the relation between melodic parts is most often heterophonic, each part deriving from the basic melody as a variation (elaboration, abstraction or some transformation), though the high degree of contrast in both rhythmic density and melodic contour between points of convergence has led some scholars to identify some South-east Asian ensemble music (such as Javanese gamelan and Thai pī phāt) as polyphonic.
Completely different approaches to rhythm and texture are evident in some indigenous musical genres, particularly in the areas where percussion-dominated ensembles are not emphasized. At an even more general level than that outlined above, Maceda (see Osman, 1969) has suggested that widely divergent South-east Asian musics employ ‘drones’ (as this includes not only constantly sounded tones, but reiterated single tones) and ostinati (repeating rhythmic patterns) that either combine to form melody or underlie a separate melody.
Much of the music of South-east Asia consists of flexible items of repertory, which will differ at least in some aspects of rhythm and melody from one instance of performance to the next and often even in successive repetitions of a single phrase. Variation, sometimes cultivated or even pre-composed and sometimes spontaneously realized at the moment of performance, is a widespread characteristic of musical presentation. This may be evident not only in the details of a flute melody, a drum pattern or the interlocking between two metallophones, but also in the texts that are sung. Some genres, such as the Malay pantun and Lao mo lam, may require some degree of spontaneous originality on the part of the singers. Others, such as central Javanese gamelan, involve singers who often read the texts they sing; but multiple versions of the same text can be found, varied through the intertwining of oral and written transmission.
At least a moderate amount of flexibility is found in the large ensemble musics, with the performers making decisions about several aspects of the parts they perform, some before performance, others (particularly ornamental details) only as the performance unfolds (and often in response to decisions made by other musicians). This kind of flexibility is constrained by conventions that a competent musician must understand and that, depending on the genre and the particular instrumental or vocal part, may range from simple choices between two or three alternatives to a much greater opportunity for individuality and originality that can be called improvisation. Yet even in the most seemingly unconstrained playing and singing, a complex set of conventions is almost always operating, with responses that often involve the use of formulaic units, moulded in subtle ways to facilitate the development of individual styles. Nevertheless, for some ensemble music, such as that of the Balinese gamelan gong kebyar, a composer determines all (or nearly all) the details of rhythmic pattern, tempo, melody and even dynamics, such that the resultant piece is a fixed entity.
In the instances of flexibility, however, many factors contribute to the final shape of a performance, not just the spontaneous whims of the performers. Most of the large ensembles have within their ranks a designated leader or two, usually a drummer or player of a lead melodic instrument. Aural signals from the lead musician(s) indicate whether to speed up, slow down, change dynamics, proceed to a different phrase or section of the piece etc. In many instances, the choices made by the leaders will, in turn, be determined by the requirements of the context in which they are performing. This might be nothing more than ending a piece at the moment a host at a reception indicates he is ready to make a speech, or it can involve the constant coordination between music and movement throughout a dance or theatrical performance, in which music serves a central role.
South-east Asia is home to a truly extraordinary number of dance and theatrical genres. Aside from ‘modern drama’ (Western plays or indigenous ones inspired by the Western theatrical tradition), nearly all South-east Asian theatre incorporates musical accompaniment and often dance. Numerous traditions of dance-drama are found from Myanmar to Indonesia; in a number of instances, the actor-dancers may sing all or some of their dialogue. Masked plays are found in many parts of South-east Asia, as are puppet plays that utilize marionettes, wooden stick-puppets or leather shadow-puppets. In addition to local stories, the Hindu epics Ramayana and Mahabharata from India serve as the basis for many theatre genres throughout much of South-east Asia, as do Buddhist Jataka tales in most of mainland South-east Asia, Panji (Inao) stories in Myanmar, Thailand, Java and Bali, and Arab stories in the Islamic areas. Performances are generally characterized by a high degree of stylization and some degree of spontaneity in gesture and dialogue, and present a mixture of comedy with a non-humorous plot. Dance movements emphasize maximum flexing of the fingers and toes, manipulation of costume parts (such as a scarf) and independence of body parts. Movement and costume often represent codified aspects of a character's identity (king, warrior, ogre types etc.) and personality (e.g. humble, impetuous, refined, coarse). Many dance genres incorporate elements of martial arts, and some martial arts (such as Malay and Indonesian silat) are performed (as quasi-dance) with musical accompaniment.
The music used in theatre and dance performances is seldom unique to a particular play or dance, but rather consists of pieces that are part of a larger repertory that may be used for a number of plays, dances, or even a variety of genres within the culture area. Similar kinds of ensembles (and, in some cases, even the same musical pieces) may be used for different theatrical genres within a single area; however, the music that accompanies masked dance-drama in Thailand, for example, is quite different from that which accompanies masked dance-drama in Bali. The coverage below, therefore, proceeds by country, with elements of cross-cultural similarity pointed out where appropriate (further information on the theatre genres of South-east Asian countries can be found under their respective names).
South-east Asia, §6: Dance and theatre
Representing the sources of the classical genres of Thailand are lkhaon kbach boran, in which a mostly female cast presents stories from the Ramayana (Khmer: Reamker), the Panji legend or local stories; and lkhaon khaol, in which masked male dancers present Rāmāyana stories. For lakon kbach boran, musical accompaniment consists of the pin peat and a small female chorus, with the addition of a fiddle for Panji stories. As in Thai lakhon nai, the singing is accompanied by hand cymbals and drum. For the almost extinct lkhaon khaol, two narrators provide the dialogue for the masked actor-dancers; in addition to the narration a pin peataccompanies entrances, exits and battles. The popular commercial genre, lkhaon basak, also employs a pin peat ensemble, along with several Chinese-derived instruments and Western keyboard, drums, trumpet and violin. Chinese and Vietnamese stories are featured in addition to local ones, over a period of up to six nights. Shadow puppetry in Cambodia has involved large puppets, each held by a dancing puppeteer and presenting Ramker stories derived from the lkhaon khaol dance-drama.
South-east Asia, §6: Dance and theatre
Dance has played a central role in the ritual life of numerous Indonesian communities. Dances may depict human activities (hunting, planting, weaving), represent animals (birds, horses, monkeys, even frogs), or provide an opportunity for courtship and flirtation. Much dance activity, particularly in Java and Bali, is in the context of dance-dramas presenting stories involving interaction between a cast of characters. These range from the highly abstract, refined, and subtle female court dances of central Java (bedhaya and srimpi) and Bali (legong kraton) to spontaneous and humorous popular theatre genres (e.g. Javanese ludruk and Balinese arja). For the most part, dance-dramas have proliferated in Java and Bali, with only a few genres (e.g. Minangkabau randai, Makassarese kondo bulèng) found on other Indonesian islands prior to the national government incentives, beginning in the 1970s, to develop dance-dramas for national contests and festivals. Doll and shadow puppetry are also mostly found in Java and Bali (with some derivatives in South Kalimantan and Lombok).
In Central and East Java, wayang kulit purwa, featuring stories derived from the Mahabharata and Ramayana, is considered by many to be the supreme Javanese performing art (fig.1). Still closely associated with family and community rituals (weddings, circumcisions, harvests), wayang kulit purwa is performed by a single puppeteer who narrates, carries on all dialogue, manipulates leather shadow puppets by means of buffalo-horn sticks attached to the puppet body and its moveable arms, sings mood songs (sulukan) and directs the gamelan musicians through a combination of verbal cues and rhythmic knocking on the wooden puppet chest (kothak) and metal plaques (kecrèk) suspended from it. Closely related, but now rarely performed, is the wayang kulit gedhog, which presents Panji stories and employs a repertory of péloggamelan pieces and sulukan, in contrast to the music for wayang kulit purwa, which was formerly entirely in sléndro and remains primarily so today.
Several varieties of dance-drama have developed over the last two centuries that translate the stories and many of the conventions of wayang kulit purwa to human dancer-actors performing in a Javanese pavilion (pendhapa) or, in the commercial version, on a proscenium stage. The dancer-actors speak their own lines and, with the exception of clown-servants, perform all action as dance. In the early 1960s, a related genre, sendratari (from seni, drama, tari: art, drama, dance), was developed without verbal dialogue. Rarer genres include the langen mandra wanara and langen driyan, in which characters sing all the dialogue in indigenous verse forms (macapat). All of these dance-drama forms are accompanied by full gamelan, with pieces mostly in sléndro tuning. More popular both in commercial theatres and on television is kethoprak, in which actors present stories of Javanese history with incidental gamelan accompaniment. Most dialogue is spoken (though some is sung, with little or no dancing. The East Javanese ludruk intersperses comic routines and songs between acts of the plays, which most often concern contemporary life. Formerly accompanied by a small oboe and percussion ensemble, ludruk is now accompanied by gamelan.
A prominent form of theatre in West Java is the doll-puppet genre wayang golèk, which presents Ramayana and Mahabharata stories to Sundanese gamelan saléndro accompaniment. Masked dance-dramas (topèng) depict characters from the Panji stories. The widely popular jaipongan, which developed in West Java from the earlier singer-dancer genre ketuk tilu, is a social dance and music form with a small, eclectic ensemble featuring spectacular drumming and a female singer-dancer who may perform on stage in front of an audience or while dancing with male partners in a social dance.
Balinese dance and drama, for the most part, have their origins in religious ritual and continue to serve ritual functions. Some genres involve trance possession, such as the barong and sanghyang. The barong, accompanied by a relatively large Balinese gamelan (gong kebyar or a derivative), depicts the struggle between the forces of an evil witch (Rangda) and a benign lion-like figure (Barong), whose faithful defenders fall into trance as they attack and are repelled by the powerful Rangda (fig.2). A variety of sanghyang forms are known, some involving trance possession by animal spirits. Best known is the sanghyang dedari, in which young girls without formal dance training, accompanied not by gamelan but by a vocal chorus, go into a trance and perform movements resembling those of the complex legong (court-derived) dance, each dancer balanced on a man's shoulders.
Legong as performed by trained dancers is accompanied by a large gamelan pelegongan (closely resembling gamelan semar pagulingan) and enacts legends from East Java. While not involving trance, legong is often performed for temple ceremonies, as are many Balinese dance and dramatic forms. Gambuh, said to be Bali's oldest courtly dance-drama form, presents Panji stories accompanied by the unique, flute-dominated gamelan gambuh. Gamelan gong kebyar, or derivatives, accompanies the various kinds of masked dance and dance-drama in Bali: jauk, telek, wayang topeng and wayang wong.
Other genres include the often comic arja drama, the martial barisdance (performed either by ranks of lance-bearing dancers or as a solo dance, without lance), and cak (kecak, in which a chorus of men sitting cross-legged in concentric circles shout rapid interlocking syllables and sing in imitation of Balinese gamelan sounds). The cak chorus now usually accompanies dance scenes from the Rāmāyana, with the chorus likened to the monkey army that aids Rama in his efforts to save his wife Sita and defeat her abductor, the lustful and impulsive ogre-king Rawana. The addition of the dance was inspired by German artist and musician Walter Spies in the 1930s.
Like its Javanese counterpart, Balinese shadow puppetry is also called wayang kulit and is largely devoted to Mahabharata and Ramayana stories, but it contrasts with the Javanese wayang kulit purwa in lasting less than eight hours and in utilizing a smaller ensemble: a quartet of four gender for Mahabharata stories, which is augmented by a few gongs and drum (batel) for Ramayana stories.
Many Balinese dance and dramatic forms are performed for tourists; the barong and cak, for instance, can be seen daily in tourist performances but are also performed at ritually appropriate times in temple courtyards for the Balinese.
Dance-drama and other forms of theatre are rare elsewhere in Indonesia, but varieties of dance abound. These range from the virtuosic body-slapping saman and seudati dances of Aceh, Sumatra, to the stately Makassarese pakarena and Buginese pajaga female group dances of South Sulawesi and various warrior and social dances. Most dance involves instrumental accompaniment with at least one drum, but some rely only on dancers’ singing and body percussion. In Muslim areas, including rural Java, frame drums (Rebana) and terbang are widely used.
South-east Asia, §6: Dance and theatre
Prior to the turbulent 1970s, Laos supported a royal troupe that performed court dance-drama closely related to that of Cambodia and Thailand, accompanied by piphat (the Lao version of the pī phāt). More prevalent is the mo lam lüang, a commercial theatre genre with roots in the likē plays of Thailand but utilizing mo lam singing and accompanied by one or more khaen. Mo lam lüang is also performed in north-eastern Thailand among the Lao speaking population.
South-east Asia, §6: Dance and theatre
Malaysian theatrical genres reflect cultural influences from neighbouring cultures, especially Thailand and Indonesia, as well as India, China, the Middle East and Europe. Ma'yong dance-drama, with roots in village shamanic practices and briefly supported as a court art in Kelantan in the early 20th century, relates Arab and local stories and legends. Music is central to the genre, with actors and chorus singing in a vocal style suggesting Arab derivation, accompanied by two interlocking drums (gendang), a pair of gongs (tetawak) and a three-string fiddle (rebab). Found mostly in areas near the Thai border and closely resembling the Thai equivalent genre (lakhōn jatri), menora is a ritual dance-drama, with men and women enacting the story of the menora bird. The dancers, with a chorus, sing to the musical accompaniment of a small ensemble that includes Malaysian and Thai instruments (see Malaysia, §I, 3 for further discussion).
Malaysia has supported a variety of shadow play genres, some nearly extinct. Wayang kulit purwa is performed in Johore by people of Javanese descent and utilizes puppets and conventions directly borrowed from Central Javanese tradition. Wayang kulit Melayu (which is almost extinct) mixes Malay dialect with Old Javanese, presenting Panji stories as well as those from the purwa repertory. Wayang gedek, derived from the Thai nāng talung, is still found in the northern states of peninsular Malaysia, and mixes Malay with some Thai words and performance conventions. Wayang kulit Kelantan (wayang Siam) is the most popular form. Musical accompaniment varies somewhat from region to region, but generally incorporates two double-reed aerophones and some percussion instruments.
The major genre of popular, commercial theatre is the Malay bangsawan, improvised musical plays featuring Arabic stories and local Malay history. Songs from a variety of origins are incorporated into these performances, many of them inspired by Western popular music. The accompaniment now emphasizes Western band instruments. Despite the international nature of its origins, bangsawan is promoted by Malaysian officials as a national art. Other forms of both popular and ritual drama and dance are supported by the large Chinese and Indian communities.
South-east Asia, §6: Dance and theatre
Probably best-known of the theatrical genres of Myanmar is the nat-pwè, a shamanistic ritual in which one or more of the 37 spirits (nat) are invoked to the accompaniment of hsaìng-waìng. The main performer is a shamanic medium who dances, falls into trance and communicates spirit messages through an assistant. Non-ritual performances of nat-pwè present the dances without the element of trance or spirit-contact. In contrast, the popular entertainment known as zat-pwè enacts the Jataka stories (the lives of the Buddha). This genre involves a combination of juxtaposed elements, including two contrastive music ensembles: a hsaìng-waìng stage left and a Western dance band stage right. These ensembles perform separately to provide music before the play and to accompany songs and dances during the play, but they may sound together at exciting moments in the play itself. Some of the music and dance found in zat-pwè is derived from a court dance-drama form known as zat-kyì, which flourished during the decades following the sacking of the Thai kingdom of Ayudhya in 1767, at which time Thai musicians and dancers were brought to the Burmese court. The zat-kyì presented stories from the Indian Rāmāyana epic, as well as the Javanese Panji (Inao) stories. Other Burmese forms include the yok-thei-pwè, a distinctive marionette puppet theatre, now rarely performed. The characteristic movements of this genre have had a clear influence on some Burmese dance, in which the dancer's limbs appear to be suspended by strings, often seeming to go temporarily limp. Musical accompaniment involves a small hsaìng-waìng ensemble.
South-east Asia, §6: Dance and theatre
Theatre in the Philippines has been closely related to the Catholic church. The sinakulo (cenaculo), which can last a full week, enacts the Passion of Christ and incorporates some singing. The Passion story can also be sung as pasyon, which involves performers who sing, usually in alternation, from a printed text in vernacular language. The komedya (comedia) features melodramatic plays in which romantic intrigues often lead to confrontations between Christian and Muslim kingdoms, with the Muslims invariably converting to Christianity. The komedya is also known as moro-moro (‘Muslim’) and was formerly accompanied by guitar and percussion (for entrances, exits and battles), but now Western brass band instruments are preferred. The sarsuwela (zarzuela), is a music theatre genre brought from Spain as a form of entertainment for the upper and middle classes, in which was developed an indigenous Filipino repertory of plays, usually with new music composed for each play. While instrumentation may vary, the music for these theatrical forms is Western- and harmonically-based. Indigenous kulintang (knobbed gong ensemble) music of the southern Philippines and ensembles of flat-gongs (gangsa), bamboo idiophones and aerophones in the upland areas accompany various dance genres.
South-east Asia, §6: Dance and theatre
Like Malaysia, Singapore also is home to substantial Malay, Indian and Chinese communities, although here the overwhelming majority is Chinese. Aside from contemporary drama in Western style, one can find performances of Chinese opera, called wayang, with standard Chinese instrumentation. In addition, popular and ritual drama and dance of other communities may occasionally be performed.
South-east Asia, §6: Dance and theatre
Among Thailand's many theatrical and dance genres, the lakhon chātrī is generally thought to be the oldest and is certainly the lengthiest (lasting as many as 12 nights). Lakhon chātrī originated as part of an animist (non-Buddhist) ritual, with an all-male cast. The Jataka story of the menora bird is now enacted, with the three major roles taken by female dancer-actors. The musical accompaniment consists of khong khū (a set of two gongs), two thōn chātrī (single-headed drums), klong (barrel drum, resting on a tripod), ching (hand cymbals) and pī (oboe), sometimes with a so ū (two-string fiddle) added.
Lakhon nai and khōn, often referred to as Thai classical dance-dramas, both developed from court genres introduced from Cambodia in the 15th century. All roles in the lakhon nai are performed by females, who speak their own lines and sing and dance as they act (fig.3). Their songs, and those of a female chorus, are accompanied by only the ching and soft-sounding drum. A larger pī phāt ensemble plays for their stage entrances and exits and accompanies the dances. Khōn is a masked dance-drama, predominantly male (formerly exclusively so, though now the female roles are often played by women), portraying episodes from the Rāmāyana (Thai: Ramakien) through gesture but without speech. Formerly accompanied by a small pī phāt ensemble, recent versions employ a large pī phāt and a chorus.
More popular than any of these Thai dance-dramas is the likē, a popular theatre deriving some elements from lakhon nai but with a wide range of subject-matter, including stories of contemporary life. The accompanying pī phāt ensemble plays some court pieces for entrances and exits as well as newer compositions, including those sung by the actors.
Several forms of shadow puppetry are known in Thailand, though neither is as popular or as pervasive as the wayang kulit of peninsular Malaysia, Java and Bali. Nang yai is a Thai shadow play utilizing large puppets, portraying characters set in a tableau, without moveable limbs. The nāng talung features Rāmāyana episodes as well as some local stories to the accompaniment of a pī, a fiddle (either so ū or so duang) and various percussion instruments.
South-east Asia, §6: Dance and theatre
The major forms of theatre in Vietnam incorporate musical accompaniment and many performative elements from Chinese theatrical traditions. Hát boi (also known as hát tuong) is a cultivated, classical musical drama, employing Chinese-derived costumes, staging and make-up and accompanied by a large variety of Chinese-derived instruments: spike fiddles (đàn cò and đàn gáo), moon-shaped lute (đàn nguyệt), oboe (kèn tiêu), wooden clappers (song lang), flat gongs (đồng la), cymbals (châp choa), small drum (trống chiến), 16-string zither (dàn tranh) and transverse flute (ông sáo). Actors sing extended songs, often in falsetto and accompanied by the softer melodic instruments; action (entrances, exits, battles) is accompanied by the percussion instruments and oboe. Songs in the hát boi repertory are classified either as hát khéch (Chinese) or hát nam(Vietnamese).
A comparable genre from southern Vietnam is tuong tau, also a classical music drama but without the falsetto and Chinese songs of hát boi. In the 20th century it has been superseded by the commercial operetta form cẢi lửng, which is performed in commercial theatres and widely distributed on video tapes. CẢi lửng is usually accompanied by a mix of Vietnamese instruments (moon-shaped lute, spike fiddle, woodblock and zither) and Western band instruments (including electric guitar, bass and drum set). Of the many songs performed in cẢi lửng, the best known is the genre vọng cổ (‘Remembering the past’), which may be performed 10 to 15 times within a single evening.
The other major theatrical genre of Vietnam is hát chèo, a less elaborate form than either hát boi or CẢi lửng, with less obvious ties to Chinese traditions. Songs are performed for a variety of scenes, accompanied by an ensemble that formerly consisted of flute, fiddle and drum but is now somewhat expanded.
The introduction into South-east Asia of early forms of recording in the first years of the 20th century, followed by radio (1920s–30s), television (1950s–60s), commercial cassettes (1970s) and video (1980s), together with various forms of Euro-American popular music, have stimulated development of numerous popular music genres, indigenous media production (even in some of the more isolated communities) and the spread of international popular culture that has been eagerly consumed by some and disdained and censored by others. The acoustic and electric guitar is played throughout South-east Asia, accompanying songs introduced from the West and those in local languages that have been created combining aspects of international and local musical styles.
Practically every cultural group with access to cheap cassette reproducing equipment has made and disseminated music. Local radio and television stations often broadcast recorded (or, occasionally, live) performances of popular music and may also present some older, indigenous genres identified as ‘traditional’ (for example, lakhon nai can be seen occasionally on Thai television, and regular broadcasts of wayang kulit heard on Indonesian radio). Chinese and Indian music (mostly popular, but some traditional) is also widely distributed in South-east Asia, mostly within the Chinese and Indian communities.
In the music identified as ‘popular’, rock influences have been the most widespread; rock music exists in all the national languages and some of the local ones. Influence from other parts of Asia can be found in genres such as Indonesia's dangdut, which has origins in Indian film music and North Sumatran styles. Much popular music in South-east Asia bears the stamp of East Asian influence, particularly that of Japanese enka and various regional Chinese popular styles. Older genres can also be found, such as the Portuguese-inspired keroncong (non-electrified, string-dominated ensemble) of Indonesia, which developed long before the introduction of mass media and even an occasional genre that enjoys wide popularity in the mass media, but relies entirely on indigenous instrumentation and singing and playing styles (such as jaipongan of West Java, Indonesia; see also Indonesia, §VIII, 1).
For further bibliography see Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
HDM3 (M.F. Hatch)
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A. Catlin: ‘Speech Surrogate Systems of the Hmong: From Singing Voices to Talking Reeds’, The Hmong in the West: Observations and Reports, ed. B.T. Downing and D.P. Olney (Minneapolis, 1982), 170–97
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P. Cravath: Earth in Flower: an Historical and Descriptive Study of the Classical Dance Drama of Cambodia (diss., U. of Hawaii, 1985)
T. Miller: Traditional Music of the Lao: Kaen Playing and Mawlum Singing in Northeast Thailand (Westport, CT, 1985)
Sam-Ang Sam and Chan Moly Sam: Khmer Folk Dance (Newington, CT, 1987)
Sam-Ang Sam: The Pin Peat Ensemble: its History, Music and Context (diss., Wesleyan U., 1988)
Sam-Ang Sam and P.S. Campbell: Silent Temples, Songful Hearts: Traditional Music of Cambodia (Danbury, CT, 1991)
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