Kse diev

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Yoeun Mek (* 1940), a well-known player of the two-stringed spit violin tro u and survivor of the Khmer rule with a kse diev , 2001.

Kse diev , also sadev, sadiev, say diev, khse muoy ( Cambodian “one” or “single string”), is a single-stringed plucked rod zither without frets , which is used as a soloist in Cambodian music , in the phleng kar wedding ensembles and in the phleng arak ensembles required for necromancy rituals is played. The oldest Cambodian string instrument, which has become rare today, like the similar Indian tuila, goes back in shape and way of playing to an early type of vina , as can be seen on reliefs on Indian temples from the 1st millennium.

Design

Stick zither or music stick refers to a straight, rigid string carrier with one or more strings stretched between both ends. The similar musical bow , on the other hand, has a curved and flexible string carrier. Both basic forms of a stringed instrument need at least one resonance body connected to the string support to amplify the sound . The kse diev consists of a wooden stick 80 to 90 centimeters long, which is bent up a few centimeters at the lower end, and a resonator made of half a calabash , the diameter of which is about 20 centimeters. A thin string made of metal (copper) runs from the lower curved end, the tip of which is designed as the head of a Naga , at an acute angle to a rear wooden peg at the upper end. It used to be tied directly to the string holder with a cotton cord. The calabash is pierced in the middle and connected to the rod and the string with a string or a rubber band pulled through the hole about 20 centimeters from the upper end via a short intermediate piece, which is thereby pressed down to the rod. This ensures direct sound transmission from the string to the resonator.

Style of play

Kse diev

The player holds the cheese diagonally in front of the upper body with the calabash opening against the upper left chest area. With the thumb of his left hand, he presses against the string support from below where the calabash is attached and shortens the string with the other fingers. With his right arm almost fully extended, he plucks the string at the lower end with a tube made of plastic or copper that is pulled over the middle or ring finger. While the player is plucking, he or she touches the string with the index finger or middle finger of the right hand for a third, quarter or fifth of its length in order to release it again immediately. In combination with the fingers of the left hand, which always remain in the first position, it is possible to play twelve notes with this unusual way of playing. The same technique is used by the Munda , an Adivasi group in the east Indian state of Odisha , who play an instrument with their tuila which is basically the same but is more simply made. For fine sound design, changing the pitch and volume, the opening of the calabash can be held closer or further to the chest. This type of sound influencing is also practiced with the tuila and especially with musical bows in Africa, also with some African lamellophones , the mvet bridge harp in Cameroon and the rare stem drum sahfa in Yemen. The sound sounds a bit muffled and in places reminds of a lamellophone.

The kse diev belongs to the oldest Cambodian ensemble, the phleng arak ( phleng arakk ), with which a medium goes into a trance in order to conjure up spirits and find out the cause of illnesses. According to popular belief, when someone gets sick in the country, the spirits are angry. Friends and relatives then invite a medium to perform a ceremony called banhchaul roup ("enter the body") or banhchaul arakk ("the guard enters"). Other stringed instruments that belong to the phleng arak ensemble are the two- to three-stringed barbed fiddle tro khmer and the long-necked chapey dang veng . They are complemented by the shrill double - reed instrument pey prabauh , the pitch of which is used to tune the stringed instruments, the beaker drum skor dey and singing ( chamrieng ). In the oldest traditional wedding orchestra phleng kar (or phleng khmai ), which also performs at house building ceremonies and other family celebrations, the same instruments play together.

The kse diev is mainly played as a soloist because of its soft and rather percussive tone. During the rule of the Khmer Rouge from 1975 to 1978 any kind of musical activity was forbidden; The majority of the musicians were among the millions who died. Since then, only a few young musicians have kept the old tradition of kse diev alive . You learned the instrument from Sok Duch (* 1926), the only surviving kse diev master.

Origin and Distribution

Musical group with a kse diev on a bas-relief at Angkor Wat . North gallery, 16th century.

In India, the tuila still known in rural areas of Odisha is probably the only stick zither whose appearance and style of playing goes back to a form of the ancient Indian stick zither vina called alapini vina , as it was often found in Buddhist and Hindu cult buildings from the 5th to the 9th centuries was later shown less often. Until the middle of the 1st millennium, vinas - originally a general term for string instruments - were mostly bow harps . While bow harps disappeared in India, they live on under the name saung gauk as an Indian cultural import in Myanmar . Between the 9th and 13th centuries, the transition to the stick zithers, which are commonly used in India today, took place, which are characterized by a much thicker string support and a second resonance box at the lower end. The stab zither, called rudra vina in northern India, now has two large, full-round calabashes as a resonance body instead of the half one, the upper one of which hangs back over the left breast. This mature multi-string instrument with the changed playing position did not make it to Southeast Asia, only the older, simple form. In Cambodia, according to Roger Blench (2006), the stave zither can be found on some reliefs on the Bayon , which was built at the beginning of the 13th century. The earliest known Khmer representation of a stick zither - with the resonance body at chest height - is preserved at a temple of Sambor Prei Kuk (in the province of Kampong Thom ) from the 7th century. Another stave zither is held diagonally in front of the body by a musician, whose fully sculptural relief appears on Phnom Chisor (in the province of Takeo ) from the 11th century. The most detailed representation of a stick zither, on which the string and the tuning pegs can be recognized, is one of the bas-reliefs added to the north gallery of the Angkor Wats (built in the 12th century) in the 16th century. According to the ethnomusicologist Patrick Kersalé, the shape and size of the resonance body indicate an instrument with a coconut shell.

The kse diev- like stave zither probably from the Indonesian island of Sumba . Tropical Institute Amsterdam, before 1939.

Single-string zithers and musical bows have disappeared in India apart from a few niches in rural folk music, in Thailand there is still the phin nam tao with calabash, in Sulawesi dunde, santung and falundo , on the East Indonesian island of Sumba the jungga and on Halmahera the sulepe . According to a widely accepted propagation theory, the type of Indonesian stick zithers reached East Africa and Madagascar with Malay sailors from the second half of the 1st millennium. In many parts of East Africa, the flat bar zither is zeze common.

The Thai and Cambodian musical culture are particularly closely connected, as after the conquest of the Khmer Empire by the Thai in the 15th century, many Khmer moved to Ayutthaya and continued their tradition there. The old Thai phin nam tao is considered to be identical to or a derivative of the kse diev . The former is in turn the ancestor of the phin phia , a two- to five-string rod zither with a coconut shell as a resonator, which belongs to the tradition of the Lanna Empire and is played in the Chiang Mai region in northern Thailand.

Discography

  • Cambodia: Folk and Ceremonial Music. LP produced by Jaques Brunet. (Musical Atlas - Unesco Collection) EMI Odeon, 1973
  • The Music of Cambodia. Vol. 3: Solo Instrumental Music . CD produced by David and Kay Parsons. Celestial Harmonies, 1994, track 5: Khan Heuan: Phat Cheay (solo kse diev )

literature

  • Jeffrey M. Dyer: A View from Cambodia: Reorienting the Monochord Zither. In: Asian Music. Journal of the Society for Asian Music, Vol. 47, No. 1, December 2016, pp. 3-28
  • Terry E. Miller: Say diev. In: Grove Music Online, May 28, 2015

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sam-Ang Sam, Panya Roongruang, Phong T. Nguyễn: The Khmer People . In: Terry E. Miller (Ed.): The Garland handbook of Southeast Asian music. Volume 4. Routledge, New York 1998, p. 194
  2. ↑ Sam-Ang Sam: Cambodia . In: Stanley Sadie (Ed.): The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians . Volume 4. Macmillan Publishers, London 2001, pp. 861f
  3. ↑ Meet the Teachers. ( Memento of July 4, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Cambodian Living Arts
  4. ^ Roger Blench: Musical instruments of South Asian origin depicted on the reliefs at Angkor, Cambodia. EURASEAA, Bougon, September 26, 2006, p. 5
  5. ↑ Patrick Kersalé: Monochord Zither. Sounds of Angkor (accessed July 13, 2019)
  6. ^ "Type D" according to the classification of Walter Kaudern: Ethnographical studies in Celebes: Results of the author's expedition to Celebes 1917–1920. III. Musical Instruments in Celebes. Elanders Boktryckeri Aktiebolag, Göteborg 1927, p. 295 and Fig. 129
  7. ↑ Ferdinand J. de Hen: A Case of Gesunkenes Kulturgut: The Toila . In: The Galpin Society Journal , Volume 29, May 1976, pp. 84-90, here p. 88
  8. ^ Andrew McGraw: The Pia's Subtle Sustain: Contemporary Ethnic Identity and the Revitalization of the Lanna “Heart Harp” . In: Asian Music , Vol. 38, No. 2, Summer – Autumn 2007, pp. 115–142, here p. 119