KHMERE MUSIC

CLASSIC & TRADITIONAL WEDDING MUSIC

This music, played specifically during Khmer wedding ceremonies, accompanies all stages. It is a primordial witness to the commitment made by the two newlyweds to their families and guests, and a call for happiness for the new family thus created. Some believe that the absence of music during a ceremony could bring bad luck to the families of the bride and groom. It is of course also an essential ingredient which helps to make this event a festive and jovial moment for all the guests.

There are two main styles of wedding music "Aphea Piphea", the difference of which lies mainly in the type of instruments that make up the orchestral formations.

The so-called "classical" Khmer wedding music is the oldest form, played by a set of five typically Khmer instruments: stringed instruments, the Chapei Dong Veng, the Tro Khmer, the Ksae Diev, the Peyor, a kind of flute. discreet nasal sound as well as a small drum, the Skor Dai.
From this classical formation comes an intimate music, with soft sounds and slow rhythms, offering a discreet but refined accompaniment of the ceremony.

After having been abandoned in favor of orchestral groups playing so-called "traditional" music, with more playful, more modern sounds, the classical form of wedding music is gradually finding its audience among Cambodians, who increasingly wish to assert themselves. their specific cultural identity and preserve these ancestral artistic know-how, traces of which can be found on the stone walls of Angkor.

The so-called "traditional" Khmer wedding music is therefore, as indicated a little above, played by a more modern orchestral group, having incorporated more recent instruments: we find the string instruments Takhe, the Khim the Tro Saw and Tro Or, a small Khloy bamboo flute, and the small Skor Dai drum.

These instruments, more recent than those used in classical music, remain however very old instruments, some of which were imported from China to Cambodia several hundred years ago before the Khmers re-appropriated them.

Traditional music music shares its musical repertoire with classical music. Thousands of pieces are passed down from master to student orally, and the musical heritage is passed on from generation to generation.