TRADITIONAL MUSIC

THE SMOT, WORDS OF WISDOM AND SINGING POETRY

Moul Horn, singer Smot, sung at funerals and other important Buddhist ceremonies

A religious song, whose texts are based on Buddhist writings and poetic texts, the Smot, practiced by lay men or women, is heard mainly at funerals, or during Buddhist ceremonies such as Meas Bochea, Visak Bochea and during the Pchum Ben (Cambodian Day of the Dead) celebrations.

The Smot, has a unique educational value, through its words of poetry and its slow melodies with slightly plaintive inflections and tinged with nostalgia, reflections on the meaning of life and its cycles, evoking the main principles of life in society supposed to help find the right path to live in peace.

The singers of Smot are also called in when a family member falls seriously ill. Here again, the words lavished facilitate acceptance and bring relief to men tormented by the trials of life.

However, and although this is often the case, the repertoire of sung texts is not limited to serious subjects. We will sometimes hear lighter texts, sometimes humorous, evoking a multitude of different subjects.

It is by word of mouth that we know and invite these singers of Smot, now rather old and whose art was transmitted to them by masters who have now disappeared. They officiate in the villages surrounding their place of residence. In the absence of being able to invite a singer during the ceremonies, recordings are sometimes broadcast.

Although many young people do not feel comfortable listening to these songs which address subjects that sometimes frighten them, some have chosen to join classes set up by Cambodian Living Arts in the province of Kompong. Speu, where, anxious to be able to participate in the preservation of a very old art and bearer of the Cambodian identity, they study alongside Ms. Koet Ran and Mr. Moul Horn