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Southeast Asian music encapsulates numerous musical traditions and styles in many countries of Southeast Asia. This subregion consists of eleven countries, namely, Brunei , Cambodia , East Timor , Indonesia , Laos , Malaysia , Myanmar , Philippines , Singapore , Thailand and Vietnam , which accommodate hundreds of ethnic groups.
- Overview
- Rural and urban music
- Relation to social institutions
- Vocal music
- Instrumental music
A general musical division exists between the urban and rural areas of Southeast Asia. Urban centres comprise the islands of Java and Bali and places in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar, where big ensembles of gong families play for court and state ceremonies. Rural areas include other islands and remote places, where smaller ensembles and solo instruments play a simpler music for village feasts, curing ceremonies, and daily activities. In cities and towns influenced by Hindu epics such as the Ramayana and Mahabharata, shadow and masked plays and dances utilizing music play important communal roles, while in less urbanized areas, in lieu of musical plays, chants and songs in spirit worship and rituals are sung in exclusive surroundings—a ritual procession on the headwaters of Borneo, a drinking ceremony in the jungles of Palawan, a feast in the uplands of Luzon.
In both regions the physical setting is usually the open air—in temple yards and courtyards, under the shade of big trees, in house and public yards, fields and clearings. Many musical instruments are made of natural products of a tropical environment, and their sounds are products of this milieu. The music of buzzers, zithers, and harps is thus akin to sounds heard in the tropical vegetation of Southeast Asia. In Bali, for example, special ways of chanting and sounds of the jew’s harp ensemble (genggong) imitate the croaking of frogs and the noise of animals.
A general musical division exists between the urban and rural areas of Southeast Asia. Urban centres comprise the islands of Java and Bali and places in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar, where big ensembles of gong families play for court and state ceremonies. Rural areas include other islands and remote places, where smaller ensembles and solo instruments play a simpler music for village feasts, curing ceremonies, and daily activities. In cities and towns influenced by Hindu epics such as the Ramayana and Mahabharata, shadow and masked plays and dances utilizing music play important communal roles, while in less urbanized areas, in lieu of musical plays, chants and songs in spirit worship and rituals are sung in exclusive surroundings—a ritual procession on the headwaters of Borneo, a drinking ceremony in the jungles of Palawan, a feast in the uplands of Luzon.
In both regions the physical setting is usually the open air—in temple yards and courtyards, under the shade of big trees, in house and public yards, fields and clearings. Many musical instruments are made of natural products of a tropical environment, and their sounds are products of this milieu. The music of buzzers, zithers, and harps is thus akin to sounds heard in the tropical vegetation of Southeast Asia. In Bali, for example, special ways of chanting and sounds of the jew’s harp ensemble (genggong) imitate the croaking of frogs and the noise of animals.
Music in Southeast Asia is frequently related to ceremonies connected with religion, the state, community festivals, and family affairs. In Java, important Islamic feasts, such as the birthday of Muhammad or the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, as well as animistic ceremonies marking the harvest and cycles of human life, are celebrated with shadow plays (wayang [wajang]). In Bali, the gamelan gong orchestra opens ceremonies and provides most of the music for temple feasts. The gamelan selunding, an ensemble with iron-keyed metallophones (like xylophones but with metal keys), plays ritual music, and the gamelan angklung, so called because it formerly included tube rattles, or angklung, is used to accompany long processions to symbolic baths near the river.
In what is now Peninsular Malaysia the court orchestra, or nobat, was held almost as sacred as the powers of the sultan himself. Among the Bidayuh and Iban in Borneo, ceremonial chants are sung in feasts related to rice planting, harvesting, and honouring the omen bird kenyalang (rhinoceros hornbill) and other spirits.
The role of the voice in music making differs from that of European music in both concept and execution. Men’s and women’s voices are each not divided into high and low ranges but are used for their colour qualities. In the Javanese shadow play, for example, the narrator (dalang) assumes many singing and speaking qualities to depict different chara...
Although gong orchestras consisting of gongs, metallophones, and xylophones bind Southeast Asia into one musical cultural group, the types of ensembles and sounds they form may be classified into four areas. Java and Bali make up one unit because of their predominant use of bronze instruments in orchestras that make one homogeneous sound. Thailand,...
Here is a brief guide to the music of Southeast Asia: 1. Vietnam. Hanoi water puppet show (Source) Vietnamese music consists of imperial, ceremonial, folk, hip-hop, and rock music. Their traditional instruments can mainly be divided into four categories- plucked strings, bowed strings, winds, and percussion.
Discover the diverse and enchanting sounds of traditional music in Southeast Asia. From the mesmerizing gamelan in Indonesia to the soothing saung gauk in Myanmar, explore the rich cultural heritage and history of each country through their unique musical traditions.
Southeast Asian music. Southeast Asian arts, the literary, performing, and visual arts of Southeast Asia. Although the cultural development of the area was once dominated by Indian influence, a number of cohesive traits predate the Indian influence.
This collection of Music of Southeast Asia features both the popular and traditional music of Myanmar, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, China and Laos and captures the influence, and in certain cases the rejection, of the Western musical tradition on the music of this region.
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In Southeast Asian arts: Music. A general musical division exists between the urban and rural areas of Southeast Asia. Urban centres comprise the islands of Java and Bali and places in Read More
