ABSTRACT Title of dissertation: SOUNDING THE SPIRIT OF CAMBODIA: THE LIVING TRADITION OF KHMER MUSIC AND DANCE-DRAMA IN A WASHINGTON, DC COMMUNITY Joanna Theresa Pecore, Doctor of Philosophy, 2004 Dissertation directed by: Professor Carol E. Robertson School of Music Since the Khmer Rouge takeover of Cambodia in 1975, the desire to preserve, reconstruct, and document Khmer performing arts has motivated many important projects that aim to strengthen these traditions worldwide. These projects typically focus on dance and promote the notion that authenticity is linked with ethnicity and the geographical designation, Cambodia. This presentation stands in stark contrast to the reality of the devoted activities of living artists who keep these traditions alive across the globe. Additionally, Khmer music usually exists as an audible yet forgotten soundtrack to these projects. When it is recognized, listings of instruments, descriptions of musical structure, names of ensemble types, and pages of notation (that many Khmer musicians themselves cannot read) frequently overshadow its human dimensions. Major chasms divide current scholarship from musical practice. To help bridge these gaps, this dissertation takes readers on a visit to a community that lives and breathes Khmer music and dance-drama today in the Washington, DC area. It explores the experience of more than forty individuals who participate in the activities of Cambodian American Heritage in Virginia and the Cambodian Buddhist Society in Maryland. Ethnographic “sound-spheres”—constructed from interviews, conversations, and observations—join their stories. A bifocal lens—including the experience of the author as a music student and that of her teacher, master musician, Ngek Chum—organizes the “sound-spheres.” They are arranged according to “four concentric worlds of musical meaning” (musical experience, local community, the United States, and the world) that illuminate the dual reality of historical, geographical, political, economic, social, and cultural change and the enduring timeless, placeless essences of the tradition. This collective story illustrates the fundamental role that music (especially pin peat) plays in linking contemporary residents of the Washington, DC area to the spirit of an ancient, distant Cambodia. It demonstrates how Khmer music: 1) unifies sound, movement, story, and social interaction, 2) embodies cultural ideals that resonate across Buddhism, transmission processes, and performance, 3) retains lessons about the continuity of life and exceptional conduct, and 4) balances personal with group needs. SOUNDING THE SPIRIT OF CAMBODIA: THE LIVING TRADITION OF KHMER MUSIC AND DANCE-DRAMA IN A WASHINGTON, DC COMMUNITY by Joanna Theresa Pecore Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2004 Advisory Committee: Professor Carol E. Robertson, Chair Professor Carol Burbank Dr. Adrienne L. Kaeppler Professor Marie E. McCarthy Professor Jozef M. Pacholczyk Professor Nancy J. Smith-Hefner © Copyright by Joanna Theresa Pecore 2004 TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables.............................................................................................................v List of Figures............................................................................................................vi Introduction: Experiencing the Sound of Cambodia ....................................................1 “What Does It Mean…?”: Dissertation Overview............................................1 The Study of Musical Meaning and the Study of Cambodian Music: A Literature Review........................................................................2 Experiencing Cambodian Music: Methodology..................................12 “Sounding” Cambodian Music: Data Presentation .............................27 “What Does It Mean…at This Time…?”: Dissertation Structure ...................37 “What Does It Mean…in This Place…?”: Relationships in Khmer Music .....43 “What Does It Mean…With These Participants?”: Cultural Patterns..............49 Chapter 1: Pathways across the World: Migration.....................................................55 Ngek Chum’s Musical Beginnings ................................................................56 “Everyone Knows What War Means”............................................................61 Risky Business ..............................................................................................68 Keeping the Heritage.....................................................................................71 Chapter 2: Encountering the United States: Resettlement ..........................................82 “The Dance Was Inevitable” ........................................................................84 Old Traditions in a New Land .......................................................................91 Expanded Interchange ...................................................................................98 Chapter 3: Local Bridges to the Past: Establishing Community Programs ...............114 “It’s Really More Like a Family” ................................................................116 “I Think I was Meant to Dance, It’s Part of Me”..........................................118 “Going There, My Daughters Really Help Me Out a Lot” ...........................122 “I’ll Go Back. I Still Have that in My Mind.” .............................................123 “When They Come to the Temple, They Should Feel Like Cambodians” ....126 Ringing in the Year of the Ox......................................................................137 Chapter 4: The Sounds of Building Local Bridges: Pin Peat Music, Structure, and Performance ......................................148 “Music is Like Soup” ..................................................................................150 Fateful Lessons ...........................................................................................158 “You Can Say that the Roneat Aik Is the Leader” ........................................159 “I Like to Preserve My Tradition” ...............................................................161 “My Father Lives through Me in My Voice” ...............................................164 “When Something Goes Wrong, They’ll Blame the Xylophone”.................167 ii “When the Performers are Good, the Dancers and the Sampho Move Together” ........................................169 “If You Don’t Know the Song, You Won’t Remember” ..............................174 Linking Dramatic Expression with the Skor Thom.......................................175 Performing Creative Conflict for a Prosperous New Year............................182 Chapter 5: Sounding the Spirit of the Krou: Spiritual Foundations of Pin Peat........199 “Today is Thursday. I Come to Pay Respect to You.” .................................200 “Because I Had So Many Teachers, I Could Play Any Music Well” ............203 “My Grandfather Was One of Those Strict Teachers”..................................206 “To Me, Krou Nit Was the Best Teacher”....................................................209 “Everyone, Everywhere Knew Krou Chhuorm and His Roneat”..................211 “His Hands Move Just Like Krou Van’s” ....................................................213 “I Coached Them, But They Were Still Considered to Be My Teacher’s Students”..............214 “Sathukar is a Teacher Song”......................................................................217 “Everything You Need is in Homrong” .......................................................219 “Eight Pin Peat Groups Played and Played Until the Temple Was Finished”222 “The Sampho is Like Everyone’s Krou” ......................................................228 “Playing Music is Kind of a Dangerous Job”...............................................232 Chapter 6: Rien Tam Krou (Learning through the Teacher): Transmission ..............249 “Generations Later, This Tradition was Inevitably Passed Down to Me” .....252 “In the Old, Old Times, You Didn’t Ask Questions, Period” .......................255 “It Was Soooo Difficult…But, Oh, I Got It”................................................257 Finding Your Own Path...............................................................................260 Learning From the inside Out......................................................................279 Chapter 7: Local Bridges in the Present: Building Community with Music .............291 “Families, Certain Key Families, Are the Ones Who Seem to Keep it Together”........................................293 “You Possess the Treasure” ........................................................................296 “The Music Spirits Come to Everybody while We Play Together” ............. 298 Chapter 8: Compromising with the United States: Adaptation.................................343 “It’s Weird. Sometimes It’s Like I Have Two Worlds”................................345 “You Can’t Tell People It’s Not Lost, If They’re Not Listening” ................ 353 “This is Not the Kind of Thing That You Learn and Then Just Forget About” .................................................................370 “At Times I Want to Give Up. But When the Weekend Comes, I Change My Mind” ............................377 Chapter 9: Conversing with the World: Tradition in the Global Context..................388 Reassembling Angkor on Constitution