Talk:Pinpeat

Needs citation
I do not recall all of these instruments on Angkor bas-reliefs. I think most of these instruments date after the Angkor period. However, I do not have an sources, does anyone? --Dara 10:45, 15 June 2007 (UTC)


 * Yes, well I'm not sure this would qualify necessarily as a source but follow http://worldmusic.nationalgeographic.com/preview/view/page.basic/country/content.country/cambodia_527

Khmer music has its roots in the combination of local cultural forms and Indian practices and instruments—a process that took place primarily between the 6th through the 12th century CE, during which time the Khmer practiced a localized form of Hinduism. During the 12th century Buddhism, patronized by the courts, became the state religion, as it remains today. Early Khmer orchestras are found represented within iconography in and around the major 12th-15th century Khmer capital-temple complex at Angkor Wat. These ensembles represent both extinct forms of Indian-ized string ensembles as well as early forms of the classical Khmer pin peat ensemble with its combinations of local gong-chimes, winds and drums. In 1431 the Siamese Tai at the capital at Ayuthaya are said to have sacked and plundered Angkor Wat, capturing up to 90,000 prisoners, including many musicians and dancers. Since this time Thai classical ensembles have strongly resembled Khmer orchestras. European cultural influence markedly increased after 1864 when the Cambodian government appealed for French protection to guard against increasing Thai and Vietnamese aggression. The country gained its independence in 1949.

Like the traditional gong-chime ensembles of much of Southeast Asia, classical Khmer music is based upon the polyphonic (many-voiced) stratification of several musical lines and melodies based primarily upon five-tone scales. And, as in similar Asian ensembles, higher pitched instruments tend to play more notes—denser realizations of the core melodic form—than lower-pitched instruments, clappers and hand cymbals mark tempo and rhythmic density. As in Javanese gamelan music improvisation, within a narrowly defined stylistic range, is central to the realization of melodic forms and the creation of pleasing connecting ornaments between core melodic goal-points.

Classical Khmer music, like similar neighboring traditions in Southeast Asia, is an oral tradition, and musicians and composers rarely use notation. As in many oral traditions, the names of historic composers are not generally known, although this is changing today.

The several types of traditional Khmer repertoires and ensembles are associated with different social-cultural-ceremonial contexts such as spirit-dances/worship (the arak and pey keo ensembles), funerals (the klang khek ensemble), weddings (the kar ensemble), dance, Buddhist ceremony and shadow-puppetry (the pin peat ensemble) and secular entertainment (the mahori ensemble). The arak and kar ensembles are considered the oldest extant Khmer orchestras and both are associated with pre-Buddhist animist belief and ceremony. These ensembles include a combination of double reed oboes (pey prabuh), long-necked lutes (chapey), goblet drums (skor dey) and, importantly, vocals (chamrieng).

Traditionally, the pin peat ensemble (which features circular gong-chime sets and xylophones and is structurally similar to the Thai piphat ensemble) was used to accompany the large shadow puppet plays (lkhaon sbaik thom) and traditional Khmer court dance, traditionally performed only by women, in which plays such as the Hindu Ramayana (Khmer Reamker) epic are enacted in long performances. Since the ouster of the monarchy in 1970 and the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime in 1979, these courtly arts have been relocated primarily to the University of Fine Arts campus in Phnom Penh, but have also been maintained by performers in refugee camps within Thailand and in diasporic communities within the United States. As such, it has become a more academic and aestheticized tradition. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 4.239.66.5 (talk) 00:17, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

This article is missing several key pieces in the instruments section, including no mentions of the gong vong thom and gong vong toch which are both core instruments in the ensemble. Similarly there are no embedded examples/pictures of pinpeat performances and only two referenced materials total (with one reference only siscussing the etymology of the term). --Aamartin27 (talk) 23:38, 9 February 2017 (UTC)