Music of the Cham Peoples

Author(s): Stephen Addiss

Source: Asian Music , 1971, Vol. 2, No. 1 (1971), pp. 32-38
Published by: University of Texas Press

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/833811

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Asian Music

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 MUSIC OF THE CHAM PEOPLES

Stephen Addiss

The kingdom of Champa existed from around the second century to 1471,
when Cham power was decisively broken by the Vietnamese. The first recorded
Cham king was Cri Mara, who came to the throne in 192; the last was BWn La
Trk Toan (in his Vietnamese name). The Chams were Buddhist and Hindu, with
a culture and a written language based on Sanskrit. Starting just below what
is now the city of Hue, the Chams at the apex of their power ruled most of
Central and South Vietnam, with their allies the Funan and the Khmers ruling
Laos and Cambodia. The Khmers were not allies for long, and many of the
great battles chronicled in relief in the temples at Angkor depict the changing
tides of wars with Champa. Usually the Chams were also fighting with the
Vietnamese to their North, with the Vietnamese gradually pushing the Chams
back from the ninth century on.

A Chinese visitor reported that the early Chams were dark, ugly, half-naked
but well-organized peoples with a simple agriculture. Even from the standpoint
of the most developed culture in the world, the Chinese had a good deal of
admiration for the engraved ornaments and chiseled-stone sculpture of the Chams,
which had an Indian influence reflected from the sea trade (but without political
subservience) that Champa maintained with Gupta India. Even today one of the
artistic high points of a visit to Vietnam can be the huge carved-stone towers
of the remaining Chams, as well as the sculptures in the museums of Saigon
and Danang - arts that invite comparison to those of the Indians and Cambodians.

Early reliefs show the Chams playing zithers, harps, tambourines, cymbals,
flutes, and gongs; and the aforementioned Chinese visitor, Ma Tuan Ling (in the
fifth century), found more instruments which the Chams are still playing today.
The kuni kara (now called kahni) is a two string viol; sarinal oboes (like the
Indian sahnai) have seven holes; ganang is the unique double-drum, each long
and thin and joined in the form of an X, played by two men using mallets on the
tops and palms of the hand on the underfaces; cheng is the little bell; and buffalo
horns complete the list.1 Today there are, in addition, the barinung or single
faced-drum, hagar or big drum, and the radap katch, a monostring instrument.

The Vietnamese were fascinated by Cham music from their first acquaintance
with it. In his successful invasion of Champa in 982, Emperor Le Dai H'anh captured
100 Royal Cham dancers and singers. Vietnamese musicians were required to

1Cf. G., Maspero, Le Royaume de Champa. Paris, 1928.

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learn to accompany them, and before long there was a vogue for Cham-type music
at the Vietnamese court. In 1044 Ly Thai T6ng invaded the Champa of King Java
Simhavarman II, sacked the capital city of Vijaya, and captured 5, 000 Chams
and 30 elephants. A Cham counterattack proved futile, and a new expedition in
1069 took three provinces from the Chams.

In 1060, the same warrior-emperor transcribed a Cham melody for solo

voice anddrum; in 1202 LG Cao Tang ordered his musicians to compose a new
air, Chiem Thanham (Cham tune), which displayed such a profound sadness that
listeners could not hold back their tears. 2

The lth and 12th centuries were full of warfare for the Chams, as they were
also involved with serious battles with the Khmers, who dominated Champa from
1203 to 1220. The Vietnamese were a little less aggressive under the Tran
dynasties, 1225 to 1400. The Emperor gave his daughter the Princess Huy@n
Trtn, to the Cham King Jaya Simbavarman III (even though he already had a
Javanese wife iri 1306), in return for which the Chams gave up two provinces
in what is now Central Vietnam. The King died the next year, and the Princess
was almost burned with her late husband, following Cham custom at the time.
It took the persuasion of the Vietnamese ambassador to point out to the Chams
that a live princess was a less a threat to peace than a dead one, especially
after so short a marriage. The two provinces, however, being mostly Cham-
populated, were rebellious under Vietnamese government, and the Vietnamese
blamed Champa and invaded once more in 1312. 3 The story of Huyen Tren has
remained in folk song with the Vietnamese as an example of love's helping the
country, while the Chams still have a song blaming the King for losing two
provinces for a girl!

A civil war among the Chams, starting in 1441, was the beginning of the end
of their kingdom. They had resisted with some success both the Khmers and
Vietnamese, and indeed had sacked Hanoi in a raid in 1371, but after becoming
divided they fell to the Vietnamese onslaught in 1471. Since that time they have
existed only as an ethnic minority in a few towns along the Central Vietnamese
coast, primarily in Phan Rang. The culture of Champa is mostly lost, and
what can be discovered about Cham music now must be only a remanant of what
was once an elaborate art form.

The Chams who remain are mostly Brahmin and less often Mohammedan,
living in a matriarchal society with an Indonesian heritage. Their influence on
Vietnamese music has been very great, with instruments such as the rice drum

2Cf. Thai Vun Kiem, Huyn-Tran C*ng-Chiia Va Anh-Hu'o'ng Chan. Saigon, 1950.
3Cf. D. G. E. Hall, A History of Southeast Asia. New York City, 1955.

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(phan cO) and oboe (t~t lit) passing into Vietnamese court music as early as
1350. Most influential of all have been the Cham scales and the particular
melancholy character the Vietnamese found in Cham music (leaving strong
traces in the music of South Vietnam especially).

For the Chams themselves, religious-ceremonial music predominated.

Almost anything could be cause for a ceremony: marriage, death, sickness,
harvests, and seasonal fBtes, with each ceremony having its own music. Even
today, Cham life centers around the stone towers that stand near Cham settle-
ments, the doors of which are ceremoniously opened with music called Poh
Pahang Yang. Other ceremonies include the following:

Patra tha gai is the invocation of the house-genie, using twin drums, oboe,
and small bell. Tapo celebrates the hero-saints of the past. Dan boi is the
festival of planting wheat, with girls and boys swaying in dance to imitate the
planting. Padit is the dance of the butterfly, with girls delicately swirling fans in
the air. Jalitai is music to celebrate the dead hero buried at sea. Trun li va
is the ceremony with which to begin the work of irrigation. Yuon
ceremony to honor and protect the water in the ricefields. And Pakap hlau
krong invokes the Gods to prevent rain during harvesting.

The typical Cham ceremonial orchestra is made up of two saranai oboes,

the double ganang drums, the barinung drum, and the chang bell or gong. The
music resembles bagpipe ensembles of Scotland in that the scale is the pentatonic
do re fa sol la, the oboes are shrill and penetrating, the percussion keeps a
steady beat of a martial character, and the melody includes an elaborate use
of grace notes. The following example indicates the main drum rhythm, and
the tune, including some but not all of the melodie elaborations:4

?riati b ats
CH(N Cre-,o;onl. L l;r oM. .I.
Pr om I i I I . I ? I C. 126i ]
060es . p I , IL q IA
(zrt,.? _ 9 r J 4T- i.-~ j - ' :- y. ,t.*

Recorded on Folkways FE 4352 Music of Vietnam.

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 rf r P N r~3'

0n 34 r> - 11. .' 1r

I TO a=
~ 4r
III
ft- J /

Chamin sculpture s
the Ramayana with bamboo percussion cliquettes was an important part of the
ritual. The current dances more closely resemble Thai and Cambodian dancing,
with graceful movements by young girls rather than epic strength.

Cham folksongs use a different scale than does the ceremonial music; they
include some of the same grace notes but many more sliding tones and deliberate
imprecisions of mode. The following example is a love song, with sliding tones
marked by arrows. The second note of the scale is actually a little lower than
the D noted, and the G is sung a bit sharp. The song is called Doh dam dara:

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CHAM Lova Sonj t - Sy .y sevectra L e Is #At i;.o.
"---,%,._, a , _ , .. . - . . . ' _ ' --
-vi1 re SO

, , r. soL fa Yd i L"

It is just this imprecise scale that most influenced the Vietnamese music in
the South - both folk songs and the chamber music that led to the renovated
theater and the popular vong e6.

The legend songs of the Chams are mostly sad, relating to past glories. One
song tells of two brothers killed defending Cham land in the highlands, where
now the ethnic minority Rhad6 live. Most unusual of all is a funeral song chanted
by priests to the family of the deceased, and accompanied by the 2-string viol
kahni. In this music (Dodam mutai) the men sing and the viol plays without
holding a steady pitch. The wavering of the voices and strings produces an odd
buzzing kind of music, hovering over a few notes but never settling on them.
As an example of the elusive and transitory nature of life it is most effective. 5

The texts of the Cham legend-songs tell a good deal about both the real and
the fantasy lives of the Cham peoples. The following legends were translated

5This is also recorded on Folkways FE 4352. Pham Duy, upon whose studies
much of this material is based, considers this chant to be an example of music
of the very earliest kind in which pitch has not yet been defined, but I think it
more likely an expressive device for the occasion of a funeral.

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first into Vietnamese6 and then into English:

"God Po Rome was extremely beautiful. His head was like gold, his shoulders
and legs like brass. A bright, shining ring could be seen on his fingers. In the
olden days he would work in the fields where his servants would bring him food
at mealtimes. Po Rome the God-King had three wives; two were Cambodian and
one was Vietnamese. His three wives would quarrel noisily, due to jealousy.
Thinking that she most deserved the King, the Vietnamese wife attempted to set
in motion a plot. She pretended to be sick and told the God that only the kraik
tree could cure her illness. Now the kraik tree magically protected the life
of the King, but he loved his wife so much that he sent four of his best doctors
to take care of her. All four doctors stated that she was in good health. When
the King heard this report he was so angry that he gave orders to cut off the
heads of the four doctors. The Vietnamese wife again insisted that the King
must cut the kraik tree to cure her illness. The King hesitated, but he finally
decided to satisfy his wife. Hundreds of soldiers tried to cut the tree with their
axes, but after each cut the tree miraculously healed itself. Seeing this, the
King was very angry. He wrested an ax from one of the soldiers and strongly
struck the tree, shouting 'Tree why do you mistreat my wife?' The tree fell
down and blood flowed over the spot.

"After the tree fell, the God-King lost his throne. He was betrayed to the
Cambodians; and later the Vietnamese wife handed her husband over to the
Emperor of Vietnam, who sentenced him to death. The body of the King was cut
into many pieces. The Cambodian wives were faithful, however, and got
permission to take the teeth of the King to Cambodia with them."

"When King Po Rome had the throne, his body was bright whenever he
appeared, and a flash of lightning seemed to come from his head. When people
saw him, their hair stood on end and they fainted because the face of the King
was so gold-bright. Royal concubines competed to win his favor, but since the
King liked to live quietly he had to leave the palace to be free of the noisy quarrel
of his wives. "

The Cham people also had many legends about the moon, which they wo
These two story-songs tell how the lady in the moon came to live there, and
describe her healing powers:

"Once upon a time there was a lady.named Paja Yan. She could bring the
dead back to life. God Po Jata was aware of this and considered that her actions
were against the rules of nature, so he sent her to live on the moon."

"Paja Yan was described as a young lady of about 30 years, but no one knew
where she had come from. She was well known for her assistance in curing
diseases in many people, and she gave considerable help and comfort to the poor.

6Cf. Hoang Trong Mien Vilthnam Vln Hoc To'an Thih (2 Vols) Saigon 1959.

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People on earth worshiped her. Rice, coconuts, bananas, and other foods were
sacrificed to her. The best day for the sacrifices was the first evening of the
last quarter of the moon.

"When she could no longer bring the dead back to life she brought good
health and happiness to people instead. People on earth could see her face when
the moon was full. When she knelt before the sun, that was the lunar eclipse.
When the Sun God greeted God Po Jata, the solar eclipse was seen; and this
was the best day for worship.

When an honest man died, his soul would fly to the moon to great Paja Yan."

These legends were passed on in Champa by oral tradition and sung in the
melancholy scale that the Vietnamese admired so much. The other moon legend
is perhaps later than the first, and more homely:

"One day, going into a forest, a woman saw a nest of snakes. She killed
the newborn snakes and waited for the mother. When the mother snake returned
and found her children dead, she went out to get leaves of the banyan tree. She
then chewed the leaves and put them on the bodies of the baby snakes, who came
back to life immediately. Seeing this, the woman picked a branch of the banyan
tree and planted it behind her house. Before going out she told her children not
to put anything on the tree or it would disappear. The children did not obey her,
and when she came back the tree was beginning to fly up into the sky. She tried
to hold it back, but she and the dog at her feet were stuck to the tree and carried
to the moon. Since then the woman has lived on the moon, and has had no con-
nection with people on the earth. "

The Cham music at its apogee must have been very grand. Judging from the
reliefs on Cham statuary, the orchestras were large and the dances elaborate.
Today there remain only traces of this culture: in ceremonial music, folk songs,
and legends. There are now about 30, 000 Chams left, and the remains of Cham
culture are more likely to die out than to be strongly revived. Even now the
stone towers seem to signal a lost kingdom. But perhaps, if the ethnic minorites
are granted more independence political-ly and more status culturally, some-
thing of Champa may yet survive.

Stephen Addiss holds degrees from Harvard and the Mannes College of Music.
He has traveled five times to Vietnam, initially as part of the Addiss and Crofut
performing team (on a State Department Cultural Exchange grant). Later he returned
to study the many musics of Vietnam, and helped to collect material for the two
Folkways LPs of Vietnamese music. He has learned to play several Vietnamese
instruments, and has presented lecture-demonstrations at Wesleyan, Columbia,
and several other universities around the United States. He is presently working
on a book which would be the first extensive study of Vietnamese music in
English.

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