History

Texts, photos, videos: © Patrick Kersalé 1998-2019, except special mention.

See also ...

The “Lesson of the three strings”

The arak ensemble of the Wat Reach Bo

The chapei players, by Émile Gsell

Two chapei of King Sisowath Monivong

The Thai krajappi

The mahori ensemble of Ayutthaya

In Cambodia, the chapei is known under various denominations according to the mediums. This is not exceptional. Indeed, we find, throughout the world, names used by people of the environment (amateur or professional musicians), by neophytes, and also slang, imaged or scoffer's names. Sometimes an instrument is named according to its function or the function of the one it replaces. Some names extol the nationalistic fiber, like the Cambodian tro Khmer, while this instrument is not a Khmer creation, but an assimilation.

Thus, the chapei is known, in the musician's milieu under the shortest term “chapei”, or chapei veng and now officially chapei dang veng (long-necked chapei) since its classification by UNESCO. The term chapei veng or chapei dang veng ចាប៉ី ដង វែង —also written chapei(y) dong veng— allowed,  a few decades ago, to distinguish it from a small derivative lute, the chapei touch or chapei dang klei, which seems to be created in the second half of the twentieth century. It had a shorter handle, but it has now disappeared.

The chapei is sometimes known as pin; this term derives both from the old Khmer word vīṇa, which used to refer to the harp and to the Sanskrit vīṇā, which named the ancient stick zithers. By extension, pin became in Cambodia the generic name for all plucked string instruments: chapei, ksae diev or ksae muoy, takhê. Phin (Thai: พิณ, pronounce [pʰīn]) is a lute with a pyriform sound box, originally from the Isan region of Thailand and played mainly by Laotian ethnic groups in Thailand and Laos. As a hypothesis, this name could have its origin in the court of Ayutthaya after the Siamese captured the musicians of the one of Angkor; it would have replaced the Khmer harp (vīṇa became pin) by the lute, while keeping the name. We develop this hypothesis in the chapter The mahori ensemble of Ayutthaya.

Note: from this point on, we will write the term "chapei" without italics since it is the center of our purpose.

Western organology defines chapei as a long-necked lute. It is joined by its most common Khmer denomination “chapei dang veng’” meaning literally “long-necked chapei lute”. It has a variable number of high frets.

We currently have no source attesting to the arrival of the chapei in Cambodia. The oldest iconographic sources attest to its use at the royal court in the mid-19th century. Thailand, on the other hand, can certainly be traced back to the middle of the 18th century. See The Thai krajappi.

In his/her search for historical truth, any historian or musicologist wishes to find the precise moment when a musical instrument emerges. Everyone even dreams of knowing the name of its creator! The chapei doesn't escape this rule, especially because its unique characteristics. But it doesn't exist only in Cambodia, but also in Thailand and Laos! So, it is necessary to introduce a notion in this quest, the one of “nebula”. This nebula is made up of individuals, ideas exchanges, and material goods. In this context, the birth of an object such as chapei becomes not the result of a Big Bang, but the fruit of a technical and aesthetic maturation whose paternity returns to all the elements of the nebula through time and space. Certainly, there was a day when someone created the stallion object that seduced and inspired generations of manufacturers and musicians, but this is only an ephemeral moment resulting from a long maturation.

The following considerations are therefore not conclusive, but constitute a general reflection on the cultural influences that led to the advent of chapei. Everyone is free to make comments, as long as they are documented!

What is remarkable is the association, both in Cambodia and in Thailand, of several instruments within the same orchestra: the chapei, the pei ar oboe, the tro Khmer fiddle and the drums  skor arak or skor daey.

In terms of documentation, we have various iconographic sources (see below): engravings of Louis Delaporte (late 19th and early 20th centuries), photographs and postcards from the early 20th century, the paintings of the Silver Pagoda at the Royal Palace of Phnom Penh and monasteries that survived the Khmer Rouge revolution. In Thailand, there is a very rich iconography.

In this research, two instruments arouse our attention: the tro Khmer and the pei ar. The first one is a trichord fiddle known in Java (Indonesia) or in Malaysia. In the Javanese and Malaysian fiddle, the tro Khmer borrows the triangular shape of the soundbox. We know that the Javanese fiddle was introduced by the Muslims. As for pei ar, we know such an instrument, with its wide reed, in Iran, Turkey and Armenia (then?) in China and Thailand.

Let's look now at the names of these instruments. The term tro Khmer doesn't give us any information about where it came from. The tro sau fiddle came from China at an unknown time; so the term tro khmer was probably chosen to distinguish the instrument of the tro of Chinese origin. In Thailand, the instrument equivalent to the tro Khmer is called saw sam sai (ซอ สาม สาย), and in Java and Malaysia, rebab.

The goblet drum like skor daey already existed in the Angkorian era. It appears from the 12th century on the bas-reliefs of Angkor Wat. But it is not impossible that it was reintroduced at the same time as the other two instruments. Thus, the four instruments would have come with the Muslims. But the fact remains that the origin of the word chapei is Sanskrit.

What are the clues to defining the origins of a musical instrument?

• Its name or the root of its name are valuable informants on provenance. But sometimes, this name goes back several centuries, even several millennia.
• The shape and the materials can inform us about the influence area or the direct origin.
• The technology.

We will try to study three influence areas:

• Middle East 
• India
• China
• Siam (Thailand before 1939)

In the traditional Khmer orchestra (phleng kar boran and phleng arak), it is necessary to take into account the presence of the pei ar, this large reeded oboe with uncertain origins, which played with the chapei and the tro Khmer (descendant of the middle-eastern kemanche) before the Khmer Rouge revolution. The pei ar is called pi-oo in Thailand. According to the Thai researcher Anak Charanyananda, the Chinese term "oo", which derives "ar", describes the material in which the reed is made of. The pei ar and the pi-oo could have as their common ancestor Middle Eastern oboes with a large reed, such as the Armenian duduk. If this distant origin of the pei ar was confirmed, we would be at the head of a Middle Eastern influences' trio. This finding, however, does not allow us to conclude. Further investigations are needed.

The miniatures below show some orchestras playing long-neck lutes and kemanche fiddle as well as various aerophones and membranophones.

As we have seen above, the chapei term derives from the Sanskrit kacchap(î). We can formulate two hypotheses:

1. The shape of the chapei's soundbox was inspired by the turtle's shell. This hypothesis is all the more likely that the turtle is an aquatic animal, a characteristic shared by the chapei. See chapter Chapei, an "aquatic" instrument.
2. The instrument took the name of an older lute whose sound box was made with a turtle shell.

However, this type of lute with a flat soundboard and a long neck does not exist in India; Indian lute have only piriform soundboxes and short necks. On the other hand, the high frets were the preserve of stick or tube zithers with calabash resonators. In Cambodia, during the Angkorian period, there is no formal proof that a zither of Indian origin had such frets, but it cannot be excluded either because several sources Angkorian iconography (including  Ta Prohm Kel and Banteay Chhmar) would tend to prove it.

Among the high-fret instruments of Cambodia are the chapei, but also the board zither kropeu or krapeu (litt. crocodile) or takhê (Thai name). This one derives from an older instrument really shaped like a crocodile with high frets and still played in Myanmar.

After considering the Middle Eastern and Indian areas, it seems serious to consider the Chinese one. Certainly, the terms chapei in Cambodia or krajappi in Thailand are not of Chinese origin, but the instrument could have been named after the name of another lute it would have replaced. China is a serious competitor by several respects:

• Since the 4th-5th centuries, Chinese iconography shows lutes whose characteristics are close to those of the chapei (long neck, pegs, four strings).
• The tailpiece of the Chinese lutes is often similar to that of the chapei and krajappi of the 18th and 19th centuries.
• The Chinese lutes also have frets at the junction of the neck and the soundbox as well as frets stuck on it.
• The head of a moon-shaped lute, ruan 阮, from the Qing period (1644-1912), has a similarity the chapei.

Faced to this prospect, an ancestor of the chapei could have been introduced in Cambodia since centuries, but no old iconographic trace, whether in Thailand or Cambodia, has reached us. The only ancient representations of monoxyle lutes date back, to our knowledge, from the second half of the 7th century in Thailand and the early 8th century in the Chams of Vietnam, and they were monoxyle short-handled pear-shaped lutes.

Below are the representations of Chinese lutes in ancient iconography as well as real instruments, in chronological order.

In the light of this brief comparative analysis, ancient Chinese lutes offer the greatest number of common organological features with chapei. Recall that the Chinese trade with the Middle East has long been maintained through the Silk Road. Musical instruments have undoubtedly been at the heart of commercial and cultural transactions. Also remember that other Cambodian instruments are of Chinese origin: khim zither, the various bicorde fiddles (tro), or the big barrel drum skor thom, known in Cambodia since the Angkorian period.

In the current state of our research, we could provisionally conclude as follows: the chapei, whose name derives from Sanskrit, is derived from a Chinese technology developed at the court of Ayutthaya. It later became (or parallel) popular in Thailand and Cambodia.

We have published a complete page about this topic. Click here.

In Cambodia as in Thailand, the chapei is mainly represented in the Buddhist monasteries' paintings and on old photographs, some published in postcards. 

If you have photos of chapei yourself, you can send them to us using the CONTACT tab of this site. Thank you in advance.

Around 1866-70, French photographer Émile Gsell painted portraits of several female musicians from the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh. Thanks to him, we know two magnificent chapei. They are comparable to the representations of the Buddhaisawan Chapel in Bangkok. We have dedicated a study available here. They have two pairs of strings. We will notice the oval-shaped soundbox, fine pegs carved with rare elegance and frets on the soundboard. These instruments include frets stuck on the soundboard.

Postcards published during the French Protectorate are also a source of information on Cambodia's musical practices of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. There are not many of them representing a chapei but enlighten us on the formations and the instrumental mixes of this time.

This photo was taken by Émile Gsell between 1866 and 1870. The corresponding engraving has been published in the 1873 Frank Vincent's book, The Land of the White Elephant. We recognize here the staging of this photographer, common to all the musicians of the royal palace's images; the carpets are especially the same. These five musicians play a mix of melodic drums and chordophones. This is probably a restricted configuration of a mahori ensemble. The chapei has twelve frets, four frets and four strings.

These orchestral ensembles represented in Siamese painting from the 17th century to the postcards of Indochina at the beginning of the 20th century are, by their structure, the oldest evidence of acoustic coherence, and probably also symbolic, which prevailed until the Khmer Rouge revolution for wedding (phleng kar) and possession (phleng arak) orchestras. As early as the end of the 19th century, chordophones were substituted or reinforced for orchestras such as takhê zither, ksae diev monochord and / or melodic percussions such as roneat xylophones and kong vong and roneat daek metallophones. To the pair of thon and romanea drums, the skor arak or skor daey drums, numbering one to four, are substituted.

In the two images above, the musicians are not photographed in a playing situation but rather appear on the start, posing in front of the operator. Also, we have no real certainty about the functional mixture of stringed instruments with melodic percussion. However, the example of the cabinet of the school of Ayyuthaya of the 18th century described above, we are inclined to conclude that this type of instrument mix did exist.

We have devoted an entire chapter to the fresco of Wat Reach Bo. It is accessible here.

In 1914, Albert Sarraut, Governor General of Indochina, decided, with the agreement of the Cambodian ruler, to entrust George Groslier with the construction of a new archeology museum in Phnom Penh. The construction of the buildings, inspired by Khmer temples, lasted from 1917 to 1924. In 1918, part of the work was opened to the public and the museum was then called Museum of Cambodia. Finally, on April 13, 1920, on the occasion of the Khmer New Year, it is inaugurated by King Sisowath and takes the name of Albert Sarraut Museum.

The windows of the museum's entrance hall feature wooden shutters painted with scenes from the Reamker, including three musicians: a chapei player, a tro Khmer player, and a ksae diev player. To realize these three paintings, we think that the artist had at disposal these three instruments as each detail is treated. There is nothing missing. It is an absolute perfection, a true testimony of the instrumental style of the early 20th century.

The chapei has four strings tuned two by two by four pegs. It has twelve frets, two on the soundboard. The artist created a trompe-l'œil by painting the veins of the wood on the sound box. No holes are visible in the center of the sound box. Curiously, the instrument is simply worn while the other two are played.

• Chapei. It has four strings but the frets are equidistant and do not go to the sound box.
• Pei ar. The position of the hands is incoherent because the fingers of both hands close the same holes.
• “Tro Khmer-sau”! This is a hybrid fiddle! Indeed, it has three pegs like the tro Khmer but a soundbox of tro sau. Moreover, the bow is prisoner of the handle and not of the strings.
• Skor daey. We don't know what the artist intended, but the musician's face looks western and has a mustache. In addition, he seats differently from the other musician. It can however be justified by the playing of the drum that stays on the thigh.

Danielle Guéret, in her French thesis “Le décor peint des monastères bouddhiques du Cambodge fin du XIXe siècle - troisième quart du XXe siècle” has a rich iconography. She offers us the privilege of some of her pictures of chapei in the scene of the “Lesson of the three strings”.

Note: the year of the photographic credit is that of the shooting. This information is important because the paintings live and die, sometimes even ancient buildings themselves disappear.

The chapei dang veng has, or has had, several “cousins” in Cambodia itself or more broadly in South-East Asia. All these lutes have in common a neck more or less long and high frets: chapei dang klei, chapei tung, krajappi, đàn đáy ... 

In the past, some musicians played a chapei whose neck was shorter than that of chapei dang veng. This is the chapei dang klei. It remained popular in the countryside of Cambodia until the early 1960s. Its making is similar to that of chapei dang veng. However, its sound box was smaller and its neck only one meter long. Another difference was that the head was curved forward and not backward like the chapei dang veng and could be carved in various ways. This instrument was used in the wedding band just like its cousin. It was also commonly used in the Mahaori ensemble where its high pitch was appreciated.

Wat Kong Moch in Siem Reap offers us a representation of such an instrument in a 1951 (Buddhist Year of Rabbit, 2506) fresco depicting the Descent of the Buddha from the Sky of the Thirty-three Gods.

Other paintings offer us representations that could be chapei dang klei but we cannot be totally sure about the intention of the artist.

The chapei is now the only traditional lute existing in Cambodia, except the pre-Angkorian trisari which Patrick Kersalé has recently made a reconstitution's proposal. If the painters directly represented their interpretation of the chapei, others took for reference models of lutes that they had actually seen or in the iconography. The guitar, at the time of the French Protectorate, was sometimes also a source of inspiration. Still others have created hybrid lutes.

Danielle Guéret, in her French thesis “Le décor peint des monastères bouddhiques du Cambodge fin du XIXe siècle - troisième quart du XXe siècle” has a rich iconography. She offers us here the privilege of some of her images. Particularly noteworthy are the acoustic guitars, the electric guitar and a lute inspired by the Persian tar. They are all part of the “Three-string lesson” scene.

The year of the photographic credit is that of the shooting. This information is important because the paintings live and die, sometimes even the buildings themselves disappear.

French ethnomusicologist Jacques Brunet reports that in the 1960s, “The ksae diev of the Royal Palace of Phnom-Penh had no rope in 1962. The musician specialized in this instrument had not found it useful to replace it, this which was easy, and abandoned it in favor of the chapey. Since then, royal weddings have always been accompanied by an orchestra without ksae diev.”

The argument of sound power and musical interest is probably also to be taken into account. It must be recognized that the acoustic power of the monochord is so tenuous that the efforts made by the musician are annihilated by the other instruments. In the Angkorian era, when the monochord played alongside the harps, one can better understand the interest of this instrument. But since the instruments accompanying it become too powerful, only the nostalgic can deplore its absence.

The history of the chapei is peppered with false beliefs and certainties. We don't know when and from where it arrived in Cambodia. Among the false beliefs, it is a stubborn one: it claims that the bas-reliefs of Angkor Wat show a chapei. The answer is clearly no. However, remember that the instruments presented in Angkorian iconography are those used in temples, at the royal court and on battlefields. Given the formerly high-fretted lutes in China and long-standing relations between the Middle Kingdom and Cambodia, it is not excluded that a lute belonging to the technological affiliation of the chapei existed in the popular classes or in the hands of street singers during the Angkorian times. We are not refractory to such a hypothesis, but it would be necessary to demonstrate it. To date, we have found no evidence.

So, researchers of all kinds, at work!

See also:

The arak ensemble of the Wat Reach Bo

The chapei players, by Émile Gsell

Two chapei of King Sisowath Monivong

The Thai krajappi

The mahori ensemble of Ayutthaya