History

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



Introduction

To understand the historiography of the chapei dang veng commonly called chapei, it is necessary to widen the geographical area of research from Cambodia to the Middle East, passing India, China and especially Thailand which offers a rich iconography.

 


The origin of the word chapei

The word chapei (also transliterated chapey) derives from the Sanskrit kacchap(î), which designates a lute from ancient India. Kacchap(î) is also the source for krajappi, kracchapi, krachappi or grajabpi (กระจับปี่), the name of the “Thai chapei”.  In all this website, we use the graph “krajappi” , which is the most used in Thailand. Kacchap(î) itself derives from the Sanskrit kacchapa, literally “turtle”. It may be hypothesized that the original lute's soundbox was made of a turtle shell or has been inspired by its shape. We find (found) this type of instrument by the hands of popular musicians. A large number of instruments around the world have names derived from Sanskrit, whether in Asia, Europe or Western Africa. Some instrument names have traveled for centuries maintaining their original roots. By passing from one country to another, from one culture to another, from one musician to another, the instrument was adopted with its name, which undergoes variations related to the understanding of the word and to the speaker's ability to rephrase it. It is thus possible to trace the course of certain musical instruments through space and time thanks to their only name.

In West Java (Indonesia), also known as Sunda, kacapi refers to a plucked zither. In Sulawesi, kacapi designates the kakapi kajang lute also called kacaping.

 

The different names of the chapei

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 classification

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.

 

The chapei, between myth and reality

Chapei player in front of the future Buddha emaciated by an exaggerated fast. Contemporary work. South vihāra of Angkor Wat.
Chapei player in front of the future Buddha emaciated by an exaggerated fast. Contemporary work. South vihāra of Angkor Wat.

It is a tenacious myth that should be swept in one stroke. It is said that a representation of chapei exists among the bas-reliefs of the Angkor Wat temple. After surveying this temple for 20 years and scanning each square inch, we can say that there is no representation of chapei in Angkor Wat. There are also, to our knowledge, no lute representations during the pre-Angkorian and Angkorian periods in Cambodia. On the other hand, a monoxyle pear-shaped lutes exist in the 8th and 9th centuries among the Chams of Vietnam, in Siam and in Borobudur (Java - Indonesia). But they look nothing like chapei. Everything has more, a chapei player is represented from behind on one of the walls of the south of the vihāra (Buddhist temple) of Angkor Wat site, but it is contemporary!

However, the lack of representation of lutes on pre-Angkorian and Angkorian bas-reliefs doesn't mean that they didn't exist at these times. Remember that the Angkorian bas-reliefs show musical instruments of Indian origin and include mythological, martial, palatine, and religious scenes. Some of these instruments disappeared with the development of Theravadin Buddhism (14th century) and then with the collapse of the Khmer Empire in the 15th century. But it goes without saying that, alongside music of royal tradition, indigenous art flourished among the population, drawing its sources from the old Mon-Khmer culture, whose music was probably based on bamboo percussion, aerophones and chordophones. We can still find among the mountain populations bordering borders of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.

 

When did the chapei arrive in Cambodia?

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.

 

A creative nebula or a Big Bang?

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.

 

Zones of influence

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)

Middle East

In the Middle East, among the long-neck lutes, the instrument whose soundbox shape is closest to that of the chapei is the tanbur. Miniatures of the Topkapi Palace in Turkey attests to the 16th century. On the other hand, the Middle Eastern lutes only have low frets and the term chapei derives from Sanskrit, which a priori seems to thwart this track. Unless the chapei was born from the crossing of an old fretted zither of Indian origin adopted in Cambodia in ancient times and a Middle Eastern lute?

Mahmut Demir playing tanbur.


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.

India

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.

Môn crocodile-shaped zither kyam (Myanmar)

Khmer crocodile-shaped zither kropeu or takhe

Khmer zither kropeu or takhe


Siam

Unlike Cambodia, Thailand is a country of lutes. They are found both among Thai people themselves and among ethnic minorities. The shape of the soundboxes varies considerably. The necks are short, except for the krajappi. The frets are low or high depending on the typology. The oldest lute representation in Siam dates from the 7th century.
It is known that the krajappi was played at the court of Ayutthaya (1350-1767) without knowing when it began to be used. The earliest representation dates from the mid-18th century and chronicles of the court mention it only under the reign of King Narai (1656-1688).
For more information, see chapter: The Thai krajappi.

China

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.

Provisional conclusion on provenance

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.

 

Gender of chapei players

Female musician of the Royal Palace. The chapei, with its frets stuck on the soundboard is Thai style. Photo Emile Gsell. Around 1870.
Female musician of the Royal Palace. The chapei, with its frets stuck on the soundboard is Thai style. Photo Emile Gsell. Around 1870.

In the 20th century, men play chapei. Today this trend is confirmed but the growing number of women practicing. It must be recognized that the playing of complex musical instruments by women is rare in traditional societies. In agrarian or agro-pastoral ones in which modern technology has not yet emerged, exists an obvious sexual disparity in music practicing. In general, women sing and men play instruments. There are two major reasons for this. The first one is the absorption of women by household chores and food. In many parts of the world where there is no running water, fossil fuel, or electricity, most of the time is spent on water drawing, collecting wood and preparing meals. Once all these tasks completed, they still have to take care of children ans cleanliness. And as if that was not enough, the woman also takes care of crops and pets. Given such an observation, how could they find time for studying a complex musical instrument?

The second reason is linked to taboos perpetrated by tradition. In West Africa, for example, drums remain the preserve of men. As to play a flute, a phallic symbol, it is better not to think about it. Remains therefore to the women of the bush, the kitchen utensils they skillfully transform into percussion.

This Émile Gsell's photo showing a woman playing chapei in the 1860s or the painting of the Silver Pagoda at the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, both relate to palace female musicians who have dedicated part of their lives to that. In this particular case of royal or princely palaces, in Cambodia or elsewhere, there are many examples of professional female musicians relieved of daily tasks.

In the iconography of Buddhist monasteries, painters have placed musical instruments of all kinds in the hands of female musicians. We will now examine in what circumstances they play the Khmer chapei or the Thai krajappi.

  •  

The Thai krajappi

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

 

Iconography of long-neck lutes in Laos

In the Buddhist painting of Laos, there are long-neck lutes representations; some are well identified as the phin (Lao ພິນ, Thai พิณ) with its nāga-shaped end part, seen from profile. Others are similar to chapei or krajappi, but they don't have all the characteristics, especially as regards the shape of the soundbox.

Be that as it may, the contemporary Lao phin (photo opposite) is from the Isan region in Thailand. It is mainly played by native Laotians in Thailand and Laos. It has low frets, similar to those of the guitar. It is an evolution of the phin / krajappi of the Ayutthaya court.

Below we present the iconography of three long-neck lutes from one of Luang Prabang's oldest Buddhist temple, Vat Hat Syo (also spelled Vat Had Siéo, Vat Hadxiéo, Wat Hardseow, Vat Pa Hard Siew). It is located on the other side of the Mekong River in relation to the city. It is a small building located in a sparsely populated area. In a personal communication, Francis Engelmann, a specialist in the history of Luang Prabang, said: “The temple probably dates from the end of the nineteenth century. It was renovated in 1937 by King Sisavang Vong. The paintings are difficult to date. Stylistically, they are of Siamese influence. One could thus suppose that they were realized at the time of the Siamese presence in Luang Prabang in the mid-nineteenth century, just before the French protectorate. But an inscription of 1922 suggests that they are later because it indicates that Po Ok Siengsouk and Me Ok Chanpheng have sponsored the building. The style and support of this inscription seem close to the interior paintings. So should we date them from 1922?”

Chapei inconography in Cambodia

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.

 

Photograph of a female musician in the Royal Palace of Phnom Penh by Émile Gsell (c. 1866-1870)


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.

 

Drawings of Louis Delaporte, late 19th and early 20th century

Drawing by Janet Lange, after a drawing by M. Delaporte.
Drawing by Janet Lange, after a drawing by M. Delaporte.

Louis Delaporte was a French explorer born in Loches on January 11, 1842 and died in Paris on May 3, 1925. Recruited because of his drawing skills, he left in 1866 in Cochinchina and was appointed with Ernest Doudart de Lagrée for the French Expedition of the Mekong, a mission of exploration and research to the sources of the river. He discovered on this occasion the site of Angkor. From these missions in Cambodia, he has left us wonderful drawings that still continue today to make us dream. Among them, some representations of musical instruments, including the chapei.

This drawing shows us one of the most aesthetic chapei that can be seen, with its soundbox shaped as a Bodhi tree's leaf. It is played by a man. The tailpiece and the head are carved. It has two strings and three pegs: two are dedicated to the tuning of the strings and the third to secure the frets. We don't know if such a chapei existed in reality or if the artist embellished it? This is the first testimony of a chapei associated with a popular scene. 

 

The chapei through the Indochinese postcards

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 postcard dates from the early 20th century. The chapei is played by a woman. It has a pineapple-shaped soundbox, two strings, three pegs and twelve frets. The tailpiece is shaped like a lotus flower. Recall once again that the third peg role is to stretch a string whose role is to avoid the loss of frets stuck with wax. 

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.

 


This postcard, entitled “The Musician of Princess Kanakari”, dates from the very beginning of the 20th century. It shows a mix of melodic percussion and stringed instruments. A total of ten female musicians for eight instruments visible. It lacks drums and oboes. But it is likely that the oboes are replaced here by the chordophones. The chapei is very similar to that of Gsell's photo, especially from the point of view of the shape of the soundbox and the arrangement of the pegs. Notice the angle of the head at about 80 degrees.

This postcard of the early 20th century is marked “PHNOM PENH. Musicians playing for a public holiday.” The mix of melodic drums and chordophones is once again attested. We don't know, however, whether these eleven musicians were playing together at the same time. It is striking to imagine the low sound of the monochord zither fighting with the powerful gong chimes and drums.

Here, the chapei has a pineapple-shaped soundbox, twelve frets and three pegs. The number of strings is not discernible.

 

Other iconography

Organological and musicological teachings of postcards

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.

 

The arak ensemble and the chapei of the Wat Reach Bo (Siem Reap)

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

 

Wat Preah Keo Morokot (Silver Pagoda). 1898-1903

In this scene both colorful and strongly deteriorated by the onslaught of time, Isur proceeds to the marriage of Ream and Seda on Mount Kailash.

In this extraordinary wedding ceremony, there is both a phleng Siam orchestra (name used at the time for the pin peat) played by women and a phleng kar orchestra (now called phleng kar boran), also in the hands of women. The orchestra consists of a chapei dang veng whose form of the soundbox is not visible, a tro Khmer fiddle and two skor daey drums. If we compare this scene with the ensembles visible on the postcards presented above, we have noticed that here, the phleng Siam orchestra is physically separated from the phleng kar orchestra. We think that these two ensembles didn't play together but in  time sharing.

 


National Museum of Cambodia

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.

 


Wat Saravoan Techo, Phnom Penh. Late 1920s

The fresco we are going to study here is in the Wat Saravoan Techo  in Phnom Penh, built apparently in the late 1920s. It is located above the East entrance of the vihāra and represents its major scene: it illustrates the Descent of the Buddha from Heaven of the thirty-three gods down the triple staircase of gold, silver and precious stones. At the bottom of the stairs, an orchestra imbued with reality and mythology. From left to right, we can see: a first skor daey drum, a pei ar oboe, a tro Khmer fiddle, a chapei dang veng lute, a pin harp, a ksae diev monochord zither and a second skor daey drum. Note also the presence of a singer (or narrator) who stands just below the Buddha. He holds in his hands a manuscript on palm leaves. His straight right finger shows his function.

It is interesting to note that the chapei player is placed in the center of the orchestra and the gaze of all the characters under the Buddha converge on him.

Despite the historical quality of this fresco, let us mention some errors that crept into this orchestra:

  • At the time when this fresco was painted, we are in the middle of the French Protectorate period. This is probably the reason why the artist painted landmarks between the frets, as they existed on the guitars introduced to Cambodia by the French.
  • The tro Khmer was designed with a round soundbox in the manner of the tro sau fiddle of Chinese origin, instead of a triangular soundbox. However, it has three pegs, signature of the tro Khmer.
  • The shape of the harp and the arrangement of the strings are fanciful to say the least. It is clear that the artist never observed the Angkorian bas-reliefs that were, at that time, still buried in the jungle. However, it is interesting to note that there was, still in the 19th century, a memory of this instrument disappeared but become mythical. The neck ends with a bird's head, which tends to prove that the Angkorian harps maintained a strong relationship with this animal, outside even the heads of Garuda who adorned them in the 13th century. This would confirm the presence of the bird's head on “The Angkor Wat's harp”.

Wat Bakong. 1946

 

 

Wat Bakong, Bakong District, Siem Reap Province, is near the pre-Angkorian temple of the same name. It is decorated with beautiful paintings from 1946.

There are two scenes representing musical instruments. The scene here shows a restricted wedding orchestra phleng kar. There are four instruments and several observation errors:

  • 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.

Wat Bakong contains a second musical painting of a beautiful aesthetic. The artist clearly seems to have been inspired by the chapei. He borrowed the length of the neck, the four strings and the frets glued to the edge of the ‘rosette’ of the soundboard. The circular soundbox is either a pure creation of the spirit or a loan to the Chinese and Vietnamese lutes. As for the central opening, it reproduces that of the guitar, introduced in Cambodia by the French. The aesthetics of the head of the neck is inspired by the Angkorian floral decorations.

With his right hand, the Buddha asks the musician not to disturb him in his meditation. The choice of a female musician may have been dictated by the palatine practice underway at that time.


Wat Chedei

Wat Chedei is a Buddhist monastic complex built on the site of an Angkorian shrine surrounded by a moat. There is also a sanctuary painted in 1940s but destroyed in 2007. The walls are decorated but since the destruction of the roof, the paintings are delivered to bad weather. Among these, a chapei player. This musician is represented in a classic scene of popular Buddhism, that of the “Paroxysm of asceticism” in which the future Buddha totally fasts and then changes his mind to eat only one grain of rice, a single pea or a single spoon of boiled beans.

 

 

Other Cambodian monasteries

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 and its cousins

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 ... 

 

Chapei dang klei

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.

Other lutes

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.

Vietnamese lute đàn đáy

In North of Vietnam, the trichord long-necked đàn đáy derives perhaps from the chapei but we cannot bring any proof to this assertion. The only evidence he could derive from Khmer chapei is that he is the only Vietnamese heptatonic instrument; all other lutes are pentatonic.

The role of đàn đáy is limited to the accompaniment of professional singers of ca trù, a scholarly song born in the Lý period (11th-12th centuries). It is close by the length of its neck, the shape of its end but differs by its trapezoidal soundbox. The practice itself is distinguished by the fact that đàn đáy is always played by a non-singer musician accompanying a professional singer.

There are other lutes in Vietnam with high frets (đàn nguyệt, đàn sến, đàn tỳ bà, đàn tứ) but these lutes are pentatonic and derive from Chinese instruments.

 

Roles of the chapei in the Cambodian society

Chapei players perform at national festivals, village festivals and important events in Buddhist monasteries. They are also invited at official ceremonies or at the request of special interest groups. The radio and television of Cambodia devote it many hours of show. For several decades, the most famous epic singers have toured abroad, performing in Khmer refugee communities in Australia, France, Canada and the United States. The most famous of them is the Living National Treasure,  … The most famous of them alive is now Master Kong Nay (National Treasury of Cambodia) since Master Prach Chhuon left us in 2018.

The chapei has long been an instrument of self-accompaniment of the singing of blind musicians, playing on the street for a living. One of them, Keo Samnang, was still playing in Phnom Penh streets in 2013.

Before the Khmer Rouge revolution, the chapei was part of the phleng arak ritual orchestra that accompanied the exorcist-mediums at their annual thanksgiving ceremony to spiritual entities, and the phleng kar wedding ensemble today called phleng kar boran (old wedding ensemble) as opposed to the contemporary orchestra.

 

Keo Samnang is a blind traditional musician from Phnom Penh. He performed in the streets until 2013. Here he sings in embodying the character of a mother.

Master Kong Nay plays chapei on February 15, 2016 in King's Road, Siem Reap, during the "1st Friendship Festival".


How the chapei replaced the ksae diev at the Royal Palace of Phnom Penh in the 1960s

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.

 

Provisional conclusion

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!