Friday, 17 April 2009

Student gives voice to Cambodian melodic chants

Press-Telegram Long Beach, CA

Greg Mellen, Staff Writer
Posted: 04/16/2009 08:47:50 PM PDT

In Cambodia, the music of smot, or dharma songs, is most often heard at funerals and only rarely is it performed live.

The ancient melodic chanting was one of the many oral traditions passed from master to student that was very nearly extinguished during the Khmer Rouge reign of the late 1970s.

Trent Walker, a student at Stanford University believed to be the only Westerner to train with Cambodian masters in the form, will help ring in the Cambodian New Year when he performs and discusses the art in the fourth installment of the Khmer Arts Salon Series in Long Beach.

And if you take anything away from the show, Walker would like it to be an understanding that smot isn't just funereal.

"I plan to show how it can be used to convey a broad emotional range," said Walker. "The gift or magic of it comes in its emotional expressiveness."

Walker says in addition to funerals, smot can be chanted at ceremonies of giving, healing and the consecration of religious images.

As an art form, smot is a complex and demanding way of melodically reciting Khmer and Pali literature that came out of the Buddhist temples. However, whereas the chanting of monks is typically monotone, smot songs require melodic dexterity, vibrato and range.

Walker began studying smot chanting in 2005 in Kompong Speu, Cambodia, under the tutelage of achar Prum Ut, one of the most renowned, revered and accomplished chanters in Cambodia. Walker also studied under neak kru Koet Ran and Royal University of Fine Arts professor Yan Borin.
The student, who is also one of just a few doing academic work in the field, comes to smot from a musical perspective as a jazz trumpeter, composer and Chinese erhu player.

He continues to study Pali, Sanskrit and Buddhist texts and has translated many Khmer smot chants into English.

Through his work with Cambodian Living Arts, a project of World Education, Walker has digitally archived more than 400 smot chants.

The Khmer Arts Academy Salon Series consists of performance/lectures on the third Saturday of each month that focus on Southern and Southeastern Asian art forms. Past performances have featured Cambodian dance and Balinese puppetry, and classical Indian music is scheduled in May.

The series is curated by Prumsodun Ok, a dancer, filmmaker and teacher at the Khmer Arts Academy.

On Saturday, in addition to performing chants, Walker will talk about the history and background of smot and there will be a discussion session.

At a time when tribunals are being held in Cambodia to prosecute surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime, Walker's performance is a reminder of something that was almost lost and reinforces the importance of keeping traditions and stories alive.

By sharing his art, Walker says, he hopes to do that.

"Each of us has our own story to share and stories in our religious traditions that touch our hearts," he says. "I will be sharing that. It is my wish and (my teachers') wish that this tradition be shared with the world."

Walker says he hopes it will "inspire (others) to tell their own stories."

Greg Mellen 562-499-1291 greg.mellen@presstelegram.com

Khmer Arts Salon Series - Smot: Songs of Healing

When: 7 p.m. Saturday.

Where: Khmer Arts Academy, 1364 Obispo Ave., Long Beach.

Admission: Free.

Information: 562-472-0090, www.khmerarts.org.

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