Lute - chapei

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 representation during the pre-Angkorian and Angkorian periods in Cambodia. On the other hand, it exists in the 8^th and 9^th 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 pagoda of Angkor Wat site!

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 bas-reliefs show musical instruments of Indian origin and include mythological scenes, martial, palatine, and religious. Some of these instruments disappeared with the development of Theravadin Buddhism and then with the collapse of the Khmer Empire. 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.

Traditionally, the soundbox (snok) of the chapei is made of beng wood on which is attached glued and screwed a table in roluoh wood. The case may also be made of jackfruit wood (khnor nang). The dimensions of the body are variable and can be either rectangular in form but with rounded corners - it is said to be in the form of a sima (monastery boundary) - or more trapezoidal in shape with rounded corners and it is then said to be in the form of muk neang (maiden face). Formerly it as also the shape of the leaf of the Bodhi tree. The soundboard (santeah) is almost always made of roluoh wood, more rarely of sâmraong. Formerly the soundboard was most often glued on the soundbox with fish glue, some screws sometimes consolidating the whole. A small resonance hole run is arranged in the center of the soundboard.

The handle is cut in a single block of khnor nang wood 105 cm long. But it is also often carved in wood of beng, kranhung, more rarely in krâsang or krâkâh .

To make the handle, the location of the nut (prakien) is first fixed, the distance of which to the resonance table is half the circumference of this sound box (the measurement is obtained by means of a string whose length is equal to the circumference of the sound box, the string then folded in two). It is then necessary to reserve a site for the pegs (pranuot) and then to carve the ornamental end of the handle which can measure from 10 to 70 cm.

From the nut there are 12 or 13 keys (khtung) made of bone, bamboo or beng wood (formerly ivory). The last two keys rest on the resonance table. They are kept with a little wax but not really glued, which allows at any time to move them to retune the instrument. The nut often has the name of the person or animal that it represents when it is sculpted: Neang Thorani, Têp Prânâm, Sva. It is made of trâyoeung wood.

In Cambodia, the size of traditional musical instruments is sometimes related to the size of the maker or the maker of the stallion; there is also a dimensional relationship between the various constituent parts. It is very likely that the so-called equiheptatonic range used by the Khmers was born from the manufacture of a flute with equidistant game holes. French ethnomusicologist Jacques Brunet reports how a chapei maker met by him in the 1960s operated to determine the dimensions of the neck: “To manufacture the neck, we first fix the location of the prakian nut whose distance to the resonance table is equal to half of the circumference of this box (the measurement is obtained by means of a string whose length is equal to the circumference of the sound box, string which is then folded in two). All that remains is to reserve a place for the prânuot pegs and then carve the ornamental end of the handle which can be from 10 to 70 cm. From the nut, there are 12 or 13 khtung frets in ivory, bone, bamboo or beng wood. The last two frets stay on the soundboard. They are held with a little wax but not really glued, which allows at any time to move them and re-tune the instrument. The nut is often named after the character or animal he represents when carved: Neang Thorani, Têp Prânâm, Sva. It is made of trâyoeung wood.”

In the 20^th century, chapei was played by men. 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, there is 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.
Émile Gsell's photo showing a woman playing chape in the 19^th entury or the painting of the Silver Pagoda at the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, both relate to palace 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 pagodas, 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 kracchapi.

One of the oldest representation of kracchapi in Thailand seems to date from the 18^th century. The picture is a painting of the Ayutthaya School, owned by Jim Thompson's house in Bangkok. It is from the book about Jim Thompson's house. 

Its represents Prince Siddhartha leaving at night the palace where he grew up.

In the current state of our research, this representation of kracchapi would be the oldest. We can already see the structure of Khmer orchestras phleng arak boran and phleng kar boran, that is to say by transposing the names of Khmer instruments: the chapei lute, the tro Khmer fiddle, the pei ar oboe with its large reed, the goblet drums skor arak or skor daey and a skor romonea frame drum seen from the front. While this last drum is not present in the phleng arak boran and phleng kar boran, the structure of the musical ensemble is similar. We know that traditional Cambodian orchestras were, and remain, geometrically variable according to the provinces, the formations themselves, the availability of musicians and instruments.

We have retained the French version (reworked) of the monk Dhamma Sāmi in his book “The life of Buddha and his main disciples” to describe the scene depicted here; it is recurrent in the pagodas of Theravada Buddhism.

“Returning to the palace, on this Monday of the full moon of July 97 according to the calendar of the Great Era, Prince Siddhartha headed straight for the main living room, without bothering to climb into the room where the princess was sitting and his baby. Once there, he lay down on his vast throne, sheltered by a large white parasol. All around him, young and beautiful women danced, others played musical instruments, others sang pleasant melodies, all richly dressed, carefully coiffed and pleasantly scented. Unlike the previous days, the prince no longer felt the slightest pleasure at these festivities. The kilesā (mental impurities) weighed on him now as long as he no longer accepted to undergo them, however tiny they may be. That evening, insensitive to the graceful spectacle of the dancers, to the delicate harmonies of the musicians and to the sweetness of the melody of the singers, he fell asleep.

Seeing the sleeping prince, the women of the palace, embarrassed, dared no movement, for fear of disturbing him in his sleep. They did not venture to leave, the order was not given to them. All remained on the spot. As the hour progressed, they fell asleep on the spot in a total disorder: the scattered bodies were directed in all directions, tongues hung, some snored, drooled, groaned, talked while sleeping, chewed, some had their mouths wide open, d others were half naked in the unconsciousness of sleep. After the middle of the night, the prince awoke. Contemplating the distressing spectacle that presented itself to him, he was finally satiated with kilesā. Disgusted, disgusted by this disgusting vision that made him think of a messy mass grave where corpses pile up pell-mell, he depressed. A thought crossed his mind: ‘And to say that I remained carefree, immersed in this world of sensory pleasures twenty-eight years!’

It is at this moment that the prince decides to put immediately at work his decision to leave the palace for the forest ...”
In almost all cases, the female musicians are represented asleep, as described in the original text. However, here, the princess and her baby are immersed in sleep while the musicians play for awake spectators.
As is often the case for the illustration of mythological or historical texts, artists represent the musical instruments of their immediate environment, but not those of the time they illustrate. So do not see there, or anywhere else, the musical instruments of the time of the Buddha.

The Buddhaisavan Chapel in Bangkok was built in 1795 to house the statue of the Lion Buddha (Phra Puttha Sihing) of Sinhalese origin dating back to the 15^th century. This chapel is now consecrated as a Buddhist temple and many worshipers frequent it daily, but no monk is attached to it. It contains the illustration of the 548^th and last life of the Buddha in 28 murals made between 1795 and 1797.

The state of conservation of the panels is uneven and the paintings have been restored several times. The same panel can represent various events, sometimes anachronistic, separated by plant motifs (trees, bushes), minerals (rocks) or aquatic (ponds, rivers, seas). Important events are always painted on a red background and topped with zigzag decorations, typically Siamese.

The painting was made by the method called tempera, on walls washed and dried; the natural colors were applied on the dry walls, then stabilized with natural fixatives.

We present here the completeness of the panels of this chapel containing at least one kracchapi lute as they are beautiful and representative of the Buddhist culture of that time. The kracchapi are all played by women and, in a unique case, by a mythological being.

“For three months during the rainy season, the Buddha preached to his mother and the gods, including ruler of Tavatimsa heaven, the god Indra. On his way to Tavatimsa heaven, the Buddha passes above the head of an evil serpent or Naga in human and princely form. Enraged, and assuming his serpent form, the evil Naga battles with another naga, Mogellana, who is a disciple of the Buddha, but to go/to avail, until Mogellana assumes the guise of a Garuda, the half bird half man enemy of the nagas the double miracle at Sravasti. To convince dissenters, the Buddha performs miracles in which a fully laden mango tree springs from a seed, and the Buddha himself appears in multiple forms simultaneously: as single walking figure, two seated figures and two reclining figures platforms erected by the dissenters on which to perform rival magic are destroyed by a storm caused by the green god Indra.”

The kracchapi shown here has an oval soundbox and three pegs. The frets are not visible.

“The Buddha’s father, King Suddhodana, sends the ninth emissary to find the Buddha to return to Kapilavastu, to preach to his father and relatives."

Two orchestras are mirrored on both sides of the cremation tower. The kracchapi frets are not visible. The two resonance boxes have substantially different shapes; the one on the left is closer to the shape of the leaf of the Bodhi tree. The one on the right shows four tuning pegs.

“From Tavatimsa heaven down to the world of men, accompanied by the god Indra, the Brahma and celestial musicians, the Buddha descends the triple staircase of gold, silver and glittering jewels. At the time of the descent, a miracle enables the three worlds, of the heavens, earth and the hells, to be simultaneously visible to each other. After his descent to earth, the Buddha preaches to assembled followers.”

On this scene, two kracchapi are represented in two different contexts. In the upper left, Gandharva Pañcaśikha plays kracchapi. He holds in his other two hands two little hourglass-shaped drums that are one of the attributes of the god Shiva when he is represented as the God of Dance. Indra who holds the sword and the conch accompany him. The soundbox of his kracchapi is oval. The instrument has five tuning pegs but only three strings. Perhaps we should see there a symbolic representation: the five pegs could represent the five mountains of the Meru or remain the gods of Hinduism and the three strings, the three gods of Trimurti: Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.

The second kracchapi is located under the stairway through which the Buddha descends into the world of humans. The instrument has four strings and the frets are visible. The musicians have the same hairstyle as the chapei player of the Royal Palace of Phnom Penh photographed by Émile Gsell at the same time. It is clear from this detail that the Siam Court in Bangkok and the Cambodia Court in Phnom Penh are close.

"Princess Yasodhara is the wife of the Buddha whom he abandoned at the same time as his son when he left the palace one night. Legend has it that King Udena had three spouses; two of them, Mâgandiyâ and Sâmâvatî, were fierce rivals: one was a disciple of the Buddha, the other was jealous and vindictive. While the Buddha was visiting the kingdom, each queen behaved accordingly: the first received him with food offerings, the second spread rumors and barked the dogs after him. "

It is also a lute in this story: "At that time, the king used to share his time equally between his three women, spending seven days in turn in the apartment of each of them. Magandyia, knowing that he would go the next day or two days later to Samavati's apartment, sent word to his uncle: ‘Send me a serpent, whose fangs you have soaked with it.’ This was done. The king had custom, wherever he went, to carry his magical lute, elephant charmer. In the soundboard of the instrument, there was a hole. Mâgandiyâ then introduced the snake and blocked the opening with a bouquet of flowers. For two or three days, the snake remained in the lute ...” Read more here.

The kracchapi depicted here has a soundbox whose shape is close to that of the leaf of the Bodhi tree. Twenty frets on the neck and six on the soundboard. Only two pegs are visible.

“This scene depicts the engagement, the procession and the celebration of the royal wedding of the Bodhisattva's parents, the Suddhodana King of the Sakya clan and Princess Maha Maya at the Kapilavastu Palace. The future couple, surrounded by members of the Court, face each other: between them is a bai sri (floral arrangement). On the left, Prince Suddhodana Gautama is flanked by Brahma with four faces and Indra with green. On the right are Princess Maha Maya and her suite.”

The orchestra is composed of six instruments. From left to right: small cymbals, fiddle, kracchapi lute, frame drum, goblet drum and a percussion instrument made of a bundle of hardwood and brass slats, tied together at one end called krap phuang (กรับพวง). The two drum players have their mouths ajar, which means they sing. This kracchapi has four coupled strings, seventeen frets on the neck and six on the soundboard. One of the characteristics of this orchestra is that both string players are represented as left-handed because the outfits are reversed.

This is the classic scene of the great renunciation, in which Prince Siddhartha leaves his wife and newborn son to seek to understand how to free humanity from suffering. Leaving the palace, he leaves the musicians and the dancers asleep. Then he meets four disguised divine messengers: an old man, a sick man, a dead man and a wandering ascetic, represented here as a monk.

The scene of sleeping musicians is, for painters, the opportunity to represent musical instruments that they themselves have seen in their socio-cultural environment. Depending on the cultural and intellectual level of the painter or his master, the choice of instruments and the quality of the details are variable. Here, one sees the neck of the kracchapi, that of the fiddle and three other instruments emerging from the abandoned bodies.

An 18h-century cabinet of the Ayutthaya School, belonging to the National Museum of Bangkok, shows a musical ensemble similar to those of the Buddhaisawan Chapel, but with a gong chime. Thus, from left to right: an aerophone (oboe?), small cymbals, a gong chime, a barrel-shaped drum, a kracchapi lute , a fiddle, a second aerophone (oboe?).

On the left side of the cabinet, another kracchapi player seems to be the clown!

In the 19^th century, the French photographer Émile Gsell created portraits of several female musicians of the Royal Palace, posing with their instrument. Thanks to him, we know one of the most beautiful chapei. It has four strings, tuned in pairs. We will notice the oval soundbox, fine pegs carved with a rare elegance and frets on the soundboard. This instrument has nine frets on the neck, one at the edge of the soundboard and five sticked on it. The pegs are either made of bone or ivory; they are comparable to the representations of the Buddhaisawan Chapel in Bangkok. Note the elegance of the fingers and nails of the musician and the characteristic hairstyle of that time.

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. 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 postcard dates from the early 20^th 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 pegs role is to avoid the loss of frets that are fixed with the wax in order to be moved at will to re-tune the instrument. But it seems that chapei with three strings (one for the accompaniment and two tuned in unison for the melody) also existed.

This engraving seems to date from the end of the 19^th century. A note in pencil at the bottom of the image gives the date of 1874. There are, again, five female musicians playing a mixture of melodic drums and chordophones. Their hairstyle is similar to that of the musician of the Royal Palace photographed by Émile Gsell and the chapei, once again is similar, except the frets on the soundboard. Here they are only twelve frets.

This postcard, entitled "The Musician of Princess Kanakari", dates from the very beginning of the 20^th century. It shows a mix of melodic percussion and stringed instruments. A total of ten 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.

This postcard of the early 20^th 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's 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.

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.

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, inside the building. This is the major scene of the pagoda: 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 oles. 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 fiddle tro sau of Chinese origin, instead of a triangular box. 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 19^th 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 13^th century. This would confirm the presence of the bird's head on “The Angkor Wat's harp”.

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 seate differently from the other musician. It can however be justified by the playing of the drum that stays on the thigh.

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.

In North of Vietnam, the trichord long-necked đàn đáy derives perhaps from the chapei but we can not 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 (11^th-12^th 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.