Traditional Lao music can be divided into classical and folk forms.

Khene

Khene is what makes Lao people which the Lao people makes the khene. The national proverb is, "A person living under a stilted house, eat sticky rice, listen to any music related to Lam or Morlam, and play the Khene is likely to be Lao or associated with Lao people."

Khene is made from a special kind of bamboo. It looks slightly Andrean in appearance with its sets of bamboo and reed pipes of various lengths, which are strapped together, and then blow into by the player. It can be played solo as in traditional Lao music or in combination with other musical instruments to accompany modern songs (http://www.savannanet.com/khene.htm).

Music today

Today, there are wide varities of music genres in Laos. Laos has a range of alternative rock to its classical reform music today that still represent Lao people, morlam. Most notable pop icons are Aluna, the famous rapping group L.O.G., OverDance, half-blooded Alexandra, the rock band Sarky and the famous living legend popular in Laos and America, Ketsana Vilaylack, Oukeo Xayavong and plenty more. Up and coming rising artists are Julu, A*Pacts, IBU, Kou (one of Sarky's younger brothers), hardcore lyrics spitting his game straight out of California is Bucsupa Sang, Mr. Tee, and many more.

Classical music

The classical form is closely related to that of the Siamese. The Lao classical orchestra can be divided into two categories, Sep Nyai (or Mahori) and Sep Noi. The Sep Nyai is ceremonial and formal music and includes: two sets of gongs (kong vong), a xylophone (lanat), an oboe (pei or salai), two large kettle drums and two sets of cymbals (xing). The Sep Noi, capable of playing popular tunes, includes two bowed string instruments, the So U and the So I, also known to the Indians. These instruments have a long neck or fingerboard and a small sound box; this sound box is made of bamboo in the So U and from a coconut in the So I. Both instruments have two strings, and the bow is slid between these two strings, which are tuned at a fifth apart and always played together. Furthermore this mahori or sep noi ensemble (the sep nyai is strictly percussion and oboe) may include several khene. In this respect, it differs markedly from the mahori orchestras of Cambodia and Siam. Siamese could refer to: A Siamese cat Siamese twins The Thai language Someone or something from Thailand This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... A gong is any one of a wide variety of metal percussion instruments. ... Xylophone in Bali 1937 The xylophone (from the Greek meaning wooden sound) is a musical instrument in the percussion family which probably originated in Indonesia (Nettl 1956, p. ... Modern Oboe The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. ... Timpani, or kettledrums, are musical instruments in the percussion family. ... Sabian Paragon cymbals Cymbals (Fr. ... A string instrument (or stringed instrument) is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. ... Diversity Around 91 genera and 1,000 species Subtribes Arthrostylidiinae Arundinariinae Bambusinae Chusqueinae Guaduinae Melocanninae Nastinae Racemobambodinae Shibataeinae See the full Taxonomy of the Bambuseae. ... Binomial name Cocos nucifera L. The Coconut Palm (Cocos nucifera), is a member of the Family Arecaceae (palm family). ... A string is a vibrating element used on many musical instruments, such as the violin, guitar, harp, and piano. ... In music, a bow is a device pulled across the strings of a string instrument in order to make them vibrate and emit sound. ... A khene player in Isan The khene (also spelled kaen) is a mouth-organ whose pipes are connected with a small, hollowed-out wooden reservoir into which air is blown. ... For the country formerly called Siam see Thailand SIAM is an acronym for Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. ...

Some ethnomusicologists believe that Laos is a country where the ancient art music of the Khmer people has been best preserved -- as well as diverse forms of folk music related to the oldest types of Indian music, music that has largely disappeared in India itself. They claim to find in Laos a scale which the ancient Hindus called the "celestial scale," the Gandhara grama, which is a tempered heptatonic scale, or a division of the octave into seven equal parts. The Khmer people are the main ethnic group in Cambodia, accounting for 90% of the 13 million people in the country. ... This article is about the Hindu religion; for other meanings of the word, see Hindu (disambiguation). ... In music, a heptatonic scale is any scale with seven (hepta) degrees. ... In music, an octave (sometimes abbreviated 8ve or 8va) is the interval between one musical note and another with half or double the frequency. ...

The Royal Lao Orchestra, consisting of musicians of the former court of the king of Laos, who fled Laos following the communist takeover in 1975, now reside in Knoxville and Nashville, Tennessee, United States. King Savang Vatthana (November 13, 1907 - June 13 (?), 1978) was the last king of the Kingdom of Laos. ... Nickname: The Marble City, K-Town, Big Orange Country, Knox Vegas Official website: www. ... Nickname: Music City Official website: http://www. ... Official language(s) English Capital Nashville Largest city Memphis Area  - Total  - Width  - Length  - % water  - Latitude  - Longitude Ranked 36th 109,247 km² 195 km 710 km 2. ...

Folk Music

Lao folk music, known as Lam, is extemporaneous singing accompanied by the khene. It is popular both in Laos and Thailand, where there is a large ethnic Lao population. Folk Music, in the original sense of the term, is music by and of the common people. ... ...

History of Lao Music in Thailand

Following the Siamese conquest of Laos in 1828 and the subsequent dispersion of the Lao population into Siam (Central Thailand), Lao music became fashionable there. Sir John Bowring, an envoy from Great Britain, described a meeting with the deputy king (ouparaja) of Siam in 1855 in which his host performed on the Lao khene; at a meeting two days later he entertained Bowring with Lao dancers and khene music. The Chronicles of the Fourth Reign said the deputy king enjoyed playing the khene and "could perform the Lao type of dance and could skillfully perform the Lao comedy-singing. It is said that if one did not actually see his royal person, one would have thought the singer were a real Lao." Ouparath, also Ouparaja, or Uparaja, are titles for viceregal positions reserved for of the Buddhist dynasties in Laos, Siam, Burma and Cambodia, as well as some minor tributary kingdoms of these. ... A khene player in Isan The khene (also spelled kaen) is a mouth-organ whose pipes are connected with a small, hollowed-out wooden reservoir into which air is blown. ... A khene player in Isan The khene (also spelled kaen) is a mouth-organ whose pipes are connected with a small, hollowed-out wooden reservoir into which air is blown. ...

Immediately after the deputy king's death in 1865, King Mongkut made known his fear that Lao musical culture would supplant Siamese genres and therefore banned Lao musical performances in a proclamation in which he complained that, "Both men and women now play Lao khene (mo lam) throughout the kingdom...Lao khene is always played for the topknot cutting ceremony and for ordinations. We cannot give the priority to Lao entertainments. Thai have been performing Lao khene for more than ten years now and it has become very common. It is apparent that wherever there is an increase in the playing of Lao khene there is also less rain." King Mongkut (Rama IV), (October 18, 1804 – October 18, 1868) was king of Thailand from 1851 to 1868. ... A khene player in Isan. ...

Further reading

• Miller, Terry E. (1985). Traditional Music of the Lao: Kaen Playing and Mawlum Singing in Northeast Thailand. Greenwood Press. ISBN 031324765X.