A khene player in Isan

Mor lam (Thai/Isan: หมอลำ) is an ancient Lao form of song in Laos and Isan (Northeastern Thailand). Mor lam means expert song, or expert singer, referring to the music or artist respectively. Other romanisations used include mo lam, maw lam, maw lum, moh lam and mhor lum. In Laos, the music is known simply as lam (ລຳ); mor lam (ໝໍລຳ) refers to the singer. khene player wearing sarong and pakama at the Ubon Candle Festival; picture taken by User: Markalexander100 summer 2004; File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... khene player wearing sarong and pakama at the Ubon Candle Festival; picture taken by User: Markalexander100 summer 2004; File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... For other uses, see Isan (disambiguation). ... Isan (also Isaan or Esarn) is the language of the Isan region of Thailand. ... A song is a relatively short musical composition for the human voice (possibly accompanied by other musical instruments), which features words (lyrics). ... For other uses, see Isan (disambiguation). ... In linguistics, romanization (or Latinization, also spelled romanisation or Latinisation) is the representation of a word or language with the Roman (Latin) alphabet, or a system for doing so, where the original word or language uses a different writing system. ...

The characteristic feature of lam singing is the use of a flexible melody which is tailored to the tones of the words in the text. Traditionally, the tune was developed by the singer as an interpretation of glawn poems and accompanied primarily by the khene, a free reed mouth organ, but the modern form is most often composed and uses electrified instruments. Contemporary forms of the music are also characterised by quick tempi and rapid delivery, while tempi tend to be slower in traditional forms and in some Lao genres. Some consistent characteristics include strong rythmic accompaniment, vocal leaps, and a conversational style of singing that can be compared to American rap. It has been suggested that Tonal language be merged into this article or section. ... Glawn or gaun (Thai กลอน) is a verse form used in the poetry and song of the Lao people; it is the most common text in traditional mor lam. ... 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 free reed aerophone is a musical instrument where sound is produced as air passes a reed in a chamber, causing the reed to vibrate. ... Musical composition is: an original piece of music the structure of a musical piece the process of creating a new piece of music // A musical composition A piece of music exists in the form of a written composition in musical notation or as a single acoustic event (a live performance... A musical instrument is a device constructed or modified with the purpose of making music. ... In musical terminology, tempo (Italian for time) is the speed or pace of a given piece. ... Hip hop music (also referred to as rap or rap music) is a style of popular music. ...

Typically featuring a theme of unrequited love, mor lam also reflects the difficulties of life in rural Isan and Laos, leavened with wry humour. In its heartland performances are an essential part of festivals and ceremonies, while the music has gained a profile outside its native regions thanks to the spread of migrant workers, for whom it remains an important cultural link with home. Love is a condition or phenomenon of emotional primacy, or absolute value. ... Look up Humour in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The word culture, from the Latin colo, -ere, with its root meaning to cultivate, generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activity significance. ...

History

In his Traditional Music of the Lao, Terry Miller identifies five factors which helped to produce the various genres of lam in Isan: animism, Buddhism, story telling, ritual courtship and male-female competitive folksongs; these are exemplified by lam phi fa, an nangsue, lam phuen and lam glawn (for the last two factors) respectively.^[1] Of these, lam phi fa and lam phuen are probably the oldest, while it was mor lam glawn which was the main ancestor of the commercial mor lam performed today. In religion, the term Animism is used in a number of ways. ... Buddhism (also known as Buddha Dharma, meaning approximately Law of the Awakening) is a religion, a practical philosophy, and arguably a psychology, focusing on the teachings of the Buddha Śākyamuni (Siddhārtha Gautama), who lived in ancient India most likely from the mid-6th to the early 5th century BCE... This article or section seems not to be written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia entry. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Folk music, in the original sense of the term, is music by and of the people. ...

After Siam extended its influence over Laos in the 18th and 19th centuries, the music of Laos began to spread into the Thai heartlands; even King Mongkut's vice-king Pinklao becoming enamoured of it. But in 1865, following the vice-king's death, Mongkut banned public performances, citing the threat it posed to Thai culture and its role in causing drought.^[2] Performance of mor lam thereafter was a largely local affair, confined to events such as festivals in Isan and Laos. However, as Isan people began to migrate to the rest of the country, the music spread with them. The first major mor lam performance of the 20th century in Bangkok took place at the Rajdamnoen Boxing Stadium in 1946.^[3] Even then, the number of migrant workers from Isan remained fairly small, and mor lam was paid little attention by the outside world. Laos is dominated by the Lao, and includes minorities of Hmong and Mien, among others. ... King Mongkut (Rama IV), (October 18, 1804 – October 18, 1868) was king of Thailand from 1851 to 1868. ... Ouparath, also Ouparaja, or Uparaja, is the position of deputy or second king in Laos, Siam and Cambodia. ... Chaufat Krommakhun Izaret, Prince Chudamani (September 4, 1808 - January 7, 1866) was a younger brother and the vice-king of King Mongkut. ... A drought or an extreme dry periodic climate is an extended period where water availability falls below the statistical requirements for a region. ... The 2006 Sinulog festival in the Philippines Renaissance festival A festival or fest is an event, usually staged by a local community, which centers on some theme, sometimes on some unique aspect of the community. ...

In the 1950s and 1960s, there were efforts in both Thailand and Laos to put the educational aspect of lam to political use. The USIS in Thailand and both sides in the Lao civil war recruited mor lam singers to include propaganda in their performances, in the hope of persuading the rural population to support the cause. The Thai attempt was unsuccessful, taking insufficient account of performers' practices and audiences' demands, but more success was had in Laos; the victorious Communists continued to maintain a propaganda troupe even after the revolution.^[4] The United States Information Agency (USIA), which existed from 1953 to 1999, was a United States agency devoted to what it called public diplomacy. ... The Secret War (1962-1975) was the Laos front of the Second Indochina War. ... U.S. propaganda poster from WWII depicting a Nazi stabbing a Bible. ...

Mor lam started to spread in Thailand in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when more and more people left Isan in search of work. Mor lam performers began to appear on television, led by Banyen Rakgaen, and the genre soon gained a national profile. The music remains an important link to home for Isan people in the capital, where mor lam clubs and karaoke bars act as meeting places for migrants. Banyen in a VCD performance Banyen Rakgan (Thai บานเย็น รากแก่น) is a mor lam and luk thung singer from the Isan region of Thailand. ... Clubbing, also known as a disco A nightclub (often shortened to club) is an entertainment venue which does its primary business after dark. ... A Karaoke machine Karaoke (Japanese: カラオケ, from 空 kara, empty or void, and オーケストラ ōkesutora, orchestra) is a form of entertainment in which an amateur singer or singers sing along with recorded music on microphone. ... Tourists sit outside a bar in Chiang Mai, Thailand A bar in Switzerland. ...

Contemporary mor lam is very different from that of previous generations. None of the traditional Isan genres is commonly performed today: instead singers perform three-minute songs combining lam segments with luk thung or pop style sections, while comedians perform skits in between blocks of songs. Mor lam sing performances typically consist of medleys of luk thung and lam songs, with electric instruments dominant and extremely bawdy presentation. Lam in Laos is much more traditional, having been much less exposed to Central Thai and western influences. Even there, however, the music is beginning to change under the influence of Thai culture: instrumentation, topics and music are all increasingly similar to the modern Isan style. Luk thung (Thai ลูกทุ่ง), literally child of the fields, is the most popular form of Thai country music. ... For Popular music (music that is popular, rather than being of a specific genre or style), see Popular music. ... Mor lam sing (Thai/Isan หมอลำซิ่ง)is a fast-paced, racy, modernized version of the traditional Lao/Isan song form mor lam. ...

Thai academic Prayut Wannaudom has argued that modern mor lam is increasingly sexualised and lacking in the moral teachings which it traditionally conveyed, and that commercial pressures encourage rapid production and imitation rather than quality and originality. On the other hand, these adaptations have allowed mor lam not only to survive, but itself spread into the rest of Thailand and internationally, validating Isan and Lao culture and providing role-models for the young. ^[5]

Forms

There are many forms of mor lam. There can be no definitive list as they are not mutually exclusive, while some forms are confined to particular localities or have different names in different regions. Typically the categorisation is by region in Laos and by genre in Isan. The traditional forms of Isan are historically important, but are now rarely heard: For other uses, see Isan (disambiguation). ...

• lam phi fah (ลำผีฟ้า) — a ritual to propitiate spirits in cases of possession. Musically it derived from lam tang yao; however, it was performed not by trained musicians but by those (most commonly old women) who were thought themselves to have been cured by the ritual.^[6]
• mor lam glawn (หมอลำกลอน) — a vocal "battle" between the sexes. In Laos it is known as lam tat. Performances traditionally lasted all night, and consisted of first two, then three parts:
  • lam tang san (ลำทางสั้น) — ("short form") took up the bulk of the time, with the singers delivering glawn poems a few minutes in length, performing alternately for about half an hour each from evening until about an hour before dawn. They would pretend gradually to fall in love, sometimes with rather explicit sexual banter.
  • lam tang yao (ลำทางยาว) — ("long form"), a representation of the lovers' parting performed slowly and in a speech rhythm for about a quarter of an hour.
  • lam toei (ลำเต้ย) — was introduced in the mid-20th century. Similar in length to the lam tang yao, it is fast and light-hearted, with metrical texts falling into three categories: toei tamada ("normal toei"), using glawn texts in Isan; toei Pama ("Burmese toei"), using central or northern Thai texts and forms; and toei Kong ("Mekong toei"), again central or northern Thai in origin. It uses the same scale as lam yao.^[7]
• lam jotgae or lam jot (ลำโจทย์แก้ or ลำโจทย์) is a variant of lam glawn formerly popular in the Khon Kaen area, in which the singers (often both male) asked one another questions on general knowledge topics — religion, geography, history etc. — trying to catch out their opponent.
• mor lam mu (หมอลำหมู่) — folk opera, developed in the mid-20th century. Lam mu is visually similar to Central Thai likay, but the subject matter (mainly Jataka stories) derived from lam rueang (the subgenre of lam phuen) and the music from lam tang yao. It was originally more serious than lam plern and required more skilled performers, but in the late 20th century the two converged to a style strongly influenced by Central Thai and western popular music and dance. Both have now declined in popularity and are now rare.^[8]
• mor lam plern (หมอลำเพลิน) — a celebratory narrative, performed by a group. It originated around the same time as lam mu, but used a more populist blend of song and dance. The material consisted of metrical verses sung in the yao scale, often with a speech-rhythm introduction.^[9]
• lam phuen (ลำพื้น) — recital of local legends or Jataka stories, usually by a male singer, with khene accompaniment. In the subgenre of lam rueang (ลำเรื่อง), sometimes performed by women, the singer acts out the various characters in costume. Performance of one complete story can last for one or two whole nights. This genre is now extremely rare, and may be extinct.^[10]

Isan has regional styles, but these are styles of performance rather than separate genres. The most important of the styles were Khon Kaen and Ubon, each taking their cue from the dominant form of lam glawn in their area: the lam jotgae of Khon Kaen, with its role of displaying and passing on knowledge in various fields, led to a choppy, recitative-style delivery, while the love stories of Ubon promoted a slower and more fluent style. In the latter half of the 20th century the Ubon style came to dominate; the adaptation of Khon Kaen material to imitate the Ubon style was sometimes called the Chaiyaphum style.^[11] To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Glawn or gaun (Thai กลอน) is a verse form used in the poetry and song of the Lao people; it is the most common text in traditional mor lam. ... Glawn or gaun (Thai กลอน) is a verse form used in the poetry and song of the Lao people; it is the most common text in traditional mor lam. ... Central Thailand is a region of Thailand, covering the broad alluvial plain of the Chao Phraya River. ... Northern Thailand usually describes the area covered by 17 provinces. ... // For other senses of this word, see Legend (disambiguation). ... The Jataka stories are a significant body of works about the previous lives of Gautama Buddha. ... Khon Kaen (thai ขอนแก่น) is a town in the North-East of Thailand, the Isan. ... Ubon Ratchathani is both a city and a province in Thailand. ... Recitative, a form of composition often used in operas, oratorios, cantatas and similar works, is described as a melodic speech set to music, or a descriptive narrative song in which the music follows the words. ... Chaiyaphum (ชัยภูมิ) is a city in Northeastern Thailand, capital of Chaiyaphum province. ...

The Lao regional styles are divided into the southern and central styles (lam) and the northern styles (khap). The northern styles are more distinct as the terrain of northern Laos has made communications there particularly difficult, while in southern and central Laos cross-fertilisation has been much easier. Northern Lao singers typically perform only one style, but those in the south can often perform several regional styles as well as some genres imported from Isan.^[12]

The main Lao styles are:^[13]

• Lam Sithandone (also called Lam Si Pan Don), from Champassak is similar in style to the lam glawn of Ubon. It is.accompanied by a solo khene, playing in a san mode, while the vocal line shifts between san and yao scales. The rhythm of the vocal line is also indeterminate, beginning in speech rhythm and shifting to a metrical rhythm.
• Lam Som is rarely performed and may now be extinct. From Champassak, the style is hexatonic, using the yao scale plus a supertonic C, making a scale of A-B-C-D-E-G. It uses speech rhythm in the vocal line, with a slow solo khene accompaniment in meter. It is similar to Isan's lam phuen. Both Lam Som and Lam Sithandone lack the descending shape of the vocal line used in the other southern Lao styles.
• Lam Khon Savane from Savannakhet is one of the most widespread genres. It uses the san scale, with a descending vocal line over a more rigidly metrical ensemble accompaniment. Ban Xoc and Mahaxay are musically very similar, but Ban Xoc is usually performed only on ceremonial occasions while Mahaxay is distinguished by a long high note preceding each descent of the vocal line.
• Lam Phu Thai uses the yao scale, with a descending vocal line and ensemble accompaniment in meter.
• Lam Tang Vay is a Lao version of Mon-Khmer music, with a descending ensemble accompaniment.
• Lam Saravane is also of Mon-Khmer orign. It uses the yao scale. The descending vocal line is in speech rhythm, while the khene and drum accompaniment is in meter.
• Khap Thum Luang Phrabang is related to the court music of Luang Phrabang, but transformed into a folk-song style. The singer and audience alternately sing lines to a set melody, accompanied by an ensemble.
• Khap Xieng Khouang (also called Khap Phuan) uses the yao scale and is typically sung metrically by male singers and non-metrically by women.
• Khap Ngeum uses the yao scale. It alternates declaimed line from the singer and non-metrical khene passages, at a pace slow enough to allow improvisation.
• Khap Sam Neua uses the yao scale. Singers are accompanied by a solo khene, declaiming lines each ending in a cadence.
• Khap Thai Dam

The Mon-Khmer languages are the autochthonous languages of Indo-China. ... Royal palace museum of Luang Prabang. ...

Performers

Traditionally, young mor lam were taught by established artists, paying them for their teaching with money or in kind. The education focussed on memorising the texts of the verses to be sung; these texts could be passed on orally or in writing, but they always came from a written source. Since only men had access to education, it was only men who wrote the texts. The musical education was solely by imitation. Khaen-players typically had no formal training, learning the basics of playing from friends or relatives and thereafter again relying on imitation.^[14] With the decline of the traditional genres this system has fallen into disuse; the emphasis on singing ability (or looks) is greater, while the lyrics of a brief modern song present no particular challenge of memorisation. Quatrain on Heavenly Mountain by Emperor Gaozong. ... 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. ...

The social status of mor lam is ambiguous. Even in the Isan heartland, Miller notes a clear division between the attitudes of rural and urban people: the former see mor lam as, "teacher, entertainer, moral force, and preserver of tradition", while the latter, "hold mawlum singers in low esteem, calling them country bumpkins, reactionaries, and relegating them to among the lower classes since they make their money by singing and dancing".^[15]

Performance

A live performance of mor lam sing.

In Laos, lam may be performed standing (lam yuen) or sitting (lam nang). Northern lam is typically lam yuen and southern lam is typically lam nang. In Isan lam was traditionally performed seated, with a small audience surrounding the singer, but over the latter half of the 20th century the introduction of stages and amplification allowed a shift to standing performances in front of a larger audience.^[16] Image File history File linksMetadata Lamperformance02. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Lamperformance02. ... For other uses, see Isan (disambiguation). ...

Live performances are now often large-scale events, involving several singers, a dance troupe and comedians. The dancers (or hang khreuang) in particular often wear spectacular costumes, while the singers may go through several costume changes in the course of a performance. Additionally, smaller-scale, informal performances are common at festivals, temple fairs and ceremonies such as funerals and weddings. These performances often include improvised material between songs and passages of teasing dialogue (Isan สอย, soi) between the singer and members of the audience. Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, often constrasted with speech. ... For other uses, see Dance (disambiguation). ... Comedy is the use of humor in the form of theater, where it simply referred to a play with a happy ending, in contrast to a tragedy. ... Yarkand ladies summer fashions. ... WaT (Wentz and Teppei) is a Japanese pop duo, composed of singer/songwriters Eiji Wentz and Teppei Koike. ... Underwater funeral in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea A funeral is a ceremony marking a persons death. ... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... Improvisation is the act of making something up as it is performed. ...

Characteristics

Instruments

The traditional instruments of mor lam are:

• the khene: a mouth pipe organ, consisting of approximately fourteen bamboo tubes above a mouthpiece;
• the phin: a lute, normally three-stringed;
• the ching: small bells resembling cymbals;
• the saw: a bowed string instrument;
• panpipes; and
• hand drums.

Many genres (including the khap of northern Laos and lam glawn and lam phuen in Isan) were traditionally accompanied only by the khene, but ensembles have become more common. Most commercial artists now use at least some electric instruments, most often a keyboard set up to sound like a 1960s Farfisa-style organ; electric guitars are also common. Other western instruments are also becoming popular, such as the saxophone and the drum kit. 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. ... 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. ... The lute is a plucked string instrument with a fretted neck and a deep round back. ... Chings are small bowl-shaped finger cymbals of thick and heavy bronze, with a broad rim commonly used in Cambodia and Thailand. ... A bell is a simple sound-making device. ... Sabian Paragon cymbals Cymbals (Fr. ... Portable saw A saw is a tool for cutting wood or other material, consisting of a serrated blade (a blade with the cutting edge dentated or toothed) and worked either by hand or by steam, water, electric or other power. ... 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 string instrument (or stringed instrument) is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. ... Pan pipes (also known as the panflute or the syrinx or quills) is an ancient musical instrument based on the principle of the stopped pipe, consisting usually of ten or more pipes of gradually increasing length. ... A hand drum is any type of drum that is typically played by striking it with the bare hand rather than a stick, mallet, hammer, or other type of beater. ... A synthesizer (spelling var. ... Farfisa is a brand name for a series of electric organs and later multitimbral keyboards, made in Potenza Picena in the Marche region of Italy. ... Organ in Katharinenkirche, Frankfurt am Main, Germany Modern style pipe organ at the concert hall of Aletheia University in Matou, Taiwan The organ is a keyboard instrument with one or more manuals, and usually a pedalboard. ... Left: Rosa Hurricane, a heavy metal-style solid body guitar. ... Saxophones of different sizes play in different registers. ... It has been suggested that Breakables be merged into this article or section. ...

Music

Lam singing is characterised by the adaptation of the [vocal line to fit the tones of the words used.^[17] It also features staccato articulation and rapid shifting between the limited number of notes in the scale being used, commonly delivering around four syllables per second.^[18] There are two pentatonic scales, each of which roughly corresponds to intervals of a western diatonic major scale as follows: Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, often constrasted with speech. ... It has been suggested that Tonal language be merged into this article or section. ... In musical notation, staccato indicates that notes are sounded in a detached and distinctly separate manner with their lengths shortened; that is, a short silence should be between the notes, without affecting the rhythm. ... In music, a pentatonic scale is a scale with five notes per octave. ... In Music theory, the diatonic major scale (also known as the Guido scale), from the Greek diatonikos or to stretch out, is a fundamental building block of the European-influenced musical tradition. ...

Image File history File links Sanyaoscales. ...

The actual pitches used vary according to the particular khene accompanying the singer.^[19] The khene itself is played in one of six modes based on the scale being used.^[20] In music, pitch is the psychological correlate of the fundamental frequency of a note. ... In music, a mode is an ordered series of musical intervals, which, along with the key or tonic, define the pitches. ...

Because Thai and Lao do not include phonemic stress, the rhythm used in their poetry is demarcative, i.e. based on the number of syllables rather than on the number of stresses.^[21] In glawn verse (the most common form of traditional lam text) there are seven basic syllables in each line, divided into three and four syllable hemistiches. When combined with the musical beat, this produces a natural rhythm of four on-beat syllables, three off-beat syllables, and a final one beat rest: In human language, a phoneme is a set of phones (speech sounds or sign elements) that are cognitively equivalent. ... In linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis given to certain syllables in a word. ... Glawn or gaun (Thai กลอน) is a verse form used in the poetry and song of the Lao people; it is the most common text in traditional mor lam. ... Verse is a writing that uses meter as its primary organisational mode, as opposed to prose, which uses grammatical and discoursal units like sentences and paragraphs. ... See also the beat disambiguation page. ... A rest is an interval of silence in a piece of music, marked by a sign indicating the length of the pause. ...

Image File history File links Lamrhythm. ...

In actual practice this pattern is complicated by the subdivision of beats into even or dotted two-syllable pairs and the addition of prefix syllables which occupy the rest at the end of the previous line; each line may therefore include eleven or twelve actual syllables.^[22] In the modern form, there are sudden tempo changes from the slow introduction to the faster main section of the song. Almost every contemporary mor lam song features the following bass rhythm, which is often ornamented melodically or rhythmically, such as by dividing the crotchets into quavers: In music, a dotted note is a note that is 1 1/2 times the main note of the same kind. ... In musical terminology, tempo (Italian for time) is the speed or pace of a given piece. ... Bass (IPA: [], rhyming with face), when used as an adjective, describes tones of low frequency or range. ... // Rhythm (Greek ρυθμός = tempo) is the variation of the duration of sounds or other events over time. ... Look up melody in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... In music, a quarter note (American) or crotchet is a note played for one-quarter the duration of a whole note, hence the name. ... Figure 1. ...

image created by User: Markalexander100; File links The following pages link to this file: Mor lam Categories: GFDL images ...

The ching normally play a syncopated rhythm on the off-beat, giving the music a characteristically quick rhythm and tinny sound. In music, syncopation is the stressing of a normally unstressed beat in a bar or the failure to sound a tone on an accented beat. ... In music a back beat (or the off-beat) is any of the even beats as opposed to the odd downbeats, ie pulses which are weak on their respective metric levels. ...

Content

Mor lam was traditionally sung in the Lao or Isan language. The subject matter varied according to the genre: love in the lam glawn of Ubon; general knowledge in the lam jot of Khon Kaen; or Jataka stories in lam phun. The most common verse form was the four-line glawn stanza with seven main syllables per line, although in Khon Kaen the technical subject matter led to the use of a free-form series of individual lines, called glawn gap.^[23] In Laos, it is the regional styles which determine the form of the text. Each style may use a metrical or a speech-rhythm form, or both; where the lines are metrical, the lam styles typically use seven syllables, as in Isan, while the khap styles use four or five syllables per line.^[24] The slower pace of some Lao styles allows the singer to improvise the verse, but otherwise the text is memorised.^[25] Isan (also Isaan or Esarn) is the language of the Isan region of Thailand. ... The Jataka stories are a significant body of works about the previous lives of Gautama Buddha. ... Glawn or gaun (Thai กลอน) is a verse form used in the poetry and song of the Lao people; it is the most common text in traditional mor lam. ...

In recent decades the Ubon style has come to dominate lam in Isan, while the Central Thai influence has led to most songs being written in a mix of Isan and Thai. Unrequited love is a prominent theme, although this is laced with a considerable amount of humour. Many songs feature a loyal boy or girl who stays at home in Isan, while his or her partner goes to work as a migrant labourer in Bangkok and finds a new, richer lover.

The glawn verses in lam tang san were typically preceded by a slower, speech-rhythm introduction, which included the words o la naw ("oh my dear", an exhortation to the listeners to pay attention) and often a summary of the content of the poem.^[26] From this derives the gern (Thai เกริ่น) used in many modern songs: a slow, sung introduction, generally accompanied by the khene, introducing the subject of the song, and often including the o la naw. (sample) The plaeng (Thai เพลง) is a sung verse, often in Central Thai. (sample), while the actual lam (Thai ลำ) appears as a chorus between plaeng sections. (sample) Verse is a writing that uses meter as its primary organisational mode, as opposed to prose, which uses grammatical and discoursal units like sentences and paragraphs. ...

Recordings

A mor lam VCD featuring Jintara; the karaoke text, the dancers and the backdrop are typical of the genre.

As few mor lam artists write all their own material, many of them are extremely prolific, producing several albums each year. Major singers release their recordings on audio tape, CD and VCD formats. The album may take its name from a title track, but others are simply given a series number. screenshot of track 5 from VCD Mor Lam Sa On 8 by Jintara Poonlarb This work is copyrighted. ... screenshot of track 5 from VCD Mor Lam Sa On 8 by Jintara Poonlarb This work is copyrighted. ... 33â…“ LP vinyl record for The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour album from the 1960s. ... Typical 60-minute Compact Cassette. ... The Compact Disc logo was inspired by that of the previous Compact Cassette. ... Video CD or VCD, or Compact Disc digital video, is a standard digital format for storing video on a Compact Disc. ...

Mor lam VCDs can also often be used for karaoke. A typical VCD song video consists of a performance, a narrative film, or both intercut. The narrative depicts the subject matter of the song; in some cases, the lead role in the film is played by the singer. In the performance, the singer performs the song in front of a static group of dancers, typically female. There may be a number of these recordings in different costumes, and costumes may be modern or traditional dress; the singer often wears the same costume in different videos on the same album. The performance may be outdoors or in a studio; studio performances are often given a psychedelic animated backdrop. Videos from Laos tend to be much more basic, with lower production values. A Karaoke machine Karaoke (Japanese: カラオケ, from 空 kara, empty or void, and オーケストラ ōkesutora, orchestra) is a form of entertainment in which an amateur singer or singers sing along with recorded music on microphone. ... A music video (also promo) is a short film or video that accompanies a complete piece of music, most commonly a song. ... Film refers to the celluloid media on which movies are printed. ... // Cross Cutting Even though most classes in an object-oriented programming model will perform a single, specific function, they often share common, secondary requirements with other classes. ... A sound stage is a hangar-like structure, building or room, that is soundproof for the production of theatrical motion pictures and television, usually inside a movie studio. ... Santanas Abraxas (album) cover by Mati Klarwein The Psychedelic Era (1964-1975), associated with the use of psychedelic drugs such as LSD, mescaline and psilocybin, produced psychedelic art which may be enjoyed by both those who have, and who have not, had a personal psychedelic experience. ... The bluescreen setup The final image Bluescreen (known in television as chroma key) is a term for the filmmaking technique of shooting foreground action against an evenly-lit monochomatic background for the purpose of removing the background from the scene and replacing it with a different image or scene. ...

Some of the most popular current artists are Banyen Rakgan, Chalermphol Malaikham, Jintara Poonlarp, Siriporn Ampaipong, and Pornsack Songsaeng. In 2001, the first album by Dutch singer Christy Gibson was released. Categories: Stub | Lam | Thai musicians ... Jintara in a VCD video Jintara Poonlarp or Poonlarb (Thai จินตหรา พูนลาภ) is one of the best known mor lam artists of Thailand. ... Siriporn Ampaipong (Alternative spelling: Siriporn Umpaipong; Thai ศิริพร อำไพพงษ์) is a mor lam and luk thung singer from the Isan region of Thailand. ... See also: 2000 in music, 2001 in music (UK), other events of 2001, 2002 in music, 2000s in music and the list of years in music // Events January 1 - Comeback of Guns N Roses in House of Blues January 1 - Hum disbands. ... Christy Gibson (or Kitty) is a Dutch singer of mor lam and luk tung prayuk. ...

Notes

1. ^ Terry E. Miller, Traditional Music of the Lao p. 295.
2. ^ Miller pp. 38-39.
3. ^ Miller p. 40.
4. ^ Miller p. 56.
5. ^ Prayut Wannaudom, The Collision between Local Performing Arts and Global Communication, in case Mawlum
6. ^ Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, p. 329.
7. ^ Miller p. 24.
8. ^ Garland p. 328.
9. ^ Garland p. 328.
10. ^ Miller p. 40.
11. ^ Miller p. 133.
12. ^ Garland p. 341.
13. ^ Garland pp. 341-352.
14. ^ Miller pp. 43-46.
15. ^ Miller p. 61.
16. ^ Miller p. 42.
17. ^ Miller p. 23.
18. ^ Miller p. 142.
19. ^ Garland p. 322.
20. ^ Garland p. 323
21. ^ James N Mosel, Sound and Rhythm in Thai and English Verse, Pasa lae Nangsue. Bangkok (1959). p. 31-32.
22. ^ Miller p. 104.
23. ^ Miller p. 133.
24. ^ Garland p. 340.
25. ^ Garland p. 342.
26. ^ Miller p. 107.

References

• Alexander, Geoff. Introduction from The Academic Film Archive of North America. Accessed 13 May 2005.
• Broughton, Simon (ed). World Music Volume 2. Rough Guides (2000).
• Chawiwan Damnoen. Mo Lam Singing of Northeast Thailand (CD). World Music Library (1991).
• Miller, Terry E. (1998). Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Volume 4: Southeast Asia. Garland Science. ISBN 0824060407.
• Miller, Terry E. Performing Isan-Style Lam in Laos: an Expression of Pan-Laoism or Thai Hegemony Accessed 13 May 2005.
• Miller, Terry E. (1985). Traditional Music of the Lao: Kaen Playing and Mawlam Singing in North-east Thailand. Greenwood Press. ISBN 031324765X.
• Mosel, James N. (1959). Sound and Rhythm in Thai and English Verse, Pasa lae Nangsue.
• Prayut WannaudomThe Collision between Local Performing Arts and Global Communication, in case Mawlum. Accessed 13 May 2005.

See also Lao music May 13 is the 133rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (134th in leap years). ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... May 13 is the 133rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (134th in leap years). ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... May 13 is the 133rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (134th in leap years). ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Traditional Lao music can be divided into classical and folk forms. ...

External links

• Thai Morlum Music Audio Stream 128kbs (mp3). Provided by www.radiohosting.de
• Archive of Lao music