Chau van songs are often re fe rre d to by m usicians as 'ways' (l£>i), in ste ad o f as 'm elodies' (giai dieu) or 'songs' (bai hat).1 The Vietnam ese term loi has m uch th e sam e m eanings as 'way' does in English. It can refer to: a p a th o r track; a course of m ovem ent o r travel; or, a m an n er or style of doing som ething. Each chau van 'way' has an unlim ited n u m b e r of possible realisations. ^ The fluidity o f each 'w ay' is ev id en t a t a n u m b er of d ifferen t levels. First, th e re are differences betw een successive ren d itio n s of a 'way' (w ith th e sam e w ords) by a single m usician. Second, ren d itio ns of the sam e 'w ay' (w ith th e sam e w ords) by d ifferen t m usicians differ. T hird, th e vocal line changes w hen th e verse of a 'way' is sung w ith d ifferen t texts.
D espite the differences in th e vocal co n to u r each tim e a song is
perform ed, every realisatio n has the sam e d irectio n or m ovem ent - a 'way' - in com m on. M usicians consider every realisation of a song to be th e 'sam e' because, if sung correctly, each p erform ance conform s to th e sam e ’way' (i.e. the id e n tity o f th e song is preserved).
The creatio n of n u m ero u s realisations o f th e same piece is com m on to b o th Thai a n d V ietnam ese music traditions: ju st as every re n d itio n o f a chau van 'way' has a d ifferen t m elodic contour, so does every realisatio n of a Thai 'co m p o sitio n ' (p h leen ). A fter stating th a t "the distinction betw een a
p a rtic u la r 'co m po sitio n ' (p h le e n ) a n d each o f th e m any possible 'ways' ( thaan) o f playing th a t com position is p erh ap s the m ost fu n d a m e n tal
co n cep t in Thai m usic", Silkstone describes Thai m usicians' use o f thaan: "It can refer to m any specific 'ways', such as the 'way' o f playing (i.e. 'style') a p p ro p ria te to each in stru m e n t ... o r th e 'way' o f playing (i.e. 'style') th a t ch aracterises one m usician's perform ances o n one in stru m en t" (1993:16).
The literal m eanings o f loi are the sam e as the Thai w ord thaan, b u t they have d ifferen t m usical m eanings. Loi is used to refer to chau van songs them selves - e.g. th e Phu Noi way (loi Phu Noi) - ra th e r th a n th e d ifferen t 'way of playing' or m eth o d o f realising a com position. Also, unlike th e use
1 In addition to loi, the com pound word le loi was also occasionally used. To avoid confusion I will continue to use the terms 'song' and 'melody' and will on ly use the term 'way' when making a specific point about the fluidity o f chau van songs.
2 During the process o f learning chau van songs, I found that thinking o f them as 'ways' had resonance because it neatly captures their fluid nature.
of the term thaan by Thai m usicians, Vietnam ese m usicians d id n o t use loi to re fe r to th e m usical 'style' of p a rtic u la r m usicians; th e expression 'each p e rso n has th e ir own style' (m6i ngUdi m6t kilu) - w here kieu is re n d e re d as 'style' - was often used by chau van m usicians in o rd e r to p o in t o u t th e u n iq u en ess o f each m u sician's p erfo rm an ce style.
W hen m usicians talk a b o u t 'grasping a way' (nam vffng loi) they are re fe rrin g to th e in te rn a lisa tio n of th e und erly in g m elodic sh ap e o f a song. But w h at co n stitu tes a 'way'? W hat do m usician's 'grasp' a n d conform to w hen singing d ifferen t texts to the sam e song? Is it som ething th a t m usicians are aw are of an d can articulate?
My teach ers Ty a n d Hung h ad d ifferen t responses to these questions. Ty said th a t th e re was a 'basic m elody' (giai dieu ddn gian) or 'general m elody'
(giai dieu chung) com m on to the verses o f a song. To explain this h e p o in te d o u t 'axis n o tes' (not true) o r 'm ain notes' (not chfnh) a ro u n d w hich th e m elody was based, b u t he could n o t sing a version of a general m elody for
p a rtic u la r songs. Hung said th a t each song h a d a 'backbone' (xuong song) w hich every verse of a song conform ed to, despite differences in th e
m elodic c o n to u r o f th e vocal line.3 The backbone to a song is n o t realised in an y a ctu a l perfo rm ance, ra th e r, a backbone, for Hung, is 'a m odel in his m in d ' (khudn mau trong dau mtnh) w hich guides all his perform ances. F u rth erm o re, Hung could sing the backbones to songs.
The term s 'basic' a n d 'general' m elody were 'm ade u p' by Ty in response to m y questions. A dm ittedly, I subjected Hung to the sam e questioning, b u t w hen I discussed th e term 'backbone' w ith o th e r chau van m usicians som e w ere fam iliar w ith it, alth o u g h they could n o t sing the backbones as Hung was able to. A nother term th a t was also m entioned by some m usicians (th o u g h n o t chau van m usicians) to refer to the 'core' m elodic sh ap e o f a piece was long ban (lit. 'guts of a piece'). I will ad o p t th e te rm backbone in th e following analysis.4 However, it sh ould be em phasised th a t th e term backbone is n o t u sed by all chau van m usicians (nor V ietnam ese m usicians in g e n eral).
The idea of a backbone to songs w hich exists in the m in d of the
p e rfo rm er h as strik in g p arallels w ith Sum arsam 's suggestion o f a n 'in n e r m elody' in Javanese gam elan (1975). Prior to Sum arsam 's p ap er, Javanese
3 Xuc/ng song was som etim es shortened to xuong, which means 'bones'.
4 The term backbone has been used by som e contemporary com posers in the West. The com poser and perform er Peter Wiegold has called a type o f prescriptive score a 'backbone1 and other com posers, such as Tim Steiner, have also em ployed the m ethod (Steiner 1992). In this context, backbones are written by a com poser and u sed as the focus o f collaboration between the 'composer' and one or more 'performers'.
m usic research ers (such as Hood a n d Kunst) h ad th o u g h t th a t th e ’sk eleto n ’, 'n u cle a r th em e' o r 'fixed m elody' (b a lu n g a n ) of a Javanese g e n d h in g
(com position) was sim ply play ed on one of the in stru m en ts o f th e gam elan, the saron. However, Sum arsam asserted th a t the balungan "was n o t
necessarily played" by the saron because o f its lim ited ran g e of only six o r seven pitches (1975:5). He suggested, instead, th a t "it is th e in d iv id u al m usicians' co n cep tio n of th e m elody, sung audibly o r in th e ir m inds, th a t directs th e m elodic m otion" a n d he called this "melodic co n cep tio n 'in n e r m elody'" (ibid.:7). Sum arsam also claims th a t the in n e r m elody resu lts from th e sum of d ifferen t conceptions of th e piece by d ifferen t m usicians:
Each m usician has to coordinate his conception of the in n e r m elody w ith th e ran g e of his in stru m e n t a n d its perform ing te ch n iq u e w hen creatin g m elodic p a tte rn s for a gen d h in g . The in n e r m elody is n o t p lay ed by an y p a rtic u la r in stru m en t, b u t all in stru m e n ts in th e ensem ble are in sp ired by it. In n er m elody is the sp irit o f th e
ensem ble, (ibid.: 12)
Like the in n e r m elody of a g en d h in g , a backbone is a m odel in the
m usician's m in d th a t guides perform ances. W hether or not, fo r large chau van bands, th ere is a synthesis of individuals' backbones to form a
'collective backbone' - ju s t as the in n e r m elody is th e sum o f d ifferen t m usicians conceptions - is n o t investigated here. The o p tio n al statu s o f p itch ed in stru m en ts (in ad d itio n to the m oon lute) in the chau van b a n d an d the p red o m in an ce of th e vocal line suggest, in any case, th a t th e id ea o f a collective backbone is n o t cen tral to chau van. N evertheless, fu rth e r re sea rc h a n d analysis o f chau van song perform ances, w hich in clu d e ad d itio n al p itch ed in stru m en ts, could be carried o u t to test such a h y p o th e sis.
This c h a p te r aim s to investigate the process by w hich chau van m usicians create new vocal lines while still m ain tain in g the basic id e n titie s o f songs. This is achieved th ro u g h analysis o f th e differences a n d sim ilarities
betw een several verses o f two songs as p erfo rm ed by Ty a n d Hung.
The first p a rt o f th e c h a p te r is concerned w ith w hat gives a song its id en tity . The m elodic co n to u r w hich rem ains co n sta n t th ro u g h o u t every p erfo rm an ce of a song by an individual m usician is a b strac te d from m ultiple p erfo rm an ces of th e song w ith d ifferen t texts. I have called th e sequence o f p itch es w hich are in v a ria n t in the d ifferen t verses o f a chau van song by a single m usician an 'ab stracted backbone'. Ty a n d Hung's a b strac te d backbones for a song are th e n considered in re la tio n to th e backbone th a t Hung sang (Hung's backbone).
The seco n d p a rt of th e c h a p te r gives a n account of the differences in th e m elodic c o n to u r o f th e vocal line w hen d ifferen t texts are sung. The v a ria tio n in m elodic c o n to u r of d ifferen t verses of a song w ere ex plain ed by chau van m usicians as being due to the effect o f the speech tones o f th e text: in o rd e r for the song texts to be intelligible, the m elodies h a d to reflect th e sp eech tones. How speech tones affect th e m elodic co n to u r is th erefo re exam ined.
It is im p o rta n t to em phasise th a t a b stracted backbones are d eriv ed from analysis a n d are n o t a n em ically en u n ciated b lu e-p rin t th a t exists in th e m ind o f a p e rfo rm er (in the m a n n er of Hung's backbone). We shall see, how ever, th a t th e a b strac te d backbones are, in fact, qu ite sim ilar to Hung's backbone. As a b stra c te d backbones are an im plicit sequence o f p itch es w hich are always o b serv ed by individual chau van m usicians, th ey m ight also have been called 'ab stra c ted m elodies', a term w hich has b een u sed by G iuriati in his analysis of Khmer music (1988; 1995). G iuriati identifies an a b strac te d m elody w hich "even th o u g h im plicit a n d n o t p e rfo rm ed as a m elody by an in stru m e n t is always resp ected by the p erfo rm ers a n d w hich c o n stitu tes the fo u n d a tio n for group im provisation". The term a b stra c te d b ackbone has b een u sed in this analysis because it is an extension o f a V ietnam ese te rm a n d because th ere are differences betw een a b stra c te d backbones a n d G iuriati's a b stracted m elodies (i.e. ab stracted backbones are a synthesis of d ifferen t verses of the sam e piece sung by th e sam e
m usician, w hereas G iuriati's a b strac t m elodies are a b stracted from th e d ifferen t p a rts o f th e K hm er ensem ble a n d are the basis o f 'g ro u p im p ro v isa tio n ').