Classes teaching the ken musical instrument will now be integrated into a primary school in Oddar Meanchey. Photo supplied
The traditional Khmer musical instrument called the ken was in a state of increasing scarcity of players, so back in 2018 the team running the Khmer Magic Music Bus of Cambodia Living Arts (CLA) introduced a ken instrument class in Oddar Meanchey province to help train new players of traditional music so that the next generation of Cambodians are able to inherit and preserve this important part of their culture.
The ken is a mouth organ with long pipes that are usually made of bamboo and are connected with a small, hollowed-out hardwood reservoir into which air is blown. It can also be found under different names and with variations in build or playing style in certain parts of Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.
From the opening of the first ken musical instrument class in 2018 through today, there are now four senior students – three women and one man – as well as a new student from Tbong Khmum province, all learning the instrument from ken-master Mon Hai, with support from CLA and funding from the US embassy in Cambodia to cover the costs and salaries.
The new student learning to play the ken is Morn Lounh, a 33-year-old singer from Tbong Khmum province with both traditional and contemporary groups, who began lessons with Hai on August 16, 2022.
Hai, 66, lives and gives music lessons in Krasaing village of Boussbov commune in Samrong town of Oddar Meanchey province.
He told The Post on August 17 that classical music lessons for ken will soon be included as part of the school curriculum at the primary school of his home village of Kraisang with the permission of the Department of Culture and Fine Arts and the Department of Education, Youth and Sports of Oddar Meanchey province.
“After helping to form a music class for the Khmer Magic Music Bus through Thorn Seyma in 2018, we then applied to the culture and education departments of Oddar Meanchey province about including classes in the local school curriculum.
“I have now received permission with signatures from both provincial departments and spoken with Sin Sitha, the principal of Krasaing Primary School, who is ready to discuss when to include it as one of the school’s subjects,” he stated.
Playing the ken was almost extinct as a practice in Cambodia with possibly just one instrument and one skilled player – Mon Hai – left in the Kingdom in 2018, until CLA established Hai’s classes and found him students who were eager to learn the instrument.
CLA’s Khmer Magic Music Bus programme, with funding from the US embassy, was able to help Hai and encourage him to help to preserve the ken as part of the nation’s cultural heritage and provide him with financial assistance so that he could focus on teaching this art to a new generation of Cambodians.
“Today we are training three young women, one who is 16-years-old, one who is 12-years-old and another who is 10-years-old, plus a male student, who are all now learning to play ken, because they all have an artistic nature and musical talent, and recently we’ve had another older student from Tbong Khmum province who came to my house to study,” he said.
In April, 2022, the team from CLA’s Khmer Magic Music Bus visited with Hai and checked up on the teaching progress being made with the ken, according to Seyma, programme manager and co-founder of the Khmer Magic Music Bus.
Seyma said that on April 5, 2022, the Khmer Magic Music Bus team arrived in Oddar Meanchey province and had a meeting with Mon Hai and the principal of Krasaing primary school as well as the Boussbov commune chief with the aim of holding music classes on how to play the ken as part of the regular curriculum at Krasaing Primary School.
“Since meeting the Khmer Magic Music Bus team and receiving support from Cambodian Living Arts, which was able to pay him a salary to focus on music teaching, Hai has agreed to work full-time on training students in this skill,” she said.
Morn Lounh, a resident of Bostaem village in Chham Tamoa commune of Memoth district in Tbong Khmum province, is a popular singer in Tbong Khmum district and has been practicing the singing of traditional songs for six years.
Recently, he became interested in learning how to play the ken after seeing chapei dang veng artist Nou Samnang with the ken instrument at an art show in Phnom Penh and he received information from Seyma about the history of the instrument and the great need for new players.
“I’ve had a great love for this kind of music since I was a child, when I used to listen to it on the radio and watch it on TV and I fell in love with it and wanted to learn how to play it, but I have not had a chance until today,” he told The Post.
“As a child, I did not know that the ken instrument belonged to the Khmer people, I had heard people say that the ken instrument was a Lao musical instrument. But in fact, there are many Khmer scholars who identify it as also being a Khmer musical instrument, but there are only a small number of people who are left who know how to play it.
“I received the contact number of Mon Hai from Thorn Seyma in 2019 and I contacted him to ask about this class, but due to the problem of the Covid-19 pandemic I had to wait to begin learning it until 2022,” he explained.
The ken has traditionally been used for performing at special events, such as funerals, spirit and demon ceremonies, Buddhist festivals, the Pchum Ben and Khmer New Year holidays and others, and the musician can play a variety of types of songs, depending on the player.
As the last master left alive, Hai is now in charge of maintaining the ken musical instrument as part of the Cambodian cultural heritage. He inherited his from his ancestors in Oddar Meanchey province and he learned to play the ken from the age of 25.
“Ken music can be played in the pattern of Khmer songs. The important thing is that as long as the musician remembers a lot of songs, he or she can play accordingly. I can play along with many Khmer songs, such as Romvong, Saravan or traditional songs like Hom Rong.”
The ken is an instrument that has been popular with people in the highlands and lowlands of Southeast Asia for centuries. Neighbouring countries such as Thailand, Laos and Vietnam also use this type of instrument, and its origin goes back thousands of years.
According to cultural researchers at the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, ken are part of the traditional culture of Cambodia, especially among the Khmer people in upper Stung Treng province, which borders Laos, but also in Battambang, Siem Reap, Oddar Meanchey and Banteay Meanchey.
The ken has been around since prehistoric times in Cambodia, based on direct evidence such as images of Khmer ancestors playing ken which are carved on the Mahathuk drum.
Other researchers, such as Jean-Jacques Milteau, a French musicologist, pinpointed the origins of the harmonica as likely being derived from the more primitive ken, which he said was invented somewhere in the territory of the Indochina Peninsula – which includes Cambodia – in ancient times, around 300 BC.
