Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines

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Traditional Vietnamese music is highly diverse and combines many native and foreign influences.
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Throughout its history, Vietnam has been heavily impacted by the Chinese musical tradition, along with Korea and Japan.
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However, even with these foreign influences,
Vietnam has a unique musical tradition stemming from its native roots.

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Native Vietnamese music is comprised of two types: Imperial Court music and Folk music.

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Nhã nh ạ c ("elegant music", ritual and ceremonial music) is the most popular form of imperial court music, specifically referring to the court music played from the Tr ầ n
Dynasty (1225-1400) to the very last Nguy ễ n
Dynasty (1802-1945)
Along with nhã nh ạ c , the imperial court of
Vietnam in the 19th century also had many royal dances which still exist to this day. The theme of most of these dances is to wish the kings longevity and the country wealth.
In Vietnamese traditional dance court dances were defined as either van vu (civil servant dance) or vo vu (military dance)

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Đ ạ i nh ạ c ("great music") and Ti ể u nh ạ c ("small music) was chamber music for the entertainment of the king
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Classical music is also performed in honor of gods and scholars such as Confucius in temples.

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Vietnamese folk music is extremely diverse and includes many forms.
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Chèo is a form of generally satirical musical theatre, traditionally performed by peasants in northern Vietnam. It is usually performed outdoors by touring groups, in a village square or the courtyard of a public building. Today it is increasingly also performed indoors
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X ẩ m is a type of Vietnamese folk music which was popular in the Northern region of Vietnam but is considered nowadays an endangered form of traditional music in Vietnam. In the dynastic time, x ẩ m was generally performed by blind artists who wandered from town to town and earned their living by singing in common place.

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Quan h ọ (alternate singing) is popular across
Vietnam; numerous variations exist, especially in the Northern provinces. Sung a cappella, quan h ọ is improvised and is used in courtship rituals.
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Hát ch ầ u văn is a spiritual form of music used to invoke spirits during ceremonies. It is highly rhythmic and trance-oriented. Before
1986, the Vietnamese government repressed hát ch ầ u văn and other forms of religious expression. It has since been revived by musicians like Ph ạ m Văn T ỵ .

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Nh ạ c dân t ộ c c ả i biên is a modern form of
Vietnamese folk music which arose in the 1950s after the founding of the Hanoi Conservatory of Music in
1956. This development involved writing traditional music using Western musical notation, while Western elements of harmony and instrumentation were added. Nh ạ c dân t ộ c c ả i biên is often criticized by purists for its watered-down approach to traditional sounds
Ca trù is a popular folk music which is said to have begun with a female singer who charmed the enemy with her voice. Most singers remain female, and the genre has been revived since the Communist government loosened its repression in the 1980s, when it was associated with prostitution. Ca trù is thought to have originated in the imperial palace, eventually moving predominantly into performances at communal houses for scholars and other members of the elite. It can be referred to as a geisha-type of entertainment where women, trained in music and poetry, entertained rich and powerful men.

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Đàn bầu (monochord zither)
Đàn gáo
(two-stringed fiddle with coconut body)
Đàn nguyệt (two-stringed fretted moon lute)
Đàn nhị (two-stringed fiddle with hardwood body)
Đàn sến (two-string fretted lute)
Đàn tam (fretless lute with snakeskin-covered body and three strings)
Đàn tam thập lục (hammered dulcimer)
Đàn tranh (long zither)
Đàn tỳ bà (pear-shaped four-stringed fretted lute)
Kèn bầu (oboe)
T'rưng (bamboo xylophone)
K'ni (also spelled k'ny or k'ný) - one-string vertical fiddle with a resonating disc that is held in the player’s mout h
K’longput made from a series of large bamboo pipes of varying lengths, each closed at one end or open at both ends.
The pipes are placed on their sides with the open ends facing the musician, who has no direct contact with the instrument.
Instead, the player cups both hands and claps quietly

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The embrace of Modern Pop music culture has increased, as each new generation of people in Vietnam has become more exposed to and influenced by westernized music along with the fashion styles of China, Japan, and South Korea.
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Musical production has improved and expanded over the years as visiting performers and organizers from other countries have helped to stimulate the
Vietnamese entertainment industry.

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During the recent years such as 2006 and beyond, Vietnamese pop music has tremendously improved from years past.
With the help of the Internet and sites such as Zing, Vietnamese music has been able to reach to audiences nationally and also overseas
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In Vietnam, there is no official music chart across the country or digital sale, though is reflected in "sales" of pirate CD and downloads.

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Pop
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More pop
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And R&B
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Rap
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And then there’s this…

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Rock n Roll was first introduced by American soldiers, and became very popular
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Metal is becoming a very popular genre

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The music of Thailand reflects its geographic position at the intersection of China and
India, and reflects trade routes that have historically included Persia, Africa, Greece and Rome.
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Though Thailand was never colonized by colonial powers, pop music and other forms of modern Asian, European, and American music have been very influencial.

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Thai classical music is synonymous with those stylized court ensembles and repertoires that emerged in its present form within the royal centers of Central Thailand some 800 years ago.
There are three primary classical ensembles, the Piphat, Khrueang sai and Mahori.
While they differ in significant ways, they all share a basic instrumentation and theoretical approach. Each employ the small ching hand cymbals and the krap wooden sticks to mark the primary beat reference. Several kinds of small drums (klong) are employed in these ensembles to outline the basic rhythmic structure (natab) that is punctuated at the end by the striking of a suspended gong (mong).

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Traditional Thai classical repertoire is anonymous, handed down through an oral tradition of performance in which the names of composers are not known.
However, since the beginning of the modern
Bangkok period, composers' names have been known and, since around the turn of the century, many major composers have recorded their works in notation.
Musicians, however, imagine these compositions and notations as generic forms which are realized in full in idiosyncratic variations and improvisations in the context of performance.

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The most common and iconic Thai classical music that symbolizes the dancing of the Thailand's legendary dragons.
A midsized orchestra including two xylophones (ranat), an oboe (pi), barrel drums (klong) and two circular sets of tuned horizontal gong-chimes (khong wong lek and khong wong yai).
Piphat can be performed in either a loud outdoor style using hard mallets or in an indoor style using padded hammers.
There are several types of piphat ensembles ranging in size and orchestration, each kind typically being associated with specific ceremonial purposes.
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The highly decorated piphat ensemble that features the ornately carved and painted semicircular vertical gong-chime is traditionally associated with the funeral and cremation ceremonies of the Mon ethnic group.
Different versions of the piphat ensemble are employed to accompany specific forms of traditional Thai drama such as the large shadow puppet theater ( nang yai ) and the khon dance drama.

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The Khrueang Sai orchestra combines some of the percussion of wind instruments of the piphat with an expanded string section including the saw duang (a high-pitched two-string bowed lute), the lower pitched saw u (bowed lute) and the three-string jakhe (a plucked zither).
In addition to these instruments are the khlui (vertical fipple flute) in several sizes and ranges, a goblet drum (thon-rammana) and, occasionally, a small hammered Chinese dulcimer ( khim ).
The khrueang sai ensemble is primarily used for instrumental indoor performances and for accompanying the Thai hoon grabok ( stickpuppet theater )

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The third major Thai classical ensemble is the
Mahori , traditionally played by women in the courts of both Central Thailand and Cambodia.
Historically the ensemble included smaller instruments more appropriate, it was thought, to the build of female performers. Today the ensemble employs regular sized instruments—a combination of instruments from both the Khruang Sai and Piphat ensembles but excluding the loud and rather shrill oboe pi.
The ensemble, which is performed in three sizes— small, medium and large—includes the threestring saw sam sai fiddle, a delicate-sounding, middle-range bowed lute with silk strings. Within the context of the Mahori ensemble, the saw sam sai accompanies the vocalist , which plays a more prominent role in this ensemble than in any other classical Thai orchestra.

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Luk thung , or Thai country music, developed in the mid-20th century to reflect daily trials and tribulations of rural Thais.
Mor lam is the dominant folk music of the northeastern region. Its focus is on the life of the rural poor. It is characterized by rapid-fire, rhythmic vocals and a funk feel to the percussion.
The north-east is also known for kantrum , which is much less famous than mor lam. It is a swift and very traditional dance music. In its purest form, singers, percussion and tro (a type of fiddle) dominate the sound. A more modern form using electric instrumentation arose in the mid-
1980s.

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By the 1930s, Western classical music, showtunes, jazz and tango were popular. Soon, jazz grew to dominate Thai popular music. The Thai version of this music was called pleng Thai sakorn , which incorporated Thai melodies with Western classical music. This music continued to evolve into luk grung , a romantic music that was popular with the upper-class.

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By the 1960s, Western rock was popular and Thai artists began imitating Western bands; this music was called wong shadow , and it soon evolved into a form of Thai pop called string.
The '70s also saw artists beginning to use the Thai language in rock music as well as the rise of protest songs called phleng pheua chiwit
(songs for life).
The earliest phleng pheua chiwit band was called Caravan , and they were at the forefront of a movement for democracy. In 1976, police and right wing activists attacked students at Thammasat University; Caravan, along with other bands and activists, fled for the rural hills.
There, Caravan continued playing music for local farmers, and wrote songs that would appear on their later albums.

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String pop took over mainstream listeners in
Thailand in the 90s , and bubblegum pop stars became best-sellers.
Simultaneously, Britpop influenced alternative rock artists and they became popular in late
1990s.
The late 90's saw pop overshadowed by the remarkable commercial resurgence of Luk
Thung, but modern Luk Thung has also adopted some elements from the pop acts.
Heavy Metal music in Thailand was very popular in early 90s, and continues to be popular today.
Thailand has also seen a huge boost in Indie artists in recent years

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Pop
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More pop
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And then this…
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Rap

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Research an aspect of the Filipino culture.
This can include music, dress, dancing, history, etc. Present your findings to the class after thirty minutes of research time.

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The music of the Philippines is a mixture of indigenous, other Asian, European, Latin
American, and American influences.
Traditional Philippine music is reflective of the country's history as a melting pot of different cultures. Among the dominant cultural strains noticeable today are Hispano-
Mexican, American and to some extent
Chinese, Indian and Islamic.
Because of the mixture of cultures, it is difficult to strictly classify the whole corpus of Philippine music as either Western or
Eastern.

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Philippine gong music is a very important part of their musical culture.
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These metal instruments, usually made of brass, are used by Filipinos as means of entertainment or as an important part of worship, ceremonies and various religious rituals practiced even centuries ago.
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Unchanged by the modern ways, a wide variety of gongs are used until the present day.

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Northern Philippines: Widely used is the gangsa. This is made of metal such as copper and brass, sometimes with a mixture of gold.
It is flat-topped with a straight rim. Various sizes are used for a gangsa ensemble , a group of five or six players who perform their rhythms to accompany dancers. The gongs are beaten with the hands or with a padded stick and may be carried hung from a string or placed on the lap. Exciting rhythms are produced by the gangsa.

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Southern Philippines: Gong playing is part of the centuries-old culture of many groups of Filipinos in this region. Several types of gongs are found in this part of the country.
Among these are the Manobo and the Maguindanaon gongs.
Manobo gongs resound in patterns of rhythm and melody. These gongs have a small node, called boss, on top. Some Manobo gong ensembles may have five gongs played by five players. Others consist of eight or ten gongs of different sizes which are suspended on a frame. The ten-gong ensemble is called the ahong .
A different type of gong ensemble may be heard among the Maguindanaon by large groups of these Muslim
Filipinos. There are four types of gongs all with a boss on top. These are the kulintang, gandingan, agong, and babandil.

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The kulintang consists of eight gongs of varied sizes placed in a row on a stand. The player uses two wooden beaters to strike melody patterns on five gongs.
Two pairs of narrow-rimmed gongs of different sizes suspended on a frame make up the gandingan . The gongs are struck by a player to produce melodic-rhythmic patterns.
The agong is the largest and deepest-rimmed gong of the ensemble, thus producing a low pitch. It is struck with a padded stick. The ensemble may have one or two agongs.
The babandil has a narrow rim and a smaller boss.
Rhythmic patterns are produced by striking the rim.

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The palabunibunyan is a complete gong ensemble which includes the dabakan , the only instrument which is not a gong.
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The dabakan is a drum made from a hollowed tree trunk and with goat skin being used for the head of the drum.
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Feasts, official functions, and family celebrations are usually accompanied by the palabunibunyan playing.

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The Harana and Kundiman are lyrical songs popular in the Philippine Islands dating back to the Spanish period.
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Harana are traditional courtship songs in the Mexican-Spanish tradition based on the habanera rhythm
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Kundiman is also characterized by a minor key at the beginning and shifts to a major key in the second half. Its lyrics depict a romantic theme, usually portraying love, passion, or sadness.

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The Tinikling is a Philippine dance which involves two individual performers hitting bamboo poles, using them to beat, tap, and slide on the ground, and against each other in co-ordination with one or more dancers who steps over, and in between poles.
The Cariñosa (meaning loving or affectionate one), is a Philippine national dance where the fan, and handkerchief plays an instrument role as it places the couple in romance scenario.
The Cariñosa is accompanied with Hispanic music, and language
The Rondalla is performed on ensembles comprising mandolin instruments of various sizes called banduria. Other instruments including guitars, are also performed.

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Original Pilipino Music, now more commonly termed Original Pinoy Music or Original
Philippine Music or OPM for short, originally referred only to Philippine pop songs, particularly ballads, such as those popular after the collapse of its predecessor, the Manila Sound in the late 1970s, up until the present.
From its inception, OPM has been centered in
Manila, where Tagalog, and English are the dominant languages. Other language groups, despite making music in their native languages, have not been recognized as OPM.

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1980s
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1990s , 1990s
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Current ,