I Will Send My Song: Kammu Vocal Genres in the Singing of Kam Raw

by Håkan Lundstrom

Today, the Kammu are an upland people mainly found in Laos, Yunnan, Thailand, Burma and Vietnam. This people – who have retained their orally based culture through to the present day – provide an example of complex sung poetry that has seldom been studied in detail. What this volume offers is an ethnomusicological presentation of one person’s vocal performance of rather highly varied sets of words in different manners of performance, and the use of these competences in communication with other singers. This orally transmitted form of singing is unique to the Kammu but is related to a much larger complex in Southeast Asia. It will thus be of interest to a wide group of musicologists. Håkan Lundström has a long experience in teaching music and society, particularly ethnomusicology, folk music, world music and popular music. His book, Kammu Songs (coauthored with Damrong Tayanin, and also published by NIAS Press), is a companion work to this volume.

"The careful, scientifically orientated presentation and analysis of a huge amount of data (…) certainly provide a wealth of detail that all, ows for well-supported generalizations." - Helen Rees, Chime Journal 18/19 (2013)

Håkan Lundström is Dean of the Malmö Faculty of Fine and Performing Arts, Lund University. His research specialization is in ethnomusicology and he has written about song, music and music terminology among the Kammu.

Publication year: 2010
250 pp / 229mm x 152mm
9 figures, 2 maps
ISBN: 978-87-91114-32-8, Paperback
ISBN: 978-87-91114-23-6, Hardback

NIAS Press