Kammu Songs: The Songs of Kam Raw

by Håkan Lundstrom and Damrong Tayanin

Today, the Kammu are an upland people mainly found in Laos, Yunnan and Thailand. It has long been recognized that this people – who have retained their orally based culture through to the present day – are a repository for much that has been lost or ignored in the literate cultures of their lowland neighbours. So it is too with music. What this volume offers is one person’s repertoire of social adult songs, namely the repertoire of Kam Raw who grew up in a Kammu village in northern Laos. The words of the songs are given in the Kammu language with English interpretations. The songs are presented in simplified form but also appear as they do in the actual singing situations. Thus, this is more than a collection of songs since it also attempts to demonstrate how the songs may be varied in practical use.

This book should be seen as a companion volume to I Will Send My Song (by Håkan Lundström), which is an ethnomusicological study of this singing tradition. Together the two volumes provide new and extensive information on the rather little studied field of Kammu singing. 

Publication year: 2004
300 pp / 232mm x 152mm
6 figures
ISBN: 978-87-91114-24-3, Paperback

NIAS Press