Performances

• 2022 (YouTube premiere)

  Christopher Adler

Khaen is a mouth organ, an indigenous instrument associated with Laos, but is found in nearby countries such as Northeast Thailand and Vietnam. Historical records of the instrument showed that it mainly existed as part of the people’s lives, unlike the royal lineage of other regional instruments such as the gamelan. As rice forms a highly integral part of the lives of the Lao people, Paddy Fields reflects the juxtaposition of tradition and modernity in a single piece.

The piece starts with an improvisatory section featuring a traditional mode, lai bo sai. The section contains many stylistic playing techniques such as the chord-on-attack and grace notes, thus evoking the traditional Lao folk impressions. As the lai bo sai mode shares the same pitch collection with another scale, lai noi, these two scales are then used to pass off one another by using different tonal centres. From bar 48, the tonality fully shifts by using all the notes of a diatonic scale, then deriving its intervallic collection, symbolising the introduction of Western influences. This aspect is then used to juxtapose against the pentatonic scale from bar 66 to the end, alluding to the integration of Western influences while not forgetting their traditional cultures and heritage.