More music

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Friday January 30

Scenes are growing, music is growing.

Two things happened. 

1. Sakkona has his traditional instruments and this funny collection of tins and lids hanging on a rack. He went shopping with Ferry yesterday to buy some more things that really make a sound that might be music. Great. 

But Annemarie had the feeling that there is something lacking in his communication with these musical toys. She thinks that Sakkona loves building crazy objects, but when he has to use them as a musical instrument, his cultural musical training does not permit him to make the big jump to really use these objects as an instrument. Besides this it might also be to weird for a Cambodian village audience. 

She decided to have a talk with him. And that was very enlightening. He wants to please Annemarie, as they all want to, but thank God, when really asking him how he feels as a musician handling the tins and pots and whatever to make music, he gives an honest answer. He said that indeed he felt like a child coming into a completely dark room, touching things and not knowing why. Still, he wants to work with it, because he is an eager boy. 

Then we went through the whole play and Annemarie asked him at which spot he could make a real connection with these toy objects and the text. It was quiet satisfying. There were a few instruments he could use, with which he can make a connection. The rest we threw rigorously out. It means in the end that for all the songs he will play on his traditional instruments and   there will be a corner on the stage where the toy instruments are placed together for, let us say, special effects.

2. A year ago, when Annemarie and Nan went to the provinces making interviews with village people, it was remarkable that most of them asked "are you going to do Basac?"

Basac is a very defined, ancient type of singing which is the singing of the ordinary people. 

Annemarie asked Vutha if he could also sing Basac and, how great, he could. 

There are all songs about village life, so now the finale of the 'moderately modern' play will be a real Basac song. 

The dancer will dance, the public will recognize the song and maybe sing with it. This will be great, because after the rather heavy scenes we want to send them home feeling good and at home.

Ferry is busy with the visual artist boys. 

More about that on Sunday.

End of the day.

Friendly greetings Annemarie, Ferry, Richt.