CAMBODIA • KHMER MUSIC

Orchestra and singers of the Royal Palace

The Khmer music bears witness to one of the most original cultures of South East Asia. This music accompanies the sacred dances, and is part of the performance of epics. As an intermediary between the world of the living and the dead, it pays homage to the divinities and the masters and enlivens religious rituals. This compact disk presents three major genres of Cambodian music : classical music, played by the traditional pinpeat orchestra, which accompanies classical Khmer ballet, the sbèk thom shadow theater, and wedding songs performed by the small phleng khmer ensemble.