This pamphlet has been created to provide supplemental information to “Speaking Musically.” The video itself only discusses the music of the Hmong and presumes some prior knowledge of Hmong history. Before showing the video, teachers should engage students in a discussion about where the Hmong are from and why they came to the United States. For those teachers who would like more in depth information, several books, articles, and websites are referred to throughout the pamphlet. A clarification of musical concepts covered in the video is also provided.
There are between 4 and 5 million Hmong people world today; 3 million of whom still reside in southern China where they are part of the ethnically diverse Miao nationality. Theories about Hmong origins are diverse and conflicting, but the historical Miao (who might be related to modern Hmong people) were first documented by the Han Chinese in the 1st-century CE in the Yellow River Valley. As immigrants moved into their homeland, the Hmong were pushed southward to the mountains where they established autonomous kingdoms rather than submit to Chinese rule. These outlying areas were of no great interest to Chinese leaders, and they allowed the Hmong to rule themselves in exchange for tributes and their loyalty. By the 14th century, however, conflicts between the Hmong and the expanding Chinese empire began to increase. For over three hundred years, the outmatched Hmong were successful in repelling the advancing Chinese forces. Late in the 17th century, under the Manchu dynasty, a series of campaigns of conquest established direct Chinese control over Hmong lands, forcing many to flee further south to the mountains of Laos and Vietnam. The campaigns continued throughout the 18th century and did not end until 1855, by which time tens of thousands of Hmong people had been uprooted from their homes.
Again, the Hmong set up residence in the high mountains where they could live independently from the “lowlanders.” Small villages of ten to twenty families farmed the hillsides by burning down plots of forest to create plantable fields. When the land was exhausted, villages would relocate to new parts of the mountains, allowing the forest to reclaim the fields. Unfortunately, life was often full of conflict. The Hmong became embroiled in the colonial struggle over Southeast Asia. Although many supported the French colonial government, and even fought with them in World War II, as the struggle for control of Laos arose, many Hmong people sided with Laotian nationalists causing a wide rift in Hmong society. When the Pathet Lao (the Laotian nationalists) finally won in 1954, based on Communist movements in other countries in the region, the United States considered it an act of Communist aggression. American money poured in to support the Royal Laotian Army, still loyal to the French, and elections were rigged to favor pro-Western candidates. Eventually, the Pathet Lao were prohibited from politics. In response, the Pathet Lao began a violent resistance and joined forces with the North Vietnamese who were already fighting for control of Vietnam aided by China and the Soviet Union. The now Communist-loyal Pathet Lao began running supplies to the North Vietnamese along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos.
Caught in the middle, some Hmong people joined with the Pathet Lao, while others attempted to remain neutral. Still more joined a secret army created under President Kennedy through the C.I.A. Led by Hmong general Vang Pao and covertly subsidized by America, the forces attacked Communist supply lines along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. They also guarded radar installations and provided a frontline of defense for Laos. The Hmong army also rescued many American fighter pilots who had been shot down by Communist forces. The war was costly to the Hmong people in many ways. First and foremost, over 30,000 Hmong died in the fighting which accounted for 10% of their population. Besides the casualties, 75,000 had to flee to military centers where they still lived under threat of Communist attack. Their traditional way of life taken from them, these refugees had to depend on supplies airlifted by the C.I.A. for survival. Bombing destroyed the homes left behind and left the countryside pockmarked with bomb craters. Finally, when America withdrew from the war in 1975, many could not return to their villages for fear of reprisals from the Pathet Lao government.
The Lao Human Rights Council reports that between 1975 and 1995 over 300,000 people, including former government officials, civil servants, military leaders, and their families, were killed by the Pathet Lao. The persecution and human rights abuses continue today. Based on the assurance that the Hmong could resettle in America, over 100,000 people fled through mountainous jungles and the mile-wide Mekong River into Thailand while being hunted down by Pathet Lao soldiers. There they waited in refugee camps for the government to transport them to the U.S. or for church groups to sponsor their journey. Many were forced to return to Laos when Thai refugee camps closed. Government settlement plans originally dispersed Hmong families in large urban centers across the United States to allay stress to social services and encourage rapid assimilation. This completely disregarded the vital familial ties which form the backbone of Hmong culture. Over time, the Hmong redistributed themselves into two major centers: a belt stretching from the Twin Cities of Minnesota to central Wisconsin and a large population based around Fresno, California. Today, the Lao Human Rights Council and United Hmong International estimate the American Hmong population at around 300,000 persons.
Houa Moua, a featured speaker in the video, has written a firsthand account of life in Laos during the war and her harrowing journey to Thailand. The book provides excellent first-person insight into the struggles of the Hmong people.:
Moua, Houa and Rolland, Barbara. Trail Through the Mist. Eau Claire, Wisconsin: Eagles Printing Company, 1994.
The musical vocabulary utilized in the video was purposefully kept at a very basic level. Young viewers, however, may benefit from a beforehand explanation of the terms “pitch” and “scale.” “Pitch” is the highness or lowness of a sound. In the video, the term is particularly applied to musical sounds or “notes.” The term “pitch range” is literally that, a given set of pitches which are ordered according to how high or low they sound. A more familiar term for this is the word “scale.”
The Hmong music featured in this video comes out of the practice of oral culture. Most musical practices were learned informally through experience rather than specialized training. Music theory and terminology was unnecessary for the transmission of these practices, and common Western musical terms do not apply to Hmong concepts. For instance, there is no equivalent word for scale in the Hmong language. Musicians make frequent use of the word suab, which can have a variety of meanings. It is most commonly translated as "voice", but it can also mean the collection of pitches playable within a specific song (or even a melodic phrase that contains these pitches). Qeej music, which must be learned from a master, does contain a large body of specialized terms, especially for finger positions to create different sounds.
While not mentioned in the video, students may be interested to know more about the scale system employed in traditional Hmong music. Often, casual listeners remark on the pentatonic nature of Hmong music. This is an oversimplification implying that there is one scale which is used for all music. In the genres of traditional music which allow for individual interpretation, numerous scales, ranging from four to seven notes, are used freely. Amy Catlin, in her article, “Speech Surrogates Systems of the Hmong,” notes a study of singers in Thailand which found, among 33 performers, 17 different scale structures, of which only two were sung by more than three singers.
This section will provide more in-depth information for each section of the video. Hopefully, it can be used to answer any questions students may have and also serve as a departure point for further class discussion.
Until the 20th-century, the Hmong language had no written form, although some claim the remnants of an ancient form of writing, which was suppressed by the Chinese, can be found in the intricate shapes sewn into Hmong clothing. One of the most common alphabets used today, in fact, the one utilized in the video, is the Roman Popular Alphabet. It was constructed by French missionaries in the 1950s who needed a way of writing down the Bible for Hmong converts.
As explained in the video, it uses a system of “tone markers” at the end of words to indicate the word tone. This works because the Hmong language consists of monosyllabic words which end in vowels. The “tone markers” are as follows:
When words are set to pitches, the tone markers set a general guideline for pitch selection. The high and rising tone words are sung on the highest pitches. Falling tone words are sung on the lowest pitch, and the other words with low tones are sung on low pitches. Words with mid-level tones are sung on a wider array of pitches, but usually stay towards the middle of pitch range. A singer may also base pitch selection on personal preference. In particular, high notes may be avoided if a singer’s voice is tired or if he or she is running out of breath.
Words tones do not have a definite pitch when spoken. Some people even question if “tone” is an appropriate designation for the changes in the quality of voice used in the Hmong language. It remains, however, a helpful model for non-Hmong speakers attempting to appreciate the effect of these inflections on word meaning and the relationship between music and language.
The poetry of the kwv txhiaj is organized into easily recognizable stanzas which begin with a high, sustained pitch on a word with little or no literal meaning. This helps the listener identify the genre of song being performed. Each stanza ends with a cadential marker consisting of a quick slide to a low, indefinable pitch. These releases may be heard throughout the stanza and only serve a cadential function after the completion of the rhyme scheme.
Stanzas are divided up into lines, two of which must contain a pair of rhyming words. The two lines may be surrounded by any number of unrhymed lines and the rhyme may occur at the middle or end of a line. The pair of rhyming words only needs to have the same vowel, not necessarily the same word tone, so listeners must be highly attentive. The singer then repeats the stanza, replacing the rhyming words with two new pairs. This substitute pair of rhyming words cannot rhyme with the previous pair. Unrhymed lines may be altered in this reiteration.
When one considers that most kwv txhiaj are improvised, it is easy to understand why the ability to sing them well is seen as a mark of high intelligence. In the ball tossing game, good singers are able to stay within the rhyme scheme while carrying on a musical dialogue with the other player. Rhymes can even be made from the opponent’s text, either parallel or contrary, depending on the singer’s mood.
The poetic language used in the kwv txhiaj is called the “paj lug” (pronounced pa loo.) Sometimes translated as “flowery words,” the paj lug is an ancient source of beautiful and sometimes cryptic metaphors. The beautiful language and obscure imagery provides distance around strong feelings of love. In a society which values humility and shyness, it is one of the few ways to express deep emotions. It also helps to minimize the embarrassment of rejection when the feelings are not returned.
Kwv txhiaj were an everyday part of life in Laos. Songs were used to communicate, educate, and express emotions. Perhaps the greatest change that has been made to the kwv txhiaj since the Hmong have come to America is its performance venue. Singers now stand on stage in front of an audience and sing into a microphone. This orientation toward public performance has meant a shift away from improvising texts towards memorizing words beforehand. Topics have also changed to address issues relevant to the Hmong-American audience.
Of all the forms traditional Hmong music takes, performance of traditional instruments has suffered the greatest decline in participation since the Hmong have arrived in America. The reasons behind this decline are numerous. First, Hmong-American life does not leave much time for personal music making. Younger Hmong-Americans have a hard time learning to play because they are not able to speak the Hmong language well enough to make the musical connections. Limited time for practice and performance also create problems. In the larger scheme of Hmong culture, everyday instruments, like the flutes, do not hold places of great importance like the qeej and kwv txhiaj. When students are able to learn traditional music, it is usually these more culturally symbolic forms to which they turn.
Just how do the Hmong listeners understand the words behind the melody? The process is not well understood. Certainly, part of the skill is in hearing familiar melodic phrases which carry a know text. Imagine someone humming the tune to “Happy Birthday.” Instantly, the associated words come to mind. The rest of the process, however, is not clear. Through practice and constant exposure, Hmong listeners are able to make the connections necessary to extract the verbal content from the music.
In a traditional Hmong funeral, qeej music is heard throughout the three day ritual. The duties are often shared by a master player and one or more apprentices. At other times, several qeej players of equal ability may split up the playing.
Joe Bee Xiong, besides being the first Hmong person elected to the Eau Claire City Council, is an excellent qeej player, as well as an expert in a variety of other instruments. He began studying the qeej in 1975 when he was 14 years old. During the day, his time was taken up by farming and the continuing war, but at night he would practice until one or two in the morning. After two years of intense study, he had learned enough of the ritual texts to play at funerals. His family fled to Thailand in 1977 where he continued his lessons for six months before coming to America. In America he continued performing and improving his skills and in 1985 took first place at a qeej competition in the Twin Cities.
Copyright © 2005-2008, Nicholas Poss