Jao Dawk - Listen to the Individual Khmer Instruments

Jao Dawk is a wonderful classical Mahaori song in which the instruments of the ensemble take turns playing solos so one may hear how they sound individually. The lyrics of the song extol the beauty of each instrument. Each Khmer instrument has its own playing style. The roneat relies on running eighth notes played in parallel octaves. The roneat thom plays interesting counter rhythms. The tro-sau and tro-u playing style involves portamentos and elaborate ornamentation. The tahke plays fast repeated notes. In this incredibly lush video, we can see close-up how the they are held, played and improvised upon. The solos, in turn, are roneat, roneat thom, tro-sau, tro-u and tahke. The video leaves us thirsting for more - probably the khim and khloy didn't get their solo in the interest of time.

Here is the sheet music for Jao Dawk. In class, the "solos" consist of all the roneats at once, all the khims at once, etc. Occasionally, we even have the skos (drums) take a solo!