KHENE: Laos musical instrument

The khene is a mouth organ that originated from Laos. The pipes of the musical instrument are often manufactured of bamboo and are connected with the use of a small hollowed-out hardwood reservoir. And this reservoir is the hole into which air is blown into the musical instrument to manufacture a sound that is analogous to that of a violin. In the contemporary days, the musical instrument is used by the Lao of Laos and the northeastern part of the Thailand, analogous musical instrument that has been traced back to the Bronze Era of the Southeastern Asia. In Cambodia, the musical instrument is used among the ethnic Lao population of the province of the Strung Treng and also it is used in lakho ken, a Cambodian dance drama genre that features the musical instrument as the premiere musical instrument.

The most interesting thing about this musical instrument is the free reed of the instrument that is manufactured of brass or silver. The musical instrument is associated to the western free-reed musical instrument like harmonium, the concertina, the accordion and also the bandoneon that were developed starting in the 18^th century from the Chinese musical instrument called Sheng, a related musical instrument, a specimen of which had been taken to the St. Petersburg in Russia.

The musical instrument uses pentatonic scales in a mode or two modes, each mode with three possible keys. The musical instrument has 5 various lai or modes. The Lai Yai that is tuned A C D E G, the Lai Noi that is tuned D F G A C, the Lai Soutsanaen that is tuned G A C D E, the Lai Po Sai that is tunedC D F G A, and also the Lai Soi that is tuned D E G A B. the musical instrument can be performed as a solo musica instrument, as part of a group or ensemble or as an accompanying musical instrument to the Lao or Isan folk opera musician mor lam.

According to Lao fable, the musical instrument was constructed by a woman who was attempting to remanufacture the reverberation of the garawek bird that she heard while she was on a walk one special day. The expedition was long and hard, so she determined to fabricate a musical instrument that would bring the sound of the bird to her. When she went back to her village, she tested with several diverse musical instruments, including percussion musical instruments, wind instrument as well as the plucked instruments and bowed strings musical instruments. At last she cut a portion of bamboo and fixed a reed into it. Atop playing the musical instrument, she found out that the instrument sounded much like the voice of the garawek bird. She persistently continued to develop the sound of the instrument until she sensed that the instrument was valuable for the king's ears. When she was ready to perform for the King, she moved to the palace and started playing the musical instrument for the king on her newly fabricated musical instrument that was nameless at that point. At the end of the first song she was playing, she asked if the king liked the music. He said it was fair, and told her to keep on playing. After the last song she was playing to the King, she asked the king again if he was delighted. The King’s reply was "Tia nee kaendae” that means "This time it was better." He then told the woman to call the musical instrument, according to his words he said, the kaen.

The musical instrument has seven tones per octave, having intervals that are analogous to that of the Western diatonic natural A-minor scale which is: A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. the musical instrument can be manufactured in a specific keu but cannot be tuned after the reed of the instrument is set and after the cutting of the pipes. If the musical instrument is performed together with some other musical instrument, the other musical instruments have to tune to the khene.