Open AccessLeuangtengdong: Analysis of a Hmong Song
Author(s) -
Paula Stefanini
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
asian-european music research journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2701-2689
pISSN - 2625-378X
DOI - 10.30819/aemr.7-5
Subject(s) - melody , singing , linguistics , sign (mathematics) , tone (literature) , musical , point (geometry) , repetition (rhetorical device) , history , psychology , speech recognition , computer science , literature , acoustics , art , mathematics , philosophy , physics , mathematical analysis , geometry
This article is an analysis of ‘Leuangtengdong’, a Hmong song melody which was recorded and transcribedby Jähnichen in 2000, while documenting a collection of Hmong songs in Laos. This new article is an effortto analyze melodic patterns of the song while considering its historical and social contexts through thepersonal gaze of the author with a specific background in singing and social experience. It is important tomention that the language sung in the song was unkown and that the emphasis of the analysis is on themusical shape. Finally, there is a conclusion regarding this song fitting in Jähnichen’s hypothesis on Hmongsong melodies which states that most musical phrases do not repeat; all lines are different in pitch, orderand length; pitch order and intervals can indicate a specific type (of song); singers do not know which typethey sing, only analysis shows; and analysis cannot prove ethnic groupings. "Very interesting is the generalcharacteristic of generating absolutely individual melodic lines in each example and in all the otherrecordings there was no one song with a repetition of a single melodic line. Avoiding repetitions is thereforea remarkable sign of Hmong song melodies.” (Jähnichen, 2011: 126). The given core hypothesis was thepoint of departure in this analytical article.