Understanding an Epic Song of the Hmong in Laos From The Perspective of Oral Composition

Abstract

This article looks at an epic song performed by Hmong in Laos from a perspective of oral composition by analyzing a wedding song Leuangtengdong. Through detailed musical and textual transcription, several compositional devices are identified and discussed. My study explores oral composition of the song focusing on its material and structure. I argue that music plays an important role in its oral composition: material-wise, music functions both as formulaic music-text association/unity and by careful music-text interactions; structure-wise, the song is organized in a multi-layered framework realized by the hierarchical music-text formulas, with music-text ‘theme’ in critical structural positions.