An extraordinary symphonic work by internationally acclaimed composer Him Sophy
Recorded at National Sawdust - Brooklyn, NY
Addressing the traumas of The Khmer Rouge regime, its aftermath, and the role of art as a healing mechanism in post-conflict societies, "Requiem" fuses traditional Cambodian instrumentation with Western classical tradition — putting liturgical texts for the dead to music as an act of cultural renewal.
This piece is of particular significance because bodies went missing during the genocide and the victims were denied this sacred burial ritual – leaving their journey deemed unfinished.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Bangsokol: A Requiem for Cambodia, an extraordinary symphonic work by internationally acclaimed composer Him Sophy; U.S. Release May 20, 2022, on Entertain Impact
Bangsokol: A Requiem for Cambodia, composed by internationally acclaimed Cambodian composer and survivor of the Khmer Rouge, Him Sophy, is the first major symphonic work that addresses the traumas of the Cambodian genocide of the late 1970s. The piece places the musical ritual of a Bangsokol – a traditional Khmer ceremony that accompanies Cambodian Buddhist funeral rites – within the form of a Western requiem that culminates with a plea to recognize impermanence as the only path to peace. As an act of cultural renewal, Bangsokol speaks to the role of the arts as a means for healing and reconciliation and seeks to inspire a new generation of artistic expression.
Him Sophy worked in collaboration with librettist Trent Walker. Recorded at National Sawdust in Brooklyn, NY, the album features the Metropolis Ensemble and the Taipei Philharmonic Chamber Choir, with Metropolis Ensemble Artistic Director Andrew Cyr conducting.
"This album stands on its own as an extraordinary musical experience that brings cultures and people together while serving as a model for how art can be a powerful vehicle for reconciliation in post-conflict societies,” says Paul Katz, CEO of Entertain Impact. “Our agency utilizes popular culture for social change. So, working with Him Sophy and Phloeun Prim of Cambodian Living Arts, the commissioning organization, to release an album of such importance feels particularly relevant in today’s world where conflict is rampant.”
The act of "Bangsokol" within the Buddhist funeral ritual represents the removal of a cloth, which signifies transmigration into the next life, where spirits of the dead find rest and ultimate rebirth. This piece mourns the nearly two million forgotten souls who perished under the Khmer Rouge, many of whom went missing during the genocide and whose bodies were never found. These victims were denied this sacred burial ritual, leaving their spiritual journeys unfinished. The album will be released in the U.S on May 20, 2022. This date commemorates Cambodia's National Day of Remembrance and coincides with the lead-up to Memorial Day in the U.S. to honor all lost souls and provide hope for the future.
Bangsokol: A Requiem for Cambodia begins in the heavens, with celestial music and an invocation to the gods to listen to the "words of the sage" – the Buddha's teachings. Moving down to Earth and witnessing a funeral in the Cambodian countryside, it is soon interrupted by traumatic memories of the Khmer Rouge and the appearance of 'hungry ghosts' wandering the lands in the second movement. In the third movement, we experience the acceptance of impermanence and the path to peace, as the Bangsokol ceremony itself gives solace to the dead and helps the living to heal. Prologue and epilogue ornately frame this journey by recalling the presence of the wandering spirits and marking a sense of joy and hope for a peaceful future, respectively.
"When I composed the requiem,” Him Sophy shared, “I relived the feelings I had during the Khmer Rouge times. It was Hell on Earth. The requiem needs to be experienced around the world so that everyone understands that tragedy is a shared experience."
"Bangsokol shows the resilience of Cambodian people,” adds Phloeun Prim (Executive Director, Cambodian Living Arts), “and that artistry remains alive despite genocide and an attempt to eradicate our culture. Today, we still see conflict in the world and during the pandemic, many people have passed away on their own, without a proper burial. This piece conveys a deep message of remembrance for those who have passed."
Bangsokol: A Requiem for Cambodia was initially commissioned by Cambodian Living Arts (CLA), an organization that supports the next generation of artists and cultural practitioners in Cambodia’s vibrant arts sector, as a stunning multimedia piece featuring visual projections from Oscar-nominated film director Rithy Panh(“The Missing Picture”), Bangsokol premiered in December 2017 at Arts Centre Melbourne as part of an international tour to ArtsEmerson, Brooklyn Academy of Music and Cité de la Musique, before making its homecoming performance in Phnom Penh in November 2019. Both Him Sophy and Rithy Panh are survivors of the Khmer Rouge regime. Bangsokol represents their first collaboration as contemporaries who are now at the forefront of Cambodia’s cultural renaissance.
“Imagine that grief has been overcome thanks to arts, cinema, and music. Imagine that life is also possible after the disaster, that poetry is possible, that imagination is still alive. Also imagine the life recovered, as easy as rain, as a rice field, as a landscape without end; imagine the night with its stars and each star as a soul who greets you."
About: Him Sophy
Trained at the Moscow Conservatory of Music and the Royal University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh, Dr. Him Sophy brings a unique perspective to Bangsokol. His previous works, including the acclaimed rock opera Where Elephants Weep, have demonstrated an unparalleled facility for bringing Western and Khmer musical worlds into an intimate conversation. He combines a Western chamber orchestra and chorus with Khmer instrumentalists and vocalists. The traditional Khmer musical forms represented include several endangered forms of funeral music, such as kong skor, smot, and pin peat.
About: Cambodian Living Arts
For almost 20 years, Cambodian Living Arts (CLA) has worked tirelessly to regrow Cambodia’s arts sector and provide opportunities for artists to write the story of the country’s future. Founded in 1998 by genocide survivor, musician, and peace advocate Arn Chorn-Pond, they initially focused on the preservation of endangered performing art forms and rituals. After the Khmer Rouge regime, 90% of Cambodia’s artists did not survive and arts that had been transmitted between generations were in danger of being lost forever.
SUMMARY OF THE LIBRETTO:
1. wandering souls / utterly alone
Alas, my souls, still you wander, ever and always drifting, floating, back and forth, here and there, aimlessly dreaming, walking like ghosts in search of rebirth. My dear souls, come here with grace and build this bridge to cross over the worlds. Your last life was miserable, completely undeserved, dying apart from your siblings, utterly alone.
2. please come listen / the roots of wars
Deities of all directions! Please come listen to the great teachings of the Buddha, which analyze the realms and beings of the three worlds so as to illuminate how the minds of humans are filled with greed, along with anger and delusion, the roots of wars and vicious conflicts, dropping all bombs of annihilation.
3. my dearest, my child / they’ve snatched you away
Oh, that time, that time in the past! I shall always remember, and never forget when I left my home to walk far away, and shovel and haul earth in a faraway land, far from my child. I search for you, little one, but can’t find you anywhere. I’m cleft from you, child, separated from my family. I search for you, love. In what realm are you now? My dearest, my child! They’ve snatched you away. You cry in longing, split from your kin. You’ve gone far away to a silent place.
4. keeping you is no gain / losing you is no loss
Soldiers and troops threatened and menaced both us and those around us, nearly ruining our ears with thundering voices and deafening sounds, barking like dogs: “Keep your neck up high, if you want to survive! The Khmer Rouge has eyes everywhere, like a pineapple! Keeping you is no gain, losing you is no loss! To dig up the grass, we must dig up the roots!”
5. in the silence of the forest / you’ll be thrown away
In the silence of the forest, with none to trust, you’ll be alone, with wild beasts who grunt and groan—there you’ll be thrown away too. Your wealth, the worst poverty; you can’t take anything with you. You’ll lie there like an old shoe — the body’s truly empty. Your merit gone in your wake, they will come to take your carcass to the woods cloaked in darkness. You’ll lie useless; they’ll go home.
6. awaiting ambrosia / for all the souls
Oh, that time, that time in the past! It was as if we were hungry spirits, lacking food, lacking satisfaction, hungry and near death, with no proper farming taking place in our realm, as we searched and scoured for the nourishment necessary for life, hoping only that friends and relatives would toss out morsels to us who suffered in the realm of the shadows, awaiting ambrosia from lovely worlds above that would stream out everywhere, for all the souls.
7. the white bangsokol shroud / once this skin is shed, bliss arises
The white bangsokol shroud lays upon everyone’s body. A monastic of virtue may roll it up to make it into a robe, intoning thus: “How transient the elements of life! Their nature is just to arise and pass away. Having emerged, they soon disappear. Their complete cessation is peace.” Once this skin is shed, bliss arises, relieving all pain and pollution, taking you far away from misfortune to tread the path towards happiness.
8. this body is pain / let it all go
This body is pain! Pain, great pain, beyond measure. Small pain, great pain, pain boils within. Without relief, pain leads to death. Impermanent! Not long, not long at all, how transient! Once dead, just your foul corpse remains. Flesh, bone, sinew turn into earth. No self ! Nothing, no form, no name, no consciousness, no fame, no rank, no splendor or vitality, all wealth destroyed. So reflect well; care for your heart, calm your anger, your heart soft like mother and child. Calm your anger, let it all go.
9. wandering souls / coming back to life
Alas, my souls, stop your wandering! Let go of this sadness and strife. Walk forward, come here, follow the sounds, the sounds of music, to take rebirth. My dear souls, come here with grace and build this bridge to cross over the world. Your next birth will be fortunate, completely just, dancing with your siblings, coming back to life.
LISTEN to Bangsokol: A Requiem for Cambodia
View the Trailer:
About: Entertain Impact
Entertain Impact is a social impact agency founded by veteran music industry executive, and multi-Grammy award nominee, Paul Katz (Jive Records and Zomba Music) with a purpose to amplify the role of music and art to reconcile and positively impact our society. Their work spans from international health campaigns focused on eradicating polio on behalf of Rotary International, to putting music back in schools for the GRAMMY Music Education Coalition, an advocacy campaign to drive voter turnout in the Georgia Senate runoff elections in partnership with BlackPAC., and supporting the Arts as a methodology for healing trauma in post-conflict societies via their alliance with the Cambodia Living Arts foundation.
Available for interviews: Him Sophy, Composer | Phloeun Prim, CLA | Paul Katz, Entertain Impact
BANGSOKOL, The Stage Production - a collaboration between filmmaker Rithy Panh and Him Sophy premiered in the U.S. at BAM in 2017.
The first major symphonic work addressing the years of the Khmer Rouge.
Bangsokol: A Requiem for Cambodia made its world debut in 2017 at BAM in New York and other iconic cultural institutions around the world, as a multi-disciplinary stage production combining music, film, movement, and voice. It is the first major symphonic work addressing the years of the Khmer Rouge, and the first collaboration between contemporaries Rithy Panh and Him Sophy, both survivors of the genocide and now at the forefront of Cambodia’s cultural renaissance.
Composer Him Sophy’s score combined traditional Khmer instrumentalists and smot chanting with a Western chamber orchestra and chorus. in collaboration with Rithy Panh's poetic visuals— blending archive footage and abstract and surreal imagery to capture the very essence of Cambodia’s culture and history.