Bosba
Cambodia

Sovannaphum: Kosal’s Lament was written in 2020 and will be premiered on Dec. 16th, 2020. It is connected to Beethoven’s Sonata no. 11 in B flat Major, Op. 22

Dedicated to the Memory of the Sovannaphum Theater, Phnom Penh, 1994-2020

Bosba (b.1997) is a Western-educated, Cambodian composer. Influenced by French expressionism, European sacred music, and American minimalism, her music primarily explores the theme of loss and memory. Her experience as a Cambodian folk singer and classical performance singer informs the lyricism of her music.

Bosba is a graduate of the Walnut Hill School for the Arts and the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, MA, where she conducted a history minor on the commodification of trauma in arts in post-genocide Cambodian society. Previously, she attended the Lycée Français René Descartes of Phnom Penh. She is a former athlete of the Cambodian Judo Olympic Team. 

Outside of composition, Bosba has interests in cooking, birds, arts management, cultural equity, and creating a safe and positive workplace culture. Her life project aims to contribute to the development of music education in Southeast Asia and mentor musicians from developing countries.

Composer’s Note:

Sovannaphum: Kosal’s Lament (Golden Era) is about coming to terms with the inevitable and the sense of peace that you have to accept the worse in order to survive.

In May of 2020, Master Mann Kosal ម៉ាន់កុសល  announced Sovannaphum Theatre would permanently close. One of the very last  independent institutions of shadow theatre of ស្បែកធំ /sbaek tho:m/ and ស្បែកតូច /sbaek toʔ/ - large and small puppet theatre, Sovannaphum Theatre was an influential creative space where I marveled at Cambodian masters. The closure of Sovannaphum, precipitated by the Covid-19 pandemic, marked the decline of a living tradition which had become a myth amongst Cambodians.

In its premises, Yael’s commission asked to integrate Beethoven’s peace motif from Missa Solemnis. Since the commission borrowed from existing pieces, I decided to bring a piece from home: the song ពូ អើយ ពូ ពេក /pu: əɨj pu: pe:ʔ/ from the songbook Chansons Cambodgiennes. One of the earliest and only surviving manuscripts of Cambodian songs, Chansons Cambodgiennes is a collection of songs from 1920s Cambodia transcribed and compiled by Albert Tricon (1918-1994).  While some of the songs have survived through their association with important rituals in Cambodia, such as wedding music or powerful nursery rhymes, much of the repertoire is lost to Cambodians today.

Although ពូ ពេក / pu: pe:ʔ/ is a love song warning about betraying your beloved, the lyrics  resonated with me in drawing a  parallel with Kosal’s situation is its theme of betrayal - in this case, the sense of guilt in leaving behind a beloved theatre.  In “re-claiming” a forgotten song which only survived through a book written by a non-Cambodian, it was a way of catharsis for me in representing a society’s worse fear: for its culture to be forgotten and only partially remembered inaccurately.

Beethoven and Cambodia are worlds apart, yet both represent my reality of being pulled by my learned culture, and the one I was born into. In writing Sovannaphum: Kosal’s Lament, I present my conversation with both of these cultures, and the possibility that they do and can co-exist.

 You will hear in Sovannaphum: Kosal’s Lament, the blackbird calling into the song ពូ ពេក / pu: pe:ʔ/ , moving to a happy recollection of memories around Sovannaphum Theatre but also my formal training in Western art music through quotes of Beethoven’s eleventh sonata and his Missa Solemnis. Eventually, we circle back into the opening’s music, and the inevitable of cultures. The superposition of ពូ ពេក / pu: pe:ʔ/ against Beethoven’s peace motif from Missa Solemnis is a final goodbye, a “mass” for Sovannaphum Theatre. 

 Whereas Beethoven’s music will forever remain crystalline, my home is a burning library.

 Bosba