The Qeej Maker & Son (H’mông)
2020 10m 4K 1.85
Heritage Shorts #8
In the eighth of a series of short films from Heritage Centre Sapa in association with Open Cinematic, we meet master craftsman Thào A Trình. From his Sapa home, Trình honed his skills by watching his artisan father and has now been producing the qeej for the past fifteen years. Together with his three sons as accomplished apprentices, Trình is able to complete the process from tree to finished product in around three days.
The process begins by collecting a specific type of bamboo and wood from the sought after fokienia, an evergreen tree that presents longitudinal fissures and becomes aromatic with maturity.
The H’mông qeej is a free-reed multiple pipe instrument. It is a solo instrument, played without the accompaniment either of other musical instruments or singing, although it may be accompanied by drums at a funeral. Qeej pipes are mounted horizontally and the overall length of the instrument is 60-150cm, depending on the skill and the preference of the player. A player's reputation is based entirely on his ability to recall and play the ritual formulations.
For the H’mông, the qeej ‘speaks’. The qeej is not an instrument designed to produce music. It is a bamboo voice that intones a highly stylised and ritualistic language. Thus ‘music' and ‘speech’ are inseparable.
The qeej is is used to communicate with the spirit world. It is unusual because of its ability to express musically the innate lyrical qualities of the tonal H’mông language.
While the language of the qeej is ritualistic and ceremonial, improvisational use of the qeej for non-ritualistic speaking is not prohibited. For example, a player might create a welcome song for a friend he has not seen for a long time. Even so, incidental use of the qeej for other than ritual purposes is rare. Using it for other purposes has neither incentive nor value within the culture.
All of this means that qeej makers are well respected members of traditional H’mông society. Trình’s family home is just one of two in his community that still possess the skills to make the qeej. Not only does he produce the qeej for H’mông players, he also makes a smaller, simpler version as a working ornament for sale in the local market.
Screenings
Craft In Focus Festival, Amsterdam - 24/09/22
