Roneat ek
It has twenty-one thick bamboo or hard wood bars that are suspended from strings attached to the two walls.
According to the Khmer national dictionary, roneat means xylophone and is described as "the percussive musical instrument that has a long body where its bars are made from bamboo or other good quality woods or metal bars striking with a pair of two roneat sticks played in the Pinpeat and Mohaori Orchestras.
"[2] According to the Garland Handbook of Southeast Asian Music edited by Terry E. Miller and Sean Williams, the word roneat is a Khmer generic term refers to xylophones or metallophones-idiophones, with bars of bamboo, wood, or metal.
One of the oldest xylophone nearby Cambodia can be found in Lam Dong Province, Central Highland, Vietnam.
[8] Researchers have found many stone xylophones in Vietnam's Central Highland where Mon-Khmer indigenous minority, the K'ho lives.
These Khmer musical instruments includes the two hanging gongs, drum, Kong Vong Thom, roneat, oboe, and (very long) trumpet.
[13] This new discovery is probably the oldest depiction of Roneat genres in Cambodia.According to other source, Cambodian Roneat genres were derived from the Javanese gamelan musical instruments which influenced the Khmer musical instrument in the early Angkorian period which spread from Kampuchea further northwest to Myanmar.
[14] This proofed the historical connection to the origin of Roneat genre in the early Angkor period as the last monarch of Khmer Kingdom of Chenla King Jayavarman II was returned from the Javanese Court in 802 AD and began the grandiose consecration ritual or the concept of Devaraja or God-King concept on sacred Mount Mahendraparvata, now known as Phnom Kulen, to celebrate the independence of Kambuja (Cambodia) from Javanese dominion and eventually became the first Khmer King of Khmer Empire, as verified by the Sdok Kak Thom inscription.
Roneat Ek structure can be classified into the body or the sound box, the notes or bars, and the mallets or sticks.
[18] According to Ouknha Moha Thipadei Meas Ni, the chief of Cambodian Royal Orchestra "His grandfather said this Roneat genre is a Khmer invention since ancient times.
First, Khmer people took the bamboo bars used in house construction cutting into short pieces and strike them to make sound for entertainment.
