ARTIST STATEMENTS
In 1970 , the Civil War started in my country and my family fled , from one village to another . During the day , we were afraid of bombs , at night we were worried about the Khmer Rouge soldiers asking us for information . We were living in misery and fear .
The Khmer Rouge evacuated people from the city and created a tragedy for the whole country . Not enough food to eat , working like animals in the fields , and killing people savagely . In 1976 , I was working in a mobile youth camp where I got only 18 pieces of corn to eat . Everyone got the same . I couldn ’ t walk far , I looked like an old man , but I was just a young boy .
I saw through my eyes people being beaten to death with sticks . I saw people pulling carts like a cow , emaciated from working long , tough hours with no food . My eldest brother was killed by Khmer Rouge soldiers — and later my fifth eldest brother was also murdered . There were countless memories from the dark time that was the Khmer Rouge regime .
Returning to today , we see still confrontation between world leaders , we see people threatening nuclear war — seemingly without thought for the consequences for people all over the world . My generation in Cambodia experienced war — I lost my family , I saw people killed . I don ’ t want this again , for anyone .
As a composer , as well as a human being , I want to share these feelings through A Requiem for Cambodia : Bangsokol . It is dedicated to all those who died during the war in Cambodia , and in wars and conflicts around the world . May their souls and spirits rest in peace . I wrote Bangsokol to help bring peace to the world , today and in the future .
— HIM SOPHY
A Requiem for Cambodia : Bangsokol is a beautiful work , complex and challenging . Him Sophy and I lived through the Khmer Rouge regime , and with this requiem we wanted to present to audiences , both in and outside Cambodia , the country ’ s harrowing modern history through traditional music reinvented .
Bangsokol is an attempt to honor the Khmer Rouge ’ s victims by resuscitating the cultural heritage that the regime nearly wiped out , and passing it on to the next generation . Bangsokol may be a requiem , but it is less about death than about bringing the past back to life and restoring dignity to the disappeared . To create is to live . Bangsokol — which was conceived , written and performed by Cambodians — is yet more proof that our people ’ s capacity for imagination and creation could never be destroyed .
A German philosopher is sometimes quoted as saying that it is barbaric , or impossible , to write poetry after Auschwitz . It is not . Writing poetry in the face of horror is a right — and to some of us it feels like a duty , toward both the dead and the living . Art helps transcend atrocity by giving expression and meaning to suffering that is too great to explain . Art is more than an act of remembrance ; it is an act of resistance and of healing .
Taking the full measure of the Khmer Rouge ’ s crimes means looking beyond its total casualty toll : at least 1.7 million dead . It means remembering that this vast , anonymous number represents one person ’ s unique story and another ’ s and another ’ s and another ’ s ... I hope that Bangsokol will allow each member of the audience to remember the dead as individuals , and intimately .
Some stars in the night sky are long dead by the time we see their lights . Much like them , the bright souls of the Khmer Rouge ’ s victims are visible through the darkness of history .
— RITHY PANH