RAAP—064
HMONG’S QEEJ
Lai Châu, Northwest Vietnam. In a modest workshop framed by mountains, a Hmong instrument maker performs on his self-crafted qeej, a traditional mouth organ central to Hmong ritual and musical expression. Composed of six bamboo pipes fitted with hand-forged copper reeds, the qeej is both sculptural object and sonic script, shaped through precise carving, metallurgy, and inherited knowledge.
To the uninitiated ear, qeej melodies may sound cryptic or ornamental. Yet within Hmong epistemology, each note is legible as language. The qeej functions as an instrument of oral poetry: pitch, inflection, and ornamentation carry semantic weight, turning melody into text. This composition, played in a mourning context, is a funerary lament. Others speak of exile, longing, or ancestral return. In the hands of A Dung, the qeej becomes not merely a musical instrument but a vessel of utterance that transmits grief, memory, and identity across breath and reed.
To the uninitiated ear, qeej melodies may sound cryptic or ornamental. Yet within Hmong epistemology, each note is legible as language. The qeej functions as an instrument of oral poetry: pitch, inflection, and ornamentation carry semantic weight, turning melody into text. This composition, played in a mourning context, is a funerary lament. Others speak of exile, longing, or ancestral return. In the hands of A Dung, the qeej becomes not merely a musical instrument but a vessel of utterance that transmits grief, memory, and identity across breath and reed.