Traditional Vietnamese musical instruments

Traditional Vietnamese musical instruments Vietnamese traditional instruments have a rich capacity for expression and are unique This is shown in many ways In general, Vietnamese traditional instruments are of simple structure Sometimes too simple to be called instruments For example, the leaf-horn has only two requirements: The surface of the leaf should be smooth and the leaf itself not thick A girl holds the "horn" by the edge in her mouth and begins to produce a shrill sound After a "performance," the instrument can be thrown away The jew's harp is only a piece of kouniak or ear of rice Pitot, another flute, has only two holes - one for blowing and the other for fingering - but it can produce music written from the five-note scale Castanets are simply two bamboo pieces; a bamboo end can become a split drum; a set of kouniak sticks of various lengths serves as a t'rung Materials for making these instruments are available at home The worm's silk will make strings and bamboo, kouniak and gourd covering is available in the garden Further afield can be found bamboo, kouniak, wood, clay, leather, stonẹ Only the parts of instruments are difficult to make For example, with an organ the trick is to stick a reed into one end for blowing But simple or not, these instruments are so skilfully made as to be works of art Their sizes are also unique Clappers can be as small as a longan kernel; the jew's harp is exactly like an ear of rice; a certain drum is no bigger than a lemon Other instruments are huge The lithophone, or Ndut Lieng Krak, is 01.7cm long and the Khánh Sơn 103cm while lithophones found in other parts of the world are only 80cm long The Qui Dien bell, cast in 1080 in the times of Nhà Hậu Lý and Nhà Trần, needed a 26 meter-high bell tower to house it Another bell of the same period was cast in about 4,200 tonnes of bronze The Van Ban bell with 180 tons in weight, made under Nhà Trần, is 127cm high and has a diameter 74 cm The bronze drum, especially the Son Dong drum, is huge, imposing and beautiful The Thunder drum, which sounds like thunder, has a 148 cm diameter and is 170 cm high Some drums have a circumference of two metres and are made from the trunk of a banyan tree Gongs and cymbals range from saucer-size to a plate 90cm in diameter The different sizes mean that Vietnamese traditional instruments all carry characteristics stemming from the artistic creativity of the people.The đàn nguyệt, moon-shaped lute, and đàn dây, lute, both have high+frets and strings which are never too tight - and not without reason The strings must be made from worm's thread and the strings and frets are made longer and higher so that the musician can use luring and stressing techniques The traverse flute, the end-blown flute, the Vietnamese trumpet, the pi-let, the xa-ra-nai- traditional instruments of various ethnic groups-all have plain finger holes without finger devices so that the musician is free to use luring and stressing techniques The Sing Tien-a type of clapper- is a very simple instrument, but a really creative combination of three well-known instruments: The guiro, the maracas and castanets All these instruments have made their contributions to traditional Vietnamese music But the instruments designed so long ago suffer some limitations One of these is low volume With the exception of idiophones, membranophones and some wind instruments, almost all traditional instruments make a low sound with short vibrations Nevertheless, their capacity is both abundant and unique On the đàn nguyệt, the musician is able to "stress" a note making it a triple-interval higher note or vice versa The đàn dây, a type of lute, also has available a "loose stress" and on the đàn bầu, monocord, a half-note, a third of a note, a quarter of a note and perhaps even less than a quarter of a note can be created An even more subtle characteristic of the monocord is that the fingered string, touched, can produce a note lower than that made by the unfingered string This cannot be done on any other instruments The one-stringed monocord has a three-octave range, although some improved monocords have a four-octave range The klongput makes sound without being touched by the musician Another technique worthy of study is that which allows musicians to play such horns as pile and xaranai to make a continuous sound without pausing or stopping Vietnamese traditional instruments are close to the lives of the people and their activities Vietnamese instruments - particularly primitive instruments - are part of their activities.=The Thái make the tang bu from bamboo poles and water bags; from pestal and mortar the Mường make the Duong; from sticks to make holes in the ground for sowing, the Khơmu make the Kle Kla; others are the ding pa, klong put of the highlanders; the stones over a waterfall to make a sound when struck together and used to drive off beasts gave these groups the inspiration to make the very ancient lithophone; an elevated wicker string above a plank-covered hole is called rong Quan and was the prototype for the fantastic monocord; the Phong Tiêu, a type of flute, which reminds the listener of a kite flute and the To diep, Ky pa are not remote from the highland hunters' beast-calling horn; the never-ending sound of the wind in caves and caverns, or on hills where kouniaks have been felled, served as tangible models for highlanders voong to be before the Nhà Rông, or village hall, so that the wind makes a concert throughout the year The lithophone is both musical instrument and a holy object The gong and the cymbal are both musical instruments and precious and religious objects Vietnam's musical instruments spring from real life and were made by creative laborers The instruments were, and are, crucial to cultural life There are some Traditional Vietnamese musical instruments: • • • • String o 1.1 Plucked o 1.2 Bowed o 1.3 Struck Wind o 2.1 Flutes o 2.2 Oboes o 2.3 Free reed mouth organs o 2.4 Horns Percussion o 3.1 Drums o 3.2 Tuned percussion o 3.3 Untuned percussion Other I./ String I.1/ Flucked • Đàn bầu - monochord zither • Đàn đáy - long-necked three-stringed lute with trapezoidal body Dan Day is a special instrument of Vietnamese origin This three-stringed lute is used incorporate the peculiarities of the two-stringed lute (dan Nguyet), the fourstringed pear-shaped lute (dan Ty Ba), and the three-stringed lute (dan Tam) • Đàn nguyệt (also called nguyệt cầm or đàn kìm) - moon-shaped two-string lute The Southerners of Vietnam refer to this instrument as Dan Kim Dan Nguyet has two strings and the resonator resembles the moon, that is probably why it is named Dan Nguyet, which means moon lute • Đàn sến - two-string lute • Đàn tam - fretless lute with snakeskin-covered body and three stringsphoto • This three-stringed lute is used by several ethnic groups in Vietnam The Viet call it Dan Tam, whereas the Ha Nhi call it Ta in This instrument exists in three sizes: large, medium, and small The small is the most popular • Đàn tranh -16 String zither The Dan Tranh is also known as Dan Thap Luc or sixteen-stringed zither Its shape resembles a bamboo tube that has been sliced vertically in half The Dan Tranh has mostly been seen performed by female musicians in Vietnamese traditional dress (Ao Dai) When played, the instrument is placed in front of the musician, who uses her right hand to regulate the pitch and vibrate, while plucking the strings with her left hand • Đàn tỳ bà - pear-shaped lute with four strings The Dan Ty Ba is a four-string instrument which is frequently present in a traditional orchestra Its soundbox is shaped like a pear cut in half lengthwise Its soundboard is made of unvarnished light wood, and its back is made of hard wood with a slightly convex surface The neck is short and tightly fixed to the soundbox Originally the neck bore no frets; now, however, it has four frets in addition to eight others on the soundboard and two under the strings with the highest pitch • Đàn đoản (also called đàn tứ) - moon-shaped lute with short neck; little used • Đàn ghi-ta (also called lục huyền cầm or ghi-ta phím lõm) - "Vietnamized" acoustic or electric guitar with scalloped fretboard; used primarily in cải lương • Đàn tứ dây - bass guitar in the shape of a đàn đáy • Cầm - 7-stringed zither equivalent to the Chinese guqin; no longer used • Sắt - zither with 25 strings equivalent to the Chinese se; no longer used • Đàn tính - long-necked lute with a gourd body and two or three silk strings; used by the Tay, Nung, and Thai ethnic groups • Bro - fretted zither with a body made of bamboo and a gourd resonator; used by minority ethnic groups in the Central Highlands • Brố • Goong - tube zither with a bamboo body; used by minority ethnic groups in the Central Highlands The gong zither is a stringed musical instrument of flipping branch It is popular among some ethnicities in the North of the Central Highlands such as Bana, Gia Rai, Xe Dang, Ro Ngao, Je Trieng The special instrument often accompanies its player to the field, to festivals held at the communal long-house, or to a meeting place where the player reveals his feelings to his lover Tâm Plưng Abel Tính Then Kanhi K'ný Tàn Máng Zèn xìn Cị Ke I.2/ Bowed • Đàn gáo - two-stringed vertical fiddle with coconut resonator Develop from Đàn Nhị, but it biger anh longer.Like HoCam of China about feature Đàn Gáo joint in Nhã Nhạc orchestra, Tuồng, Chèo,… • Sáo Diều • Tiêu • Bỉ đôi • Kềnh • Đing • Khèn • Đing jơng (Đing téc) Bè (Kén Pé) Tút • Pí thiu • Pí Tót • Pí Tam Lay • Pí Lè II.3./ Oboes • Kèn bầu - conical oboe with gourd-shaped wooden bell The kèn bầu is a double reed wind instrument used in the traditional music of Vietnam It is similar in construction and sound to the Chinese suona and the Korean taepyeongso It comes in various sizes and is a primary instrument of the music of the former royal court music of Huế The kèn bầu has a detachable bell made of jackfruit wood, carved in the shape of a gourd (originally it was probably made out of an actual dried gourd, but wood is more durable) Into the playing end is fitted a small brass tube onto which a small double reed is placed The instrument's technique involves the use of circular breathing as well as a wide variety of ornamentation including wide vibrato and sliding tones • Kèn đám ma - conical oboe with metal bell, in northern Vietnam, It is typically used to perform music for funeral processions • Kèn Xaranai • Xi-u II.4./ Free reed mouth organs • Đing nǎm - free-reed mouth organ with gourd body and bamboo pipes; played by upland minorities Ding Nam is make by gourd and six Neohouzeaua (a species kind of bamboo) long same 5059cm, Six Neohouzeaua throught the gourd, it is polyphonic instrument, develop on the sound of M'buot - free-reed mouth organ with gourd body and bamboo pipes; played by upland minorities II.5./ Horns • Púa - valveless brass trumpet • Ốc - conch trumpet III./Percussion III.1 Drums • Trống - drum played with sticks • Nruas tuag (also called Ư chua - drum used by the Hmơng ethnic group for funeral music • Trống đồng (also called trống đồng Đông Sơn) - bronze drum played by the Dong Son culture in ancient times • Trong Com Rice Drum The com (rice drum) gets its name from the practice of placing a pinch of hot steamed rice in the middle of the drum skin to "tune" the instrument • Trống Bồng • Trống Cái • Trống Cơm(Trong Com Rice Drum ) The com (rice drum) gets its name from the practice of placing a pinch of hot steamed rice in the middle of the drum skin to "tune" the instrument • Trống Đế • Trống Paranưng • Trống Chiến • Trống Đất • Trống Xẩm III.2 Tuned percussion • Cồng chiêng - tuned gong (comes in both flat and knobbed varieties) The Cong Chieng is a kind of musical instrument casted from mixed copper and belongs to the idiophonic family In Vietnamese language, the word "Cồng" points to a musical instrument with a bossed part in center (bossed gong) and "Chiêng" without it (flat gong) • Tam âm la - three small, high-pitched flat gongs in a frame; used primarily in nhã nhạc music • T'rưng - bamboo xylophone - The traditional folk-musical instrument T'rung is one of the popular musical instruments closely associated with the spiritual life of the Bahnar, TSedan, Giarai, Ede and other ethnic minority groups in the Central Highlands of • Đàn đá - lithophone III.3.Untuned percussion • Sinh tiền - coin clapper • Song lang - woodblock IV.Other • Đàn mơi - Jew's harp • Bẳng bu • Ky Pah of Ede,one of Highlands ethnic minority groups in the Central • Tâng coi • Đing Buốt • Đing Tác Ta • Kupuốt • M'buốt • Pí Me • Pí Lao Lng • Púa Pí Sên Ala Goong Kram Kok-ta-lư Poòng Păng Ưng Quái ... without pausing or stopping Vietnamese traditional instruments are close to the lives of the people and their activities Vietnamese instruments - particularly primitive instruments - are part of... year The lithophone is both musical instrument and a holy object The gong and the cymbal are both musical instruments and precious and religious objects Vietnam''s musical instruments spring from... real life and were made by creative laborers The instruments were, and are, crucial to cultural life There are some Traditional Vietnamese musical instruments: • • • • String o 1.1 Plucked o 1.2