Traditional Vietnamese musical instruments

The different sizes mean thatVietnamese traditional instruments all carry characteristics stemming from theartistic creativity of the people.The đàn nguyệt, moon-shaped lute, and đàn dây

Traditional Vietnamese musical instruments

Vietnamese traditional instruments have a rich capacity for expression and areunique This is shown in many ways In general, Vietnamese traditional instrumentsare of simple structure Sometimes too simple to be called instruments Forexample, the leaf-horn has only two requirements: The surface of the leaf should besmooth and the leaf itself not thick A girl holds the "horn" by the edge in her mouthand begins to produce a shrill sound After a "performance," the instrument can bethrown away The jew's harp is only a piece of kouniak or ear of rice Pitot, anotherflute, has only two holes - one for blowing and the other for fingering - but it canproduce music written from the five-note scale Castanets are simply two bamboopieces; a bamboo end can become a split drum; a set of kouniak sticks of variouslengths serves as a t'rung Materials for making these instruments are available athome The worm's silk will make strings and bamboo, kouniak and gourd covering isavailable 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 alsounique Clappers can be as small as a longan kernel; the jew's harp is exactly like anear 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 whilelithophones 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 belltower to house it Another bell of the same period was cast in about 4,200 tonnes ofbronze The Van Ban bell with 180 tons in weight, made under Nhà Trần, is 127cmhigh and has a diameter 74 cm The bronze drum, especially the Son Dong drum, ishuge, 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 twometres and are made from the trunk of a banyan tree Gongs and cymbals rangefrom saucer-size to a plate 90cm in diameter The different sizes mean thatVietnamese traditional instruments all carry characteristics stemming from theartistic 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 withoutreason The strings must be made from worm's thread and the strings and frets aremade longer and higher so that the musician can use luring and stressingtechniques 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 plainfinger holes without finger devices so that the musician is free to use luring andstressing 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, themaracas and castanets All these instruments have made their contributions totraditional Vietnamese music But the instruments designed so long ago suffer somelimitations One of these is low volume With the exception of idiophones,

membranophones and some wind instruments, almost all traditional instrumentsmake 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 viceversa The đàn dây, a type of lute, also has available a "loose stress" and on theđàn bầu, monocord, a half-note, a third of a note, a quarter of a note and perhapseven less than a quarter of a note can be created An even more subtlecharacteristic of the monocord is that the fingered string, touched, can produce anote lower than that made by the unfingered string This cannot be done on anyother instruments The one-stringed monocord has a three-octave range, althoughsome improved monocords have a four-octave range The klongput makes soundwithout being touched by the musician Another technique worthy of study is thatwhich allows musicians to play such horns as pile and xaranai to make a continuoussound without pausing or stopping Vietnamese traditional instruments are close tothe lives of the people and their activities Vietnamese instruments - particularlyprimitive instruments - are part of their activities.=The Thái make the tang bu frombamboo 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 hung over awaterfall to make a sound when struck together and used to drive off beasts gavethese groups the inspiration to make the very ancient lithophone; an elevated wickerstring above a plank-covered hole is called rong Quan and was the prototype for thefantastic monocord; the Phong Tiêu, a type of flute, which reminds the listener of akite 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 hillswhere kouniaks have been felled, served as tangible models for highlanders voong

to be hung before the Nhà Rông, or village hall, so that the wind makes a concertthroughout the year The lithophone is both musical instrument and a holy object.The gong and the cymbal are both musical instruments and precious and religiousobjects Vietnam's musical instruments spring from real life and were made bycreative laborers The instruments were, and are, crucial to cultural life

There are some Traditional Vietnamese musical instruments:

 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 four-stringed 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 hastwo strings and the resonator resembles the moon, that is probably why it is named Dan Nguyet, which means moon lute

 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 instrumentwhich is frequently present in a traditional orchestra Its soundbox is shaped like apear 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 bythe 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

Tâm Plưng

Tính Then

K'ný

Tàn Máng

Zèn xìn

Cò 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,…

 Đàn hồ - two-stringed vertical fiddle with wooden resonator; hồ derives from Chinese hu, as in huqin)

 Đàn nhị - two-stringed vertical fiddle

The Dan Nhi is popular among severalethnic groups in Vietnam It is also refered to

as Dan Co in southern provinces of Viet Nam

 K'ni (also spelled k'ny or k'ný) - one-string vertical fiddle

The K'Ni is a stringed musical instrument, sawing bow

branch and is popular among many ethnic minority groups

living in northern highlands (central Vietnam) such as

Bahnar, Gia Rai, E De, Se Dang, Pako, and Hre

I.3:Struck

 Đàn tam thập lục - hammered dulcimer with 36 metal strings

II

Wind

II.2./ Flutes

 Sáo (also called sáo trúc)

Sao truc, the bamboo flute, is made from a stem of fine bamboo pierced with finger holes

 Sáo Diều

 Bỉ đôi

 Đing jơng (Đing téc)

 Pí thiu

 Pí Tót

 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 courtmusic 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

 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 50-59cm, 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

 Trống - drum played with sticks

 Nruas tuag (also called Ư chua - drum used by the Hmông 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 trong 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 trong 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

 Tâng coi

 M'buốt

Pí Sên

Ala

Goong Kram

Kok-ta-lư

Poòng Păng

Ưng Quái