The đàn gáo ("coconut shell fiddle") is a bowed

string instrument String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner. Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the ...

, a part of the traditional Vietnamese orchestra. It is similar to the đàn hồ. The instrument originated from South Viet Nam, and is used in entertainment contexts. It can be played alone, as part of an orchestra, or to accompany

cải lương ''Tuồng cải lương'' (, Hán-Nôm: 從改良) often referred to as cải lương (Chữ Hán: 改良), roughly "reformed theater") is a form of modern folk opera in Vietnam. It blends southern Vietnamese folk songs, classical music, '' hát ...

(Vietnamese folk opera). The instrument’s name can be broken down as “đàn” meaning string instrument, and “gáo” literally translated as an aged coconut shell used as a scooper. The đàn gáo is most closely related to the

fiddle A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, th ...

in Anglo-American culture, and the

yehu The ''yehu'' () is a bowed string instrument in the ''huqin'' family of Chinese musical instruments. ''Ye'' means coconut and ''hu'' is short for ''huqin''. It is used particularly in the southern coastal provinces of China and in Taiwan. The i ...

and

banhu The ''banhu'' (板胡, pinyin: bǎnhú) is a Chinese traditional bowed string instrument in the huqin family of instruments. It is used primarily in northern China. ''Ban'' means a piece of wood and ''hu'' is short for ''huqin''. Like the more ...

in Chinese culture.

Construction and design

The

resonator A resonator is a device or system that exhibits resonance or resonant behavior. That is, it naturally oscillates with greater amplitude at some frequencies, called resonant frequencies, than at other frequencies. The oscillations in a resonator ...

of the đàn gáo is the coconut shell covered by leather. The neck extends from the coconut shell without

frets A fret is any of the thin strips of material, usually metal wire, inserted laterally at specific positions along the neck or fretboard of a stringed instrument. Frets usually extend across the full width of the neck. On some historical instrume ...

. The head of the neck bends back and offers string adjusters. There are only two strings for this instrument, and the material is silk, which today can also be substituted with metal. The bow can be made of wood or bamboo, and the strings are also made of silk. By gliding the bow along the strings of the đàn gáo, high and full pitched sounds are produced.
The sounds can be played with varying ranges of loudness as well as pitch range as long as the Interval (music), interval between the strings is a

perfect fifth In music theory, a perfect fifth is the Interval (music), musical interval corresponding to a pair of pitch (music), pitches with a frequency ratio of 3:2, or very nearly so. In classical music from Western culture, a fifth is the interval fro ...

. The đàn gáo, if not specifically described this way, can also be mixed up for other Vietnamese orchestral instruments- the đàn nhị and đàn ho. These primarily differ in the shape and material of the resonator, and the sound produced.

References

Vietnamese musical instruments Bowed instruments Necked bowl lutes Huqin family instruments {{huqin-stub

Construction and design

See also

References