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The ''đàn tranh'' (, ) or ''đàn thập lục''Le, Tuan Hung. Dan Tranh Music of Vietnam : Traditions and Innovations. Melbourne, Tokyo : Australia Asia Foundation, 1998. (hard back); (paperback), page 1 is a plucked
The ''đàn tranh'' (, ) or ''đàn thập lục''Le, Tuan Hung. Dan Tranh Music of Vietnam : Traditions and Innovations. Melbourne, Tokyo : Australia Asia Foundation, 1998. (hard back); (paperback), page 1 is a plucked zither
Zithers (; , from the Greek word ''cithara'') are a class of stringed instruments. Historically, the name has been applied to any instrument of the psaltery family, or to an instrument consisting of many strings stretched across a thin, flat bo ...
of Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
, based to the Chinese ''guzheng
The zheng () or gu zheng (), is a Chinese plucked zither. The modern guzheng commonly has 21, 25, or 26 strings, is long, and is tuned in a major pentatonic scale. It has a large, resonant soundboard made from ''Paulownia'' wood. Other co ...
''. The same root is also Japanese ''koto
Koto may refer to:
* Koto (band), an Italian synth pop group
* Koto (instrument), a Japanese musical instrument
* Koto (kana), a ligature of two Japanese katakana
* Koto (traditional clothing), a traditional dress made by Afro-Surinamese women
* K ...
'', the Korean ''gayageum
The ''gayageum'' or ''kayagum'' (in Korean 가야금, 伽倻琴 in Chinese characters) is a traditional Korean plucked zither with 12 strings, though some more recent variants have 18, 21 or 25 strings. It is probably the best known traditional K ...
'' and ''ajaeng
The ''ajaeng'' is a Korean string instrument. It is a wide zither with strings of twisted silk. It is played with a slender stick of forsythia wood that is drawn across the strings in the manner of a bow. The ''ajaeng'' mainly plays the bass pa ...
'', the Mongolian ''yatga
The yatga ( Mongolian: ''yatug-a'', Khalkha dialect: ятга ''yatga''; ; is a traditional plucked zither of Mongolia. It is derived from Kazakh ''jetigen'' with the word derived from “yatagan”; a synonym to “yetigen”.
Yatga may vary ...
'', the Sundanese
Sundanese may refer to:
* Sundanese people
* Sundanese language
* Sundanese script
Standard Sundanese script (''Aksara Sunda Baku'', ) is a writing system which is used by the Sundanese people. It is built based on Old Sundanese script (' ...
''kacapi
The kacapi ( su, ᮊᮎᮕᮤ) is a traditional zither of Sundanese people in Indonesia. This musical instrument is similiar to Chinese , Japanese ''koto'', the Mongolian , the Korean , the Vietnamese and the Kazakh jetigen
The jetigen ( kk ...
'' and the Kazakh ''jetigen
The jetigen ( kk, жетіген, , or dzhetigan or zhetygen) is a Kazakh plucked zither. Similar to Chinese guzheng, yazheng
and se, Japanese koto, Korean gayageum and ajaeng, Mongolian yatga, Vietnamese đàn tranh, and Sundanese kacapi. Th ...
''. It has a long soundbox with the steel strings, movable bridges and tuning pegs positioned on its top.
The ''đàn tranh'' can be used either as a solo instrument, as part of various instrumental ensembles or to accompany vocal performances.
History
In the late 13th and early 14th centuries, the ''đàn tranh'' had 14 strings.Le, Tuan Hung. ''Dan Tranh Music of Vietnam: Traditions and Innovations''. Melbourne, Tokyo: Australia Asia Foundation, 1998. (hard back); (paperback), page 12. Between the late 15th and the 18th centuries, the number of strings of the ''đàn tranh'' increased to fifteen and the instrument was called thập ngũ huyền cầm. In the 19th centuries, the ''đàn tranh'' with 16 strings appeared and had become the standard version until the late 1970s and early 1980s. The Vietnamese ''dan tranh'', the Japanese ''koto
Koto may refer to:
* Koto (band), an Italian synth pop group
* Koto (instrument), a Japanese musical instrument
* Koto (kana), a ligature of two Japanese katakana
* Koto (traditional clothing), a traditional dress made by Afro-Surinamese women
* K ...
'' and the Korean ''gayageum
The ''gayageum'' or ''kayagum'' (in Korean 가야금, 伽倻琴 in Chinese characters) is a traditional Korean plucked zither with 12 strings, though some more recent variants have 18, 21 or 25 strings. It is probably the best known traditional K ...
'', are descended from Chinese ''guzheng
The zheng () or gu zheng (), is a Chinese plucked zither. The modern guzheng commonly has 21, 25, or 26 strings, is long, and is tuned in a major pentatonic scale. It has a large, resonant soundboard made from ''Paulownia'' wood. Other co ...
''.
Description
The body of the ''đàn tranh'' is between 104 and 120 cm in length. The soundbox consists of a curved top plate, a flat bottom plate, and six side-pieces. The top and bottom plates are usually made of ''Paulownia
''Paulownia'' ( ) is a genus of seven to 17 species of hardwood tree (depending on taxonomic authority) in the family Paulowniaceae, the order Lamiales. They are present in much of China, south to northern Laos and Vietnam and are long cultivat ...
'' wood. The side-pieces as well as the bridges, and tuning pegs and the two small legs are made of hard wood. The movable bridges have the shape of the letter V turned upside down, and their sizes varies according to their position: The one for the lowest string is the largest. The higher their position, the smaller their size is. The strings are made of steel and have varying diameters. They are tuned to the pentatonic scale. Performers usually wear picks made of metal, plastic, or tortoise-shell to pluck the strings.
The standard version of the ''đàn tranh'', or the ''đàn thập lục'' had 16 strings and had been used between the nineteenth century and the late 1980s. In the late 1950s, South Vietnamese master musician and instrumental designer Nguyễn Vĩnh Bảo (b. 1918) began to design and construct instruments with 17, 19 and 21 strings. By the late 1980s, the 17-stringed ''đàn tranh'' has become the standard version of the instrument used throughout Vietnam. Larger instruments with 22, 24 and 25 strings have also been made in the 1980s and 1990s.
Playing techniques
Performers pluck the strings with the right hand and bend the strings with the left hand to create a wide range of microtonal and tonal ornaments. In traditional music, performers use 2 or 3 fingers (thumb and index, or thumb, index and middle fingers) to pluck the strings. In a number of new compositions, as many as four or five fingers may be used to pluck the strings. In these new works, the left hand may also be used to enable the performer to play two simultaneous parts. Sometimes, đàn tranh will play with bow, the player traditionally bowing the strings to the right of the bridges while the left hand varied pitch and vibrato by pressing the strings on the other side of the bridges.Audio examples
*See also
*Gayageum
The ''gayageum'' or ''kayagum'' (in Korean 가야금, 伽倻琴 in Chinese characters) is a traditional Korean plucked zither with 12 strings, though some more recent variants have 18, 21 or 25 strings. It is probably the best known traditional K ...
* Guzheng
The zheng () or gu zheng (), is a Chinese plucked zither. The modern guzheng commonly has 21, 25, or 26 strings, is long, and is tuned in a major pentatonic scale. It has a large, resonant soundboard made from ''Paulownia'' wood. Other co ...
* Kacapi
The kacapi ( su, ᮊᮎᮕᮤ) is a traditional zither of Sundanese people in Indonesia. This musical instrument is similiar to Chinese , Japanese ''koto'', the Mongolian , the Korean , the Vietnamese and the Kazakh jetigen
The jetigen ( kk ...
* Koto (musical instrument)
The is a Japanese plucked half-tube zither instrument, and the national instrument of Japan. It is derived from the Chinese and , and similar to the Mongolian , the Korean and , the Vietnamese , the Sundanese and the Kazakhstan . Koto are ro ...
* Se (instrument)
The ''se'' () is an ancient plucked zither of Chinese origin. It varied in size and construction, but generally had 25–50 strings with moveable bridges and a range of up to five octaves. It was one of the most important stringed instruments in ...
* Yatga
The yatga ( Mongolian: ''yatug-a'', Khalkha dialect: ятга ''yatga''; ; is a traditional plucked zither of Mongolia. It is derived from Kazakh ''jetigen'' with the word derived from “yatagan”; a synonym to “yetigen”.
Yatga may vary ...
References
Further reading
* Le, Tuan Hung. Dan Tranh Music of Vietnam : Traditions and Innovations. Melbourne, Tokyo : Australia Asia Foundation, 1998. (hard back); (paperback) * ''New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (London, 2001). * Pham, Duy. ''Musics of Vietnam''. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1975. * Tran, Van Khe. La Musique Vietnamienne Traditionnelle. Paris : Presses Universitaires de France, 1962.External links
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fuu5kBhUTUk * Dead link (2015-12-11) {{DEFAULTSORT:Dan tranh Zithers Vietnamese musical instruments