The chang ( fa, چنگ; ; tr, çeng; ar, al-ǧank, italic=yes (''ṣanǧ'');

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

: ჩანგი ''changi'') is a

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

musical instrument, a vertical

angular harp Angular harp is a category of musical instruments in the Hornbostel-Sachs system of musical instrument classification. It describes a harp in which "the neck makes a sharp angle with the resonator," the two arms forming an "open" harp. The har ...

. It was very popular and used widely during the times of ancient

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

, especially during the

Sasanian Dynasty The Sasanian dynasty was the house that founded the Sasanian Empire, ruling this empire from 224 to 651 AD in Persia (modern-day Iran). It began with Ardashir I, who named the dynasty as ''Sasanian'' in honour of his grandfather (or father), S ...

where it was often played in the shahs' court. It was also played until the 19th century in the Ottoman Empire but has since disappeared from Turkish folk music.

History

The chang first appears in paintings and wall art in Persia in about 4000 BCE. In these paintings and mosaics, the chang went from the original arched harp to an

in the early 1900s BCE, with vertical or horizontal sound boxes. From the

Hellenistic period In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in 3 ...

(~300 BCE) and through beginning of

Common Era Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the o ...

(~1 CE), the chang changed shape to be less of a handheld instrument and more of a large, standing harp, and subsequently gained in popularity. Sassanian courts were enamored with the

Hellenistic In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...

chang, which increased its popularity, and by the end of the Sasanian period the chang had been redesigned to be as light as possible. By becoming more slender, the chang lost much of its rigidity and structural soundness, but gained a portability that made it the primary harp for what would soon become Iran. The chang that is used today resembles the last documented transformation.

Structure

The chang is essentially an Iranian harp, but unlike an eastern harp the strings are made of sheep gut and twisted goat hair and sometimes even nylon. This characteristic stringing gives the chang a unique sound; it does not have the resonance of metal strings in other folk-harps. In medieval Azerbaijan, the chang had 18–24 strings but this varies based on how far the chang dates back. In the design of some ancient changs, sheepskin or goatskin was used to amplify the sound making it sound closer to an eastern harp, but its unique sound is desirable and typically preserved. The chang is played by plucking the strings with your right hand finger nails or finger picks and using your left hand to apply pressure on the strings to execute glissandos, vibratos, and other embellishments, and occasionally, plucking techniques. In modern days the chang is made out of special string or the tail of a horse. The past body of the chang typically included goat- or sheep-skin. The skins used on the chang also give it a different sound.

Musicians

The chang was predominantly played by women during ancient times. However, the chang is being revived and is now starting to make its way back into the field of contemporary Persian music. There are depictions from as far back as 4000 BCE that show the chang being played, along with other instruments, and a singer. Since the playing style of the chang does not share any similarities with other Persian instruments, it is a difficult instrument to pick up, play, and master. As a result, the number of chang players is small. There are a few modern players of the chang including Mrs. Parvin Ruhi and her two daughters, Zaynab Baqeri Nejad and Masome Baqeri Nejad. Today the chang is played in small ensembles, such as religious ceremonies and parties. In recent years, the Iranian scholars and instrument makers have been trying to revive the ancient chang back to its former glory.

Other usages in music

The chang (or Chinese chang) is also a name given to the

fangxiang The ''fangxiang'' (also ''fang xiang'', ''fang hsiang''; 方响 or 方響 in Chinese, pinyin: fāngxiǎng; also known in the West as the Chinese chang) is an organized-suspended (bianxuan) Chinese metallophone that has been used for over 1, ...

, a

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

metallophone A metallophone is any musical instrument in which the sound-producing body is a piece of metal (other than a metal string), consisting of tuned metal bars, tubes, rods, bowls, or plates. Most frequently the metal body is struck to produce sound, ...

played in China since ancient times. The Uzbek chang is a hammered dulcimer, similar to the Chinese

Yangqin The trapezoidal yangqin () is a Chinese hammered dulcimer, likely derived from the Iranian santur or the European dulcimer. It used to be written with the characters 洋琴 (lit. "foreign zither"), but over time the first character changed t ...

. The Burmese harp, called ''

saung The ''saung'' ( Burmese: စောင်း, MLCTS caung: ; also known as the ''saung-gauk'' ( စောင်းကောက်), Burmese harp, Burma harp, or Myanmar harp), is an arched harp used in traditional Burmese music. The saung is re ...

'' (စောင်း, transliterated 'caung:' in

MLCTS The Myanmar Language Commission Transcription System (1980), also known as the MLC Transcription System (MLCTS), is a transliteration system for rendering Burmese in the Latin alphabet. It is loosely based on the common system for romanization of ...

), is etymologically derived from the Persian word "chang," which is the Persian arched harp.

References

External links

A Persian harp
played by Tomoko Sugawara.
Talk and demonstration
of harp-playing by Rabe'eh Zand.

(Simorgh orchestra website.) {{DEFAULTSORT:Chang (Instrument) Persian musical instruments Angular harps Folk instruments of Sindh Music of Georgia (country)