The ''hne'' ( my, နှဲ; also spelled ''hnè'') is a conical
shawm
The shawm () is a Bore_(wind_instruments)#Conical_bore, conical bore, double-reed woodwind instrument made in Europe from the 12th century to the present day. It achieved its peak of popularity during the medieval and Renaissance periods, after ...
of double reed used in the
music of Myanmar
The music of Myanmar (or Burma) ( my, မြန်မာ့ဂီတ) shares many similarities with other musical styles in the region. Traditional music is melodic, having its own unique form of harmony, often composed with a (''na-yi-se''), ...
.
Etymology
The earliest extant written occurrence of the word ''hne'' dates to 1491 AD and is likely a
Middle Mon loan word
A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because the ...
, derived from ''sanoy''.
This sanoy derived from Persian loan word "Shanai".
Description
The hne ( my, နှဲ)has a sextuple reed (called ''hnegan''), made from the young leaf of the
toddy palm
Toddy palm is a common name for several species of palms used to produce palm wine, palm sugar and jaggery. Species so used and named include:
*''Arenga pinnata'', the areng palm
*''Borassus flabellifer'', the palmyra palm
*''Caryota'', the fisht ...
, which is soaked for six months.
The body of the ''hne'' is made of wood, with a conical bore and seven finger holes at the front, set in a straight line, with a bell (, ''chu'') hung at the top.
It has a flaring metal bell and has a loud tone, and is used in an ensemble together with
xylophone
The xylophone (; ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Like the glockenspiel (which uses metal bars), the xylophone essentially consists of a set of tuned wooden keys arranged in the ...
, tuned gongs, and tuned drums. There are two distinct forms: the smaller form is called the ''hne galay'' () whilst the larger is called the ''hne gyi'' (). The former is used for songs in the ordinary key of the diatonic major scale, while the latter is used for grand style songs in the subdominant mode.
References
External links
''Hne'' page''Hnè'' video
See also
*Music of Myanmar
The music of Myanmar (or Burma) ( my, မြန်မာ့ဂီတ) shares many similarities with other musical styles in the region. Traditional music is melodic, having its own unique form of harmony, often composed with a (''na-yi-se''), ...
Burmese musical instruments
Single oboes with conical bore
{{DoubleReed-instrument-stub