The sneng or snaeng (, "horn") is an
aerophone
An aerophone is a musical instrument that produces sound primarily by causing a body of air to vibrate, without the use of strings or membranes (which are respectively chordophones and membranophones), and without the vibration of the instrume ...
made from an
ox horn or
water buffalo
The water buffalo (''Bubalus bubalis''), also called domestic water buffalo, Asian water buffalo and Asiatic water buffalo, is a large bovid originating in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. Today, it is also kept in Italy, the Balkans ...
horn. It is loud enough to call across a distance and has been used in rural environments to signal mealtimes, give warning, call for help or indicate a need to return to the village. It was also used to call domestic elephants in from the field, and hunters communicated with it.
Two different types of sneng exist:
*The more common one is a side-blown instrument with a rectangular hole on the side of the horn, where a bamboo single-
free-reed mouthpiece is fastened with wax.
The reed there can be either blown or sucked to produce a tone.
Both ends of the horn are open and function as finger holes to change the pitch,
the pointed end covered by the left index finger and the wide end covered by the right palm.
This type is capable of two notes, tuned a fourth apart.
*Another type is an end-blown instrument with the tip of the horn cut off and without the bamboo mouthpiece, like the conventional
blowing horn. It is less common because it produces only one note.
See also
*
Abeng
An Abeng is an animal horn or musical instrument in the language of the Akan people. The word ''abeng'' is from the Twi language in modern-day Ghana, it is a commonly used word in the Caribbean, especially Jamaica, and the instrument is associate ...
, a similar side-blown horn in Jamaica
*
Tơ đjếp, the Vietnamese version of the instrument
References
External links
Sneng playing with the side-blown free-reed sneng in the center and the end-blown snengs in the background
Cambodian concert, begins with Sneng solo. Two two finderholes are 1) under the player's left forefinger, and 2 the large hole under his right hand.Sneng soloKoy horn (Thailand) at the Metropolitan Museum of ArtKwai horn (Myanmar) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
{{Reed aerophones
Cambodian musical instruments
Natural horns and trumpets
Free reed aerophones