Ching (also spelled Chheng, km, ឈិង or Chhing, th, ฉิ่ง) are finger

cymbal A cymbal is a common percussion instrument. Often used in pairs, cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys. The majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs soun ...

s played in

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand ...

n and Thai theater and dance ensembles.

Construction and use

Joined by a cord that runs through the center, ching are bowl-shaped, about 5 centimeters in diameter, and made of bronze alloy—iron, copper, and gold. They are struck together in a cyclical pattern to keep time and regulate the melody, and they function as the "timekeeper" of the ensemble. The rhythm typically consists of alternating the accented closed stroke with an unaccented open "ching" stroke. The name "ching" is probably

onomatopoeic Onomatopoeia is the process of creating a word that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes. Such a word itself is also called an onomatopoeia. Common onomatopoeias include animal noises such as ''oink'', ''m ...

for this open sound.

Musical context

The Cambodian ensemble—which has traditionally accompanied court dance, masked plays, and shadow plays and ceremonies—is composed of vocalists and instruments:

gong chime A gong chime is a generic term for a set of small, high-pitched bossed pot gongs. The gongs are ordinarily placed in order of pitch, with the boss upward on cords held in a low wooden frame. The frames can be rectangular or circular (the latter ar ...

s, reed instruments,

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, ...

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 ...

drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a ...

s, and ching. A Thai ensemble consists of stringed fiddles,

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedles ...

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 ...

, xylophones, gong circles, drums, and ching. Melody in both Thai and Khmer musics is regulated by cyclic patterns realized on the drums and ching.

Historical significance

Evidence of the ching has been found in Angkor, the great temple-city of Khmer civilization, where classical art flourished between the ninth to the fifth centuries. Scenes carved in the walls of the temple depict celestial dancers with their musical instruments, including small cymbals (ching).

References

External links

Sound sample, mong and ching
Cymbals Cambodian musical instruments Thai musical instruments {{Cambodia-stub

Construction and use

Musical context

Historical significance

See also

References

External links