The ''đàn đá'' is a

lithophone A lithophone is a musical instrument consisting of a rock or pieces of rock which are struck to produce musical notes. Notes may be sounded in combination (producing harmony) or in succession (melody). It is an idiophone comparable to instrume ...

played by ethnic minority groups in the Central Highlands of

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

, in the provinces of

Lâm Đồng Lâm is a Vietnamese surname. The name is transliterated as Lin (surname), Lin in Mandarin Chinese , Mandarin and Im (Korean name), Im in Korean language, Korean. Lam is the anglicized variation of the surname Lâm. Lin (surname), Lam is also a c ...

, Đắk Nông, Đắk Lắk,

Gia Lai Gia Lai is a northern mountainous province in the Central Highlands region, the Central of Vietnam. It borders Kon Tum in the north, Quảng Ngãi in the northeast, Bình Định in the east, Phú Yên in the southeast, Đắk Lắk in t ...

, and

Kon Tum Kon Tum is the capital city of Kon Tum Province in Vietnam. It is located inland in the Central Highlands region of Vietnam, near the borders of Laos and Cambodia. Historically, this area has been inhabited by the indigenous Ba Na people, whic ...

. These provinces are also home of the space of Gong culture listed in

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

. The word ''đá'' means "stone" in Vietnamese, đàn is instrument. The term đàn đá is of recent origin among Vietnamese musicologists, it had also been referred to as a

đàn goong The goong is a large bossed gong of the Mnong people of central Vietnam. This is to be distinguished from a goong lũ (cồng đá) which is a lithophone A lithophone is a musical instrument consisting of a rock or pieces of rock which are s ...

, a Vietnamese

gong A gongFrom Indonesian language, Indonesian and ; ; zh, c=鑼, p=luó; ; ; ; ; is a percussion instrument originating from Southeast Asia, and used widely in Southeast Asian and East Asian musical traditions. Gongs are made of metal and ...

. Several stones of different sizes are placed in a row. The player then uses a stick to knock the stones, each of which produces a different tone. The stone music sounds like the rhythm of the streams and bird songs, and therefore goes well with the surrounding landscape. One of the oldest stone musical instruments ever discovered was found in this area, dating back more than 2,000 years ago. It is also played by

Viet people The Vietnamese people (, ) or the Kinh people (), also known as the Viet people or the Viets, are a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to modern-day northern Vietnam and southern China who speak Vietnamese, the most widely spoken Austroas ...

in ''

nhạc dân tộc cải biên ''Nhạc dân tộc cải biên'' is a modern form of Vietnamese folk music which arose in the 1950s after the founding of the Hanoi Conservatory of Music in 1956. This development involved writing traditional music using Western musical notation, ...

'', a form of modern composed classical music, which is often performed for tourists.

References

External links

Video

Modern composition played on a ''đàn đá''
Struck idiophones Keyboard percussion instruments Pitched percussion instruments Vietnamese musical instruments Lithophones {{Vietnamese musical instruments