The ''đàn tranh'' (, ) or ''đàn thập lục''Le, Tuan Hung. Dan Tranh Music of Vietnam : Traditions and Innovations. Melbourne, Tokyo : Australia Asia Foundation, 1998. (hard back); (paperback), page 1 is a plucked

zither Zither (; , from the Greek ''cithara'') is a class of stringed instruments. The modern instrument has many strings stretched across a thin, flat body. Zithers are typically played by strumming or plucking the strings with the fingers or a ...

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 ...

, based on the Chinese ''

guzheng The zheng (), or guzheng (), is a Chinese List of Chinese musical instruments#Plucked, plucked zither. The modern guzheng commonly has 21, 25, or 26 strings, is long, and is tuned in a Major scale, major pentatonic scale. It has a large, reson ...

'', from which are also derived the Japanese '' koto'', the Korean ''

gayageum The ''gayageum'' or ''kayagum'' () is a traditional Korean musical instrument. It is a plucked zither with 12 strings, though some more recent variants have 18, 21 or 25 strings. It is probably the best known traditional Korean musical instr ...

'' and ''

ajaeng The ''ajaeng'' () is a Korean string instrument. It is a wide zither with strings of twisted silk. It is played with a slender stick of forsythia wood that is drawn across the strings in the manner of a bow (or it can be played w/ a Horsehair ...

'', the Mongolian ''

yatga The yatga (, Khalkha dialect: ; ; is a traditional plucked zither of Mongolia. Yatga may vary widely in size, tuning, and number of bridges and strings; The body is a long wooden box, one end of which is angled downward. The performer plucks ...

'', the Sundanese ''

kacapi The kacapi is a traditional zither of Sundanese people in Indonesia. This musical instrument is similar to Chinese , Japanese '' koto'', the Mongolian , the Korean , the Vietnamese and the Kazakh jetigen. The kacapi played as the main accompa ...

'' and the Kazakh '' jetigen''. It has a long soundbox with the steel strings, movable bridges and tuning pegs positioned on its top. The ''đàn tranh'' can be used either as a solo instrument, as part of various instrumental ensembles or to accompany vocal performances.

History

The Vietnamese 's ''đàn tranh'' came from the Chinese

Chaozhou Chaozhou ( zh, t=潮州), alternatively Chiuchow, Chaochow or Teochew, is a city in the eastern Guangdong province of China. It borders Shantou to the south, Jieyang to the southwest, Meizhou to the northwest, the province of Fujian to the east, ...

zheng. In the late 13th and early 14th centuries, the ''đàn tranh'' had 14 strings.Le, Tuan Hung. ''Dan Tranh Music of Vietnam: Traditions and Innovations''. Melbourne, Tokyo: Australia Asia Foundation, 1998. (hard back); (paperback), page 12. Between the late 15th and the 18th centuries, the number of strings of the ''đàn tranh'' increased to fifteen and the instrument was called thập ngũ huyền cầm. In the 19th centuries, the ''đàn tranh'' with 16 strings appeared and had become the standard version until the late 1970s and early 1980s. The Vietnamese ''đàn tranh'', the Japanese '' koto'' and the Korean ''

'', are descended from Chinese ''

''.

Description

The body of the ''đàn tranh'' is between 104 and 120 cm in length. The soundbox consists of a curved top plate, a flat bottom plate, and six side-pieces. The top and bottom plates are usually made of ''

Paulownia ''Paulownia'' ( ) is a genus of seven to 17 species of hardwood trees (depending on taxonomic authority) in the family Paulowniaceae, the order Lamiales. The genus and family are native to east Asia and are widespread across China. The genus, o ...

'' wood. The side-pieces as well as the bridges, and tuning pegs and the two small legs are made of hard wood. The movable bridges have the shape of the letter V turned upside down, and their sizes varies according to their position: The one for the lowest string is the largest. The higher their position, the smaller their size is. The strings are made of steel and have varying diameters. They are tuned to the pentatonic scale. Performers usually wear picks made of metal, plastic, or tortoise-shell to pluck the strings. The standard version of the ''đàn tranh'' had 16 strings and had been used between the nineteenth century and the late 1980s. In the late 1950s, South Vietnamese master musician and instrumental designer Nguyễn Vĩnh Bảo (born 1918) began to design and construct instruments with 17, 19 and 21 strings. By the late 1980s, the 17-stringed ''đàn tranh'' has become the standard version of the instrument used throughout Vietnam. Larger instruments with 22, 24 and 25 strings have also been made in the 1980s and 1990s.

Playing techniques

Performers pluck the strings with the right hand and bend the strings with the left hand to create a wide range of microtonal and tonal ornaments. In traditional music, performers use 2 or 3 fingers (thumb and index, or thumb, index and middle fingers) to pluck the strings. In a number of new compositions, as many as four or five fingers may be used to pluck the strings. In these new works, the left hand may also be used to enable the performer to play two simultaneous parts. Sometimes, đàn tranh will play with bow, the player traditionally bowing the strings to the right of the bridges while the left hand varied pitch and vibrato by pressing the strings on the other side of the bridges.

Audio examples

References

External links

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fuu5kBhUTUk * Dead link (2015-12-11) {{DEFAULTSORT:Dan tranh Tube zithers Vietnamese musical instruments