 A đing nǎm of theEde people of Vietnam's Central Highlands | |
| Woodwind instrument | |
|---|---|
| Classification | Free reed mouth organ |
| Hornbostel–Sachs classification | 412.132 (Sets of free reeds) |
| Inventor(s) | EmpressNüwa (Chinese belief, actual inventor cannot be traced) |
| Developed | 3rd millennium BC |
| Related instruments | |
Thegourd mouth organ is afree reedmouth organ played acrossEast and Southeast Asia. It consists of agourd wind chest with several bamboo or bronze pipes inserted on top of it, the numbers of pipes differing from region to region.[1]
The gourd mouth organ is closely associated with culturalminorities in Asian countries; thus, its styles are diverse, and different counterparts can be seen across different cultures.[2] Insouthern China, the generic name of the gourd mouth organ isHuluSheng (Chinese:葫芦笙;pinyin:húlúshēng;lit. 'gourd sheng').[3] The accompaniment of the instrument is essential to the ethnic minorities in China's southern province ofYunnan, such as theLahu,Yi,Miao andNaxi, especially during their ritualTage dancing.[4]
In southeast Asia, likeUpper Myanmar, northernLaos, northeastThailand, andRattanakiri province in Cambodia, the gourd mouth organ is also an essential part of the people's daily and ceremonial lives.[2] In Thailand, it is callednaw among the Lahu,lachi among theAkha, andfulu among theLisu; inCambodia, it is calledploy; in northeasternBorneo, it is calledsumpoton; and inLaos,Myanmar,Vietnam andBangladesh, it is calledđing nǎm orm'buot.[2][5][6]
The gourd mouth organ is tuned based on thepentatonic scale withoutsemitones, especially in themelodies, and the melodies are usually accompanied bychords.[1] Pitches can be changed by closing and opening the pipe holes.[3] The players hold the instrument almost horizontally and blow into the windchest during aspiration.[1]
In Chinese tradition, empressNüwa is believed to have invented the mouth organ in thethird millennium B.C. to mimicPhoenix's neck, body, and wings.[1][6] This tradition also explains why the gourd mouth organ is often used in the funeral process: people believe the mouth organ creates a protection spell against evil spirit and charm towards the afterlife.[1][7] The gourd mouth organ also represents "the gourd" category of theChinese eight sounds system (八音;Bā yīn).[8] In this system the instruments are classified upon the materials used to make the instruments.[8]
The gourd windchest of the mouth organ is hard to preserve, but bronze windchests have been discovered in central Yunnan, China, dating from around the fifth century BCE.[9] The gourd mouth organ is also recorded in several Chinese historical sources from theTang dynasty onward, for example, in theBook of Odes (Shijing),Tangyuezhi andManshu.[10] InShijing it says: "The lutes are struck, the organ blows; till all its tongues in movement heave. The drums loud sound, the organ swells; their flutes the dancers wave."[6] And in theManshu (ninth century), it records: "Hulusheng was played by young men wandering on the streets in the evenings to express their love towards girls."[3]
The mouth organ had its widest range of distribution around sixth century A.D.[2] It was spread toPersia from China and was calledmushtaq sini, "Chinese mushtak", orchubchiq.[2][6] The instrument then spread westward in the eighteenth century.[3]Johann Wilde, the inventor of the nail violin, bought or was given asheng in St. Petersburg and learned to playdie lieblieche Chineser Orgel, "the charming organ of the Chinese".[3] From 1800 to the present, a large family of reed instruments, such asmouth harmonicas,accordions, andharmoniums, was created.[1]
Hulu Sheng is theHan Chinese name of the gourd mouth organ and has different names in different minority groups in southern China, such asAng in Yi,Maniu in Lisu andNuo in Lahu.[3] Commonly, the instrument is made of a dried gourd bottle as the windchest with its narrow neck as themouthpiece.[1] Usually, five bamboo pipes (sometimes four to seven) are inserted vertically in the gourd walls from shorter to longer respectively (from 20 to 45 cm [7.9 to 17.7 in]) and sealed with beeswax with rectangular or triangular free-reeds assembled to each pipe.[3] Next to each pipe, a finger hole is made to activate the free-reed by opening and closing the hole and inhalation (mainly) and exhalation.[1] Slight variations in shape, size, height of the gourd mouth organ can be observed among different minorities groups, for instance, the bamboo pipes used inHei Miao can go up to fourteen feet high with brass reeds.[1] Another commonly seen instrument that is similar toHulu Sheng is calledHulusi, which is also primarily used inYunnan.[6] It can be seen as the simplified version ofHulu Sheng that has three bamboo pipes passing through a gourd windchest and only the middle pipe has finger holes.[6]
In other regions of China, among the Han people, the most common recognised ensemble free-reed mouth organ is calledSheng.[1] It has a modified windchest based on the traditional gourd mouth organ where the gourd is replaced by a piece of wood or metal cut in the same shape to increase its volume and range.[1]Sheng was spread from China toKorea during theThree Kingdoms period and was calledSaenghwang in Korean.[6] In the eighth century,Sheng was given to the Japanese court atNara as a gift and was later remodeled into the JapaneseShō.[6][11]
The gourd mouth organ has four subtypes in Southeast Asia.[6]
Type 1 is the most common and diverse one among the cultural minorities in mainland Southeast Asia.[6] Type 2 is usually associated with classical performance and is very similar to Chinesesheng.[6] Examples of type 3 can be the VietnameseM’buôt, the BangladeshiPlung and Thai-LaoKhene orKhaen, whereas type 4 has close relation to Hmong people of southern China and adjacent countries.[2][6][12] Type 3M’buôt is found inTruòng Son Ranges of Vietnam, and inChampa, a similar instrument is calledrakle.[2]Khene can be found at northeast Thai-Lao regions, and it is considered as national instrument in Laos.[6] Today,Khene can be found in four sizes with six, fourteen, sixteen and eighteen pipes.[6]
In upper Myanmar and northern Laos, the mouth organ is in a raft form with two rafts of pipes cross inside the windchest, and one of them either projects under it (X-shaped) or cut off at the bottom of the gourd (V-shaped).[2] In central and south Laos, the gourd is replaced by a wooden windchest with double rafts pierced through it and can go up to twelve feet.[5] In the Boutoy District ofMondulkiri Province, the Por and Kuoy ofKampong Chhnang,Pursat, andSiem Reap provinces in Cambodia, the gourd moth organ is calledPloy orMbaut among upland Mon-Khmer speakers, with five to seven bamboo pipes inserted into the windchest.[2]
The gourd mouth organ and its variants belong to one of the six types of free-reed instruments in southeast Asia.[2] And these instruments are more reminiscent of similar wind instruments found today in southern Chinese minorities than of their Han counterparts (sheng).[2]
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The finger holes outside each pipe must be closed to make a sound.[1] The players hold the instrument either vertically and horizontally depending on the shape and size of the instrument, with their lips touching the mouthpiece (the "bent neck") and 'blows' out the air at a controlled rate during aspiration.[13] The free reed's shape guarantees that it will make a sound during both inhalation and exhalation, differentiating it from other forms of reed.[6]Circular breathing is often used to provide the continuous stream of sound.[6] Two performance techniques are also used, includingdayin, pulsingarticulation that makes a ‘breaking tone’, andhuayin,portamento that makes a ‘sliding tone’.[3]
The tuning is pentatonic without semitones and the pitches can be changed by closing the pipe holes.[3] The chord usually supplements the melody. And two of the eleven regular chords correspond tooccidental minor triads; the rest are composed of pentatonic-scaled, concurrent notes (e.g., A B D E F#) or in other combinations (e.g., G# A B C D F#).[1][3]
Additional resonators may be used to reinforce the sound.[6] The resonator is usually made of a bottle-gourd placed at the end of the pipe or a large horizontalbamboo internode placed at the end of the longest pipe.[6]
In China, apart from using the gourd mouth organ at funerals and wedding ceremonies, it is also an essential part of theTage dancing ("stomping songs") amongethnic minority groups likeYi,Naxi,Lahu,Miao,Tibetan,Bai,Hani,Jingpo,Achang,Lisu,Pumi,Nu, andDu-long people in southwest regions who are closely related to the ancientDiqiang people.[4][9] The singing and dancing style known as "Tage" is one of their typical traditional rituals that has been practiced since ancient times.[4] With a tradition of 2500 years,Tage accompanied byHulu Sheng is believed to significantly impact people's emotional outlooks, temperaments, and life desires.[9] The dance is so popular among the Yi, Bai, and Naxi peoples that pictures of it may be seen embroidered on everyday apparel and jewelry.[4]
The dance is usually accompanied byHulu Sheng, and on occasion,lusheng with a long pipe, together with horizontal and vertical bamboo flutes, three- and four-stringed plucked instruments, andsuona.[4] InSongshi (History of the Song dynasty) it also records that men and women from many ethnic groups in Yunnan would come together, playing instruments such as the gourd mouth organ and the flute; and when the musician began playing the gourd mouth organ, tens of other members joined in the dance, circling the musician and stomping their feet to make rhythmical beats similar to drums.[4][9][14]
In Laos, the primary function ofKhene (the gourd mouth organ in Laotian) is to accompany singing. InIam nithan, long tales derived from Buddhistsathaka (the stones of Buddha's previous births) were sung by a soloist accompanied by akhene.[12] And inrituals of healings and possessions, ritualists, generally elderly women accompanied by akhene, sing to invite the offended spirits to enter their bodies and explain the cause of the illness.[12] Apart from singing and ritual procedures,Khene is also played by young men, together with other instruments, combining harmonies in four parts inWooing games.[5][15]
In Thailand, similar healing ritual calledLam phi fa (curing ceremony) is also accompanied byKhaen (mouth organ in Thai).[2] During the ceremony,Khaen is played whilemawlam phi fa, mostly women who can attract spirits, dancing around an altar of sacred objects.[2] And in early 1970s, theLam Klawn (repartee singing) accompanied bykhaen became the most popular entertainment in northeast Thailand.[1]Khaen is also used in localshadowed puppet theatres with a combination of speaking and singing to tell a local story in local languages.[12]
InRattanakiri and Mundulkiri provinces of Cambodia, thePloy (gourd mouth organ in Cambodian) and thebronze gong ensemble are played during the ritual sacrifice of buffalo (kapp krabey phoeuk sra).[2] Theploy is also played at other traditional dances such as Wild Ox (tun-song) and Peacock of Pursat (kngaok Posatt) inPursat and Kamopong Chhnaing provinces.[2]
In Myanmar, theLahu people (minority of Myanmar) play the gourd mouth organ during courtship. During this period of romance, young people camp around two large bonfires, one for the girls and one for the boys. Accompanied by the gourd mouth organ, the boys stamp their feet collectively, and the girls create a tight swinging circle around them.[2]
TheAkha who areTibeto-Burman-speaking people, play the gourd mouth organ (lachi), theJew's harp (chau) and the three-stringed lute (döm) both during festivals and at leisure.[2]
InLisu, the gourd mouth organ is calledfulu in their Biteto-Burman language. It is often played with a flute (julü), and a three-stringed long lute (subu) as an ensemble.[2]
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