Your Online Source For Traditional
Vietnamese String Instruments For Sale
*Unique, authentic, hard to find
beautiful hand-made instruments from the
finest craftsmen and materials in Viet Nam*
*We Invite Export Orders. We Ship Sea or Air. Satisfaction Guarenteed.
What We
Have Available
Brief description of each instrument, instrument supplies, replacement parts,prices.See also bottom this page
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order an instrument, accessories or supplies.
Sound Samples
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Audio and video samples of our instruments.
Traditional
Vietnamese Music available on CD.
Music from Lost Kingdom of Hue,
Dan Bau Music Pham Duc Thanh & more...
Related Articles
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Ideology & History of the Quan Ho
A Musical Instrument Workshop in Ha Noi
Bamboo Origins of Far Eastern Bridged Zithers
Links to: Ethnomusicology Web Sites
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Welcome To
The Saigon Strings
Homepage!
If you have an interest in playing musical
instruments of South-East Asia, with an interest in Viet Nam traditional music,
this is the place for you. Saigon Strings, is a
website devoted to interesting and unusual musical
instruments made exclusively in Vietnam for your purchase and enjoyment.
If you feel there should be something on this site you don't see here, let us know. Read on for more informations on what Saigon Strings has to offer,
or click on one of the links. The instrument I am most familiar with and play is Dan Tranh, but can likely answer questions you may have about the other instruments we have for sale.
ORIGINS
BACKGROUND & HISTORY
Different string, wind and percussion instruments existed in Viet Nam since
the Bronze age. The Bronze drums and woodwind instruments have been
excavated around Dong
Son, which depicted dancers performing to the accompaniment of
musical instruments.
During the millenium of Chinese colonization and Viet Nam's long
Southward march, Viet Nam Music had been influenced by Chinese and
also Hindu Kingdom of Champa.
Court music emerged during Le Dynasty (15th century) when a Vietnamese
mandarin established music categories to be played at different
religious and social ocasions. Plays and water puppets, whether at
court or popular theaters, were accompanied by an orchestra.
Under Emperor Quang Trung (18th century), theater spreaded and court
music developed rapidly. Diverse orchestral groups were reorganized
and reunified to various theatrical orchestras and ensemble of eight
instrumental timbrels - Phuong Bat Am.
Form and variations, harmony between spacing and tempo which based on
a pentatonic scale made Vietnamese music technically very complex.
Which Instruments
Uniquely
Vietnamese?
There are a great number of musical instruments in Vietnam but there
are only two that are purely
Vietnamese in origin: The Dan Day and the Dan Bau. We will discuss the Dan Bau here. This instrument is part of the zither family
and has only one chord. The chord is stretched between the
instrument's body made of bamboo placed horizontally and a handle
placed vertically, equipped with a wooden resonator (or a hollowed
out coconut or a dried gourd ). The resonant case is bottomless and
made up generally of three planks. To play this instrument, the
musician needs a bamboo stick. Thank to the light touch of the stick
on the chord at the precise place and to the pressure exerted with
the left hand on the handle, this enables him to produce sounds
resembling the inflections of the human voice and subtle ornaments.
Melodious and extremely soft, it was in the past the favorite
instrument of traveling blinds. Nowadays, it is not only the
first class soloist instrument but also one of the instruments
used by the orchestra of popular theaters.
Click photos to read detailed description of that instrument and to enlarge photos.(note: photos below are from my personal collection). To listen to a sound sample of most
instruments pictured below, see left side menu. Additionally, we offer the Vietnamese Vong Co Guitar (Ghi Ta), T'rung,and others you may be interested in. For pricing of each instrument plus additional description, please click the following link:
Pricing & Descriptions
Dan Tranh
Dan Bau
Dan Day
Dan Tam
Dan Nguyet (kim)
Dan Co
Dan Sen
Dan Doan
Dan Ty Ba
©2009, SaigonStrings.com All Rights Reserved
Webmaster,
*Unique, authentic, hard to find
beautiful hand-made instruments from the
finest craftsmen and materials in Viet Nam*
*We Invite Export Orders. We Ship Sea or Air. Satisfaction Guarenteed.
Click photos to read detailed description of that instrument and to enlarge photos.(note: photos below are from my personal collection). To listen to a sound sample of most
instruments pictured below, see left side menu. Additionally, we offer the Vietnamese Vong Co Guitar (Ghi Ta), T'rung,and others you may be interested in. For pricing of each instrument plus additional description, please click the following link: |
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