THE MUSIC OF  SOUTHEAST ASIA:                                                                                                                                                                                                                  www.musicofasia.info

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The zithers of Southeast Asia
an overview written by Ingo Stoevesandt

The Asian zither: A living history (follows)
In Asia, one fascinating aspect of the actual and traditional musical instruments lies in the fact that many instruments are just made out of materials which people find in their daily life. These instruments appear to be simple but often surprise the listener (assuming a skilled player) with their wide variety of musical possibilities.
Bamboo is one of the most important bases for resonance in Asia.
In Malaysia, the ethnic group Senoi (Negrito) of the Orang Asli play a bamboo tube zither called Keranteng. These tube zithers consist of a big bamboo tube of about 80 cm length, have seven chords, and are both idiochord as also sometimes heterochord. There are idiochord instruments with only three chords called Kereb which maybe only have been played by women. I am not quite sure if these instruments still exist today, but if we keep in mind that we can find these bamboo tube zithers all over Southzeast Asia (for example the Latek of the Moken in Thailand), it might trace us to one of the ancient origins of zithers in Asia, maybe even reaching back to preneolithic ages.
Far away from speculations, one of the most important ancient instruments in Asia is still alive and used today:

The sound of Confuzius: The Qin
The earliest zithers entombed in China date back to the year 1500 BC. The most fascinating aspect of finding these old instruments was the fact that the basic shape and appearance of these instruments did not change until today. So in fact, these instruments are a part of human history for more than three thousand years! The Qin was one of the first instruments worldwide with a written notation, an own script depicting which hand plucks which chord on what manner and position. This is putting researchers in the lucky situation to follow the Qin music back over the millenia, back to its musical roots and makes the Qin very important for the understanding of the whole musical development in China from past to present. The ancient Qin (or Gu Qin) had five chords, spanned over the body carved out of the Wutang tree. Tuned in a pentatonic scale, each chord symbolizes a divine principle. Today, the Qin is a bass zither of seven chords, tuned this way:

C-D-F-G-A-c-d          (Do-Re-Fa-Sol-La-do-re)             

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