However, because the flexible rod causes the tension of the string to vary, the pitch may be made to rise or fall, the note may be lengthened or shortened, and trills may be played. When playing, the musician plucks the string while touching it lightly with the side of his hand at a point producing a harmony. The Dan Bau is usually tuned to the note C. The eight notes of Vietnamese music give modulations of greater amplitudes than those obtained by any other single-stringed instrument in the world. Although having only one string, it can emit all the sounds in the pentatonic scale. The pluck is a pointed stick of bamboo or rattan. The metal string is attached to the rod and to the peg. At the other end of the sounding board is a peg made of wood or metal used for tuning. At one end of the sound board is a flexible bamboo rod that goes through a dried calabash whose bottom end has been cut out before being fixed on the sounding board. The coconut shell was attached to the rod, serving as a resonator.Īs usually seen, Dan Bau consists of an oblong box-shaped sound board, slightly narrower toward one end, with a slightly warped top made of unvarnished soft light wood, sides made of hard wood, and a bottom of light wood pierced with holes for better sound. The string was strung across the bamboo, tied on one end to the rod, which is perpendicularly attached to the bamboo. The string is fixed at both ends while a movable bridge alters pitch. Originally, the Dan Bau was made of just 4 parts: a bamboo tube, a wooden rod, a coconut shell half, and a silk string. The word “monochord” means literally “one string.” In the monochord, a single strings is stretched over a sound box. Its other traditional application is as an accompaniment to poetry readings. The Dan Bau, played solo, is central to Vietnamese folk music, a genre still popular today in the country. Until recent times, its soft volume limited the musical contexts in which it could be used. After a process of evolution and improvement, the present form of the Dan Bau is a bit more sophisticated, yet still quite simple. At its first appearance, it was a very simple instrument comprised of a bamboo section, a flexible rod, a calabash or half a coconut. Whether this tale is based in fact or not, it remains true that the Dan Bau has historically been played by blind musicians. A popular legend of its beginning tells of a blind woman playing it in the market to earn a living for her family while her husband was at war. History of Dan BauĪccording to the “Dai Nam thuc luc tien bien”, the first Dan Bau was made in 1770 yet, many scholars estimate its age to be up to one thousand years older than that. Dan Bau is a Vietnamese monochord, a traditional one-string musical instrument and important part of Vietnamese arts.
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