Conical zither – the latest national musical instrument of VN
VGP – The conical-shaped zither, an original and new musical instrument imbued with Vietnamese identities, introduced in the last days of 2008, can be considered a new advance of the Vietnamese music.
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The conical zither and its creator, Phạm Chí Bích |
Its creator, artisan-musician Phạm Chí Bích, said that he adopted the idea of creating this musical instrument when he watching a performance of conical hat dancing five years ago.
He transformed shape, sound and principle of playing of the traditional 16-chord zither into a conical hat-shaped musical instrument of which the top is a symbol of convergence.
After six months, Mr. Bích successfully created the first and only conical hat-shaped zither ever seen in Việt Nam.
Standing 1.65m high, the zither has 170 chords vertically arranged into five equal sections. Its sound-box is 1m in diameter at the bottom. The surface is made of white wootung wood, looking really similar to a traditional Vietnamese conical hat.
The instrument requires five players, or even ten, who control 34 chords each. The players can perform a solo or in concert.
The creation of the conical zither, Musician Thao Giang, Vice Director of the Việt Nam Research Center for Musical Development, quoted as saying, "marks a new advance in the development of the Vietnamese music. This is the brilliant outcome of creativity of a renovation-era Vietnamese artisan".
By Xuân Hồng
