Dan Bau, mono-cord zither. (acoustic, electric & fold-up)
If one sound had to be chosen to
evoke Vietnam, for many it would be the sound of the Dan Bau as it
is one of only two traditional musical instruments of purely
Vietnamese origin. The word bau means gourd and refers to the dried
gourd fastened to the handle, surrounding the string at the point
where it connects to the handle. In the past this gourd may have
served as a resonator, but today it survives as a decorative
feature. Nowadays the dan bau is constructed using hardwood for a
frame and softwood for the surface.
The Dan Bau has a single brass
string stretching the length of the instrument, secured at one end
to a peg and at the other to a flexible, hooked spike, carved from
bamboo or water buffalo horn. The string passes repeatedly through a
hollow wooden box.
The Dan Bau is always played with a wooden
pick held in the right hand to pluck the string while the lower side
of the hand stops the string at the appropriate node. The left hand
moves the the hooked spike to bend the pitch downward by moving in
the direction of the instrument, or upward by pushing the the hooked
spike away from the instrument. The left hand also produces a
variety of vibratos, glissandos and grace notes. The instrument's
virtuosity and expressiveness are found in its left hand technique,
which should have a subtlety that mimics the sound of the Vietnamese
singing voice or declaimed poetry.
There is a story about the Dan
Bau. Long ago, farmers went to their fields with baskets strapped to
their backs. After work, they would lie down and tie their baskets
to stalks of bamboo. The wind would blow and the strings of the
baskets would vibrate and make a sound. So people made stringed
instruments with silk threads. First they used hollow bamboo and
then they used long, dried gourd. At the start of the 20th century,
gourds were replaced with wooden boxes.
