Saturday, January 29, 2011

January 29, 2011 - Three Octave Mother-of-Pearl

A story is told in the pictures made by inlaying abalone shell into the hardwood edge of a 16 string Vietnamese Dan tranh.  The 16 strings of the nearly four foot long instrument are made of wire.  Like other zithers, the instrument lays horizontal on a lap, a table or the ground when played.  The musician plucks the strings with one hand while the second hand adds ornamentation over a range of three octaves.

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