Bargabarian Art
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Dan Tranh
This Vietnamese oriental long zither consists of 16 steel strings with each string crossing over a movable bridge to a fixed bridge at the head of the instrument. The strings are plucked near the fixed bridge on the right using finger picks on the thumb, fore finger and middle finger. Intonation changes and ornamentation is produced by pressing the string left of the movable bridge. It is tuned by either moving the bridges back and forth or by turning the tuning pins on the left end of the instrument.
This dan tranh consists of Pau ferro sides, tuning and hitch pin blocks with a Western red cedar sound board and bottom. The feet are made of Cocobollo. The head has a hinged storage compartment that exposes the hitch pins and holds the pick and spare strings.
Ranat Styled Xylophone
This xylophone mimics the Ranat Ek from Thailand and Cambodia. It consists of a boat shaped resonating trough mounted on a center pedestal. The keys suspend from hooks between two end pieces in a rope bridge fashion. The instrument encompasses three octaves tuned to the western keys of C major/A minor. The keys are tuned to A = 440 hz.
The trough of the Ranat consists of African Khaya Mahogany with Yellowheart and Purpleheart accents. The base is made of Purpleheart. The end pieces are comprised of Figure African Khaya with Yellowheart accents. Ipe is used for the keys.
The instrument was designed to be played with medium hard or hard marimba mallets.
