Areng

This is a free-vibrated reed airophone of Ta Oi minority living in A Luoi district in Thua Thien Hue province. Areng is made from a small hornless bamboo tube with two open ends. The instrument is about 36cm long, and 0,5cm diameter. A hornless bamboo reed of 2 cm length is splitted off at one end of Areng for blowing. On the body at the other end of Areng, there are 2 holes pierced at distance of 3 cm and served as finger holes.

Instrumentalists can either sit or kneel when playing Areng. A man blows Areng at one end while a woman works on the other end and takes advantage of her mouth to make a resonator. Such timbres of bass, cracked, dim and sonorous sounds of Areng are usually raised during love-song singing event that makes beauty and fascination in cultural activities of Ta Oi people.

Text and Photos courtesy by Vietnam Datacommunication Company (VDC)
and Vietnamese Institute for Musicology (V.I.M)