CHAPTER 5: Dulcimers in other countries since 1800 > Central Asia

Central Asia - Turkomenians - Uzbeks -Tadjiks - Uighurs

fig. 233: click

The Central Asian chang is written up in Vertkov (79) (in Russian) and in brief, in Allworth; two photographs appear in Buchner (62), from which it appears that the instrument has much more in common with the yang ch'ins than the santurs, even though the Persian origin for the name is most often suggested (chang = harp) (a parallel with Greece suggests itself here); the damper pedal is traced back by van der Meer to the cimbalom (80), and indeed the bridging is also similar.

On the one recording available, the chang appears to play on two tracks, both of them Korean melodies given a post-revolutionary treatment which makes them sound very much like Western waltzes; the chang simply doubles the melody (see discography), and no reason is given for including Korean pieces in a record of central Asian music.


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