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Sheng

Sheng, mouth organ. Wooden reed chamber, painted black with a solid flat base. The side mounted mouthpiece is egg-shaped in cross-section and flaring to a concave ivory face. The mouth hole an isosceles trapezium positioned centrally on end face. The seventeen bamboo pipes are arranged in a circle with a gap between them on the player's right. The lowest nodes of each pipe are arranged in a row. Some pipes are silent, the others have a large finger hole near the bottom. The sounding length of each of the speaking pipes is determined by a slot cut in the upper part of the tube, on the inner side. The pipes are held together with a lateral strip of bamboo positioned in line with the upper rims of the shortest pipes. All the pipes are mounted on wooden cones which are cut in half around a third of the way down their length, and are slotted into holes in the reed chamber. These have white plastic plates attached incorporating upward pointing free reeds with square ends, each with a small tuning weight attached to the tip. The two longest pipes are positioned at opposite sides and each has a slightly flared ivory finial. The arrangement of the pipes is thought to resemble the shape of the mythical fire-bird, the phoenix.

  • Culture:
  • Period:
  • Materials:metal thread, cotton, paint, PLA, bamboo, wood
  • Specific materials/techniques:
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  • Inscriptions:
  • Hornbostel-Sachs category:412.132 Sets of free reeds
  • Repository:Horniman Museum and Gardens
  • Measurements:overall: 493 x 104 x 165 mm