A free-reed aerophone typically consisting of a wind-chest penetrated by one or more tubes, each fitted with a Free reedof metal or bamboo. Because of the widespread use of Western free-reed mouth organs, called variously harmonica (see Harmonica (i)), French harp and mouth harp, such instruments are known worldwide, but they probably originated in mainland South-east Asia or southern China during prehistoric times. In addition, they are related to other Western free-reed instruments, including the Reed organ(harmonium) and all types of accordions.
Within Asia five kinds of free-reed mouth organs are distributed from Japan to Thailand and from Bangladesh to Borneo. The two best-known types are the Chinese Sheng (Japanese Shō; Korean Saenghwang), with a bowl-shaped wind-chest of wood or metal and 17 or more graduated pipes arranged in a circle, and the Lao/north-east Thai Khaen (khene), with 6, 12, 14, 16 or 18 bamboo pipes arranged in raft form with a carved wooden wind-chest. The Hmong in Laos, northern Thailand, and southern China use a mouth organ with six tubes (gaeng or geej), five with a single free reed, one with three (lu sheng). Both Tibeto-Burmese and Mon-Khmer upland groups in the mainland and certain peoples in Borneo use similar instruments with gourd wind-chests (e.g. sompotan, dding, engkerurai komboat, naw). Individual free-reed pipes, with or without a gourd wind-chest, are also widespread, the latter found chiefly in Myanmar, the former in northern Thailand, among the Hmong, Phuthai and Khmer. Related to mouth organs, buffalo horns with a metal free reed on the concave side are found chiefly among the Karen of Myanmar, but they are also known to the Lao and Khmer. For further information see T. Miller: ‘Free-Reed Instruments in Asia: a Preliminary Classification’, Music East and West: Essays in Honor of Walter Kaufmann, ed. T. Noblitt (New York, 1981), 63–99.
For illustration see ..\Frames/F005676.htmlReed instruments.
TERRY E. MILLER