fangxiang
Sign in to saveAlso known as fang xiang, fang hsiang, Chinese chang
The fangxiang (also fang xiang, fang hsiang; ; also known in the West as the Chinese chang) is an organized-suspended (bianxuan) Chinese metallophone that has been used for over 1,000 years. It was first used in the Liang dynasty (502—557 CE), and then standardized in the Sui and Tang dynasties mostly for court music.
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The fangxiang (also fang xiang, fang hsiang; ; also known in the West as the Chinese chang) is an organized-suspended (bianxuan) Chinese metallophone that has been used for over 1,000 years. It was first used in the Liang dynasty (502—557 CE), and then standardized in the Sui and Tang dynasties mostly for court music.
== Construction and design == A fangxiang consists of 16 tuned rectangular iron, bronze, or jade tuned slabs with 16 different chromatic pitches, laid in a frame in two rows. The slabs are struck with a hammer and played melodically. Unlike the metallophone today, Chinese changed the thickness of the metal plates to obtain different pitches. Each of the slabs is of the same length and width but they are of graduated thickness, with the thicker slabs producing lower tones and the thinner slabs producing higher tones. The method of playing is to beat with a (hangul: , hanja: ) in both hands.