| Abstract: |
One of the most distinctive musical instruments of the Southeast Asian area is the free-reed mouth-organ, best known as the Chinese shēng, and the origin of the European harmonica. It is also one of the few instruments for which there are extensive archaeological materials, as bronze skeuomorphs of gourd originals were made in China from at least the Dian period. In addition, some more classical instruments survive as grave goods in China, and the free-reed mouth-organ is often represented in mural art in Burma and Thailand. This paper proposes an organography of this instrument, showing how it evolved and diffused over time, bringing together archaeology, ethnography and iconography.
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