three-gong xylophone, kilɔŋ, da·k, parrot gong

Xylophone system used by the Kamhau people of the Northern Chin hills in Myanmar described by Stern (1957). The instrument itself is a “xylophone” composed of a set of three wooden slit-log drums or metal gongs, with low, medial, and high pitches in sequence roughly two semitones apart (Stern 1957:137). Tedim is a tonal language with three tones, L, M, and H, including grammatical tone and sandhi processes (Longmailai & Cing 2015:23). Stern additionally identifies rising and falling contours (136), vowel length, and stress (139). On the xylophone, L, M, and H tone correspond to low, medial, and high pitches. Some tone processes are encoded: “The gong renditions usually seem to represent the tones as they occur in sandhi-modified speech”, which apparently involves contour tone simplification (Stern 1957:136). Phrase-final lowering in natural speech corresponds to a high pitch on the xylophone (136). Phonemically long vowels may be inconsistently marked by “heavy strokes … characterized by ‘grace notes’ which trail off behind it” (138). “Major stress” is variably marked by a strike on the lowest gong, which when not coincidental with a low-toned word is played concurrently with one of the higher notes; alternatively the “appropriate gong simply receives an accented stroke” (139). Surrogate playing “approximate[s] the speed of normal speech” (138). In its surrogate use, the gong xylophone is restricted to “chants and songs” for public ceremonies and musical performances. The chant form, which is typically used by Chin youth, “adheres closely to the intonation of normal speech” (142) and may incorporate the names of individuals (142). The singing form, called da·k (after the metal gong set with which it is more associated), is used by adults in ceremonial contexts as a substitute for vocal music performance, and apparently encodes vocal tonal text-setting (143).

three-gong xylophone, kilɔŋ, da·k, parrot gong

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