Celegian Music and Instruments
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Celegian Music and Instruments
Celegians enjoy music and many people play or sing at least part time. Most taverns and nearly all ceremonies involve singing and playing of instruments. Celegian music would sound familiar to our ears, as the same set of tonal scales is used in their music as in ours. Of course, the instruments and songs would sound pretty weird, as they don't have any relationship to ours except in the vaguest of terms. Some of the more common instruments are as follows:
A fennet is a stringed instrument that is played using a rosined wand. It has seven strings which can be tuned using tension, a fret board to finger the notes and a sound bridge to make it louder. A fennet sounds most like a violin, although it is not at all shaped like one. In form a fennet is a hollow wooden box about three feet long and small enough to be easily grasped in one hand. It may be played either while seated or standing. If played while seated it is held vertically, the lower end resting on the insole of the foot, while it is fingered and stroked by the hands. If played while standing, it is held with the strings facing away from the body and propped up on the players hip. A fennet can produce sounds of haunting beauty, great sadness, or cheerful energy.
A klite is an instrument very similar to a flute. A klite consists of three tubes or reeds of varying lengths bundled together in a triangular shape. Each tube is fitted with a mouthpiece and several finger holes. When it is being played, each of the three tubes is used to create a different set of notes and a skilled player can twirl the klite and switch tubes with great speed. The arrangement of the tubes also allows two of the tubes to be played at the same time. A klite is a higher pitched instrument, and most klite songs are fast, wild, skirling things meant to be danced too vigorously.
A pong is a drum. Good ones are made of highly fired ceramic and are fitted with a head of taut leather. Exceptional pongs are often made of glass. Common pongs are made of wood. The name comes from the musical, almost metallic sound produced by the good ones. The number of varieties of pong are too many to count. Most varieties have a single head and are roughly shaped like a flat bottomed cone. Many types have a head fitted on both ends of the cone shaped body and produce several notes. Pongs are the simplest instruments to play and the most difficult instruments to play well.
A tangar is another stringed instrument, but it is played with the fingertips, usually fitted with horn sheathes called claws. A tangar sounds sort of like a guitar, with a definite metallic ping in the sound. A tangar is a rather large instrument, being a hollow box similar to a large fennet, usually with nine strings of three different lengths, fret board, sound bridge, etc. Tangars are made mainly of wood, except that the soundboard is usually made of hammered steel or brass. A tangar can be played standing or sitting and is usually held to the player by a sling.
A loon is the name for a large and diverse group of instruments. In most respects they are similar to woodwind horns we are familiar with. There are both reeded and unreeded types. All Celegian loons are made of wood or animal horn. Most loons are used as filler for other instruments, as they are considered to be a more "genteel" type of instrument than most of the other "non-orchestral" types of instruments. Loons usually have a straight body similar to an oboe or have one fairly simple curve similar to a saxophone. There are several finger holes and some types have larger holes meant to be used by the palms.