Yatga
Yatga ( Mongolian Ятга ) is a traditional Mongolian plucked instrument that belongs to the vaulted board zither . Related instruments are the Chinese zither guzheng , the Korean gayageum , the Vietnamese đàn tranh and the Japanese koto .
The yatga is made in many different sizes and types. The number of strings, the bridges and the tuning are different. The hollow sound body is slightly curved. The pitch of a string is set using an approximately triangular piece of wood called the bridge.
The strings are plucked with the fingernails of the right hand. The pitch of a string can be varied with the left hand. The left hand is also used to pluck the bass strings with your fingers. It is also a question of style whether you play with your fingernails, with or without finger caps.
The yatga is strung with 21 strings , the material of the strings traditionally consists of horse hair , tendons or twisted silk . Today one mostly uses strings made of nylon or steel strings that are wrapped with nylon. The A string is usually colored green, the others white. The sound body is made of wood, yatga are often made of rosewood or pavlonia.
The Vietnamese vaulted board zither đàn tranh has two bridges for each string, and some đàn tranh have openings on the top.
Today the most common yatga shape has 21 strings, is 1.62 meters long and weighs 5–6 kilograms. This design is also known as the master yatga . It is practically identical to the Chinese guzheng . Shorter versions usually sound different and sometimes have fewer strings. In Korea this instrument is also made with 24 strings and tuned diatonic. This means that all notes of a scale are available.
Historically, the yatga was played with 12 strings. The 12 strings had a symbolic meaning, as they reflect the order of the heavens and that of the palaces in ancient Asia. Anyone who was not a nobleman or a monk was only allowed to play a maximum of 11-string yatga.
The traditional Mongolian epic Dschanggar tells of a young princess who played on an 800-string yatga with 82 bridges.
The basic tuning is pentatonic, so that a yatga can cover four octaves with the 21 strings. The basic tuning in the key of C major is CDEGA and that fits many traditional Asian pieces of music, even if transposed. In Mongolian folk music, the keys of F major, B flat major (Hb) and E flat major are widely used.
F major tuning: CDFGA
B flat major / A sharp major tuning: CDFG b flat / A sharp
Eb / D flat major tuning: C D flat FG b
Other tunings result from the fact that the yatga strings are tuned in the pentatonic semitone intervals 2 2 3 2 3.
The A flat major or G sharp major scale consists of the tones G sharp (2) b (2) C (1) C sharp (2) Dis (2) F (2) G (1) G sharp The intervals 2 2 3 2 3 then result in the following notes for the Yatga: G sharp (2) b (2) C (3) Dis (2) F (3) G sharp To better understand the shifting of the notes, the basic notes from the note C for A flat major:
C Dis F G sharp b
Changes across the bridges: D becomes D, E becomes F, G becomes G sharp, A becomes b
In order to get by with a shift of only one semitone, you make sure that the starting tone of a scale is playable. To get a B flat in the key of A sharp major / B flat major, for example, you don't tune the C string two semitones lower, but rather the A string one semitone higher. Because the A does not appear in the key of pentatonic tuning, this is correct. This means that the starting tone of the scale, but also of the two semitones higher, is available.
With the basic setting of the strings with the screw mechanism, one makes sure that the bridges of the corresponding strings have space for a variation by a semitone higher, so that one bridge does not hit the next. If necessary, the tension of the string must be increased or decreased for this.
Another form of tuning is the diatonic tuning, where the seven main tones of an octave are tuned and three semitones in addition. However, the yatga then has to be equipped with other strings, because otherwise the tension is too low in the high notes and too high in the low notes.
The tension of the strings should be so strong that you can get half a tone higher if you press the string down between the string and the ground. The tone of a string can also be changed by moving the bridges. With the pentatonic tuning you should leave a little more space between the E and G strings and between the A and C strings. The highest string is tuned to D, and the green strings correspond to A.
The basic tuning is set with a screw mechanism in the yatga . This setting is rarely corrected with the screws, but only with the bridges.
The strings are numbered from 1 to 21, whereby the highest note is given the number 1 and is closest to the musician when playing. One end of the yatga is usually placed on the musician's legs and the other end on the floor. The high notes are usually played with the right hand, the low notes with the left hand or with the right hand. Some musicians prefer a stand to play with and in Korea as well as in Japan the musicians sit on the floor.
The Tuvinian band Yat-Kha named themselves after the zither and used it in their Tuvinian-western pop music.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Description from the Silk Road Ensemble ( Memento from November 17, 2007 in the Internet Archive )