My song share this week is actually a group called Suc Song Moi, or “The Bamboo Ensemble” playing two songs. The first song is Vietnamese and has two movements. The first movement is called “Diem Xua” and the second movement is called “Trinh Cong Son.” The second song is called “Turkish March” which was composed by Mozart. Dong Quang Vinh, a highly awarded conductor in Vietnam, founded the group in 2013. They perform all of their repertoire using only bamboo instruments, all of which were crafted by his father Dong Van Minh. 

I don’t know the names of the instruments but the two most prominent are similar to a xylophone, and a one string instrument that is bowed and uses the players’ mouth as a resonator. I found this recording on a TED X video on YouTube while I was listening to Vietnamese flute music.

The first reason why I picked this for my song share was because of the string instrument present. I’ve never seen anything like it and it sounds almost like an oboe. But also, the xylophone-like bamboo instruments sound so similar to a marimba with a different initial strike sound. For those two reasons I find this ensemble to be mind blowing. I just keep geeking over the percussion and the solo string instrument!

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSF7KFrOGec