Yangqin

The trapezoidal yangqin is a Chinese hammered dulcimer, derived from the Iranian santur. It used to be written with the characters ?? (lit. “foreign zither”), but over time the first character changed to ? (also pronounced “yáng”), which means “acclaimed”. It is also spelled yang quin or yang ch’in. Hammered dulcimers of various types are now very popular not only in China, but also Eastern Europe, the Middle East, India, Iran, and Pakistan. The instruments are also sometimes known by the names “santoor” and “cymbalom”. This instrument had an influence on the Thai classical instrument, known as Khim.This deeply sampled…