Khaen

Description

The khaen is a free-reed mouth organ made with fourteen pipes of bamboo of different lengths arranged in two rows of graduated length. The pipes are secured by a barrel-shaped, turned wooden chamber (windchest), positioned approximately one third of the length and sealed with black wax, which has a round mouth-hole and a small-pointed finial on the opposite end. This chamber, currently displaced, is meant to conceal the free reeds of the pipes. Each pipe has a brass reed plate inserted on a cane cut, and a small fingerhole above the windchest. The instrument is sounded by exhalation or inhalation into the windchest. The longest pipes are laced with thread at the top end.