Sneng

The sneng or snaeng (Khmer: ស្នែង, "horn") is an aerophone made from an ox horn or water buffalo horn. It is loud enough to call across a distance and has been used in rural environments to signal mealtimes, give warning, call for help or indicate a need to return to the village. It was also used to call domestic elephants in from the field, and hunters communicated with it.^[1]

Sneng ស្នែង

A side-blown Cambodian musical instrument called a Sneng ស្នែង, made from a cow's horn, sits in front of an end-blown sneng, made from a water buffalo horn. The side-blown instrument's mouthpiece is visible on the side of the horn.
Other names	saamleng sneng
Classification	side-blown: woodwind end-blown: brass
Hornbostel–Sachs classification	side-blown: 422.33 end-blown: 423.121.21 (side-blown: horns with free reed end-blown: labrosones with curved tubes without mouthpiece)
Related instruments
Abeng (Maroon people) (Jamaica) Gweh (Karen people) Koy (Thailand) Kwai (Myanmar)) Pepa (Assam) Pung Sing Nepal Tơ đjếp (Vietnam)

A side-blown sneng plays, demonstrating the multiple tones possible from the instrument. Side blown instruments may have two fingerholes, one on each end of the instrument. End-blown instruments have no fingerholes and only one note.

Two different types of sneng exist:

• The more common one is a side-blown instrument with a rectangular hole on the side of the horn, where a bamboo single-free-reed mouthpiece is fastened with wax.^[1][2] The reed there can be either blown or sucked to produce a tone.^[1] Both ends of the horn are open and function as finger holes to change the pitch,^[1] the pointed end covered by the left index finger and the wide end covered by the right palm.^[2] This type is capable of two notes, tuned a fourth apart.^[1]
• Another type is an end-blown instrument with the tip of the horn cut off and without the bamboo mouthpiece, like the conventional blowing horn. It is less common because it produces only one note.^[2]

See also

• Abeng, a similar side-blown horn in Jamaica
• Tơ đjếp, the Vietnamese version of the instrument