Yang Qin

Yangqin () is a Chinese hammered dulcimer with a near-squared soundboard. The instrument is very similar to Santur, played with two bamboo sticks.

Erhu

Erhu - Chinese violin or fiddle
Chinese two-stringed bowed instrument

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Erhu is a kind of violin (fiddle) with two strings which, together with zhonghu, gaohu, sihu, etc, belongs to the "huqin" family. It is said that its origin would be dated up to the Tang dynasty (618-907) and related to the instrument, called xiqin originated from a Mongolian tribe Xi. During Song dynasty (960-1279), the instrument was introduced to China and was called "Ji Qin". Soon the second generation of the huqin was among the instruments played at the imperial banquets. During the Dynasties of Yuan (1206-1368), Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911), the erhu underwent a great development at the time of the golden age of the local operas. The erhu then developed in a different "schools". Two famous artists Hua Yanjun (1893-1950) and Liu Tianhua (1895-1932) made an exceptional contribution to the improvement of the erhu, and it was indeed due to the latter that the erhu, an instrument mainly for accompaniment in an opera, becomes a solo instrument. After the foundation of People's Republic of China (1949), the manufacture of the erhu, the playing techniques, the repertoire as well as the musical education of this instrument have undergone an unpresidented development. The repertoire has grown rapidly in the genres of solo, with ensemble as well as concerti with symphony orchestra. Erhu now has become one of the most popular instruments in China.

The sound body of the erhu is a drum-like little case usually made of ebony or sandalwood and snake skins. It usually has a hexagonal shape with the length of approximately 13 cm. The front opening is covered with skin of python (snake) and that of the back is left open. The functions of this case of resonance are to amplify the vibrations of the strings. The neck of the erhu is about 81 cm long and is manufactured with the same materials as the drum. The top of the stem is bent for decoration. The two strings of the erhu is usually tuned D and A. The two tuning handles (pegs) are found close to the end of the stem. There is no frets (as contrast to the lute) or touching board (as contrast to violin). The player creates different pitches by touching the strings at various positions along the neck of the instrument. The strings are usually made of silk or nylon. Nowadays, metal strings are commonly used. The bow is 76 cm long and is manufactured of reed which one curves during cooking, and arched with horse hair in the same way as the bow of violin. However, in the case of erhu, the horse hair runs between the two strings. In another word, one cannot take off the bow from the instrument unless one of the two strings is taken off or broken.

The posture which the player must adopt to play the erhu is the same as that adopted for the other kinds of huqin: the left hand holding the fiddle and the right hand, the bow. The erhu is put on the lap vertically, the left hand moves vertically to touch the strings for the right pitch while the left hand (with the bow) move horizontally to make the sound. The Erhu is mainly a instrument for melody in a sense like voice. The left hand slides up and down the instrument while fingers pressing the strings to create desired pitch and "sliding" effects. The right hand pushes the horse hair against this or that string while moving horizontally, to create the sounds on either of the two strings. Occasionally some musicians hold the instrument with the help of a rope, in the same way as for saxophone, in order to play standing or walking. However it doesn't look elegant with the sound body pressing against the belly of the performer and the stem of the instrument pointing up and outwards. Therefore, the musicians normally play sitted unless it's absolutely necessary. In the old days, street musicians often used this method in order to play while walking. Today, in some pop or rock bands, musicians use this method of playing in order to act on the stage.

The erhu sounds similar to human voice, and can imitate many natural sounds such as birds and horse. It is a very expressive instrument, most well-known for playing melancholic tune, but also capable of play merry melody.

The erhu often plays an important role in the national orchestras. In the smaller orchestras, there are usually 2 to 6 erhu, in larger ones, 10 with 12. In fact, the erhu plays the same role as the violin in the Western orchestras.

Guzheng

Guzheng - Chinese Zither
One of the most ancient Chinese traditional music instruments

The Zheng, commonly known as Guzheng, (pronounced "Goo-Zheng"), is a plucked string instrument that is part of the zither family. It is one of the most ancient Chinese musical instruments according to the documents written in the Qin dynasty (before 206 BC). Zheng is the forerunner of Japanese koto, Korean kayagum, Mongolian yatag, and Vietnamese dan tranh. Due to its long history, the zheng has been called guzheng or Gu-Zheng where "Gu" stands for "ancient" in Chinese. The guzheng has been a popular instrument since ancient times and is considered as one of the main chamber as well as solo instruments of Chinese traditional music. Since the mid-19th century, guzheng solo repertoire has been growing and evolving towards an increasing technical complexity. The Chinese character for "zheng" composed of two parts: the upper part means "bamboo" and the lower part is "argue" (see the above character). According to a legend, there was a master of se, 25-stringed zither, who had two talented daughters who love playing the instrument. Now there came a time that the master became too old, and wanted to pass his instrument over to one of them. However, both daughters wanted to have it. The master felt miserable and finally, out of desperate, he decided to split the instrument into two - one got 12 strings, and the other 13. To his amazement, the new instrument sounds mellow and even more beautiful than its original. The happy master gave the new instrument a new name "zheng" by making up the character with the symbolisms representing "bamboo" and "argue". The word "zheng", the name of this instrument, pronounces the same as the word "zheng" which means "argue" or "dispute". The origin of the Chinese character representing this instrument seems to indicate that the early version of the instrument was made of bamboo, which is different from that of today. However, this legendary story, though it might be true according to the origin of the Chinese character for this instrument, should not be taken too seriously. Zheng (Guzheng) is build with a special wooden sound body with strings arched across movable bridges along the length of the instrument for the purpose of tuning. In the early times the zheng had 5 string; later on developed into 12 to 13 strings in the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907AD) and 16 strings in the Song and Ming dynasty (from the 10th to 15th century). The present day zheng usually has 21-25 strings. Tuning: The pitch of a given string is determined by the position of the bridge, therefore, Guzheng can in principle be tuned to any desired scales. Traditionally, pentatonic scale is used. The instrumentalist plucks the strings with the right hand and touches the strings with the left hand to produce the desired pitch and create subtle tones and ornaments (see the pictures with Liu Fang playing the Guzheng). Full scale can also be obtained by skilfully applying press on certain strings from the other side of the bridge with the left hand. techniques: Guzheng player attaches a little plectrum on each finger using a special tape. For traditional repertoires, the instrumentalist mostly uses three fingers of the right hand for plucking whereas the left hand pressing the string from the other side of the bridge to create special tonalities and ornaments. For some contemporary repertoires, both hands are needed to produce complicated harmonies using four fingers of each, which means that even the fingers of the left hand need to ware plectrums. In some cases, one can use cello bow to play on the Guzheng to produce sustained sounds and special effects. One can also use sticks to hit on the strings in the way like a percussion instrument.

Ruan(Zhong Ruan)

• Ruan ()- very ancient four-stringed moon-shaped lute with long and straight neck and various number of frets, dated back at least to Qin Daynasty (around 200 BC). Ruan is used to be called "p'i-p'a" (pipa) or qin-pipa. Since the introduction of the oud-like lute through the "silk-road" in the early Tang Dynasty (around 5th century), the pipa gradually developed into the present form, and the old form of pipa with straight-neck and round body got the name "Ruan", after the name of the master player of this instrument, Ruan Xian who was one of the seven great scholars known as "The Seven Gentlemen in the Bamboo Forest" in Chinese history of the 3rd century (the Six Dynasties). They were truely good friends. Ruan Xian and Ji Kang, master of guqin (Chinese 7-stringed zither), are most famous for their musical achievements and the life as true artists. The Ruan is mostly used for Peking opera, and now also in modern Chinese orchestra. There are family of ruan of various size including "Zhong Ruan" (middle Ruan) and "Da Ruan" (large Ruan) used in the same sense as viola and cello in western orchestra.

• Yueqin ()- moon-shaped lute with shorter neck and four strings, played with a spectrum, used for accompanying local operas. "Yue" stands for "the moon" in Chinese.
  

Liuqin () -a smaller version of pipa with four strings, which sound similar to mandolin. Liuqin is played with a piece of spectrum, and is used to be accompany instrument for folk songs and local opera. However, in recent decades, Composer Wang Huiran made great contribution to its making and composed many pieces such that the Liuqin also becomes a soloist instrument.

Pipa 琵琶

A brief history of the pipa, a traditional Chinese music instrument

Pipa playing today The pipa (pronounced "pee-paa") is a four-stringed lute, one of the oldest Chinese musical instruments with over 2000 years of history. The term pipa () consists of two Chinese characters symbolizing two playing techniques while their pronunciations p'i and p'a are imitations of the sounds produced accordingly. The latter fact is however not often mentioned in literature about the pipa (see [note 2]) The historical development of the pipa has been a progressive process from its very beginning with few major fusions. The earliest Chinese written texts about the pipa dated back at least to the second century BC. For instance, Xi Liu of the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 AD) described in his book, The Definition of Terms - On Musical Instruments, that the name of the instrument pipa originally referred to two finger techniques. The two Chinese characters p'i and p'a stood originally for the two movements, i.e. plucking the strings forwards and backwards, respectively. It is commonly known now that it is the generic name for all pluck-string instruments of the ancient times. For instance, in the Qin Dynasty (222-207 BC), there had been a kind of plucked-instrument, known as xiantao, with a straight neck and a round sound-body played horizontally, which is considered a predecessor of the pipa. In the preface to his verse Ode to Pipa, Xuan Fu of the Jin Dynasty (265-420 AD) wrote: "...the pipa appeared in the late Qin period. When the people suffered from being forced to build the Great Wall, they played the instrument to express their resentment". By the Han Dynasty (206 BC -- 220 AD), the instrument developed into its form of four strings and twelve frets, plucked with fingernails and known as pipa or qin-pipa (see Fig.1[1]. In the Western Jin Dynasty (256-316), the qin-pipa was named after the famous scholar, one of "the seven sages of the Bamboo Forest", Ruan Xian, who was a virtuoso on this instrument. (Note that Ji Kong, the grand master of the seven stringed zither qin, was among the seven sages who were great friends and often met for music and wine). The instrument has been to this day called the ruan () whereas the name pipa specifically referred to a new version in the same family of instruments, which developed as follows: [1] pipa (pre-Tang Dynasty) [2] Tang pipa (straight neck) [3] Tang pipa (bent neck) [4] modern pipa Fig.1: Historical development of the pipa, a Chinese four stringed lute (See the Note[1] in the right panel for detailed explanation of the major fusion).

Playing the pipa horizontally with a wooden plectrum was introduced during the Northern and Southern Dynasty (420-589 AD) During the Northern and Southern Dynasty (420-589 AD), a similar pluck string instrument, called oud or Barbat with a crooked neck and four or five strings was introduced through the Silk Road from Central Asia, known as the Hu Pipa (Hu stands for "foreign" in Chinese), which was played horizontally with a wooden plectrum (see the picture below for the Tang Dynasty pipa player). During the early Tang Dynasty, foreign music became very popular. A fusion of the original Chinese pipa and the "Hu pipa" took place such that the instrument gradually became what the present pipa looks like toward the middle of the Tang Dynasty (see the above Fig.1 [1]-[4] and the following Note 1). Meanwhile the playing method has been developed and repertoire increased. One of the greatest developments was that the left hand became totally free by holding the instrument vertically, i.e. the pipa rests on the thigh of the instrumentalist in an upright position, and was played vertically with five fingers of the right hand instead of horizontally with a plectrum (see the photo at the top of this page). Pipa was played horizontally with a wooden plectrum during the Tang Dynasty (618-907) During the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907), the pipa was one of the most popular instruments, and it has maintained its appeal in solo as well as chamber genres ever since. The Tang pipa (Fig. 1[3]) was larger than the modern instrument. It usually had four or five strings and fewer frets (compared to the present day pipa). Probably influenced by the Hu pipa, the Tang pipa was often played with a wooden plectrum, a technique still used by its Japanese descendent, the biwa. Since the mid Tang Dynasty, and particularly since the Song Dynasty (960-1279), the instrument was gradually developed into the present form of a lute played with fingernails, while the techniques with the plectrum were totally abandoned. The strings of the instrument were made of silk. Musicians used their real nails of the right hand to pluck the strings. An exception to this is the Nanguan pipa which is popular in Fujian Province (South-East China) and Taiwan in a particular kind of traditional music called Nanguan which can be traced back to at least the Song Dynasty. Pipa players in the Nanguan tradition play the pipa horizontally and use a one piece plectrum just like the Tang pipa.