Chinese ethnic instruments > Erhu - Chinese violin: May 2009

Some examples of Pipa music pieces

~ The ambush
~ The dance of the Yi people

Source: http://www.philmultic.com/pipa/

Historical background of a Pipa

In the Qin Dynasty (222-207 BC), there had
been a kind of pluck-instrument, known as xiantao,
with straight neck and a round sound-body played
horizontally. 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 Han Dynasty (206 BC -- 220 AD),
the instrument developed into a form of four strings
and twelve frets, plucked with fingernails and known
as pipa or qin-pipa. In the Western Jin Dynasty (256-
316), the qin-pipa was named after the famous
scholar, Ruan Xian, who was a virtuoso in such an
instrument. The instrument is still called ruan till
present day. During the Northern and Southern
Dynasty (420-589 AD), a similar instrument with a
crooked neck and four or five strings was introduced
through the Silk Road from little Asia, known as the
Hu Pipa (Hu stands for "foreign" in Chinese), which
was played horizontally with a wooden plectrum. By the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907), the pipa
was one of the most popular instruments, and has maintained its appeal in solo as well as
chamber genres ever since.

Source: http://pgh-net.com/pipa/pipa.pdf

Qualities to look out for when buying a Pipa

You can go to any trusted music shops to buy a Pipa. Just ask the promoter if you do not know what qualities to look out for in a Pipa.

The pitch range of a Pipa

The most common Pipa has a "pear-shaped " body with a short neck and a wooden
belly. There are typically 6 "ledges" on the neck of the instrument and between 19 to 26
bamboo frets on the belly, producing a wide range of possible pitches. The strings are either
steel-wire or silk and the most common tuning is A, D, F, A. With the PIPA held vertically
in the lap, the musician uses a variety of complicated playing techniques, some of which
include: fretted pitch-bends, tremolos, various double and triple, and a continuous strumming
of the strings with the four fingers.

Source: http://pgh-net.com/pipa/pipa.pdf

How a Pipa works

When using the Pipa, the best thing is that the left hand is 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 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 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.

Sound a Pipa produces

Click on this link to hear the sound produced by a Pipa:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KslV807X1Eg&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ephilmultic%2Ecom%2Fpipa%2Ehtml&feature=player_embedded

Picture of a Pipa

Source: http://www.digischool.nl/mu/leerlingen/mt/instrumenten/plaatjes/pipa1.gif

Introduction: Pipa

The pipa is a four-stringed Chinese instrument, belonging to the plucked category of instruments. This instrument has a pear-shaped wooden body with a varying number of frets ranging from 12-26. The pipa appeared in the Qin Dynasty and was further developed by the Han Dynasty. This instrument is one of the famous instruments that was played for nearly two thousand years in China. Some of the related instruments in East and Southeast Asia were deprived from the pipa. Japanese biwa, the Vietnamese and the Korean bipa are some examples of them.

Sources (:

~ http://www.philmultic.com/guzheng/
~ http://www.chinesezither.net/Tips.html

Examples of Guzheng music pieces

~ Chanting of Tiema
~ Song from a fishing boat during sunset etc.

Historical background of the Guzheng

The Guzheng 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.

Qualities to look out for when buying a Guzheng

1. Sound board. The sound board of a guzheng should be made of paulownia that has been air dried for at least a year. Air-dried or oven-dried sound boards retain the natural color of wood, usually in light golden color or brown color. Do not select any guzheng that has dark sound board looks like a piece of charcoal. The dark sound boards are flame dried using a fire gun directly flame on surface. Although flame drying speed up the drying process from 1 year to 1 day, but it also fatally destroys the wood piece. We've seen charcoal boards crack or change shape in a short period of time. Furthermore, the "wood sound" of a wood instrument is gone. A guzheng should sound rich with warm wood tone, but the flame-dried board guzhengs only sound metallic.Ideally, a quartersawn-cut sound board will be most stable for an instrument. However, paulownia wood generally is not big enough to make a quarter-sawn cut for 21-stringed guzheng. Therefore, the maker uses the most central part of a flatsawn piece instead. According to Guzheng Father Master Xu Zhen-Gao: "the central part (of a flatsawn) is considered the most stable piece". The best piece of guzheng sound board should have straight and even wood grains, with tighter grains in the high range and looser grains in the low range. To achieve this perfect sounding board, some makers also use combined-quartersawn piece to obtain an even wood grains. Please contact us for a custom-made quartersawn guzheng.

2. Bottom board. The bottom board is as important as the sound board. A good quality bottom board should use a single piece of paulownia. However, to lower the cost, the makers use plywood instead of real paulownia. So, if the guzheng is painted dark at the bottom, you know that's probably using plywood instead of using real paulownia. The sound quality of a plywood one is not as clear when comparing to a paulownia one, but the price is only one-third as much.

3. Frames. The frame of a guzheng is made of hard wood such as zitan sandalwood, nanmu, rosewood or ebony. The effects of a good frame doesn't really add a lot to the sound quality of guzheng, but it adds a difference to the tone. Zitan purple sandalwood is considered to have clear and pure tone, old rosewood is considered to have thick and sweet tone, while nanmu is considered to have deep tone. However since a guzheng with an expensive frame usually means higher price in the market, the makers spend more efforts in selecting a good paulownia piece and better bridges and strings for it. The main board of a guzheng with high priced frame generally is better in quality and is hand cut by experienced craftsman, while others are just cut by machine or junior craftsman.

The pitch range of a Guzheng

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.

How a Guzheng works

The 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.

Sound produced by the Guzheng instument

Please click on this link to hear the sound the Guzheng produces: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh98zIvyUd8

Picture of Guzheng instrument

http://learning.sohu.com/training/music/guzhen/guzheng.jpg

Chinese Instrument: Guzheng - introduction

The Zheng is commonly known as the Guzheng. The Guzheng 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, the 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.

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Sources

~ http://www.musicmall-asia.com/malaysia/instruments/Erhu/
~ http://www.philmultic.com/home/instruments/erhu.html
~ http://www.shef.ac.uk/music/staff/js/AbErhu.html
~ http://www.shef.ac.uk/music/staff/js/AbErMus.html

Examples of music pieces of the Erhu

1) The Moon Reflected on the Second Springs
2) Cold Spring Wind
3) Listening to the Pines etc.

Historical background of an Erhu

The rise of bowed string instruments in China may have begun around the mid-8th century, the date of the first records of lute-form instruments scraped with a bamboo strip rather than bowed with horsehair. The most prominent variety of this early instrument was the xiqin, an instrument associated with the northern Xi people, many of whom migrated to central northern China at this time. One form of xiqin is illustrated in Chen Yang's music enyclopedia completed in 1105. The lower end of a neck of bamboo is set into a squat tubular resonator, which is covered with a wooden soundboard. Attached to the frontal tuning pegs were two strings, which, according to Chen's description, were sounded by a bamboo slip. Chen noted that the xiqin was already popular among the Han Chinese as well as the Xi, and it appears to have become a fashionable entertainment instrument, subsequently introduced to both Korea and Japan.

Qualities to look out for while buying an Erhu

When we Chinese want to have a new Erhu, we first look at the wood material it is made of, and it is sure that those made of ebony sandalwood is the best, then it comes the aged redwood, those of white wood are for students only.Also the snakeskin plays an important role in sound quality, but it is absolutely diffficult for a beginner to figure out if the skin is good or not.Another thing the buyer should pay attention to is where the erhu is made, I mean those made in South China would adapt to the so-called tropical whether condition much more easily than those from North China.

Author: Brian Hsie
Source: http://www.asiawind.com/forums/read.php?f=2&i=4868&t=4868&v=f

The pitch range of an Erhu

The Erhu pitch range is up to four octaves in its most common tuning. It has 2 strings, on which is usually tuned D and the other A, a perfect fifth apart. Where volume is concerned, it cannot match the violin, yet it is a more flexible instrument. With only 2 strings, erhu virtuosi can yet play even the most complex violin pieces.

How an Erhu works

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.

SOUND of an Erhu (Chinese violin or fiddle)

Please click on the link to hear the sound the Erhu produces: http://www.geocities.com/risheng99/instruments/erhu_sound.html

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.

Picture of an Erhu (Chinese violin or fiddle)

Erhu - Chinese violin or fiddle introduction

Erhu is a kind of violin or fiddle that consists of two strings. The Erhu belongs to the "huqin" family. The huqin family consists of the zhonghu, gaohu, sihu etc. The origin of the Erhu is from the Tang dynasty (618-907). During the Dynasties of 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 "school". Two famous artists Hua Yanjun (1893-1950) and Liu Tianhua (1895-1932) made a great contribution to the improvement of the Erhu. It was indeed due to the latter that the Erhu, an instrument mainly for the background music 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 and 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 concerts with symphony orchestra. The Erhu is now one of the most popular instruments in China.

Chinese ethnic instruments > Erhu - Chinese violin

Monday, May 25, 2009