Angela O.

Denila

VIII-St. Anthony

String instruments from China

I. The Plucked String Instruments
1. The Lute family
o

Pipa (pi-pa or p'i-p'a) - four-stringed lute with 30

frets and pear-shaped body. The instrumentalist
holds the pipa upright and play with five small
plectra attached to each finger of the right hand. The
pipa history can be dated back at least 2000 years
and developed from pentatonic to full scales. This
instrument has extremely wide dynamic range and
remarkable expressive power.

o 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.
o Sanxian - A long necked lute with three strings without frets. In Chinese,
"san" and "xian" stands for " "three" and "strings", respectively. The soundbody is made of round wooden box covered with snake skin, just like erhu. A
piece of plectrum is used to play the instrument. This instrument is often used
for accompanying folk songs and local opera. The sanxian is most popular in
the north.
o Ruan - commonly referred to as "Chinese guitar", is an 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
instrument through the "silk-road" around 5th century, a new type of "pipa"
with pear-shaped body and bent neck has been gradually developed into the
present form since the Tang Dynasty (618-917AD), and the name pipa, which
used to be a generic term for all pluck string lutes, has been specifically given
to this newly-developed version, whereas the old form of pipa with straightneck and round body got the name "Ruan", after the name of the grand
master of this instrument, Ruan Xian who was one of the seven great scholars
known as "Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove" in Chinese history of the 3rd
century (the Six Dynasties). They were truely good friends and did spend
much time together in arts and wine during one of the darkest periods in
Chinese history. 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 a 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.

o Yueqin-nmoon-shaped lute with shorter neck and four

strings, played with a spectrum, used for accompanying local
operas. "Yue" stands for "the moon" in Chinese.

2. The zither family

o Guqin - seven-stringed zither without bridges, the most classicalChinese
instrument with over 3000 years of history. The guqin is often referred to as
the instrument of sages for the purpose of enriching the heart and elevating
human spirit. Confucius (around 600 BC) was a master of this instrument. In
the Imperial China's past, well-educated people of the elite society were
expected to master the four arts, namely, the qin (guqin), qi (weiqi, which has
somehow been known as "Go" in the West according Japanese pronuciation),
shu (Calligraphy), and hua (painting). Being on top of the four traditional arts,
the guqin has historically been regarded as one of the most important
symbols of Chinese high culture. Unfortunately only small number of people in
China could play the instrument, because classical musical education of this
kind has never reached general public. Fortunately, the situation has much
been improved in recent decades, there have been a growing number of guqin
players both in and outside China. Since november 2003, Guqin has been
registered as one of the master pieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of
the humanity by UNESCO Zheng
or Guzheng Chinese
zither
with
movable
bridges and 16 - 25 strings. In the same family there are
the
Japanese koto,
the
Vietnamese dan
tranh, the
Koreankayagum, and the Mongolian Yagta
3. The harp family
o Konghou - One of the most ancient
Chinese
music
instruments
that
appeared in written texts of the Spring
and Autumn period (around 600 BC).
The structure of the Konghou looks
similar to the harp, however, with its
the strings in the way similar
were the wo-konghou (horizontal
konghou
(vertical
konghou)
and
konghou. Unfortunately not much of
instrument has been preserved. The
konghou started in the mid 50's. The
Today's konghou is a combination of
wo-konghou with the shape similar to
performing skill is diversified. Besides
techniques, the left hand can play
glissandos, etc. The tone quality is
graceful and has a typical Chinese flavour.

bridges spanning
toguzheng. There
konghou),
suphoenix-head
this
ancient
reproduction of the
structure
of
su-konghou
and
harp.
The
right-hand
vibratos,
mellow
and

II. The Bowed String Instruments:

The huqin family

Erhuor Er-Hu, a two-stringed fiddle, is one of the most popular Chinese

instruments in the Hu-qin family, where Hu stands for "foreign" or "the northern
folk" in Chinese, and "qin" is a general name for all kinds of string instruments.
(Zhong-Hu : If we call the "Erhu" Chinese violin, the Zhong-Hu is then the Chinese
viola, where "Zhong" stands for "middle", thus the abbreviated name for the midpitched Erhu. It was developed on the basis of Erhu in the 1940s. Both the structure
and performing skill of these two kinds of Hu-Qin are quite the same, yet Zhong-Hu
has a deeper-sounding timbre but not as agile. Being more suitable for singing
melodies (particularly some Mongolian melodies), Zhong-Hu is thus often used as
tutti or accompanying instruments, sometimes for solo too. Jing-Hu : Principally used
as accompanying instrument for Beijing Opera, Jing-Hu is another important twostringed fiddle in the Huqin family. It was developed in Qin dynasty ( around 1790 ),
which is often called the Hu-Qin. The pitch of Jing-Hu is the highest among all
instruments of the Hu-Qin family. Due to its forceful and clarion timbre, Jing-Hu is
suitable almost exclusively for Beijing opera.

Ban-Hu : Ban-Hu has many other names such as Pang-Hu, Qin-Hu, HuHu and Da-Xian, etc. It is the leading accompanying instrument for BangZi and other northern tunes or ballads, particularly for the local operas in
Henan Province, central China. Similar to Jing-Hu, the timbre of Ban-Hu is
clarion and bright, which makes it hard to join other
instruments for tutti. Therefore it's usually for solo,
especially for presenting joyful and passionate moods.

Gao-Hu also called High-pitched Erhu or Yue-Hu, is

especially designed for playing Cantonese folk melodies
and operas. Gao-Hu is often used for performing vivid
and brisk rhythms, particularly for higher-pitched tunes that Erhu
cannot play. In comparison with Erhu, Gao-Hu has louder volume yet
brighter tones, and thus it servers both as solo and leading
instrument
in
performing
Cantonese
operas
and
folk
melodiesYehu (two stringed bowed instrument similar to erhu,
however, with a coconut sound body where Ye means coconut. It is
found mostly in South China and Taiwan.

Sihu : four stringed huqin used for accompanying local opera, most
commonly found in the North, such as Sanxi, Shanxi and
Neimonggu. It is one of the three leading instruments (together with dizi, yangqin)
in "Er Ren Tai" of Neimonggu (Inner Mongolia). "Si" stands for "four" in Chinese. The
structure is similar to Erhu except it has four strings. The horse-hair of the bow is
divided into two group that go between the four strings.

Zhuihu also known as Zhuiqin, is one of the most popular instruments in Henan and
Shandong Provinces, used for local opera and story-telling. The instrument was
invented toward the end of Qing Dynasty (1644 to 1912) based on the pluck string
Sanxian and bowed string erhu. The striking difference from Erhu is that Zhuihu
has a fretless fingerboard similar to Sanxian. The use of the bow is similar to that of
erhu. Basically the instrument is derived from a smaller version of Sanxian
performed with a bow, producing beautiful sounds with a strong local flavour,
capable of imitating a lot of natural sounds such as birds and horse etc. The playing
methods adapt the left hand techniques for the Sanxian and the bow techniques of
erhu. The Zhuihu is one of the most beautiful instruments of the huqin family, which
has become very popular soon after its invention in Henan and Shandong.

Leiqin is derived dirrectly from Zhuihu with few small modifications when the
instrument was introduced to Guangdong Province. The playing method is the same
as Zhuihu.

Morin Khur (The Morin Khur or horse-headed violin is a typical Mongolian bowed
instrument with two strings, however, very different from Er-Hu. The horse hair of
the bow doesn't go between the two strings, instead, the instrument and the way of
playing is more similar to cello than to erhu. The instrument was originally made
from a horse head for the body, horse skin for the resonator, and horse hair for the
strings and bow. The music played upon this instrument is of great variety and
virtuosity. Much of the music typically sounds like human voice, and can imitate a
horse to such an extent as real such as galloping horse, the whinnying, etc. The
modern Morin Khur has a wooden body and
soundboard, 2 horse hair strings, and has a rich
warm tone and very beautiful sound. The peghead is
decorated with a detailed carving of a horse's head.

III. Hammered string instruments

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

Note: In Chinese, most of the stringed instruments are called "qin" with few exceptions
that are named differently, for instance, pipa and erhuhowever, erhu is often called Huqin