The guiqin is a Chinese zither with seven strings. In the contemporary versions of the liuqin, the musical instrument’s maker uses tong wood as its front wood and red sandalwood for its reverse side.
Historically, this instrument was made out of willow wood, while professionals prefer to use sandalwood. Unlike the Pipa, the liuquin sounds like a mandolin and is often accompany instruments for local opera or folk music. It somehow resembles the pipa instrument, although it was smaller in size. Liuqin is another Chinese stringed instrument with four strings. There are various names in which the liuqin is known, including the names liuyeqin or tu pipa (unrefined Pipa). In fact, its sound was described as ‘sudden splatters of rain,’ or ‘like a hum of a lover’s whisper’ in a poem written by Bay Yuji of the Tang Dynasty. When playing the Pipa, the performer usually held the instrument upright and played with five plectra or picks attached to each finger of the right hand.Its tune was arranged from highest to lowest, with string number one being the highest and string number four as the lowest. It also has an extremely wide dynamic range and an incredibly expressive sound. It dated back from about 2000 years ago and was developed from pentatonic to full-scale instrument. Pipa is a Chinese four-stringed lute that has a pear-shaped body and thirty frets. Below is the list of Chinese stringed instruments that produce poignant yet beautiful melodies. These stringed instruments originated in different regions of China, and throughout the years, these instruments were modified. Some of these instruments were the Pipa, luiqin, and guzheng. In a Chinese orchestra today, if the tune requires a higher pitch from a huqin, the composer will assign the parts to the gaohu and similarly parts with a lower pitch to the zhonghu.There are various musical instruments that were popular in China back then.
#Chinese stringed instrument sound samples skin#
Since the time when it was first played, the huqin has developed and expanded into other variations such as the synthetic skin erhu, jing erhu, jinghu, yuehu, sihu, banhu and yehu. The erhu was originally an ensemble instrument, but has since developed advanced playing techniques and gained an extensive repertoire. With the emergence of classic erhu solo tunes by Ah Bing and Liu Tian Hua, the erhu gradually became the most iconic and representative of huqins. The erhu is part of the huqin family, and it was only during the early part of 1900s that the erhu became developed and standardized. The erhu does not have a fingerboard, which makes it more difficult to control the pitch, but at the same time allows for more dramatic expressions as well as a richer palette of tone colours. Rosin is applied on the erhu bow and movement of the bow hair against the erhu strings produces the different sounds, through the different actions. The erhu bow is made of bamboo and horsetail hair, though recently they like to dye the bamboo black. The erhu is played with the bow lodged between its two strings. The erhu has a soundbox (琴筒), a stem that goes through the soundbox (琴杆), tuning pegs (琴轴), strings (琴弦), qianjin (千斤), a bridge (琴马) and a bow (弓).
The erhu is termed er (second) hu (fiddle) not because it has 2 strings, but because it takes the secondary role to other instruments such as the banhu in Northern music, the jinghu in Peking opera, the gaohu in Cantonese music etc. Besides traditional erhu pieces, it is also able to play violin sonantas and concertos. Its playing technique is very versatile, capable of playing happy chirpy tunes, as well as producing the most sorrowful sounds. The erhu is definitely the leader of the huqins in the Chinese orchestra.
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