and musical instruments during the Song (960-1279) and Yuan (1279-1368) dynasties
Chinese folk instrumental music has an ancient history. Since ancient times, instrumental music has been widely heard during holidays, wedding and funeral rites, at temple festivities, court ceremonies and celebrations. She received development in dance, vocal art, in the folk genre of skaz and singing. In the history of the development of instrumental music, the use of different sets of musical instruments, different compositions and performance styles contributed to the formation of different types of performance: solo, ensemble, orchestral and folk-orchestral collective performance. Folk instrumental music, now widespread in various regions of China, has developed over many centuries under the influence of regional characteristics and local customs, and therefore has colorful regional specifics. In addition, in different historical periods the same musical material could be performed differently. And there were all the possibilities for this - the traditional Chinese orchestra included about 100 types of musical instruments. The largest group, about 30 types, is stringed (plucked and bowed). Among plucked instruments, they were mainly used se, qin And pipa(4-string lute). Among the bowed ones (the general name of this group is xy) were the most common erhu, running dry, banhu, Jinhu etc. Most popular erhu- A 2-string instrument, it was used as a solo and orchestral instrument by professionals and amateurs. The wind group included: xiao(longitudinal flute) and paixiao(multi-barrel flute), which consisted of several bamboo tubes of various lengths and made it possible to obtain a very diverse diatonic scale; chi And di- transverse flutes; sona- an instrument with a double reed (a type of simplified oboe). Among the reed wind instruments - sheng, an instrument of very ancient origin. WITH sheng There were many legends and beliefs associated with it; its sound was considered similar to the voice of a fantastic phoenix bird. Among the drums - Yaogu(genus tambourine), bangu(single-sided snare drum), bozhong(a type of bell suspended on a crossbar), Bianzhong(kit Zhunov- bells forming a certain modal scale) (see).
From antiquity to the present day, many solo instrumental works have been created. However, historically there was no strict line between solo and ensemble works for folk musical instruments. In other words, both solo and ensemble performances of the same musical composition were allowed. Ensemble music was performed by two or more voices, with each voice performed by a separate musician.
Folk instrumental compositions are traditionally divided into two types - 单曲 danqu"song" and 套曲 taoqu"song cycle" A song is a separate standard melody, and a song cycle is several standard melodies or a combination of excerpts from several separate compositions. A traditional instrumental composition has a theme. Sometimes the theme indicates the content of the composition, and in other cases it is not directly related to the content of the melody.
Folk instrumental music is traditionally divided depending on the types of basic musical instruments used in performance into string and wind music ( Sizhu Yue丝竹乐), string music ( xianxo yue弦索乐), percussion and wind music ( Chuida Yue吹打乐) and percussion music ( Logu Yue锣鼓乐).
String-wind music is one of the forms of ensemble performance of folk instrumental music, which is formed by one or two main string and wind instruments, often in close combination with a number of other wind, string, and percussion instruments. String and wind music is characterized by subtlety of expression, softness, lightness and melody.
In string music, the main role is given to string instruments. It is distinguished by sophistication, grace and is more suitable for chamber performance.
Percussion and wind music is also a form of ensemble performance of folk instrumental music, in which wind and strings (or only wind) and percussion instruments are simultaneously used. This type of music is suitable for outdoor performance and perfectly conveys the spirit of celebrations, victories, and significant events.
Pure percussion music has a variety of colors, rhythm, is ideal for conveying violent and strong emotions and is often performed in the open air.
Although musical instruments from the Tang era (618–907) and the Five Dynasties (907–960) continued to be used in the Song and Yuan eras, on the one hand, the improvement of old instruments was continuous, and on the other, many new ones appeared. In addition, musical works continued to be written for old instruments, for example, for the lute pipa- a plucked string musical instrument (see), by this time the frets had already been broken ( ping品) both for ease of performance and for expanding and enriching the sound range of this ancient instrument with new colors. During the reign of the Yuan dynasty, contrary to the popular opinion about the purely destructive influence of the Mongols both on China as a whole and on the Chinese culture formed by previous centuries, new instrumental musical works for solo performance also continued to be created. For example, a well-known play was created for pipa: Haiqing on tian'e海青拿天鹅 (“Haiqing beats the swan”). The play describes how the brave golden eagle Haiqing fights a swan in the sky and defeats it. This piece of music eloquently reflects the main episodes of the life of the northern peoples of China in ancient times, for whom hunting was the main source of subsistence. Since those times, this work has been warmly loved by the common Chinese people, and, having passed through the times of the subsequent Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) eras, it has reached the present day.
It is to the era of the Mongol Yuan dynasty that the content contained in the section goes back Li Yue Zhi(“Notes on Ritual Music”) compositions Yuan shi("History of the Yuan Dynasty") the first mention of a bowed musical instrument called Huqin胡琴 (meaning erhu. - ON THE.): “Creates music like fire, the instrument itself has a dragon’s head, has two strings, a curved bow, and the strings and hair of the bow are made of horse tail” (7, p. 96). Later, during the Ming era, one of the officials named Yuzi (尤子) commissioned a painting called “Autumn State Banquet in the Unicorn Hall”, which depicts Huqin with a dragon's head, two strings made from a horse's tail, and very similar in shape to the modern erhu(cm. ). Much later, thanks to the existence of this particular painting, people learned what the previous one looked like. erhu Yuan era.
The fact is that in the Ming era, all the customs and morals of the Yuan dynasty, clothes, hairstyles, beards of foreign barbarians were persecuted, banned, everything was destroyed. It is natural that Huqin, being a musical instrument of Mongolian foreigners, fell into oblivion, they stopped playing it until the reign of the Qing dynasty, Emperor Qianlong (1736 - 1795), when Huqin became a member of the Peking Opera orchestra, became an indispensable and favorite instrument in palace music, without him, in fact, as without participation pipa Folk song and theater became unthinkable.
And these days erhu- one of the most popular musical instruments in China, used for solo playing, in ensembles, in ordinary orchestras, for accompaniment in musical drama and opera orchestras. Erhu Not only a professional instrument, it is also widely popular among amateurs in a wide variety of segments of the urban and rural population.
It is worth noting again that musical instruments that already existed in previous dynasties not only survived during the Song and Yuan dynasties, but also significantly expanded their scope. Such musical instruments as beat筚篥 or 觱篥 (bamboo horn), Dagu大鼓 (big drum with legs), Changgu杖鼓 (leather drum with bound body), castanets paiban拍板, transverse flute di笛, string instrument pipa琵琶, string instrument zheng 筝, fanxiang方响 (percussion instrument - frame with hanging copper plates), labial organ sheng笙, multi-barrel flute paixiao排箫, flute xiao箫 and pipe guan管, ancient lute zhuanxian阮咸, seven-string qin - qixianqin七弦琴, two-string bowed instrument jiqin嵇琴, etc. Of all this diversity, during Song times, the court music schools occupied a particularly important place beat, Dagu, Changgu, paiban, di, pipa, fanxiang And zheng.
Tool Changgu existed already in Tang times, it was like a “barrel (bucket) covered with varnish, blows were applied from both sides,” this was another name for a double-sided drum jiegu羯鼓 (probably borrowed from the people jie, ter. Prov. Shanxi). During the Song era Changgu had a “wide head and thin waist”, “they hit with a hand on the left, and with a stick on the right.” During Song times Changgu It was used not only for collective performance, but often also for solo performance. Or, for example, a wind musical instrument sheng- in Song times, three types were common: yusheng 竽笙, chaosheng巢笙 and simply sheng; at that time they all had 19 reeds - Juan簧. During the Song era, in the areas of modern Sichuan province, one more species appeared - fengsheng风笙, 36-reed (see).
Another example: during the Tang there was already a string instrument yazheng轧筝. During the Song era he changed the name to Yaqin轧琴, when playing it “...they used a bamboo board of a curved shape (similar to the right side of the hieroglyph 轧. - ON THE.) with a softened (润) end and “creaked” (轧) along the strings” (see). This is one of the types of stringed instruments, the strings of which were “rubbed” or “struck” (擦), it has survived to this day, later being transformed into a bow (with a horsehair bowstring), which was moved along the strings zheng(cm. ).
The names of new instruments began to appear in sources everywhere. For example, jiqin嵇琴 is also one of the bowed string instruments, it consists of two strings, the bow is pressed between the strings and music is played, jiqin is the predecessor of the family of musical instruments Huqin. It also has a name Xiqin. It was already in fashion during the Northern Song (960 - 1127). There is a story about this instrument. One day there was a ceremonial dinner (feast) in the palace, the music teacher of the court school, Xu Yan 徐衍, played the Jiqing, but during his performance one string on the instrument broke completely inappropriately. High-class musician Xu Yan did not stop the music to change the string, but continued to play on the one remaining string and thus ended his performance.
Instruments such as the three-string plucked instrument sanxian三弦, stands with a set of 13 gongs Yunao 云璈, hobuses火不思 or hunbuses浑不似 - four-stringed Mongolian lute, also xinglongsheng兴隆笙 ("inflatable sheng") - a reed musical instrument, a pipe with bellows - all of them also appeared during the Song and Yuan times. Yunao also called Yunaolo云璈锣, this is a series of small copper (bronze) gongs, built in order and suspended on a wooden shelf (frame, stand). Hobuses, or hunbuses, Also hubos胡拨四 is a plucked musical instrument brought from the western lands, it has four strings, a long neck, and pegs are located on one side of the neck.
Xinglongsheng- this is an early form of the Western organ (i.e., a keyboard-wind instrument), was brought to China during the reign of the late Song (1260 - 1264) from central Asia (as an offering to the current Muslim minority hui Yuan court, when the Yuan dynasty was not yet in power in China, see), was used in palaces during feasts. There are records of this in Yuan shi(“History of the Yuan Dynasty”). At that time, the Arabs had quite a wealth of knowledge about air and hydraulic pressure and applied these principles to the creation of the organ. In the Middle Ages they brought the organ to Europe. And on the basis of this organ brought by the Arabs, a modern keyboard organ was created in Europe, which became the father of European harmonic music. In China at that time there was no such scientific knowledge, and after xinglongsheng was introduced into China, it was used only to a limited extent at court. And although in the period from 1314 to 1321 10 types of palace palaces were created on its basis shens (dianting sheng殿庭笙), after this no noticeable progress was noticed in the development of this type of instrument, and at the end of the Yuan they completely disappeared from the imperial palace (see). We were unable to find images of this instrument, but in Yuan shi a brief description of it is given: “ Xinglongsheng, an instrument for [playing] music at ceremonial dinners, made of mahila wood ( will hire楠木), the shape is like an open [at right angle] book, the surface is flat and the edge is pointed at the top...” On this flat surface, as if on a screen facing the auditorium, various images were cut out: medlar, pheasants, bamboo, clouds, a miraculous face Buddha (宝相); the back wall was divided into three parts, the middle third was empty, like the hollowness of the gourd from which it was made sheng. There were also vertically arranged bamboo tubes of various sizes. Below there was a place for the musician to sit. Three people were involved in performing the music: one worked as a blower, another played the music directly on the keys, and the third moved the valves, like on a modern organ. The audience, listening to the music, looked at the screen and the images carved on it (see).
During the Southern Song (1127 - 1279) in brothels or gambling houses ( wazi goulan瓦子勾栏) quiet, gentle music was played ( Xiyue细乐) performed collectively on the flute xiao箫 and pipe guan管, labial organ Shene 笙, Jiqing, Fanxians方响 and other instruments; sometimes “pure, transparent” music (清乐) was performed together on Shene, transverse flute di笛, bamboo horn beat筚篥 (or 觱篥), Fanxians, small drum xiaotigu小提鼓, castanets paiban拍板 and other instruments; sometimes one or two instruments were taken, such as jiqin And xiao(or guan), and to their double rhythm together with playing an ancient lute zhuanxian阮咸 music of “small instruments” was performed ( xiaoyueqi小乐器), etc. Sometimes castanets were also used paiban, drums gu and flute di and to the accompaniment of these instruments, where the main ones were percussion, storytellers on the streets of cities performed stories, and the important place of the story was emphasized with the blows of castanets; such groups of artists usually consisted of three to five people (see).
The palace orchestras were played mainly by court musicians, as well as military (camping) musicians. There were quite a lot of them, and, accordingly, there were many types of musical instruments. For example, during the Northern Song, court musicians used the following instruments: bamboo horn beat, flute lundi龙笛, labial organ sheng, pipe xiao, ocarina Xun(or xuan), cross bamboo flute with 7-8 holes chi篪, string instrument pipa, zither kunhou, percussion instrument fanxiang, castanets paiban, leather drum with re-strung body Changgu, big drum with legs Dagu, double-sided drum jiegu, 13 species in total; among them the orchestra included 50 musicians with pipa, 10 musicians with paiban, 200 musicians with Changgu. Therefore, the entire orchestra as a whole consisted of a very significant number of musicians and instruments (see).
To summarize, we can say that the development of music and musical instruments in China during the Song and Yuan times was very active and fruitful, and became a huge contribution to the musical culture of not only China, but also to the treasury of world musical culture as a whole. Undoubtedly, this topic requires further detailed research.
Literature
1. Ageeva N.Yu. On the foreign origin of some stringed musical instruments of China // Materials of the XXXVIII Scientific. conf. Society and state in China. M., 2008.
2. Alender I.Z. Musical instruments of China. M., 1958.
3. Large Chinese-Russian dictionary. Ed. THEM. Oshanina. M., 1983-1984. T. 1-4.
4. Musical encyclopedia (electronic version). Section “Chinese Music”, authors Vinogradova T.I., Zhelohovtsev A.N. M., 2006.
5. Zhongguo diwan pu (Genealogy of Chinese emperors). Tianjin, 2003.
6. Zhongguo yinyue tongshi jianbian (Brief history of Chinese music). Jinan, 1999.
7. Zhongguo Yinyue Qidian (Dictionary of Chinese music). Beijing, 1984.
8. Zhongguo yinyue shi (History of Chinese music). Ed. Qin Xu. Beijing, 2001.
9. Yuan shi (History of the Yuan Dynasty) (electronic version).
Art. publ.: Society and state in China: XXXIX scientific conference / Institute of Oriental Studies RAS. - M.: Vost. lit., 2009. - 502 pp. - Scientific notes of the China Department of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Vol. 1. pp. 390-396.
Chinese traditional music, like all Chinese culture, is several thousand years old. Due to the country's isolation from Europe, the instruments of the Celestial Empire are distinguished by their unique flavor for the West. They (together with all national music) absorbed elements of the music of the Tibetans, Uighurs, Manchus, Mongols, etc.
Bianzhong bells
Traditionally, Chinese musical instruments are divided into several types according to the material from which they are made: bamboo, silk, wood, metal, stone, gourd, clay and leather. Many of them are extremely exotic, and some were forgotten during a long cultural evolution. For example, a significant rethinking of the playing technique occurred after the creation of a single empire, when local regional characteristics were reduced to a single standard.
A variety of Chinese cultures have been shaped by ritual and religion. These were also the bells. They were significantly different from European ones. The first Chinese bells were called bianzhong. They replaced the Indian type of round instruments along with the spread of Buddhism throughout the Celestial Empire. Bianzhong were so popular that they appeared in neighboring Korea and even in overseas Japan.
Drums
In addition to large bells, smaller models or slightly different devices also appeared in China. These include dyangu. This Chinese drum is a flat drum that also looks like a tambourine. It comes with special beaters. Together with Diangu they often play paiban firecrackers. They are made in the form of plates suspended in one bundle.
Xiangjiaogu is a Chinese type of timpani. Its body is made of wood and mounted on a special cylindrical stand. The design served as the source of the name of the instrument. Xiangjiaogu can be translated as "elephant's foot." Usually this instrument is used solo. To play, it is installed slightly tilted - this makes it more convenient for the musician to hit it with his fingers and palms.
Brass
According to the international classification, Chinese have Western analogues. For example, traditional di in its structure resembles Its trunk is made of reed or bamboo. Rarer models are made from stone, such as jade.
Another Chinese wind instrument, the sheng, is similar to the harmonica. Researchers consider it one of the oldest in its class. Sheng consists of pipes, reed and mouthpiece. His music is very varied, for which he is loved by performers not only from China. Sheng is often used in orchestras specifically to enrich the sound and change the timbre.
Strings
The erhu instrument is considered a Chinese violin. Vibrato is used to play it. Another type of violin is the huqin. It appeared in the middle of the 8th century and gained widespread popularity throughout the Celestial Empire. A subtype of Huqin is Jinghu. Since it originated with Peking Opera, it is often called "Beijing violin".
Every Chinese stringed musical instrument in ancient times was made with silk strings. And only in the 20th century, by analogy with Western practice, they began to be replaced with steel and nylon.
The seven-string Chinese variation of the zither is called "qixianqin". It is distinguished by an oblong body one meter long and 20 centimeters wide. Qixianqin is considered one of the most ancient national musical instruments. It began to be actively used already in the 3rd century BC.
Plucked
Traditional Chinese musical instruments were used in the performance of Sizhu folk ensembles. These include the plucked sansian (or xianzi). It also became widespread when performing songs and dances. The Sanxian has much in common with the similar Central Asian instruments setar and tanbur. Some researchers believe that it appeared after the Mongol invasion of China.
The similar Japanese instrument shamisen comes from the sanxian. Traditionally, it was most common in northern China. Its soundboard was often covered with snakeskin. Other characteristic features of the Sanxian are the long neck and the absence of frets on the tuning pegs holder. Another representative of the plucked fish is guzheng. It has from 21 to 25 strings. Some players use plectrums, similar to guitar picks, when playing the guzheng.
Other tools
Some Chinese musical instruments have become historical artifacts. These include zhu. This five-string instrument featured an elongated long soundboard. Most of all it resembled a cymbal and a zither. The peak of zhu's popularity occurred during the Warring States period in the 5th - 3rd centuries. BC e. It finally disappeared around the 10th century during the Song Empire.
Pipa is a Chinese lute belonging to the plucked type. Its body is pear-shaped. When playing the pipa, musicians must sit and use a plectrum. This instrument has gained widespread popularity in China due to its versatility. It was and is used in orchestras, ensembles and solos. Pipa appeared in the 3rd century. Around the 8th century, it was adopted by the Japanese, who called it biwa.
The string yangqin is considered to be a Chinese version of the dulcimer. It is also similar to the Persian santur and dulcimer. It is most often associated with Chinese opera, where it is played for accompaniment. Yangqin is made of wood, giving its body a trapezoid shape. Bamboo beaters are used to heal sound.
Chinese music is the art of ancient Chinese civilization, rooted in the culture of the 2nd-1st millennium BC. The origins of Chinese traditional music are tribal songs and dances, ritual forms of ritual art. Chinese musical instruments, like the music itself, are fundamentally different from any other music of any country.
The music of China dates back several thousand years of its development. She was influenced by the musical traditions of the Middle East, Central and South Asia, Southeast Asia. It absorbed elements of the music of the peoples that were part of the Chinese state (Uighurs, Tibetans, Mongols, Jurchens, Manchus, etc.), and in turn had a significant influence on the music of Korea, Japan, some peoples of Southeast Asia and the Pacific basin ocean. Since ancient times, Chinese music has developed under the influence of religious and philosophical-ideological doctrines.
The beginning of the history of Chinese music is considered to be its appearance in the 6th century. BC e. “Books of Songs” - “Shits-zin”, although the musical notes in it have not been preserved. Confucius is credited with compiling the collection.
It included hymns and folk songs, mostly common in northern China. The collection also mentions more than 25 musical instruments. Among them are plucked strings - qin, se; wind instruments - yua, di, sheng, guan, percussion instrument zhong and others.
Wind instruments - xiao, flute and pipe-sona
Bowed strings – erhu, jinhu and banhu
Plucked strings – guzheng, gujin, pipa
The gujin is the oldest Chinese string instrument, with a history dating back more than 3,000 years.
Percussion musical instruments - gongs and drums
During the period X-VII centuries. BC e. songs with broad life content began to gradually separate from dances, turning from the 6th century. BC e. in self-art. With the development of Confucianism in China, which generally met the interests of the ruling aristocracy, starting from the 5th century. BC e. music takes on new social significance. It reflects the main categories of Confucian doctrine: ritual - li and humanity - ren.
According to Confucius, music is a microcosm as the embodiment of the great cosmos. Confucius argued that beautiful music promotes government because it has a perfect structure. Many elements of Chinese music were symbolic in nature, due to ancient natural philosophy. But at the same time, the musical system was strictly defined, and any violations in it could lead, according to the beliefs of the ancient Chinese, to various disasters.
- “Spring sun and white snow”,
- "Hundreds of birds worship the phoenix"
These melodies can still be heard in China and abroad. Some of them received awards at international performing competitions.
The Chinese love their national music for its originality and uniqueness. Almost every region in China has an orchestra of national instruments, some of which are homemade. These orchestras are often invited to tour abroad. In recent years The State Orchestra of National Instruments is invited to perform in Vienna for the Spring Festival.
Contemporary Chinese music
Modern Chinese music is developing in the same way as the music of other countries: chanson, pop, rock, rap. etc. Asia has always attracted people, especially China. However, it is no secret that in our country Chinese music is almost never heard. Almost no one knows that modern Chinese music is not Peking Opera, but normal catchy, cool, beautiful music that fascinates. You can listen to modern Chinese music in our VKontakte group -
The peoples of the East call music what we call noise.
Berlioz.
I studied at a music school in Russia for 8 years and my love for musical instruments never left me. Chinese musical instruments are very diverse and sound very interesting. First, start by watching the Chinese Symphony Orchestra play Katy Perry's "Roar." She (Katie), by the way, burst into tears.
Now we can talk about tools.
Chinese instruments can be divided into string, wind, plucked and percussion instruments.
Erhu
So let's start with the strings. Most have 2-4 strings. The most famous are erhu, zhonghu, jinghu, banhu, gaohu, matouqin (Mongolian violin) and dahu. The most famous wind instrument is the erhu, which has only 2 strings. You can hear the erhu right on the streets; beggars on the streets often play this instrument.
Sheng
Wind instruments are mainly made of bamboo. The most popular: di, sona, guanzi, sheng, hulus, xiao and xun. You can really take a walk here. The Sheng, for example, is a very interesting instrument that has 36 bamboo and reed pipes, it fits very well with other instruments. One of the oldest is the xun, a clay whistle that can be bought in many souvenir shops. The sona can imitate birds and the instrument became popular in the 16th century. The di flute attracts attention due to its pleasant sound and has only 6 holes. Xiao and di are one of the oldest instruments, they appeared 3000 years ago.
Guzheng
Perhaps the Chinese plucked instruments are the most famous. Pipa, sanxian, zhuan, yueqin, dombra, guqin, guzheng, kunhou, zhu. My favorite instrument - the guqin - has 7 strings, the guqin has its own musical notation system, so a huge number of musical works have been preserved, I even tried to play it, it’s not difficult, it just requires training, like any other instrument, but it’s definitely easier than piano. The guzheng is a bit similar in appearance to the guqing, but it has 18 to 20 strings.
And finally pipa- a lute-like instrument with only 4 strings - a borrowed instrument from Mesopotamia, was very popular in the eastern Han.
And the drums - dagu, paigu, shougu, tungu, bo, muyu, yunlo, xiangjiaogu. Usually they are made of copper, wood or leather.
All Chinese instruments also correspond to the seasons and cardinal points:
Drum- winter, the drum also announced the beginning of the war.
Spring– all tools made from bamboo.
Summer– instruments with silk strings.
Autumn- tools made of metal.
Chinese musical instruments are very independent, which is why the Chinese love solos, although, of course, orchestras exist. However, the solo is more popular, but this is not surprising, the sounds of Chinese instruments are a bit shrill, so the combination of the two does not always sound beautiful. They are characterized by harsh timbres, especially in opera.
A large number of musical instruments are of foreign origin. The oldest dates back 8,000 years. According to various sources, there used to be about 1000 instruments, but, unfortunately, only half have reached us.
Oddly enough, Chinese traditional musical instruments go well with fighting. In many famous Chinese films, the main characters fight to the sound of the guzheng or guqing. For example, in the film “Showdown in Kung Fu Style.”
Chinese instruments were multifunctional - they served as labor tools, musical instruments, and even a means of transmitting information (for example, a gong or a drum). In Chinese culture, music has always occupied an important place. Since the Han era, music has flourished as it has become an official part of Confucian ceremonies.
I would also like to say that musical instruments are divided into 8 categories:
metal, stone, string, bamboo, gourd, clay, leather and wood instruments.
musical folk balalaika
The history of Chinese folk musical instruments goes back several thousand years. Archaeological excavations indicate that more than 2000 years ago, and possibly earlier, various musical instruments were already in use in China. For example, as a result of excavations in the village of Hemudu, Zhejiang province, bone whistles from the Neolithic period were recovered, and in the village of Banpo, Xi'an, a “xun” (a wind instrument made of baked clay) belonging to the Yangshao culture was discovered. In the Yin Ruins, located in Anyang, Henan Province, a “shiqing” (stone gong) and a drum covered with python skin were found. From the tomb of the imperial dignitary Zeng (buried in 433 BC), opened in Suixiang County, Hubei Province, a “xiao” (longitudinal flute), a “sheng” (labial organ), and a “se” (25-string horizontal flute) were recovered. harp), bells, "bianqing" (stone gong), various drums and other instruments.
Ancient musical instruments, as a rule, had a dual use - practical and artistic. Musical instruments were used as tools or household utensils and at the same time for performing music. For example, "shiqing" (stone gong) may have originated from some kind of disc-shaped tool. Additionally, some ancient instruments were used as a means to convey certain information. For example, beating the drums served as a signal to set off on a campaign, beating the gong to signal a retreat, night drums to beat off the night guards, etc. A number of national minorities still have a tradition of expressing love by playing melodies on wind and string instruments.
The development of musical instruments is closely related to the development of social productive forces. The transition from the manufacture of stone gongs to metal gongs and the manufacture of metal bells became possible only after man mastered the technology of metal smelting. Thanks to the invention and development of sericulture and silk weaving, it became possible to make stringed instruments such as the qin (Chinese zither) and the zheng (an ancient plucked musical instrument with 13-16 strings).
The Chinese people have always been distinguished by their ability to borrow useful things from other peoples. Since the Han Dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD), many musical instruments have been introduced into China from other countries. During the Han Dynasty, the flute and shukunhou (vertical zither) were imported from the western regions, and in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), dulcimers and sona (Chinese clarinet). These instruments, which became more and more perfect in the hands of masters, gradually began to play an important role in the orchestra of Chinese folk music. It is worth noting that in the history of the development of Chinese folk musical instruments, string instruments appeared much later than percussion, wind and plucked instruments.
According to historical records, the string instrument, the sounds from which were extracted using a bamboo plectrum, appeared only in the Tang Dynasty (618-907), and the stringed instrument, the bow of which was made from a horse's tail, appeared in the Song Dynasty (960). -1279). Beginning with the Yuan Dynasty (1206-1368), other stringed instruments were invented on this basis.
After the founding of new China in the middle of the last century, musical figures carried out large-scale work and reform to eliminate a number of shortcomings of folk instruments, manifested in impurity of sound, fragmentation of tuning, imbalance of sound, difficult modulation, unequal pitch standards for various instruments, lack of middle and low instruments register. Musicians have made significant progress in this direction.
Guan
Guan is a Chinese reed wind instrument (Chinese ЉЗ), genus Oboe. A cylindrical barrel with 8 or 9 playing holes is made of wood, less often of reed or bamboo. A double reed cane, tied with wire at the narrow part, is inserted into the guan channel. Tin or copper rings are placed on both ends of the instrument, and sometimes between the playing holes. The total length of the guan ranges from 200 to 450 mm; the largest ones have a brass bell. The scale of modern guan is chromatic, range es1-a3 (large guan) or as1 - c4 (small guan). Used in ensembles, orchestras and solos.
In China, guan is widely distributed in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China. In the south, in Guangdong it is also known as houguan (Chinese: ЌAЉЗ). The traditional Chinese name for this instrument is bili (Chinese ?кј) (it was in this form (vIvG in traditional spelling) that it passed into the Korean and Japanese languages).
Banhu
Banhu is a Chinese stringed musical instrument, a type of huqin.
The traditional banhu was used primarily as an accompanying instrument in northern Chinese musical drama, northern and southern Chinese operas, or as a solo instrument and in ensembles.
In the 20th century, the banhu began to be used as an orchestral instrument.
There are three types of banhu - high, middle and low registers. The most common banhu is the high register.
