CHINESE TWO STRINGED INSTRUMENT SERIES

She replayed many classical erhu compositions such as Er Quan Ying Yueand injects her own style in it. She began to learn erhu playing when she was seven from her father, who was also an excellent erhu player, and became famous when she was a teenager. Song Fei (宋飞) (born 1969) is an outstanding erhu musician in modern times and once performed in Carnegie Hall and Golden Concert Hall. It is seldom that people were not moved after hearing the melancholic tune. The composition Er Quan Ying Yue (二泉映月 èr quán yìng yuè, Moon Reflected on Second Spring) is one of the most famous erhu music in China. He can play many Chinese traditional musical instruments when he was young. The second character (胡, hú) indicates that it is a member of the Huqin family. An alternate explanation comes from the fact that erhu is the huqin that produces the second highest pitch relative to the gaohu in the modern Chinese orchestra. The first Chinese character of the name of the instrument ( 二, èr, two) is believed to come from the fact that it has two strings. The instrument was named Erhu only in recent times.

For example, now we have banhu, jinghu, gaohu, yehu and sihu etc, and erhu being the most popular and well-known in the huqin family of instruments.

CHINESE TWO STRINGED INSTRUMENT SERIES

‘Hu’ meaning ‘foreign’ and ‘Qin’ referring to ‘string instrument’, the Huqin has its root in the Xiqin which originated from the Mongolian Xi Tribe.Īfter centuries of development, a series of similar bowed stringed instruments derived from Huqin surfaced in the market, in order to meet the high demand of bowed stringed instruments used for music accompaniment in local opera shows and dramas. Huqin was introduced to the Han nationality during the Tang Dynasty (A.D.618-907).

It is a very expressive instrument and often used as a drama accompanied instrument in small ensembles and large Chinese folk orchestra.Įrhu is developed from and part of Huqin – a family of Chinese musical instrument. Have you ever been moved by the film soundtrack of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon? Musician Tan Dun used a traditional Chinese musical instrument, erhu, in his arrangement.Įrhu is a two-stringed bowed musical instrument and sometimes known in the west as the “ Chinese violin” or “ Chinese two-string fiddle”.

Chinese two stringed instrument