PRESENTATION OUTLINE
Guqin
is a plucked seven-string Chinese musical instrument of the zither family. It has been played since ancient times, and has traditionally been favored by scholars and literati as an instrument of great subtlety and refinement, as highlighted by the quote "a gentleman does not part with his qin or se without good reason,"[1] as well as being associated with the ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius. It is sometimes referred to by the Chinese as "the father of Chinese music" or "the instrument of the sages". The guqin is not to be confused with the guzheng, another Chinese long zither also without frets, but with moveable bridges under each string.
Se
The se (Chinese: 瑟; pinyin: sè) is an ancient Chinese plucked zither (string instrument). It has a range of 50-25 strings with moveable bridges and has a range of up to five octaves.
Guzheng
The guzheng or gu zheng (Chinese: 古箏; pinyin: gǔzhēng, pronounced [kùt͡ʂə́ŋ]), also simply called zheng (箏, gu 古 means "ancient"), is a Chinese plucked zither. It has 18 or more strings and movable bridges, and the modern guzheng usually has 21 strings and bridges. The picks (called "DaiMao") used by performers to play guzheng are often made out of the shells of Hawksbill.
The guzheng is the ancestor of several Asian zither instruments, such as the Japanese koto,[1][2][3] the Korean gayageum,[2][3] and the Vietnamese đàn tranh.[2][3] Musicological studies in the late 20th century indicate that the bambo tube zithers of Southeast Asia could be the ancient prototype of the guzheng, koto, gayageum, and the đàn tranh.[4][5][6][7][8] The guzheng should not be confused with the guqin (another ancient Chinese zither with no moveable bridges).
Konghou
The konghou (Chinese: 箜篌; pinyin: kōnghóu) is an ancient Chinese harp. The konghou, also known as kanhou,[citation needed] went extinct sometime in the Ming Dynasty. It has been revived in the 20th century as a double bridge harp. The modern version of the instrument does not resemble the ancient one, but its shape is similar to Western concert harps.
Pipa
The pipa (Chinese: 琵琶; pinyin: pípa, [pʰǐpʰǎ]) is a four-stringed Chinese musical instrument, belonging to the plucked category of instruments. Sometimes called the Chinese lute, the instrument has a pear-shaped wooden body with a varying number of frets ranging from 12 to 26. Another Chinese four-string plucked lute is the liuqin, which looks like a smaller version of the pipa.
The pipa is one of the most popular Chinese instruments and has been played for almost two thousand years in China. Several related instruments in East and Southeast Asia are derived from the pipa; these include the Japanese biwa, the Vietnamese đàn tỳ bà, and the Korean bipa. The Korean instrument is the only one of the three that is no longer widely used; examples survive in museums, but recent attempts to revive the Korean instrument have been partially successful in recent years.
Hyoshigi
The hyōshigi (拍子木?) is a simple Japanese musical instrument, consisting of two pieces of hardwood or bamboo that are connected by a thin ornamental rope. The clappers are played together or on the floor to create a cracking sound. Sometimes they are struck slowly at first, then faster and faster.
Biwa
The biwa (琵琶?) is a Japanese short-necked fretted lute, often used in narrative storytelling. The biwa is the chosen instrument of Benten, goddess of music, eloquence, poetry, and education in Buddhism.
It arrived in Japan in two forms. Since that time, the number of biwa types has more than quadrupled. Guilds supporting biwa players, particularly the biwa hoshi, helped proliferate biwa musical development for hundreds of years. Biwa hōshi performances overlapped with performances by other biwa players many years before heikyoko and…
Kokyú
The kokyū (胡弓?) { 胡弓 } is a traditional Japanese string instrument, the only one played with a bow. Although it was introduced to Japan from China along with the shamisen, its material, shape, and sound are unique to Japan[clarification needed]. The instrument also exists in an Okinawan version, called kūchō (胡弓 くーちょー?) in the Okinawan language.
The instrument is similar in construction to the shamisen, appearing like a smaller version of that instrument. It is 70 cm (28 inches) tall, with a neck made of ebony and a hollow body made of coconut or Styrax japonica wood, covered on both ends with cat skin (or snakeskin in Okinawa). It has three (or, more rarely, four) strings and is played upright, with the horsetail-strung bow rubbing against the strings. In central Japan, the kokyū was formerly used as an integral part of the sankyoku ensemble, along with the koto and shamisen, but beginning in the 20th century the shakuhachi most often plays the role previously filled by the kokyū.
Since Shinei Matayoshi, a kokyū and sanshin musician and sanshin maker, invented and popularized a four-stringed version of the kokyū in order to expand the instrument's range, the kokyū has become much more popular. A kokyū society, dedicated to promoting the instrument, exists in Japan.
The kokyū has also been used in jazz and blues, with the American multi-instrumentalist Eric Golub pioneering the instrument's use in these non-traditional contexts. One of the few non-Japanese performers of the instrument, he has recorded as a soloist as well as with the cross-cultural jazz band of John Kaizan Neptune.
The kokyū is similar to two Chinese bowed lutes with fingerboards: the leiqin and the zhuihu. In Japanese, the term kokyū may refer broadly to any bowed string instrument of Asian origin, as does the Chinese term huqin. Thus, the Chinese erhu, which is also used by some performers in Japan, is sometimes described as a kokyū, along with the kūchō, leiqin, and zhuihu. The specific Japanese name for erhu is niko.
Hotchiku
Hotchiku (Jp: k. 法竹 h. ほっちく?, "bamboo of [the] dharma"; lit. "dharma bamboo"), sometimes romanized as hocchiku or hochiku, is a Japanese end-blown flute (a fue), crafted from root sections of bamboo. After cleaning and sanding, the heavy root end of the bamboo stalk reveals many small circular knots where the roots formerly joined the stalk. The same part of the bamboo plant is also used to produce the shakuhachi but, unlike the shakuhachi, the hotchiku's inside (bore) and outside surfaces are left unlacquered and its mouthpiece is not inlaid. The membranes at the nodes inside a hotchiku bore are generally left more intact than those of a shakuhachi. Together, these characteristics make for a visibly and audibly raw and organic instrument. Hotchiku are sometimes referred to as jinashi nobekan, meaning "without ji (a paste made of clay and lacquer, used to smooth the bore on shakuhachi), one-piece" (hotchiku are not cut in two pieces for crafting or storage, unlike shakuhachi).
Horagai
Horagai (法螺貝?) (or jinkai (陣貝?) ) are large conch shells that have been used as trumpets in Japan for many centuries. The instrument, which has served a number of purposes throughout Japanese history, has been given a number of Japanese names depending on its function. Special schools still teach students to play the traditional music associated with the conch.
Gayageum
The gayageum or kayagum is a traditional Korean zither-like string instrument, with 12 strings, though some more recent variants have 21 or other numbers of strings. It is probably the best known traditional Korean musical instrument.It is related to other Asian instruments, including the Chinese guzheng, the Japanese koto, the Mongolian yatga, and the Vietnamese đàn tranh.
Haegeum
The haegeum(Hangul: 해금) is a traditional Korean string instrument, resembling a fiddle. It is popularly known as kkangkkangi.[1] It has a rodlike neck, a hollow wooden soundbox, and two silk strings, and is held vertically on the knee of the performer and played with a bow.
The haegeum is one of the most widely used instruments in Korean music. The haegeum is used in court music as well as madangnori (ordinary people's music). The haegeum's range of expression is various despite having only two strings, with sounds ranging from sorrowful and sad to humorous. The haegeum is made using eight materials: gold, rock, thread, bamboo, gourd, soil, leather, and wood, and so it is called paleum (eight sounds).
Yanggeum
The yanggeum is a traditional Korean string instrument. It is a hammered dulcimer. Unlike other traditional Korean instruments (most of which have silk strings), the yanggeum has metal strings. It is played by striking the strings with a bamboo stick. Yanggeum means a stringed instrument of the West (yang). The yanggeum is also called seoyanggeum ("Western stringed instrument") or gura cheolsageum ("European metal stringed instrument"). The origin of the yanggeum is the santur in Middle East. The Chinese introduced it into Korea in the 18th century. Its body is flat and trapezoidal, with seven sets of four metal strings. The right hand strikes the strings with a thin bamboo strip
Daegeum
The gayageum or kayagum is a traditional Korean zither-like string instrument, with 12 strings, though some more recent variants have 21 or other numbers of strings. It is probably the best known traditional Korean musical instrument.It is related to other Asian instruments, including the Chinese guzheng, the Japanese koto, the Mongolian yatga, and the Vietnamese đàn tranh.
Piri
The piri is a Korean double reed instrument, used in both the folk and classical (court) music of Korea. It is made of bamboo. Its large reed and cylindrical bore gives it a sound mellower than that of many other types of oboe.
