#CHINESE ERHU VIOLIN LICENSE#

I wonder if a large proportion of people recognise songs like the above instinctively, just like to how we have those melodies like Auld Lang Syne and Greensleeves etc. We have Greensleeves, with the whole Henry VIII writing it for Anne Boleyn thing, I guess… Maybe I’m just betraying my own lack of knowledge. Popular stories and characters associated with folk songs. And I think that’s really interesting-we don’t have that as much in the UK, as far as I’m aware. I’ve read a lot more examples of such musical compositions emerging within and alongside folk legends, though. Bankruptcy and disease forced him to live as a street performer, playing the erhu to make a living and to composing songs to express the agony of his life. His lackadaisical and often debaucherous lifestyle left him with an affliction that caused him to go blind. Supposedly, Abing inherited a temple, but could not manage it well. Let’s take “Reflection of the Moon in the Erquan Pool”, composed by Abing (Hua Yanjun). It was largely a folk instrument and originated in Southern China.īut what I find most interesting is how each piece I’ve enjoyed, each piece I’ve researched, seems to have a rich history and narrative behind it. The instrument is thought to be over a thousand years old, and can be traced back even further to a family of proto-Mongolic instruments! Western staff notation is the stuff you’d recognise-the treble, clef, and those various other squiggly symbols!īoth fingers are held on both strings at once and are not released while playing. Watching a rendition is mesmerising.Įrhu sheet music uses jianpu (numbered) notation-just as most Chinese music does-rather than what’s called Western Staff notation. It seems to require a particularly complex amount of manipulation and control to play. It’s incredible that the array of sounds you hear from the instrument comes from just two strings! You control pitch by directly pressing into the string itself. It creates a cool sound, basically, is what I’m trying to say. Does it have this effect on others?Īnd isn’t longing another excellent adjective to describe the sound of the instrument? The sound makes you yearn for something or somewhere unrealised, feel sorrow for something undefined-hopeful for and nostalgic over… well, you don’t really know what. Nobody lives in the instrument’s strings.īut for me, there’s really something special there.

#CHINESE ERHU VIOLIN LICENSE#

Put the penalty points on my poetic license for that one. A lifetime of sentiment and tenderness leaves its void. As if thousands of expended lives and spent emotions were distilled-then, these distilled essences begin to pour out as the erhu’s bow glides over its taut strings, as the musician finds the right vibration. It’s like it’s got something to say, or communicate. When it sings, there’s something transcendent there. A lilting, emotive voice with crystal pitch and timbre.Īnd apparently, the vibro-acoustics resemble the range of a human voice-so it makes sense. I think it’s the way it mimics the human voice. But it always has this raw, introspective quality to it. Sometimes it’s uplifting, playful sometimes mournful, piercing. And this bittersweet contradiction makes it all the more interesting. It’s not a particularly smooth sound-it has a sort of bite, a wail to it. It demands all attention, cuts through noise. I don’t know what it is, but the sound of an erhu gets to me. This design that we’ve described is heavily intertwined with that vibrant, wailing sound and tone of the instrument. The sound of the instrument can be muted by pressing against the strings, but they never touch the neck. This can be very different to what we hear from other string instruments, like the violin.Īnd unlike a guitar or violin, the erhu has no fingerboard. As the soundbox is capped with snakeskin, instead of solid or opened wood, it produces a distinct resonance and vibrato once the vibrations meet the snakeskin.

There, they meet the snakeskin-capped soundbox, which acts a sort of amplifier. Various woods can be used to construct the instrument, but red sandalwood and rosewood are preferred for the traditional Chinese erhu.Īs the erhu bow passes over the strings, vibrations travel down the central bridge and reverberate through the neck. The soundbox is open on one end, and is traditionally capped with python skin! Additionally, two wound tuning pegs sit atop the instrument. This is different from a violin, where the bow passes over the top of the strings. This bow, which is traditionally made with horsehair, glides between the two strings. The erhu’s bow is usually constructed from bamboo. These days, the strings are usually made of steel. It’s made from a soundbox-which can be hexagonal, octagonal, or circular in shape-connected to a long neck by two silk strings.

The erhu, often hailed the “Chinese violin”, is a two-stringed musical instrument originating from China.

Chinese erhu violin