乐器

sebire

December 19, 2008, 11:46 PM

Oh, that formatting is really annoying.

Let me write it out again:

S: 乐器

T: 樂器

yuèqì

Musical instruments

 

S: 我在乐器专卖店买了一个二胡的琴弓。
T:  我在樂器專賣店買了一個二胡的琴弓。
wǒ zài yuèqì zhuānmàidiàn mǎi le yī ge èrhú de qín gōng.

I bought an erhu bow in a specialist instrument shop.

changye

December 20, 2008, 02:33 AM

Hi sebire,

 

Let me show you a brilliant ancient Chinese musical instrument unearthed in an archaeological site, which dates back to the era of 战国 (453-221 B.C.). This instrument is a large set of percussions and called “编钟”. “钟” originally meant “a bell”, and it later obtained other meaning “a clock”. Musical instruments were very important for rituals in China. 

 

http://baike.baidu.com/view/17259.htm

(Please click the picture in this page to see a larger one.)

 

Incidentally, the oldest known flute in China, which has seven holes, incredibly dates back to circa 6,000 B.C.

 

I also have an 二胡, I bought it ten years ago, but I can’t play it, of course. Please be noted that you can’t freely take 二胡 out of China because of Washington treaty. A genuine 二胡 uses the skin of python snakes, which are protected by the treaty. You need to get a permit from the Chinese authorities beforehand.

sebire

December 20, 2008, 09:12 AM

Changye, I saw a replica of those in either the Clock or Bell tower in 西安. There was a little performance put on for all the tourists, which was quite fun. It was played with a massive pole. It was a "Qin Bell Demonstration". There were a whole bunch of percussion instruments too, which sounded very bell-like, but I don't know what they were called. It was pretty cool.

I wonder if the make 二胡 out of different materials these days then? I like the sound, though I also hear they are not considered a "high class" of instrument.

changye

December 20, 2008, 09:29 AM

Hi sebire,

Wow, I just evny you. Looks like I must go to 西安 to see 编钟 and 兵马俑 someday. As for 二胡, the character "胡" connotes "different ethnic group", and actually this instrument is not China-born, but was introduced to China by people from western regions. And that might be the reason why it is not usually used in rituals in China, I suppose. I hear you can sometimes see a person playing 二胡 on the street in Beijing.

sebire

December 20, 2008, 10:26 AM

Sorry, I meant Bell or Drum Tower. Clocks and Bells are confusing me!

Actually, there were two people playing the 编钟, the girl in front with the big pole to play the bass bells, and there was someone behind with a pair of hammers playing the higher bells.

The age of both that instrument and the 兵马俑 completely hurt my head. I'm trying to think of Roman equivalents, but I can't really think of anything. I don't think the Romans were great musicians. The scale of the 兵马俑 was completely mind-boggling. That emperor was completely crazy. It's hard to believe that one man could build so much stuff.

Anyway, back to musical instruments, it's interesting to learn that about the 二胡. I certainly saw people playing it in the street. I quite like the 古筝 that the woman is playing on the left hand side of the picture. The impression I get is that the 古筝 and the 琵琶 are more popular amongst Chinese people, but Westerners prefer 二胡. I am not sure if that is true or not. I was also quite impressed at how popular traditional Chinese music seemed to be within everyday life in China, unlike classical music in the West which is more side-lined.

I find this particular topic really interesting, and it would make a fantastic series of lessons. I doesn't look like it's been really covered much from the lesson search. Though, knowing my luck, it'd probably be an advanced lesson, and I wouldn't understand much!

N.B. My friend has pointed me in the direction of an amazing programme called Spotify where you can listen to lots and lots of albums legally for free. It has quite a lot of Chinese albums on there, where you can also hear the different instruments.

changye

December 20, 2008, 11:15 AM

Hi sebire,

Haha, I think that you put too high a valuation on the situation of traditional music in China. Actually, "an old guy playing 二胡 on the street" is one of rare exceptions in China, and almost all the Chinese people don't have much interest in their traditional music. Only a handful of people enjoy listening to such music, much less playing a traditional instrument. The same holds both in Korea and in Japan.

In China, music, art and sport are very poorly and half-heartedly taught at ordinary schools. Talented children usually go to state-sponsored art/sports schools, which consequently led to a sloppy educational system of music and sports at other schools. In short, "ordinary children" don't need to waste their time learning something "useless", although I guess the situation is gradually improving, perhaps.

sebire

December 20, 2008, 11:38 AM

Really? Maybe they only play it to tourists. Obviously, there's lots of pop music around, but I recall hearing traditional music a lot more than I would hear classical music in the West (I like the idea that they are starting to play classical music to break up yobbish groups hanging around shops in England, which is just funny).

It's a shame they don't study more music or art at school, though it is the same here. I studied music for A level (the two years pre-university), and it was great, because I had a teacher that had never taught before, so he basically gave us his first year undergraduate lecture notes, not quite realising that most teachers just teach you to jump through hoops (i.e. teach the test), not actually anything interesting. The irony, of course, is that I got a crappy mark in the exam despite learning more than I had ever learnt before. The most amazing year ever!

changye

December 21, 2008, 03:03 AM

Hi sebire,

According to one of my books on archaeological discoveries in China, the 编钟 unearthed at the tomb of 曾侯乙 (a local king) was placed in a banquet room, which is one of the four rooms found at the site.

And, interestingly, some ancient harps, percussions and wind instruments (竽, yu2) were also found in the bed room (寝宫, qin3 gong1) of the king in the tomb.

This means that the music was probably played as bedtime lullaby for the king and his wife, just like The Goldberg Variations by Bach, or possibly played as BGM for their 房事... haha.