JW over at Excavated Shellac has posted a great Cantonese Opera recording this week, so I decided to post some Chinese music that isn’t opera. Here are two records of instrumental music.What would Confucius play? The Guqin, a 7 string zither, is a very old instrument that was associated with philosphers and scholars, and played by Confucius 2500 years ago! The music is very different from the Chinese Opera we’ve been listening to, which is essentially folk music, while the Guqin played meditative art music. This was probably the first instrument to use tablature notation, some of it was written as early as the 12th century. Pretty amazing. A nice cd of old guqin recordings by Lo Ka Ping is available here.
The Sanxian is basically a banjo. It has 3 strings, usually tuned DAD, and a fretless neck. The lack of frets allows for all kinds of great slides and unusual intonation. It’s body is covered with a python skin. Sanxian is used throughout China and there are variations all over South East Asia.
Blind Musicians from Shanghai. Sanxian player in the middle.
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Squirrelly Dave,
Comment by Scott P. January 2, 2008 @ 5:51 pmNice stuff! The Sanxian looks and sounds a bit like an instrument in the Vietnamese group I saw this summer at the Smithsonian Fest (reflecting the wide distribution you mention). I’m fairly certain that guy was playing with some kind of pick - in the photo above it looks like the sanxian player has his fingers on the strings, no pick. So, question — was this just due to a non-playing portrait pose, or did they play these things with the fingers as well?
Thanks for checkin in Scott!
Comment by hajimaji January 2, 2008 @ 7:53 pmA good question about Sanxian picking…from my understanding most now play with a pick but at one time it was played with the fingers. Anyone who’s seen a Chinese pipa player knows what can be done with four fingers!
Hi David, I’m so excited to know your website come true!!Awesome!Fabulous! Your introductions and collections are invaluable!
To be honest, I like this part of instument the best, esp. those about Guqin. The music is a good example to explain traditional Chinese personality: keep and enjoy the status of being lonely, which is the way to find out the meaning of life from within.
Comment by Grace January 9, 2008 @ 7:10 pm