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Posts from the ‘Music, books and art’ Category

Jun 9

Wu Fei playing guzheng

The guzheng

The guzheng is a 21-stringed zither that has been played in China – in one form or another – for about two thousand years. Aside from having 21 strings (compared to the guqin‘s 7 strings), the guzheng’s other major difference from the guqin is that there are bridges: This means that the left hand can change pitches by bending the strings up and down, whereas the guqin changes pitches by a horizontal motion like a slide guitar. Read more

Jun 9

Wu Fei Paper Boy

Paper Boy: A contemporary composition for the guzheng

This track is Paper Boy, composed and performed on the guzheng by Wu Fei:

You can buy Paper Boy as a single on Amazon and iTunes (for 99 cents).

• See also The guzheng on Danwei.

Jun 8

Wu Fei playing with Secret Chiefs 3 at North Sea Jazz Festival

New uses for old Chinese instruments

Here are some videos showing musicians using traditional instruments to play all kinds of new music.

If you cannot watch any of these videos, please complain to your local Internet provider or your government about censorship or slow connection speeds. Read more

Jun 8

Wu Fei playing guzheng

Chinese instruments and the creation of a national music

Modern Chinese instruments are a lot like modern China: a disparate patchwork of various Parts forcibly cobbled into a Whole that, to hear some tell it, Always Was and Ever Shall Be. Read more

Jun 8

small drum

Chinese drums

Drums and percussion instruments have been used in China since at least the Shang Dynasty (1562-1066 BC) when their use was recorded on oracle bones. Read more

Jun 8

Tuning the qin and drinking tea by Zhou Fang

The guqin

The guqin, also just called the qin and sometimes “the scholar’s lute” in English, is perhaps the most Chinese of all instruments. Read more

Jun 7

A pipa player in Night Revels of Han Xizai by Gu Hongzhong

The pipa

The pipa (琵琶) is a pear-shaped type of lute with four strings. It’s one of the most common Chinese musical instruments – varieties of pipa have been played in China for about two thousand years. Like many instruments now considered Chinese, its origins are in central Asia. Read more

Jun 6

"Listening to the Qin," attributed to the northern Song emperor Huizong (r.1101-1126).

The guqin and earth’s greatest hits

In 1977 NASA sent Voyager I into deep space to explore the great beyond. The spacecraft contained a 12-inch copper disc titled “Sounds of the Earth”, featuring “greetings from the People of Earth in 60 languages, and natural sounds such as ocean surf, thunder [and] chirping birds.”

Representing China among the 50 musical examples from around the world was a piece for the seven-stringed zither, the guqin. Called “Flowing Waters” (流水), the piece was performed by the late guqin master Guan Pinghu. Read more

Jun 3

The Story of a Beggar's Erhu

A blind Beijing beggar and his erhu

The erhu — compact, cheap and easy to use to make noises that sound like music — is a favorite of itinerant Chinese beggars and buskers.
Read more

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