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Posts from the ‘Music, books and art’ Category

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.
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