Chinese Music 101: Metal Musical Instruments – Another Big Percussion Family

By Sari Xu

A quick review! We’ve discussed that among the 8 tones of Chinese Musical Instruments, stone, skin and wood categories mostly contain percussion instruments like the Chinese drum family, ancient Bianqing and the Muyu used in the temple, etc. Other than that, under the category of metal tone, there’s also a group of percussion instruments!

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Bo (钹), sometimes also called Chazi (镲子), is a type of cymbals. It falls into the category of concussion idiophone, or struck idiophone, which consists of two plates that are clashed together. It was originated from Western Asia and was introduced to ancient China during around 350 B.C along with the ancient Tintu music. Similarly, just like the wood instrument Bangzi (梆子) and Muyu, Bo was also first used in Fanyue (Buddhist music, 梵乐) and now widely played not only in traditional Chinese music performances and traditional operas, but also in various folk music and dance performances. Since Ming (1368 – 1644) and Qing (1644 – 1912) Dynasty, it’s typically used to accompany with Qun Opera (昆曲) and other regional operas.

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There are several different types of Bo, mainly being categorized based on the size of the cymbals: Xiaobo (小钹) means small cymbals; Zhongbo (中钹) means medium cymbals; Dabo (大钹) means large cymbals; Shuibo (水钹) literally means “water cymbals”, it has a thinner plates and makes a softer sound more like water; Jingbo (京钹) is the cymbals used in Beijing Opera; Shenbo (深钹) is also called Gaobian Daluo (高边大锣), which is a deep, flat Gong used in Chaozhou (潮州, a city in Southern China) music. Now, you may wonder – what is the Gong in China?

Gong, a type of percussion instrument used worldwide, has a Chinese division called Luo (锣). For those who are not familiar with gong, it is an East and Southeast Asian percussion instrument that takes the form of a flat, circular metal disc which is hit with a mallet. It also found its way into the Western world in the 18^th century when it was used in the percussion section of a Western-style symphony orchestra. It is mostly made of bronze and was first used by the ethnic minority groups from west-southern China. Because it has a deep tone and long lingering sound, it’s widely applied in many fields as an accompaniment instrument and just like Bo and Bangzi, is quite popular among the traditional operas such as Beijing Opera, Bangzi Opera, Flower Drum Opera, and many other folk operas.

DaLuo, Large Gong

Luo could also be divided into several categories: Daluo, Chaoluo, Xiaoluo, Zhangluo, and Yunluo. Daluo(大锣) and Xiaoluo (小锣), are representing the large gong and small gong, respectively. Chaoluo (超锣/山锣, mountain luo) is one of the most unique kinds with the longest and widest usage in the history. It has a black frame and center, with a copper body. It’s also a great gift option among the bands and orchestras.

XiaoLuo, Small Gong

ChaoLuo

Yunluo, literally cloud luo, or sometimes called nine-tone luo, is the only kind of luo that could be used to play the melody. It’s a set of Xiaoluo organized together on a wooden stand and is widely employed in traditional Chinese orchestra.

Luo, and Bo – though this two percussion families largely compose the big metal tone family, there are also other metal percussions such as Pengling, Dangzi, and Yunzheng, etc.

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Last but not least, let’s check out the percussion ensemble performance of the famous opus called The Quarreling Ducks which Shuiluo is the main performing instrument here, and guess “what does the duck say”?!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzHCzAKLgAM

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Chinese Music 101: Wood Musical Instruments – Ancient and Modern Percussions

By Sari Xu

So far, we’ve discussed about silk, bamboo, stone, clay and skin musical instruments under the Bayin – 8 tones of Chinese traditional musical instruments. Wood, as one of the most common materials used in Western musical instruments, surprisingly, is not that widely used in China for its traditional tones. Most Chinese instruments under the wood category are of the ancient variety. I guess this is because in China, Silk and Bamboo are easier to access by the royal family, and the softer timbre they bring are more favored by the ancient literati and artists.

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Rather than being used in wind instrument like flutes, piccolos, and clarinets in Western music instruments, wood is mostly used in percussions in China. Muyu (木鱼), literally wooden fish, is also known as a Chinese temple block and could be struck with a wooden stick. It’s used by monks and lay people in the Mahayana Buddhist tradition, usually during rituals when chanting, involving the recitation of sutras, mantras, or other Buddhist texts. It’s used not only in China, but also East Asian countries like Korea, Japan where the practice of Mahayana is prevalent.

Shofukuji_Nagasaki_January_2012_04 — The Original Muyu

More interestingly, the original type of wooden fish is literally in the shape of a fish! Along with a large temple bell and drum, it is found suspended in front of Buddhist monasteries. When proceeding with various duties (such as eating, lectures, or chores), a monk and a supervisor utilize the instrument to call all monastics to go to their tasks. Historically, this was the first wooden fish developed, which gradually evolved into the round wooden fish used by Buddhists today.

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Other than Muyu (Wooden fish), another block is also widely used till nowadays. Bangzi (梆子, or sometimes Bangban),a wood block smaller than a Muyu with a higher pitch, is very popular in use of the Chinese traditional Bangzi Opera as an accompaniment. Bangzi Opera, or Bangzi Xi, Bangzi Qiang, is one of the Top 4 kinds of Chinese Opera, originated from the ancient Western Qin Qiang (西秦腔, Opera of the Qin Dynasty, 221 – 207 B.C). The common point of various types of Bangzi Opera, is that they all use Bangzi – the wood block, to give the beat. A Bangzi is usually made of Jujube wood, red sandalwood, or rosewood. it’s also worth mentioning that, the two wooden sticks used to strike the bangzi are of various thicknesses and lengths in order to get different pitches.

Back at the ancient time, the wood instruments were also mainly used during rituals. Remember there is a struck string musical instrument called Zhu that we discussed about previously? Actually, there is another percussion instrument also called Zhu (柷) under the wood category! It was used in the Confucian court ritual music in ancient China. It consisted of a wooden box (which was often painted red or otherwise decorated) that tapered from the top to the bottom and was played by grasping a vertical wooden stick and striking it on the bottom face. The instrument was used to mark the beginning of music in the ancient ritual music of China, called Yayue (雅乐). The instrument is rarely used today, with specimens appearing mainly in Chinese museums, an exception is that, in Taiwan it is still used in Confucian ritual music by the Taiwan Confucian Temple.

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Chinese Music 101 – Skin Musical Instruments – The Drum Family

By Sari Xu

A quick review! As we discussed before, Chinese traditional musical instruments are divided into 8 categories, including – silk, bamboo, wood, stone, metal, clay, gourd, and skin instruments. Skin instruments – mostly percussion instruments, actually formed a big Chinese drum family for us to explore further.

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Chinese drums, or we called Gu (鼓), was first invented and used to send signals and accompany with dancing back in the primitive times. They were first made of stones, then clays, and finally wood covered with skin leather or paper on both sides. The sounding principle is very similar to foreign percussion instruments such as Western timpani and African drums. Just like African drums, Chinese drums are often used when dancing during celebration and events. The combination of powerful dancing and drumbeat is always inspiring and the best choice for showing the team spirit especially during the agrarian age. Therefore, different regions have different kind of drums which people use the most, and these gradually formed the huge drum family under the percussion instrument category in China.

005y0Md5gy72tusTPvN07 — Da Gu, The Big Drum (大鼓)

1244254367667A — Flowerpot Drum, Hua Peng Gu (花盆鼓)

Generally speaking, people in Northern China prefer larger drums in terms of the size, while Southern China residents innovated various types of small drums and relative dancing.

wKhQdFRtRqSEYvmxAAAAAD5v6d8789 — Book Drum, Shu Gu (书鼓), mostly used in Southern China

u=3339421760,879219911&fm=26&gp=0 — Ban Gu, 板鼓, mostly used in Southern China

Playing the drum is more like an integrated performance rather than simply sitting still and playing a piano solo opus. Depending on the size of the drum, it could be hold in hands, tied on the waist or in front of the chest, even put on the head, shoulder, or under the arms. Of course, it needs to be settled on the ground if it’s a large one. It could be either beaten by hands or drumsticks, and one performer could play with 1 or several (10 at most) drums simultaneously. Regarding the appearance, Chinese drums are usually painted in the most representative Chinese red with the leather in its natural color. Check out this video for a Chinese drum group performance!

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Some typical dancing formats accompanied with drum performance include An Sai Yao Gu (An Sai Waist Drum), Wei Feng Luo Gu (Gong and Drum), Tai Ping Gu Wu (Tai Ping Drum Dancing), Hua Bo Da Gu (Huge drums with tiny symbals) and several forms of bronze drum dancing performed by the ethnic minority groups. Check out this performance of An Sai Waist Drum!

16052137_16052137_1449133944526 — Waist Drum, Yao Gu (腰鼓)

An Sai Yao Gu (An Sai Waist Drum安塞腰鼓) is one of the most amazing performances among the all and was also recognized as Chinese intangible cultural asset in 2006. It’s originated from Shaanxi Province and was used for communication and sending signals during wars back at Qin (B.C 221 – 207) and Han Dynasty (B.C 202 – 220). An Sai is a city in Shaanxi, which is a military stronghold located in the Loess Plateau. Besides delivering information, soldiers at ancient times also play the drums to cheer for the battle and celebrate the triumph afterwards. Later, this became a kind of folk dance in this region. Everyone likes this way of celebration during holidays or worships (praying for grain harvest in most cases) because the waist drums could make very loud sounds when a large group of folks playing together. The strong drumbeat, together with the red drums and red ribbon tied on the drums and sticks, inspire people to work harder, and staying united in Chinese culture. Though nowadays, people don’t support their lives mainly through farming anymore, this kind of art performance is preserved as a culture to be played during holiday celebration.

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Though it’s hard to count how many kinds of drums now exit in China, let’s have a glance at some of the representative drums in this big family!

1193127933465A — Row of Drums, Pai Gu (排鼓)

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Chinese Music 101 – Stone Musical Instruments in Ancient China

By Sari Xu

As we discussed last time, Chinese traditional musical instruments are divided into 8 categories, including – silk, bamboo, wood, stone, metal, clay, gourd, and skin instruments. I guess stone must be the most questionable category among all, so here are some examples of traditional stone musical instruments:

2560px-Korean_Gong_chimes,_Musical_Instrument_Museum,_Phoenix,_Arizona — A Set of Japanese Style Bianqing

Bianqing (编磬) – It is an ancient percussion instrument consisting of a set of L-shaped flat stone chimes known as Qing(磬), played melodically. The chimes were hung in a wooden frame and struck with a mallet. Along with the bronze bells called Bianzhong(编钟), they were an important instrument in China’s ritual and court music going back to ancient times. It was imported to Vietnam as well as Korea back at the ancient time, and nowadays, people could seldomly see this set of instruments and get the chance to play with it. Instead, it mostly appeared in historical and art museums and temples worldwide, and in some film and television works as well. The melody Bianqing usually plays is comparatively slow-paced and provides a calming and majestic feeling.

n5GcuUGZ2YWN0MjY3YTNmFDMzcTMwQ3Lt92Yuc2cthWcuw2cz5SMw9yL6MHc0RHa.jpg — The Famous Zeng Hou Yi Bianqing (曾侯乙编磬)

Qing (Sounding Stone, 磬) – Not necessarily a set, a single L-shaped flat stone could also make great sound as a chime itself. The shape of such stones was often quoted as description for the reverent ritual pose. Important information on Qing nomenclature is contained in the Erya dictionary (尔雅, the oldest surviving Chinese encyclopedia known): the large sounding stone was called xiāo(毊), and a solo performance on Qing, jiǎn(寋). However, the mentioned names do not have much currency in the classical literature. But what we are sure about, is that this kind of instruments, along with the traditional melodies, are widely favored by Chinese ancient scholars and literati. Qing is even mentioned in the Analects as one of the instruments played by Confucius. In the Han dynasty treatises on music, its sound is referred to as “reminding to the monarch about his officers who died while protecting the borders”.

Imperial_Encyclopaedia_-_Music_-_pic007_-_磬.svg — A Single Qin

Tezhong (特钟) – It is a single large stone tablet hung by a rope in a wooden frame and struck using a mallet, works in a very similar way to a bell. Thedifference between a Tezhong and a Bianzhong is a Tezhong is usually hanging alone and larger in terms of size. It’s made of bronze and has a sonorous and loud sound. It was invented during Shang Dynasty (B.C 1600) and was mostly played with Ya Music (Ya Yue, 雅乐, similar to Japanese Gagaku). Nowadays, again, we can only find this kind of instruments in museums, and Chinese archeologists are gradually finding more and more instruments from the emperors’’ graves and archeological sites.

One fun fact about these stone tones are, Bianqing are usually played along with Bianzhong (smaller than Tezhong), and the harmonic melody the two make together are called “The sound of golden stone”!

Last but not least, check out this video clip for a short Bianzhong performance at the Blackhawk Museum with all the musicians in Traditional Chinese Han clothing!

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