The DIZI possibly originated in Asia Minor or Central
Asia, having been used over the past 2,000 years
throughout China. The Chinese character for this flute
(Di, Dizi) generally means sideblown or transverse
flute. The flute's body is traditionally made of bamboo
(occasionally made of wood), defining it as a Bamboo
Instrument in the Chinese scheme. In the West this flute
would be classified as an Aerophone.
There are 6 finger holes for playing, three holes for
each hand. The instrument has a reed-membrane
covering a hole between the blow hole and the highest
finger hole. This membrane gives the DIZI a reedy and
bright timbre, particularly familiar throughout China.
Many different sizes of the flute are made to facilitate
the change of keys and the playing range of each spans
nearly two octaves plus a fifth.
Traditionally, only three keys can be played with precise intonation. Most
players equip themselves with a consort of dizi in different sizes and keys.
The dizi has a membrane over an extra tone hole to give the rattle effect of
the Chinese flute.
Listening to a DIZI player, one would notice several
distinct playing techniques: fluttered tonguing, double
tonguing, triple tonguing, combinations of tonguing
techniques and fingering techniques, and in skilled
players circular breathing. The DIZI is used both in
ensemble with other Chinese instruments as well as a
solo instrument.
Here are some clips of Chinese music in .au files... sorry don't have anything in Realaudio yet.
"The Purple Bamboo Melody" (1.2MB)
"The Camel-bells on the Silk Road" (840k)
"The Butterfly Lovers" (a 780k sampler)
Chinese music written for the western symphony orchestra - one of my favourites.
Other Types of Chinese Instruments
Chinese instruments are divided into four divisions, namely Bowed String instruments, Plucked String Instruments, Wind instruments and Percussion instruments.
Bowed String Instruments
This family of instruments are called Huqin. "Qin" literally means "musical instrument", you will see it commonly used as part of a name of an instrument.
Erhu
The erhu looks like a ladle with a long handle fitted with two strings and bow inserted between them (Er literally means two, therefore Erhu means instrument with two strings). Its range spans about three octaves. It has some of the qualities of the violin but has more nasal tone. In the modern setup, erhus are divided into the 1st and 2nd parts.
Banhu
It is another kind of huqin. It is so called because one surface of its sound-box is made of wooden plank (ban). It is called calle bonghu (clapper huqin) because it started in the seventeenth century with the appearance of the Bangzi or clapper operas.
Gaohu and Zhonghu
Quite often, several erhu fiddlers are assigned to play the gaohu which sounds higher than the erhu (Gao literally means "high"). Ths is the descant huqin. The alto species is the Zhonghu (with Zhong meaning "middle").
Gehu
The gehu is a hybrid of the cello and the huqin. It has four four strings. The tuning, bowing, fingering and other sring techniques are the same as those for the cello. Because of the leather or snake skin membrane over the body (Ge means animal hide) , its timbre is quite different with that of the real cello.
Bass Gehu
The bass Gehu tunes and playes like the double bass, but the tone color differs from that of the double bass because of the "ge".
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Plucked String Instruments
Pipa
In the plucked string group, the leading instrument is the pipa. It is a pear-shaped, lute-like instrument with four strings. The pipa makes a good solo or ensemble instrument. Its ancestor could well be the Persian barbat, but because the Chinese have used it for so many years and have developed so many different techniques for playing it, the pipa is considered to be characteristic of Chinese music.
Liuqin
The luiqin looks like a small pipa. It sounds like a mandolin. It is mostly used for accompaniment.
Ruan
The Ruan is also known to westerners as the "moon guitar". It comes in a consort of different sizes, all fitted with four strings. There are six types in the Ruan family, namely Da Ruan (da
=big), Zhong Ruan (zhong=middle), Siao Ruan (siao=small), Gaoyin Ruan (gaoyin=high tone), Zhongyin Ruan (zhongyin=middle tone), Diyin Ruan (diyin=low tone).
Sanxian
The sanxian, literally meaning three strings, is known as a samisen in Japan. It has a long fingerboard without frets.
Yangqin
The yangqin is a dulcimer playered with bamboo mallets. It comes in different sizes. The concert model has a range of four octaves. Its tone is metallic and quite close to that of the harpsichord. It is believed to have been imported from Persia in the Ming Dynasty period. At first it was played only in the southern and coastal regions of China until its popularity spread over the country.
Guzheng or Zheng
The guzheng or zheng is sometimes known as the Chinese zither, and in Japan, it is called the Koto. It varies from thirteen to seventeen strings tuned to the pentatonic scale with a range exceeding three octaves. The player will alter the tone of the strings by pressing the string left of the frets, making the zheng a very expressive instrument.
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Wind Instruments
Dizi
The dizi is described in full detail at the top of the page.
Suona
The suona (sometimes called solna) has a reed fitted to a conical bore and a metal bell. It has a powerful nasal tone. It has been widely used as the lead instrument in weddings, funerals and other festivities since the Ming Dynasty. Again, suonas come in different dizes.
Sheng
The sheng is one of the oldest species of Chinese instruments. It consists of a bundle (17 to 36) of bamboo pipes seated on a small wind chamber. At the root of the pipe is a free brass reed. Shengs are in different sizes. The reedy tone with its resonance in the bamboo pipe gives great clarity of tone. The consort of sheng somehow compensates for the absense of brass instruements in tutti orchestration.
Guan
The guan (literally means pipe) has a cylindical bore fitted with a reed mouth piece. Consequently it has a reedy nasal timbre. Guans in the northern regions of China are mostly made out of wood, while in teh south it is mostly made of bamboo.
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Percussion Instruments
Like many other oriental musical ensembles, the Chinese orchestra is also rich in percussion. Modern ensembles have adopted the concert timpani. Other pitched membranophone instrments are the paigu, or small drums in a set of five to seven. Drums come in varied sizes, emitting very high to quite low pitches. Other pitched percussions are the yunluo (gons with tuned pitches) and qings (bronze bowls with bell-like tone). The jinluo (small gong used in Beijing opera) gives a characteristic portamento tone. Other metal ideophones are cymbals, gongs, bells and hand bells; wooden ones are clappers, claves and temple blocks.
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