The dahu ( 大胡,

pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese fo ...

: ''dàhú'') is a large bowed

string instrument String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner. Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the s ...

from

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

. It has a large soundbox covered on one end with python skin. Like most other members of the

huqin ''Huqin'' () is a family of bowed string instruments, more specifically, a spike fiddle popularly used in Chinese music. The instruments consist of a round, hexagonal, or octagonal sound box at the bottom with a neck attached that protrudes u ...

family of instruments, it has two strings and is held vertically. The instrument is generally pitched one octave below the ''

erhu The ''erhu'' (; ) is a Chinese two-stringed bowed musical instrument, more specifically a spike fiddle, which may also be called a ''Southern Fiddle'', and is sometimes known in the Western world as the ''Chinese violin'' or a ''Chinese two- ...

'', and is considerably larger than the ''erhu''. Its name derives from the Chinese word for "large" (''dà''), and the word ''hú'' (short for ''huqin''). Its bridge is often placed somewhat above the center of the snakeskin to avoid stretching the skin. The ''dahu'' is sometimes also called ''cizhonghu''. It is also referred to as ''xiaodihu'', being the same instrument as the smallest of the three sizes of ''

dihu The ''dihu'' ( 低胡, pinyin: dīhú) is a large bowed string instrument from China. It has a large soundbox covered on one end with snakeskin. Like most other members of the huqin family of instruments, it has two strings and is held vertically ...

'' (large ''huqin'' instruments), the others being the ''zhongdihu'' and ''dadihu''.

History

The ''dahu'' was developed in the 1930s as the tenor member of the ''erhu'' family (the ''erhu'' being the soprano member and the '' zhonghu'' being the alto member) to increase the pitch range of the instruments used in a

Chinese orchestra The term Chinese orchestra is most commonly used to refer to the modern Chinese orchestra that is found in China and various overseas Chinese communities. This modern Chinese orchestra first developed out of Jiangnan sizhu ensemble in the 1920s ...

and allow music with harmony to be played. However, by the late 20th century it had largely fallen into disuse. Part of the reason for this is that it is unwieldy to play. Also, that (like other instruments in the ''huqin'' family) the bow passes between the instrument's two strings means that playing

pizzicato Pizzicato (, ; translated as "pinched", and sometimes roughly as "plucked") is a playing technique that involves plucking the strings of a string instrument. The exact technique varies somewhat depending on the type of instrument : * On bowe ...

is difficult; thus, the larger ''

gehu The ''gehu'' ( 革胡; pinyin: géhú) is a Chinese instrument developed in the 20th century by the Chinese musician Yang Yusen ( 杨雨森, 1926–1980). It is a fusion of the Chinese huqin family and the cello. Its four strings are also ...

'' and ''

diyingehu The bass ''gehu'' (低音革胡; pinyin: ''dīyīngéhú'', ; also called ''digehu'' or ''beigehu'' 倍革胡, literally "bass ''gehu''") is a Chinese bowed string instrument in the ''huqin'' family. It was developed by Yang Yusen along with t ...

'', ''

laruan The ''lāruǎn'' ( 拉阮; also spelled ''la ruan'') is a relatively new Chinese string instrument blending the acoustics of the ''ruan'' with that of the Western cello. Its larger counterpart is the ''dalaruan'' (大拉阮), which corresponds to ...

'', or

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C2, G2, ...

and

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

are generally used in Chinese orchestras for the lower bowed string voices instead.

References

External links

Dahu page
from Paul and Bernice Noll site

Video

String instruments Bowed instruments Chinese musical instruments Drumhead lutes Huqin family instruments {{huqin-stub

History

See also

References

External links

Video