The ''liuqin'' ( Chinese: ,

pinyin Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means 'Han Chinese, Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin' ...

: ) is a three, four or five-stringed Chinese

mandolin A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...

with a pear-shaped body. The range of its voice is much higher than other Chinese plucked string instrument, and it is used in both orchestral music and solo pieces in

Chinese music The music of China consists of many distinct traditions, often specifically originating with one of the country's various ethnic groups. It is produced within and without the country, involving either people of Chinese origin, the use of tradit ...

. This has been the result of a modernization in its usage in recent years, leading to a gradual elevation in status of the ''liuqin'' from an

accompaniment Accompaniment is the musical part which provides the rhythmic and/or harmonic support for the melody or main themes of a song or instrumental piece. There are many different styles and types of accompaniment in different genres and styles of m ...

instrument in folk

Chinese opera Traditional Chinese opera (), or ''Xiqu'', is a form of musical theatre in China with roots going back to the early periods in China. It is an amalgamation of various art forms that existed in ancient China, and evolved gradually over more tha ...

, to an instrument known for its unique tonal and acoustic qualities. The instrument is held diagonally like the Chinese ruan and

yueqin The ''yueqin'' (; ; ; or ), also called a moon lute or moon guitar, is a traditional Chinese musical instruments, traditional Chinese string instrument. It is a lute with a round, hollow soundboard, a short fretted neck, and usually four str ...

. Its strings are elevated by a bridge and the soundboard has two prominent soundholes. Finally, the instrument is played with a pick with similar technique to both ruan and yueqin. Therefore, the liuqin is most commonly played and doubled by those with ruan and yueqin experience. Historically, the ''liuqin'' was commonly made of

willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, of the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 350 species (plus numerous hybrids) of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions. Most species are known ...

wood (柳 ''liǔ'' literally meaning "willow"), while professional players used versions constructed with a higher-quality red

sandalwood Sandalwood is a class of woods from trees in the genus ''Santalum''. The woods are heavy, yellow, and fine-grained, and, unlike many other aromatic woods, they retain their fragrance for decades. Sandalwood oil is extracted from the woods. Sanda ...

or rosewood. In contemporary versions, however, the front board is made of ''tong'' wood (桐木) and red sandalwood is used for the back.

History

The ''liuqin'' has gone by various names, firstly the ''liuyeqin'' ( 柳葉琴), meaning willow leaf-shaped instrument. This was the original term for the ''liuqin'', which is an abbreviation of the term ''liuyeqin''. The other reference to the ''liuqin'' is the ''tu pipa'' (土琵琶), literally meaning unrefined ''

pipa The pipa, pípá, or p'i-p'a () is a traditional Chinese musical instrument belonging to the plucked category of instruments. Sometimes called the "Chinese lute", the instrument has a pear-shaped wooden body with a varying number of frets rangi ...

'', because of the diminutive size and resemblance of the ''liuqin'' to the ''pipa''. Throughout its history, the ''liuqin'' came in variations ranging from two (which only had a range of one and a half octaves) to four strings. However, the earliest precursor of the modern four-stringed version of the instrument appeared and experienced popularity during the

Qing Dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

. This version had two strings, and was only used for accompaniment purposes in traditional operas. The two-stringed ''liuqin'' remained in use for much of dynastic China from the Qing Dynasty until the late 20th century. With the modernization of traditional Chinese music in the 1970s, the four-stringed ''liuqin'' was developed as an improvement to its musical range, and the body of the instrument was enlarged to allow players to handle the instrument with greater ease.

Playing technique, tones and range

The playing technique is similar to that of the

, using a

plectrum A plectrum is a small flat tool used for plucking or strumming of a stringed instrument. For hand-held instruments such as guitars and mandolins, the plectrum is often called a pick and is held as a separate tool in the player's hand. In harpsic ...

and frequently using the

tremolo In music, ''tremolo'' (), or ''tremolando'' (), is a trembling effect. There are multiple types of tremolo: a rapid repetition of a note, an alternation between two different notes, or a variation in volume. Tremolos may be either ''measured'' ...

technique. Its strings are either tuned in fifths, G-D-A-E (as a mandolin or

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

), or else in a mixture of fourths and fifths, as for example G-D-G-D, which is the more common tuning employed by mainstream players of the ''liuqin''. This makes playing of the ''liuqin'' exactly the same as the '' zhongruan'', which is tuned an octave lower, hence players of either the ''liuqin'' or the ''ruan'' can often double on both instruments. Liuqin has a refreshing, jubilant and delicate tonal quality. The modern ''liuqin'' has four steel strings. Like the ''ruan'', the number of the ''liuqins frets was increased from 7 to 29 over the course of the 20th century. These frets are arranged in half-step intervals. As the frets on all Chinese lutes are high, the fingers do not touch the instruments' bodies—distinctively different from western fretted instruments. This allows for a greater control over timbre and intonation than their western counterparts, but makes chordal playing (double, triple, quadruple stopping) more difficult.

Notable players of the ''liuqin''

*Wang Huiran (王惠然, 1936-2023), esteemed "Father of the ''liuqin'"'' *Wang Hongyi (王红艺), daughter of Wang Huiran *NiNi Music * Mei Han, ''

guzheng The zheng (), or guzheng (), is a Chinese List of Chinese musical instruments#Plucked, plucked zither. The modern guzheng commonly has 21, 25, or 26 strings, is long, and is tuned in a Major scale, major pentatonic scale. It has a large, reson ...

'' who doubles on ''liuqin''

''Liuqin'' repertoire

Composed/ co-composed/ adapted by Wang Huiran (王惠然)

*Canal Works of Happiness *Melody on a Moonlit River *Sing a Mountain Song of Love *Spring Comes to River Yi (春到沂河) *The Lark (''Yun Que'') Romanian Folk Music *Warrior Suite

By other composers

*Sword Dance (劍器) *Beyond the Horizons (天地星空) *Courtyard After The Rain (雨后庭院)

Notes

References

Yu Yunfei,"The transition of liuqin's characters", Jiao Xiang-Journal of Xi'an Conservatory of Music, Mar.2005,90-92. Wang Huiran,"The revolution of liuqin and its current situation", People's Music, May.2006,48-51.

External links

More information

On the instrument
''Liuqin'' photographs
(first row)

(a Mp3 recording available here as well)
Information on the ''liuqin''
(also includes information on other plucked-string instruments and notational description of instrumental tonal range) On players of the ''liuqin''
Concert information on Wang HuiranInformation on Wang Huiran and Wang Hongyi

Audio

(click headphones to listen to individual tracks) * ttps://web.archive.org/web/20060208065533/http://www.geocities.com/risheng99/instruments/liuqin_music.html ''Liuqin'' Mp3s on Yahoo! GeoCities {{Authority control Chinese musical instruments Necked bowl lutes