The ''gehu'' ( 革胡;

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' ...

: 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 ''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 ...

family and the

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

, essentially an ''erhu cello'' or ''Chinese cello''. Like standard cellos, its four strings are also tuned (from low to high) C-G-D-A; it also uses standard cello strings. Unlike most other

musical instruments A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person who pl ...

in the ''huqin'' family, the bridge does not contact the snakeskin drum head, which faces to the side. Instead the bridge is connected to a mechanism inside the body that touches the drum head. The bridge transmits the string vibrations to that mechanism, causing it to vibrate. There also exists a contrabass ''gehu'' that functions as a Chinese

double bass The double bass (), also known as the upright bass, the acoustic bass, the bull fiddle, or simply the bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched string instrument, chordophone in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding rare additions ...

, known as the ''

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 ...

'', ''digehu'', or ''beigehu'' (倍革胡). By the late 20th century the ''gehu'' had become a rare instrument, even within China, as the tendency for the snakeskin to lose its tightness increases with humidity. Today, it is used mostly in

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

and

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

, although even there, the cello is beginning to become a popular replacement for it. There are also other Chinese instruments that are able to take on the role of bowed bass range instrument, such as the '' laruan'' (which uses the structure and acoustics of the ruan), the ''

lapa Lapa may refer to: People * Bruno Lapa (born 1997), a Brazilian football player * Fernanda Lapa (1943–2020), a Portuguese actress * Serhiy Lapa (born 1992), a Ukrainian football player Places * Lapa, Paraná, a town near Curitiba, in the sta ...

'' (also known as ''paqin'', using the structure of the

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 ...

), and the bass '' matouqin''.

References

External links

Gehu page
from Paul and Bernice Noll Website
''Gehu'' page
(Chinese)

by Brandon Voo

Video

Video of a piece for ''gehu'' and Chinese traditional instrument orchestra, entitled 草原风情 ("Grasslands Character and Style")
performed by Dong Jinchi (董金池), from

CCTV Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of closed-circuit television cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signa ...

Rossini Duet for Cello and Double Bass, played by a gehu and diyingehu.
Chinese musical instruments Huqin family instruments Bowed instruments Cellos Drumhead lutes {{huqin-stub

See also

References

External links

Video