Liuqin
The
liuqin (
柳琴;
pinyin:
li"qín) is a four-stringed
Chinese lute with a pear-shaped body. It is small in size, almost a miniature copy of another Chinese plucked instrument, the
pipa. But the range of its voice is much higher than the
pipa, and has its own special place in the
Chinese music, whether in orchestral music or in solo pieces. 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 instrument in folk
Chinese opera, narrative music, i.e.
Suzhou pingtan, in northern
Jiangsu, southern
Shandong and
Anhui, to an instrument well-appreciated for its unique tonal and acoustic qualities.
Historically the
liuqin was commonly made of willow wood, while the professionals used versions constructed with a higher-quality red sandalwood or rosewood. In contemporary versions though, the front board is made of
tong wood (桐木) and for the reverse side, of red sandalwood, as comparable to historical types.
The
liuqin has gone by various names, firstly the
liuyeqin (
柳叶琴), meaning willow-leaf-shaped instrument. This was the original term for the
liuqin, which is visibly an abbreviation of the term
liuyeqin. The other reference to the
liuqin is the
tu pipa (土琵琶), literally meaning unrefined
pipa, because of the aforementioned dimunitive size and resemblance of the
liuqin to the
pipa.
Throughout its history, the
liuqin came in variations ranging from two (which only had and a half octaves) to five strings. However, the earliest precursor of the modern four-stringed
liuqin appeared and experienced popularity during the
Tang Dynasty (AD 618 - 907). This version had three strings, and was only used for accompaniment purposes in traditional operas, as mentioned before.
The three-stringed
liuqin remained in use for much of dynastic China from the Tang Dynasty until the late 20th century. The tunings used were thus D-G-D and D-A-D. With the advent of modernization of traditional Chinese music in 1970s, the four-stringed
liuqin was developed as an improvement to its musical range, and the body of the instrument was enlarged to allow the player to handle the instrument with greater ease. There, however, still remains a five-stringed
liuqin, which was developed with a A-D-A-D-A tuning to cater to needs for an
alto liuqin in 1975.
Its technique is closer to that of the
mandolin than that of the pipa, using a
plectrum and frequently using the
tremolo technique. Its strings are either tuned in fifths, G-D-A-E (as a mandolin or
violin), or else in a mixture of fourths and fifths, as for example G-D-G-D, which is a commoner tuning employed by mainstream players of the
liuqin. This makes playing of the
liuqin exactly the same as the
ruan, hence players of either the
liuqin or the
ruan often double on both instruments.
The modern
liuqin has four steel strings. Like the
ruan, the number of the
liuqin's frets was increased from 7 to 24 over the course of the 20th century. These frets are arranged in half-step intervals. Its refreshing and jubilant tonal quality is more delicate than that of the
yueqin.
*Wang Hongyi (王红艺), daughter of Wang Huiran
*Wang Huiran (王惠然), esteemed "Father of the
liuqin"
Works composed/co-composed/adapted by Wang Huiran (王惠然)
*Canal of Happiness
*Melody on a Moonlit River
*Sing a Mountain Song of Love
*Spring Comes to River Yi (春到沂河)
*Swords
*The Lark (
Yun Que) Romanian Folk Music
*Warrior Suite
More information
On the instrument*
Liuqin photographs (first row)
*
Liuqin*
Liu Qin (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 Huiran*
Press release on Wang Hongyi*
Information on Wang Huiran and Wang HongyiListening
*
Liuqin Mp3s (click headphones to listen to individual tracks)
*
Liuqin Mp3s on Yahoo! GeoCities*
Traditional Chinese musical instrumentsRelated Chinese plucked-string instruments
PipaRuan
