Erhu

The erhu (Chinese二胡, Pinyin erhu ) is a two-stringed Chinese bowed string instrument with no frets and no fretboard, which is counted to the tube spit violins. During the Song Dynasty, this instrument was initially popular in southern China, therefore, the erhu also Nanhu (Chinese南胡, Nanhu Pinyin, Chinese南, Pinyin nán, south ') called. During the Tang Dynasty came precursors of the erhu in China, which in turn had its origins in Persia.

Generation and distribution

The usually in the fifth ( D / A, which corresponds to the two middle strings of the European violin ) tuned metal strings (Traditional However, silk strings were used ) lead of the vertebrae through a coil wound around the neck cord to a small sound box made ​​of rosewood ( there are various woods are used mostly Redwoods ) with a membrane of snake skin, from the strings - is vibrated - similar to a banjo. The neck of the erhu is a bar, which is also made of redwood with simpler versions of bamboo, with better instruments.

The bow hair ( horsehair ) of the bamboo sheet are clamped between the strings. Played she is sitting down, the instrument on his knees alignment by the bow hairs are drawn between the strings. To emphasize the A string, the bow has to be pushed up, pushed down accordingly for the D string. The fingers of the left hand touch both strings, but do not press it to the neck down, because there is no fingerboard is available. Through different strong pressing down the string can arise different glissando and vibrato effects. By gently placing the fingers Harmonics can be produced.

In the 19th century became the erhu in China, the main instrument of the National Opera as well as a solo instrument in the underground music. In today's Chinese music, the erhu is still among the most popular instruments.

A similar fiddle with one string exists in Malawi. This unusual instrument is called for Africa kaligo at the local Chewa. The Ugandan tube spike fiddle endingidi probably goes back to Chinese models, which came into the interior of East Africa with Arab middlemen in the 19th century. The relationship with the ravanahattha is unclear. It is played in the north Indian folk music and appeared on pictures of the 19th century as a two-stringed spike fiddle on tubular.

311692
de