China Flashcards
What is a Guqin?
A plucked, 7-string chordophone. 5,000 years old.
What is a Guzheng?
A plucked, 21-string chordophone. 2,500 years old.
What is Sizhu?
A style of traditional Chinese instrumental music from the Jiangnan region of China. Literally, “Silk and Bamboo” it refers to the stringed and woodwind instruments used in this musical style.
What is Heterophony?
A texture characterized by the simultaneous playing of many variations of a single melody, whether at different tempos or rhythms, or with extra elaborations.
What is Fangman jiahua?
Literally “making slow and adding flowers.” A technique through which the tempo is slowed to achieve temporal space between the notes of the melody. This space is then ornamented with additional notes.
What is a Digi?
A transverse flute, an aerophone, mostly made of bamboo that has a copper piece to connect to other pieces of bamboo for tuning, as well as a hole that is covered by a membrane to create a buzzing sound.
What is a Yang qin?
A Chinese hammered dulcimer, a chordophone originally from Persia (Modern day Iran). Yang means foreign.
What is a Pipa?
A plucked, 4-string chordophone. A Chinese Lute, history dating back to 2nd Century A.D.
What is an Erhu?
A bowed, 2-string chordophone. A spiked fiddle or a Chinese violin. Introduced more than 1,000 years ago.
What is a Xiao?
A Chinese aerophone. A vertical, end-blown flute. Usually made of bamboo.
What is the Jingju?
The Beijing opera, the most dominant form of Chinese opera which combines music, vocal performances mime, dance and acrobatics. Arose in the mid-Qing dynasty (1636–1912).
What is an Aria?
In music, an Aria is a self contained piece for one voice, with or without musical accompaniment. Usually part of a larger whole.
What is Wenchang?
In the Beijing opera, the melodic and lyrical instruments are collectively referred to as the Wenchang (‘civil section’).
What is Wuchang?
In the Beijing opera, the percussive and military instruments are collectively referred to at the Wuchang (‘martial section’).
What is a Muyu?
A Chinese idiophone, literally known as the wooden fish. A wooden percussion instrument, used to keep the rhythm during sutra chanting by Buddhist disciples.
