Guzheng

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Guzheng player, near Luoyang , 2006
Guzheng player Vi An Diep in Calgary , Canada, 2008

Guzheng ( Chinese  古箏  /  古筝 , Pinyin gǔzhēng ; , means "antique" or "old"), also zheng , outdated dscheng (  /  , zhēng ), is a vaulted board zither with a long tradition in classical Chinese Music is being played. It consists of strings that are plucked with the help of finger picks, a wooden body and movable bridges. When tuning the instrument, the pitches can be adjusted by moving the bridges, which is very different from many other instruments where the bridges are fixed.

The guzheng first appeared during the Warring States Period (481-256 v. Chr.) And was then first became popular. The elegant sound and the numerous expressive possibilities of the instrument were decisive for the Chinese music. Originally the guzheng had five strings. During the Tang Dynasty (618–906 AD) the number of strings was increased to 13. Later the number of strings was increased to 16, 18 and 21. Today the guzheng can have up to 25 mostly pentatonic strings. 21 strings are typical.

Many individually different types of guzheng have been created in central China since the time of its creation . The instrument is thus the “ancestor” of various Asian zithers or is at least related to them, such as the Mongolian yatga , the Vietnamese đàn tranh and the Korean gayageum . The role of China could be compared to the influence of Greek culture in the Mediterranean in ancient times. The Japanese koto came to Japan from China during the Tang Dynasty. The Japanese wagon , on the other hand, shows a stronger influence from Korea.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the guzheng was improved again, both in terms of construction and the expansion of playing techniques, which were more and more adapted to the requirements of contemporary music and orchestral playing. The Guzheng player Xu Fengxia, who lives in Germany, combines classical Chinese music with jazz and free improvisation, sometimes using experimental playing techniques. Chanyuan Zhao , who also lives in Germany, plays classical Chinese music and also modern adaptations with Benjamin Leuschner in the duo Seidenstrasse .

literature

  • Han Mei: Zheng . In: Grove Music Online, 2001

Web links

Commons : Guzheng  - collection of images, videos and audio files