Ruan (musical instrument)
Ruan ( Chinese 阮 , Pinyin ruǎn ), occasionally, especially in Taiwan , also ruanqin (阮琴, pinyin: ruǎnqín ), is a plucked long necked noisy with a circular body , frets on a long neck and four strings in the Chinese music played becomes. The ruan is originally a Chinese musical instrument and, like the yueqin, structurally belongs to the “moon guitars” or “moon lutes”, a translation of yueqin (“moon qin ”). The strings were off earlierSilk ; steel strings have been used since the 20th century. It used to have 13 frets, the modern ruan has 19 to 24 frets in semitone steps, which greatly expanded its range. The frets were often made of ivory in the past. Today's frets are made of metal and produce a lighter tone than ivory frets.
Classification
The ruan is made in five sizes:
- Soprano : Gaoyinruan (高音 阮, lit. "Hochton-Ruan", tuning: G3-D4-G4-D5)
- Old : Xiaoruan (小 阮, lit. "little Ruan", mood: D3-A3-D4-A4)
- Tenor : Zhongruan (中 阮, lit. "middle Ruan"; tuning: G2-D3-G3-D4)
- Bass : Daruan (大 阮, lit. "large Ruan", tuning: D2-A2-D3-A3)
- Double bass : Diyinruan (低音 阮, lit. " Bass Ruan", tuning: G1-D2-G2-D3)
The ruan is most commonly used today in Chinese opera and the classical Chinese orchestra, where it belongs to the group of plucked instruments (弹拨 乐). According to the traditional classification of the eight sounds , the main category is "silk".
Style of play
The ruan can be played with a plectrum , similar to the plectrum for guitar (formerly made of animal horn, now often made of plastic), or with a set of two or five acrylic nails that are attached to the fingers with adhesive tape. Commonly ruan players use picks, although some schools also teach finger technique, similar to playing the pipa . When pipa players play the ruan as a second instrument, they often use their fingernails. Picks produce a louder and clearer sound, while fingernails are suitable for virtuoso solo music with a softer sound.
In Chinese orchestras, only the zhongruan and daruan are generally used to fill in the tenor and bass sections of the plucked instruments. The gaoyinruan is occasionally used to replace the lighter-sounding liuqin .
Daruan soloists usually use the DADA tuning as it makes it easier to create the diatonic chords. Some orchestral musicians tune their instrument on CGDA as with the cello so that the daruan can take over the part of the cello.
A ruan ensemble (重奏) consists of ruan in two or more sizes, such as xiaoruan, zhongruan and daruan . The large tonal range and the sound spectrum of the soprano, alto, tenor, bass and double bass instruments make the ruan ensemble particularly suitable for polyphonic music.
origin
In its 2000-year history, the ruan had different names: The qinpipa (秦 琵琶), ruanxian (阮咸) and ruan (阮). According to the pipa annals (琵琶 赋) by Fu Xuan (傅玄) from the Western Jin Dynasty , the ruan was designed after reworking other Chinese stringed instruments, such as the Chinese zither , guzheng (筝) and zhu (筑), or konghou (箜篌), the Chinese harp. Another possibility is that it is said to have descended from an instrument called the xiantao (弦 鼗) that was built by workers of the Great Wall of China during the late Qin Dynasty (hence qinpipa ) using strings over a damaru were excited.
In ancient China, the lute was called qinpipa ( Qin Dynasty , 221 BC - 206 BC). Before the Song dynasty , the pipa was a generic term for a range of stringed instruments . The qinpipa differs from the pear-shaped pipa by its long, straight neck with a round body. The name pipa is associated with tantiao (彈 挑), a technique in which a plucked instrument is played with the right hand. Pi (琵), which means tan (彈), is the falling motion when plucking the strings. Pa (琶), which means tiao (挑), is the upward movement when plucking the strings.
The current name ruan comes from the Tang Dynasty (8th century). During the reign of Empress Wu Zetian (武則天) (around 684–704 AD), a copper instrument that is said to have looked like the qinpipa was discovered in an old grave in Sichuan (四川) . It had 13 frets and a round body. It was believed to be the instrument that East Jin (東晉) musician Ruan Xian (阮咸) loved to play. Ruan Xian was a scholar in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (三國 東晉) (3rd century) of the Three Kingdoms. He and six other scholars did not like the government's corruption, so they gathered in a bamboo grove in Shanyang (山陽, what is now Henan Province [河南]). They drank, wrote poetry, played music and enjoyed the simple life. The group came to be known as the Seven Wise Men in the Bamboo Grove (竹 林七賢). Since Ruan Xian an expert and why was famous to play an instrument like the Qin pipa looked like the instrument was named after him, as the copper Qin in a grave in the Tang Dynasty pipa was found. The ruan was previously called ruanxian (阮咸), today it is shortened to ruan (阮).
During the Tang Dynasty, a ruanxian was brought to Japan from China. This ruanxian is now kept in Shosoin in the Nara National Museum in Japan. The ruanxian was made from red sandalwood and decorated with mother-of-pearl inlays. The old ruanxian shows that the appearance of today's ruan hasn't changed much since the 8th century.
Nowadays, although the ruan was never as popular as the pipa , several smaller and better known instruments have evolved from the ruan over the past few centuries, such as the yueqin ("moon" sounds, 月琴) and the qinqin (Qin sounds,秦 琴). The short-necked yueqin , which has no sound holes, is primarily used as an accompaniment in the Peking Opera . The long-necked qinqin is part of both the Cantonese (廣東) and Chaozhou (潮州) ensembles.
Ruan and Pipa
In northeast China, a small pipa was found in wall paintings of tombs in Liaoning Province (遼寧). The date of these graves is around the time period of the late Eastern Han Dynasty (23–220 AD) (東漢) to the Wei Dynasty (魏) (220–265 AD). However, the pear-shaped pipa was not moved to Dunhuang (敦煌) in northwest China until the period of the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534 AD), when ancient China traded with western countries on the Silk Road (絲綢之路) brought. Large numbers of pipas can be seen on frescoes in Dunhuang Grottoes , and these date back to the 4th to 5th centuries.
During the Han Dynasty (206 BC to 220 AD), Lady Wang Zhaojun (王昭君), known in ancient China as One of the Four Beauties (四大 美人), left the mainland and headed west married the Great Khan of the Huns. The marriage should maintain peace between the two ancient countries. On her way west, she rode a horse and carried a pipa . From today's perspective, this pipa is said to have been a ruan- like instrument with a round sound body, since the pear-shaped pipa was only brought to China at the time of the Northern Wei Dynasty. In almost all portraits and dramas, Lady Zhaojun's pipa is only shown imprecisely, so that the body of the sound could not be precisely determined. Otherwise, the pipa was usually represented with a pear-shaped body (as is the case today) instead of a round one.
The frets are raised on all Chinese sounds so that the fingers never touch the actual body; a clear difference to western string instruments. This allows for greater control over timbre and intonation than their western counterparts, but makes playing chords more difficult.
Laruan (arched ruan)
In addition to the ruan plucked instruments mentioned above, there is also a family of bow-shaped stringed instruments called the laruan and dalaruan (literally "curved ruan " and "large curved ruan "). Both are curved bass string instruments designed as alternatives to the gehu and diyingehu in large orchestras with traditional Chinese instruments. These instruments correspond in range to the violoncello and double bass . Chinese orchestras currently using the laruan and dalaruan include the National Traditional Orchestra of China and the Central National Broadcasting Orchestra.
repertoire
A well-known work in the Zhongruan repertoire is the Zhongruan Concerto "Memories of Yunnan " (云南 回忆) by Liu Xing (刘星) from 1962. It was the first concert for the zhongruan and the Chinese orchestra. This work eventually established the zhongruan as a solo instrument in the Chinese orchestra.
Some works for the Ruan:
- 《汉 琵琶 情》 Love of the Han Pipa, Zhongruan Concerto
- 《玉 关 引》 Narration of Yuguan, Ruan Quartet (music)
- 《泼水节》 The Water Festival, Ruan Tecerto
- 《睡莲》 Water Lilies, Zhongruan Solo
Some of Liu Xing's compositions for the Ruan:
- 《云南 回忆》 Reminiscences of Yunnan, Zhongruan concerto
- 《第二 中 阮 协奏曲》 Second Zhongruan Concerto
Some of the compositions by Ning Yong for the Ruan:
- 《拍 鼓 翔龙》 Flying Dragons in Drum Beats, Zhongruan Solo
- 《丝路 驼铃》 Camel Bells on the Silk Road, Zhongruan / Daruan Solo
- 《篮 关 雪》 Snow at Lan Guan, Zhongruan Solo
Well-known players and composers
- Cui Jun Miao (崔军淼)
- Ding Xiaoyan (丁晓燕)
- Fei Jian Rong (费 剑 蓉)
- Lin Jiliang (林吉良)
- Liu Bo (刘波)
- Liu Xing (刘星)
- Miao Xiaoyun (苗 晓芸)
- Ning Yong (宁 勇)
- Ruan Shi Chun (阮仕春)
- Shen Fei (沈 非)
- Su Handa (苏 涵 达)
- Tan Su-Min, Clara （陈素敏）
- Wang Zhong Bing (王仲 丙)
- Wei Wei (魏 蔚)
- Wei Yuru (魏育茹)
- Wu Qiang (吴 强)
- Xu Yang (徐阳)
- Zhang Rong Hui (张蓉晖)
Individual evidence
- ^ The music of pipa , TNUA School of Music Department of Traditional Music, accessed September 7, 2016
- ↑ Taiping yulan ("Imperial Reading of the Taiping Period"). Original text at Wikisource : 漢 遣 烏孫 公主 ， 念 其 行道 思慕 ， 使 工 知音 者 ， 戰 琴 箏 築 箜篌 之 屬 ， 作 作 馬上 之 樂。 Translation: “The Han emperor sent the Wusun princess on a journey and there he Thinking of her thoughts and aspirations on her journey, he instructed musical experts to make an instrument based on the zheng, zhu, and konghou that were tailored for horse play. ”There are variations of this passage from others Sources and the Konghou are not listed in the other sources.
- ↑ 《琵琶 錄》 Records of Pipa by Duan Anjie (段 安 節) citing Du Zhi of Jin Dynasty. Original text: 樂 錄 雲 ， 琵琶 本 出於 弦 鼗。 而 杜 摯 以為 秦 之 末世 ， 苦於 苦於 長城 之 役。 百姓 弦 鼗 而 鼓 之. Translation: According to Yuelu, the Pipa originated in Xiantao. Du Zhi thought that towards the end of the Qin Dynasty, people suffering from slave labor on the Great Wall played it with strings on a drum with a handle. (Note that the word Xiantao, xian means string, tao means rattle drum , is a common shape of this drum, a flat round drum with a handle, a shape somewhat similar to the ruan.) Retrieved September 7, 2016
- ↑ Sin-Yan Shen, Chinese Music and Orchestration: A Primer on Principles and Practice, p. 102, 1991, Chinese Music Society of North America, Woodridge, October 19, 2009, ISBN 1880464004
- ↑ 杜佑 《通典》 Tongdian by Du You Original Text: 阮咸 ， 亦 秦 琵琶 也 ， 而 項 長 過 於今 制 ， 列 十 有 三 柱。 武 太后 太后 時 ， 蜀人 蒯 朗 於 古墓 中 得 之 ， 晉竹林 七賢 圖 阮咸 所 彈 與 此類 同 ， 因 謂 之 阮咸 。Translation: Ruan Xian, also called Qin Pipa, but its neck was longer than that of today's instruments. It has 13 frets. During the time of Empress Wu, Kuailang from Sichuan also found one in an ancient tomb. Ruan Xian of the seven wise men of the Bamboohain from the Jin Dynasty was shown in a picture in which he plays the same instrument, so it was named after Ruan Xian. Retrieved September 7, 2016
- ↑ a b c Shen, Sin-Yan, Chinese Music and Orchestration: A Primer on Principles and Practice, p. 108, 1991, Chinese Music Society of North America, Woodridge, October 19, 2009
- ↑ The Seven Sages of the Bamboo ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (in Chinese), 竹 林七賢, accessed October 20, 2009, accessed September 7, 2016
- ^ Alan R. Thrasher, Chinese Musical Instrument , p. 40, 2002, Oxford University Press Inc., New York. ISBN 0-19-590777-9 , October 18, 2009, accessed September 7, 2016
- ↑ Shen, Sin-Yan, Chinese Music and Orchestration: A Primer on Principles and Practice, p. 109, 1991, Chinese Music Society of North America, Woodridge, October 19, 2009
