Chinese Music
In Chinese music the most popularly used woodwind and percussion
instruments are sheng, dizi, gong, paigu, guan, paixiao, and cymbals bells.
Bowed strings instruments such as zhonghu, erhu, dahu, jinghu, gehu, banhu,
gaohu, yehu, diyingehu, cizhonghu and leiqn are widely used in Chinese
music.
Usage of Plucked and struck strings instruments such as sanxian,
guqin, guzheng, yangqin, ruan, liuqin, konghou, zhu and pipa are very common
in Chinese music.
Chinese vocal music has traditionally been sung in a non-resonant and thin voice and is usually solo rather than choral. Traditional Chinese music is rather melodic and not harmonic.
Chinese vocal music most probably developed from sung verses which had music and from poems. Instrumental pieces played on dizi or erhu are very popular in China .They are often also available outside of China.
However the zheng and pipa music which are more traditional are much more popular in China, even though very few people know what Qin is or perhaps heard it being played, still it is possibly the most reverend instrument used in Chinese music.
The zheng is a form of zither, and is most popular in Chaozhou, Henan, Shandong and Hakka. The pipa is a kind of lute which is believed to have been introduced during the 6th century from the Arabian Peninsula area and adopted to suit the requirements of Chinese music. Pipa is extremely popular in Shanghai and its surrounding areas.
Han folk is a form of Chinese music which is widely played at occasions such as weddings, funerals etc. It usually includes a form of oboe which is called a suona. Percussive ensembles are called chuigushou.
This form of Chinese music is diverse, sometimes it is jolly, sometimes sad and often it is based on Western pop music and television theme songs. Ensembles which consist of mouth organs such as sheng, shawms such as suona, flutes such as dizi and percussion instruments such as yunluo gongs are very popular in northern villages of China.
