zhang.dianliI have played woodwinds and adjacent seemingly forever. (I think I started at 6 with a recorder.) They remain my favourite overall class of instruments (though for just noodling around I also really enjoy the kalimba).
The tendency in western instrumentation is to streamline. As a result there's not that much variety in musical instruments of a given class. Contrariwise in China they keep every instrument from every subculture down the ages, meaning that I've built up a rather sizable collection of assorted woodwinds (and adjacent) from the fiendishly difficult 管子 (guǎnzi or lit. "pipe") to the slightly simpler 箫 (xiāo or end-blown flute).
But the most interesting instruments are the folk instruments.
Every year, during Spring Festival, I like to pamper myself with one major purchase. This year's major purpose is a 葫芦丝 (húlúsī, often translated as "gourd flute"), an instrument associated mainly with the Dai people. The literal translation of the name is "calabash silk", with the former referring to what it is traditionally made of—bamboo pipes stuck into a calabash gourd—and the latter a description, in effect, of the sound's timbre.
Modern hulusi are made of any number of things: wood, plastic, resin, metal, even ceramics. But for me, I only want the traditional which means I got a hulusi made of bamboo pipes pushed into a calabash.
Only I had to be weird and get one made of a "single belly" gourd, not the far more common "double-belly" gourd.
This instrument is something special. It has a rather limited tessitura, a dynamic range that varies by what note you play, both mildly annoying, but for that has a wonderful timbre that is fully worthy of the name "silk". As with most traditional Chinese instruments there is a lot of technique involved in playing it well and a skilled player (read: not me) can bend pitches using just breath control among other tricks to make it fully chromatic.
zhang.dianli I have played woodwinds and adjacent seemingly forever. (I think I started at 6 with a recorder.) They remain my favourite overall class of instruments (though for just noodling around I also really enjoy the kalimba).
Show moreThe tendency in western instrumentation is to streamline. As a result there's not that much variety in musical instruments of a given class. Contrariwise in China they keep every instrument from every subculture down the ages, meaning that I've built up a rather sizable collection of assorted woodwinds (and adjacent) from the fiendishly difficult 管子 (guǎnzi or lit. "pipe") to the slightly simpler 箫 (xiāo or end-blown flute).
But the most interesting instruments are the folk instruments.
Every year, during Spring Festival, I like to pamper myself with one major purchase. This year's major purpose is a 葫芦丝 (húlúsī, often translated as "gourd flute"), an instrument associated mainly with the Dai people. The literal translation of the name is "calabash silk", with the former referring to what it is traditionally made of—bamboo pipes stuck into a calabash gourd—and the latter a description, in effect, of the sound's timbre.
Modern hulusi are made of any number of things: wood, plastic, resin, metal, even ceramics. But for me, I only want the traditional which means I got a hulusi made of bamboo pipes pushed into a calabash.
Only I had to be weird and get one made of a "single belly" gourd, not the far more common "double-belly" gourd.
This instrument is something special. It has a rather limited tessitura, a dynamic range that varies by what note you play, both mildly annoying, but for that has a wonderful timbre that is fully worthy of the name "silk". As with most traditional Chinese instruments there is a lot of technique involved in playing it well and a skilled player (read: not me) can bend pitches using just breath control among other tricks to make it fully chromatic.
#hulusi #woodwind #dai #TraditionalMusic #葫芦丝 #木管乐器 #傣族 #传统音乐