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==== Southern Chinese Minorities ====
==== Southern Chinese Minorities ====
''Hulu Sheng'' is the ''[[Han Chinese|Han]]'' Chinese name of the gourd mouth organ and has different names in different minority groups in southern China, such as ''Ang'' in Yi, ''Maniu'' in Lisu and ''Nuo'' in Lahu.<ref name=":2" /> Commonly, the instrument is made of a dried gourd bottle as the windchest with its narrow neck as the [[Mouthpiece (woodwind)|mouthpiece]].<ref name=":1" /> Usually, five bamboo pipes (sometimes four to seven) are inserted vertically in the gourd walls from shorter to longer respectively (from 20 cm to 45 cm) and sealed with beeswax with rectangular or triangular free-reeds assembled to each pipe.<ref name=":2" /> Next to each pipe, a finger hole is made to activate the free-reed by opening and closing the hole and inhalation (mainly) and exhalation.<ref name=":1" /> Slight variations in shape, size, height of the gourd mouth organ can  be observed among different minorities groups, for instance, the bamboo pipes used in ''[[Hmong people|Hei Miao]]'' can go up to fourteen feet high with brass reeds.<ref name=":1" />
{{Listen|title=Traditional Chinese Hulusi|filename=Chinese flute Hulusi.wav}}''Hulu Sheng'' is the ''[[Han Chinese|Han]]'' Chinese name of the gourd mouth organ and has different names in different minority groups in southern China, such as ''Ang'' in Yi, ''Maniu'' in Lisu and ''Nuo'' in Lahu.<ref name=":2" /> Commonly, the instrument is made of a dried gourd bottle as the windchest with its narrow neck as the [[Mouthpiece (woodwind)|mouthpiece]].<ref name=":1" /> Usually, five bamboo pipes (sometimes four to seven) are inserted vertically in the gourd walls from shorter to longer respectively (from 20 cm to 45 cm) and sealed with beeswax with rectangular or triangular free-reeds assembled to each pipe.<ref name=":2" /> Next to each pipe, a finger hole is made to activate the free-reed by opening and closing the hole and inhalation (mainly) and exhalation.<ref name=":1" /> Slight variations in shape, size, height of the gourd mouth organ can  be observed among different minorities groups, for instance, the bamboo pipes used in ''[[Hmong people|Hei Miao]]'' can go up to fourteen feet high with brass reeds.<ref name=":1" /> Another commonly seen instrument that is similar to ''Hulu Sheng'' is called ''Hulu Si'', which is also primarily used in Yunnan.<ref name=":7" /> It can be seen as the simplified version of ''Hulu Sheng'' that has three bamboo pipes passing through a gourd windchest and only the middle pipe has finger holes.<ref name=":7" />

==== Other regions ====
==== Other regions ====
In other regions of China, among the ''Han'' people, the most common recognised ensemble free-reed mouth organ is called ''[[Sheng (instrument)|Sheng]].''<ref name=":1" /> It has a modified windchest based on the traditional gourd mouth organ where the gourd is replaced by a piece of wood or metal cut in the same shape to increase its volume and range.<ref name=":1" /> ''Sheng'' spread to [[Korea]] from China during the [[Three Kingdoms|Three Kingdoms period]] and was called ''[[Saenghwang]]'' in Korean.<ref name=":7" /> In the [[8th century|eighth century]], ''Sheng'' was given to the Japanese court at [[Nara (city)|Nara]] as a gift and later was transformed into the Japanese ''[[Shō (instrument)|Shō]].''<ref name=":7" /> <ref>Malm, W. P. (1990). Japanese Music & Musical Instruments. Tuttle Publishing.</ref>
{{Listen|title=Soprano Sheng playing chromatic scale|filename=Soprano Sheng Chromatic Scale.ogg}}In other regions of China, among the ''Han'' people, the most common recognised ensemble free-reed mouth organ is called ''[[Sheng (instrument)|Sheng]].''<ref name=":1" /> It has a modified windchest based on the traditional gourd mouth organ where the gourd is replaced by a piece of wood or metal cut in the same shape to increase its volume and range.<ref name=":1" /> ''Sheng'' spread to [[Korea]] from China during the [[Three Kingdoms|Three Kingdoms period]] and was called ''[[Saenghwang]]'' in Korean.<ref name=":7" /> In the [[8th century|eighth century]], ''Sheng'' was given to the Japanese court at [[Nara (city)|Nara]] as a gift and later was transformed into the Japanese ''[[Shō (instrument)|Shō]].''<ref name=":7" /> <ref>Malm, W. P. (1990). Japanese Music & Musical Instruments. Tuttle Publishing.</ref>


=== Southeast Asia ===
=== Southeast Asia ===

Revision as of 14:29, 30 May 2021

Gourd Mouth Organ
A đing nǎm of the Ede people of Vietnam's Central Highlands
Woodwind instrument
Classification Free reed mouth organ
Hornbostel–Sachs classification412.132
(Sets of free reeds)
Inventor(s)Empress Nüwa (Chinese belief, actual inventor cannot be traced)
Developed3rd millennium BC
Related instruments

The gourd mouth organ is a free reed mouth organ with wide distribution around East and Southeast Asia. It consists of a gourd wind chest and several bamboo or bronze pipes inserted on top of it, and the numbers of pipes differ from region to region.[1]

Nowadays, the gourd mouth organ is closely associated with cultural minorities in the nations of Asia; thus, its styles are diverse and different counterparts can be seen across different cultures.[2] In southern China, the generic name of the gourd mouth organ is Hulu Sheng [3] (葫芦笙; pinyin: húlúshēng; literally "gourd sheng"). The accompaniment of the instrument is essential to the ethnic minorities in China's southern province of Yunnan, such as the Lahu, Yi, Miao and Naxi, especially during their ritual Tage dancing.[4]

In southeast Asia, like upper Burma, northern Laos, northeast Thailand, and Rattanakiri province in Cambodia, the gourd mouth organ is also an essential part of the people’s daily and ceremonial lives.[2] In Thailand it is called naw among the Lahu, lachi among the Akha, and fulu among the Lisu; in Cambodia it is called the ploy; in northeastern Borneo it is called sumpoton; in Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam and Bangladesh, it is called đing nǎm or m'buot .[2] [5][6]

The gourd mouth organ is tuned based on the pentatonic scale without semitones, especially in the melodies, and the melodies are usually accompanied by chords.[1] Pitches can be changed by closing and opening the pipe holes.[3] The players hold the instrument almost horizontally and blow into the windchest during aspiration.[1]

History

Art from Tang dynasty showing musician playing the mouth organ (2nd left)

In Chinese tradition, empress Nyu-kwa is believed to have invented the mouth organ in the third millennium B.C. to mimic Phoenix's neck, body, and wings.[1] [6] This tradition also explains why the gourd mouth organ is often used in the funeral process: people believe the mouth organ creates a protection spell against evil spirit and charm towards the afterlife.[1][7] The gourd mouth organ also represents “the gourd” category of the Chinese eight sounds system (pinyin: Bā yīn; 八音). [8] In this system the instruments are classified upon the materials used to make the instruments.[8]

Despite popular belief, the mouth organ is not recorded until about 1100 B.C..[1] No earlier image of it can be identified other than on a votive stele dated 551 A.D., and the votive stele is now housed in the University Museum in Philadelphia.[1] Today, prototypes of the instrument can be found in parts of east and south Asia.[8] For example, the Hei Miao in western China and the Mro and Kumi in Chittagong, Bengal. [1] However, it is difficult to know with certainty where this wind instrument first appeared.[8]

The gourd windchest of the mouth organ is hard to preserve, but bronze windchests have been discovered in central Yunnan, China, dating from around the fifth century BCE.[9] The gourd mouth organ is also recorded in Chinese historical sources from the Tang dynasty onward, for example, in the Book of Odes (Shijing) and Tangyuezhi.[10] In Shijing it says: "The lutes are struck, the organ blows; till all its tongues in movement heave. The drums loud sound, the organ swells; their flutes the dancers wave."[6] And in the Manshu (ninth century), it records: "Hulusheng was played by young men wandering on the streets in the evenings to express their love towards girls."[3]

Around sixth century A.D., the mouth organ had its widest range of distribution.[2] It was spread from China to Persia and was called mushtaq sini, 'Chinese mushtak', or chubchiq.[2][6] The instrument spread westward in the eighteenth century.[3] Johann Wilde, the inventor of the nail violin, bought or was given a Sheng in St. Petersburg and learned to play die lieblieche Chineser Orgel, “the charming organ of the Chinese”.[3] From 1800 to the present, a large family of reed instruments, such as mouth harmonicas, accordinos, and harmoniums, was created.[1]

Styles and Distribution

China

Southern Chinese Minorities

Traditional Chinese Hulusi
Problems playing this file? See media help.

Hulu Sheng is the Han Chinese name of the gourd mouth organ and has different names in different minority groups in southern China, such as Ang in Yi, Maniu in Lisu and Nuo in Lahu.[3] Commonly, the instrument is made of a dried gourd bottle as the windchest with its narrow neck as the mouthpiece.[1] Usually, five bamboo pipes (sometimes four to seven) are inserted vertically in the gourd walls from shorter to longer respectively (from 20 cm to 45 cm) and sealed with beeswax with rectangular or triangular free-reeds assembled to each pipe.[3] Next to each pipe, a finger hole is made to activate the free-reed by opening and closing the hole and inhalation (mainly) and exhalation.[1] Slight variations in shape, size, height of the gourd mouth organ can  be observed among different minorities groups, for instance, the bamboo pipes used in Hei Miao can go up to fourteen feet high with brass reeds.[1] Another commonly seen instrument that is similar to Hulu Sheng is called Hulu Si, which is also primarily used in Yunnan.[6] It can be seen as the simplified version of Hulu Sheng that has three bamboo pipes passing through a gourd windchest and only the middle pipe has finger holes.[6]

Other regions

Soprano Sheng playing chromatic scale
Problems playing this file? See media help.

In other regions of China, among the Han people, the most common recognised ensemble free-reed mouth organ is called Sheng.[1] It has a modified windchest based on the traditional gourd mouth organ where the gourd is replaced by a piece of wood or metal cut in the same shape to increase its volume and range.[1] Sheng spread to Korea from China during the Three Kingdoms period and was called Saenghwang in Korean.[6] In the eighth century, Sheng was given to the Japanese court at Nara as a gift and later was transformed into the Japanese Shō.[6] [11]

Southeast Asia

A Mangkong man plays khene in Laos

The gourd mouth organ has four subtypes in Southeast Asia. [6]

  1. Pipes extending outwardly from a bottle gourd wind-chest with a tubular embouchure in a circular array.
  2. Pipes in a circular array that are perfectly parallel to each other, with an embouchure immediately in a wooden or metal wind-chest.
  3. Pipes in two parallel lines, closely spaced, with an embouchure immediately in a wooden tube wind-chest. Sometimes, the rows of pipes are arranged across the wind-chest.
  4. Pipes are widely-spaced and in two nearly parallel lines, going through a tubular wooden wind-chest with a long tubular embouchure.

Type 1 is the most common and diverse one among the cultural minorities in mainland Southeast Asia.[6] Type 2 is usually associated with classical performance and is very similar to Chinese Sheng.[6] Examples of type 3 can be the Vietnamese M’buôt , the Bangladeshi Plung and Thai-Lao Khene or Khaen, whereas type 4 has close relation to Hmong people of southern China and adjacent countries.[2][6] M’buôt is found in Truòng Son Ranges of Vietnam and in Champa, a similar instrument is called called rakle.[2] Khene can be found at northeast Thai-Lao regions, and it is considered as national instrument in Laos.[6]

In upper Burma and northern Laos, the mouth organ is in a raft form with two rafts of pipes cross inside the windchest, and one of them either projects under it (X-shaped) or cut off at the bottom of the gourd (V-shaped).[2] In central and south Laos, the gourd is replaced by a wooden windchest with double rafts pierced through it and can go up to twelve feet.[5] In the Boutoy District of Mondulkiri province, the Por and Kuoy of Kampong Chhnang, Pursat, and Siem Reap provinces in Cambodia, the gourd moth organ is called Ploy or Mbaut among upland Mon-Khmer speakers, with five to seven bamboo pipes inserted into the windchest.[2]

The gourd mouth organ and its variants belong to one of the six types of free-reed instruments in southeast Asia.[2] And these instruments are more reminiscent of similar wind instruments found today in southern Chinese minorities than of their Han counterparts (Sheng).[2]

Playing Techniques

The finger holes outside each pipe must be closed to make a sound.[1] The players hold the instrument either vertically and horizontally depending on the shape and size of the instrument, with their lips touching the mouthpiece (the “bent neck”) and ‘blows’ out the air at a controlled rate during aspiration.[12] Two performance techniques are also used, including dayin, pulsing articulation that makes a ‘breaking tone’ and huayin, portamento that makes a ‘sliding tone’.[3]

The tuning is pentatonic without semitones and the pitches can be changed by closing the pipe holes.[3] The chord usually supplements the melody, two of the eleven regular chords correspond to occidental minor triads and the rest are composed of pentatonic-scaled, concurrent notes (e.g., A B D E F#) or in other combinations (e.g., G# A B C D F#).[1][3]

Additional resonators may be used to reinforce the sound.[6] The resonator is usually made of a bottle-gourd placed at the end of the pipe or a large horizontal bamboo internode placed at the end of the longest pipe.[6]

Musical Application

Hmong high school students perform a traditional dance accompanied by khene

China

In China, apart from using the gourd mouth organ in funerals and wedding ceremonies, it is also an essential part of the Tage dancing (“stomping songs”) among ethnic groups like Yi, Naxi, Lahu and Miao people in southeast regions.[4] With a tradition of 2500 years, Tage accompanied by Hulu Sheng is believed to significantly impact people’s emotional outlooks, temperaments, and life desires.[9]

Southeast Asia

In Laos, the gourd moth organ is played with other instruments, combining harmonies in four parts in Wooing games.[5] In Thailand, Khaen (mouth organ in Thai) is played during the curing ceremony with women dancing around an altar of sacred objects.[2] In northeast Thailand, the popular Lam Klawn (repartee singing) is also accompanied by Khaen in local theatres.[1] In Cambodia, the Ploy (mouth organ in Cambodian) and the bronze gong ensemble are played during the ritual sacrifice of buffalo and other traditional dances such as Wild Ox and Peacock of Pursat.[2] In Burma, the Lahu boys play the gourd moth organ during courtship, and the Akha people play the instrument between festivals and at leisure.[2]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Sachs, C. (2012). The history of musical instruments. Courier Corporation.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Uchida, R., & Catlin, A. (2008). Music of upland minorities in Burma, Laos, and Thailand. The Garland Handbook of Southeast Asian Music, 303-316.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Thrasher, A. R. (2015). Hulu sheng. In New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Oxford University Press. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.L2281219
  4. ^ a b Ling, W. (2011). Images of Tage from Yunnan, China. Music in Art, 36(1/2), 245-256. Retrieved April 25, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/41818688
  5. ^ a b c Chapman, A. (2005). Breath and bamboo: Diasporic Lao identity and the Lao mouth-organ. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 26(1-2), 5-20.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Blench, Roger (2012). "The history and distribution of the free-reed mouth-organ in SE Asia".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  7. ^ Bradley, D. (1979). Speech through Music: The Sino-Tibetan Gourd Reed-Organ. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 42(3), 535-540. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/615573
  8. ^ a b c d Malm, W. P. (2019). Chinese music. Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/art/Chinese-music
  9. ^ a b Ling, W. (2005). Bronze Instruments of the Dian Kingdom and Their Images in Scenes of Dance and Music-Making. Music in Art, 17-34.
  10. ^ Benn, C. D. (2004). China's Golden Age: Everyday Life in the Tang Dynasty. Oxford University Press, USA.
  11. ^ Malm, W. P. (1990). Japanese Music & Musical Instruments. Tuttle Publishing.
  12. ^ Grame, T. (1962). Bamboo and Music: A New Approach to Organology. Ethnomusicology, 6(1), 8-14. doi:10.2307/924243
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