I did not know whether to feign excitement or admit to my utter clueless when Maeve called me one afternoon, announcing that she was the proud owner of an erhu. She had recently returned from a school excursion to China, and upon declaring her latest procurement, I knew immediately that I was in for an adventure. So, confessing my ignorance, I told her not to reveal the mysterious erhu's identity; that I would pay a visit and see for myself what it was. Maeve is the brainy, musical one of my friends. We actually became friends over a Telemann Duo Sonata, Maeve on flute, myself on violin. We have been playing Irish jigs, Scottish reels, and dreadful Harry Potter arrangements together ever since. We have danced at Gaelic Storm and Chieftans concerts, and composed pieces for recorder quintet (to make use of Maeve's alto recorder). I can always count on her to divulge some random factoid, or introduce me to a genre of music or instrument that I had no idea existed. When I drove over to Maeve's apartment to investigate this erhu, I was surprised to find that it was not one of her usual aerophones (as I had anticipated), but an odd type of chordophone/membranophone hybrid.
It turns out that it is an ancient "Chinese violin". Pronounced "arr-who", It is played by resting the body of the instrument on one's lap, stretching the horsehair bow taut between one's right thumb and index finger, and pulling the hair back and forth between two strings, so close together on the "fingerboard" of the instrument that they touch. The result is a twangy, melancholy sound, not unlike the Western violin. The range between the two instruments is about the same, so it was not hard for my left hand to acclimate to the intervals on the fingerboard. The difficult part was figuring out the right way to maneuver the bow between the strings. I am so used to significantly moving my bow on the viola, moreover the bowhair is on top of the strings; yet it takes only a subtle movement to get the other string of the erhu to sound, and even more unusual (to me) is that the bowhair is actually between the strings!
The erhu was my fascinating discovery of the summer of 2007, thanks to dear Maeve.
Its great to see that important things dont get lost in translation. I would love to listen to music produced by this instrument, you're description was very intriguing.
ReplyDeleteI'm more than a little jealous of your erhu experience. You should tell your friend to start a band centered around it. I have a friend in Nashville who frequently incorporates a sitar into his band. It is the coolest sound you could ever hear.
ReplyDeleteThat is so interesting! Is it a large instrument? Was it heavy or light? Are they made out of wood like western violins? I know you probably don't know everything about them, but I thought I might ask. It would be really interesting to hear the ehru and a violin or viola (wink wink) play together. I wonder how they would sound.
ReplyDeleteThe excitemenent must have been exhilerating. One of my high school classmates was extremely interested in music culture that he purchased one at school. I remember him playing it for us and the unique tangy timbre of the string. If I remember right did it have one string and was it constructed in an odd formation? I never knew how to spell due to its unique spellings although it hs a name which flows beautifully off the tongue.
ReplyDeleteIsn’t it exciting whenever you discover something that you didn’t know exists?
ReplyDeleteWhen I went to California this December, we visited China Town in San Francisco. There, I saw a Chinese playing the erhu. A crowd surrounded him and everyone was taking pictures and recordings of him. =D
Hola, my friend who loves the erhu!
ReplyDeleteWell, that is certainly very interesting. I am glad that this erhu broadened your music horizons and exposed you to different musical things in the musical world. Is that all of your experiences with other musical cultures though? I do not believe this.
OH! They have an erhu on the Pirates of the Caribbean 3 soundtrack! I loved the sound of it and wish I could hear one in person!
ReplyDeleteLovely post, Sara. I do love your joy of language. Oh, and the erhu sounds intriguing, too!
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