The Four Stringed Liuqin

The liuqin is a smaller version of the pipa but with four strings and the sound of a soprano range lute. There are two sound holes on each side of the body. By pressing slightly above any of the frets on the instrument, one can vary the pitch.

Liuqin

The liuqin is commonly played using a plectrum like in the guitar. The liuqin is often used to accompany other instruments for folk songs and local opera. It’s translation into English from Chinese means willow-shaped instrument, and it may come with two to five strings. The earliest four-stringed liuqin was popular during the Tang Dynasty (618 – 906 AD). The modern liuqin has four steel strings. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=l2oid-p7ztU

If you enjoyed hearing the liuqin, see The Yangqin

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

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This entry was posted on Monday, April 19th, 2010 at 08:00 and is filed under China, Chinese arts and music, Chinese Culture, Chinese history. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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