The Haegeum (Korean erhu)

[tyme]

Hello. New to these parts, and I actually don't play erhu. xD

My instrument is haegeum, the Korean erhu.

Koreans didn't modernize the instruments as the Chinese did, so while I'm sure the haegeum and a certain member of the huqin family were exactly identical at one point, there are now significant modern differences.

• the bow
  The haegeum's bow is left to be slack, and must be held tight with one's fingers while playing
  
  
• body
  The haegeum is always made with bamboo. The soundboard is also made of wood which contributes to the harsher sound.
  
  
• string
  Silk strings are used for haegeum.
  
  
• sheet music
  Each note is signified by a Chinese character. There is a character for each note in the pentatonic scale, although most outside the scales are unecessary for traditional songs. There are also abbreviations for certain note sequences. Other symbols are for decorative notes. Each box is one beat, and the continous, long horizontal lines divide measures. The vertical and horizontal lines in the horizontal columns denote bowing.
  
  The bottom image is a "modernized" version of the sheet music, although it's fairly unchanged from the Korean Joseon Dynasty.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• technique
  I'm still a relative beginner, so this is mainly just observation of my teacher and youtube videos.
  
  From pure observation, erhu players seem to move their hands from one place to another during the same song.
  
  While haegeum players will occasionally slip a finger slightly higher or lower to play notes out of range from one position, songs are usually played without much hand movement
  
  The range when in one position goes from a Fa on the inner string to a high Do on the outer string. We play an entire octave on the outer string. This is accomplished by using the same finger positions but adding pressure for Mi Fa, So La, and Ti Do.
  
  

My main question pertains to the sheet music.

Korean musicians who play these traditional instruments go by ïÌÊàÜÏ, which was a change made in King Sejong's reign in the 1400s. The Korean encyclopedia I'm referring to mentions an earlier ×Èí®ÜÏ, which had all 12 tones but apparently wasn't as precise at denoting time as ïÌÊàÜÏ. Would the earlier ×Èí®ÜÏ more likely correspond with ancient Chinese music? Or is there in fact little to no correlation bewteen the two?

And modern erhu sheet music has numbers for notes, correct? When was the change made from "older" sheet music to the modern style?

Would anyone be able to point me in a direction where I'd be able to find some of the "old" style sheet music. I'd enjoy seeing it, even if it made absoloutely no sense.

[davidmdahl]

Welcome to the forum, tyme. It sounds like you are lucky to have a teacher for such a lovely and unique instrument as the haegeum.

Regarding old Chinese notation, you might check out the Wikipedia articles on related subjects:

gongche:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gongche_notation

jianpu:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jianpu

qinpu:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qin_notation

There is a series of books titled "Music from the Tang Court" edited by Laurence Picken. They are from an academic frame of reference, and not really useful for a performing musician, but you might find something interesting there. Inter-library loan might be a good approach.

Best wishes,

David