Sihu

[notmadeinzhongguo]

I was researching the huqin family of instruments and came across the name 'Sihu' I knew enough Chinese to realize it has four stings instead of two! pic from wikipedia Has anyone ever played one of these before? How is the sound different from the erhu? I wonder if its harder to play...

[davidmdahl]

Very interesting. Apparently the sihu's strings are tuned in pairs, played by a bow with two bunches of hair that run between each pair of strings. One website mentions that it is tuned to G/D, but that is probably not a rule. I expect that it would be tuned to whatever pitches (a fifth apart) were desired by the player. The sihu seems to be mostly associated with Mongolian music.

I have never heard a sihu, but I imagine that the two strings per note make the sound more full, as the chorus effect does on a mandolin or 12-string guitar. The website mentioned above indicates that the sihu is played with the nails of the left hand. I know that this is the technique for the Mongolian horse-head fiddle (matouqin), but it seems to me unlikely due to the more erhu-like construction. Does anyone know for sure?

Best wishes,

David

[davidbadagnani]

I've only ever seen one (probably called something else) in a documentary about Tuvan throat singing. Using the great Yahoo China MP3 website I was able to find one MP3 -- click the headphones icon of the first track to listen, and be aware that it takes a long time to load. You can find many other Chinese instruments on this site this way, but you have to put in the Chinese characters to find tracks.

This particular song sounds very Mongolian and the description of the sound of the instrument is just as David had guessed -- metallic and strong, with a hint of "chorus" effect like you'd find on a mandolin or electric guitar with chorus effect. The piece sounds like a Han conservatory-style arrangement in Mongolian style, in the typical 3-part form, each part getting faster. (It's called "jo-ha-kyu" in Japanese but I don't know what it's called in Chinese--maybe just "ternary form.")

music.yahoo.com.cn/search.html?pid=ysearch&p=%CB%C4%BA%FA&button=%CB%D1%B8%E8%C7%FA&button=%CB%D1%B8%E8%B4%CA&mimetype=all&source=ysearch_music_result_topsearch

[notmadeinzhongguo]

Thanks for the link, davidbadagnani!
I'm still waiting for the sound clip to load... darn my dail-up connection

*edit* Ok, just listened to it and to tell you the truth I don't really like it. It sounds like an overweight erhu.

[davidbadagnani]

Glad you got to listen to it. From that huge Chinese article (the second link in the Wikipedia article, I think), it apparently *is* kind of an overweight erhu! ;-)

[sanmenxia]

This CD's got one sihu recording on it:
Chine: Musique classique
Ocora (Radio France) C 559039
Ocora mid-price C 582039
www.medieval.org/music/world/cds/ocr59039.html

Track 8, Liu Jun (sihu): Ying diao - "Shadow tune" (recorded in 1957) from China Records 3.1677.
The sleeve notes says: is a Mongol instrument...Han tunes it to D1,G,D1,G...used esp for accompany ballads (er ren tai) and shadow theatre (piying xi) to which this piece owes its origin and its name...

[davidbadagnani]

Wow, thanks for info about this CD, Sanmenxia! The review makes it look like a great one with very old solo performances. I think it's a "must" for me but the price isn't cheap. Too bad no audio samples. www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00005KCLL/ref=nosim/102-4042702-9901704?n=5174

If I'm not mistaken, Track 1, the Guan Pinghu recording of "Liu Shui," is on the Voyager Golden Record that was sent out into space with Voyager 1 and 2 in 1977, representing the best of Chinese music. As the guqin player Chen Changlin pointed out to me with pride, it's the longest selection on that disc from all the various tracks from around the world.

[Charlie Huang]

Oh, got that CD! Yes, that's the track that went into space.

[sanmenxia]

This CD is definitely essential listening if you're interested in Chinese music! I originally got it as a vinyl LP (only had the first 10 tracks), and it was the first Chinese music record I bought.
For me the standout tracks are the guanzi with sheng solo and the gaohu solos. Except for the guanzi and suona tracks which have sheng accompaniment, all the pieces are solo performances.