The new year has come, and the severe cold will be gone.
If we try to choose a musical instrument to express the nostalgia for the past years, Xiao must be the best choice.
If you have read our previous articles, maybe you would wonder, can’t your Chinese Xun also express this type of emotion? Yes, it must be possible, but it is full of slight differences.
The sound of Xun has a sense of sobbing one after another. You may imagine Huo Qubing’s (140 BC — c. October 117 BC, was a Chinese military general and politician of the Western Han dynasty during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han) trip to the Gobi Desert of what is now Mongolia to defeat the Xiongnu nomadic confederation, winning decisive victories such as the Battle of Mobei in 119 BC. You may meditate on the declining Eastern Han Dynasty while whimpering. And you may feel sorry for “Putting Jiao in a golden house” (金屋藏嬌) while recognizing its deprival of the youth of Empress Chen of Wu (孝武陳皇后). However, in the sound of Xiao, your imagination wouldn’t flow in this way. Xiao’s gentleness is based on generosity. You need to know that Huo Qubing finally won in the lonely smoke in the desert. Though the end of the Han Dynasty was sad, but it left countless treasures of poetry and books. Though the golden house couldn’t take you anywhere, but it was extremely precious.
The loneliness at Centiwell is still there, we need to use Xun’s whimper to embellish the decline of the era of Anima Gravis, and we need to use Xun’s mournful to symbolize the turmoil of the Zong at this time, have you ever felt it? But the world is so big, sorrow only represents a part of this universe. We use Xiao’s timbre to carry on the sadness of Xun, and also to convey the generosity of the atmosphere.
Xiao is a Chinese vertical end-blown flute. It is a very ancient Chinese instrument that was developed from a simple end-blown flute used by the Qiang people of Southwest China in the ancient era. In the oral traditions of the Xiao, practitioners and poets say its sound resembles the quality of the Phoenix’s call, the king of birds in Chinese ancient belief.
Xiao is mostly made of bamboo, the best being ‘black bamboo’ or ‘purple bamboo’. Sometimes, the xiao is made of solid wood that has been carved and hollowed out. They can either be made plain, or have a horn inlay at the end and/or various inscriptions along the shaft. Usually, nylon wire bindings along the shaft are wrapped on which attempts to stabilize the bamboo and prevent cracking. Some players tie a tassel to dangle from one of the lower sound holes, purely for decorative purposes.
In the era of Emperor Shun and Emperor Yu, there was an ancient music and dance called Xiao Shao(“箾邵”), and “箾” is the word “Xiao”(萧) today. Because this music and dance is mainly played with the ancient pan flute or Paixiao (排簫), we believe that the performance of “Shao” brought the flute into a new era. “The Great Xia” is an ancient music and dance performed by the ancient people in praise of Dayu’s flood control. It is divided into “Jiucheng” (nine sections of music), accompanied by “籥”, also known as “Jiucheng of Summer Bamboo”. Bamboo is the predecessor of the pan flute. It can be seen from this that Xiao has experienced many years of glorious times in the history of Chinese music from “Xiao Shao” to “The Great Xia”. In the Zhou Dynasty, ancient Chinese musical instruments were divided into “eight tones”, which are: gold, stone, silk, bamboo, gourd, earth, leather, and wood, among which “bamboo” refers to Xiao and Chi. Since the unearthed from the Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng in the early days of China, we have seen the Xiao as an ancient musical instrument with our own eyes. Therefore, when the word “sizhu” is mentioned, people will naturally think of this musical instrument.
There are three common Xiao in the current marketplace.
1 — Bei Xiao: the common variant of Xiao in the North. It is characterized by its longer construction usually made of Purple Bamboo. Its tone is less thick than the Nan Xiao, as it does not include the root of bamboo. Its mouthpiece is commonly in a U shape.
2 — Qin Xiao: a version of the Bei Xiao, which is narrower and generally in the key of F with eight smaller finger holes, used to accompany the Guqin. The narrowness of Qin Xiao makes the tone softer, making it more suitable to play with Guqin which is a very quiet instrument and a normal Bei Xiao would drown out its low volume.
3 — Nan Xiao, or the “Southern Xiao”, sometimes called Chiba , is a short xiao with open mouthpiece used in the Nanyin, the local Fujianese opera from Quanzhou. Typically, the end incorporates a part of the root of the bamboo. This variant of Xiao is used in the South of China and in Taiwan, usually made of Taiwanese bamboo.
Let’s take a listen:
