Yueqin 

 

 

“The yueqin 月琴 is developed from the type of zhixiang pipa 直項琵琶, or straight-neck pipa, which has a round and flat sound box, and, therefore, looks very much like the ruan 阮. A similar instrument also called yueqin is widely used among minorities living in China, particularly the Yi nationality 彝族, who use it to accompany them in singing and dancing. The Han Chinese also use the yueqin as an accompaniment instrument, especially in the Peking Opera. In this genre the yueqin, jinghu 京胡and jing'erhu 京二胡are called sandajian 三大件, indicating their prominent roles as the three fundamental melodic instruments in the accompaniment. The traditional yueqin has eight to nine frets and two pairs of strings, or, in other words, two courses. Each course is tuned in unison, and the courses are tuned either a fourth or a fifth apart. Today's yueqin has 24 frets arranged in chromatics, and three to four single strings instead of paired strings. Compared to the ruan, the yueqin has a shorter neck and a thinner sound box.

 

The yueqin is plucked with a plectrum. Traditionally, its tunings depend on the key of the vocal line it accompanied. Usually, the strings are tuned to the third and the sixth degrees of a particular mode. Therefore, the practice is to use several instruments with different tunings to accompany the opera.

The "solo tradition" of the yueqin, like that of most of the Chinese instruments, only started to develop in the second half of the twentieth century. A large part of its solo repertoire comprises adaptations of traditional instrumental or vocal genres.” (So Hon To)