Demo: Traditional Chinese Ocarina Wu-du + VCD by Bi Yin-sheng

This wu-du 嗚嘟(Chinese ocarina) and VCD is now available. Now playing:知音 by the wudu maker Mr. Bi yin-sheng 畢寅生. Please visit our site for more interesting Chinese musical instruments.
http://www.s-o-n.net
email: soundofnature01@gmail.com

Wudu -- Chinese clay ocarina
In ancient China, Chu Kingdom (now in Hubei and Hunan provinces) was a state famous for its musical instruments. According to the materials from which they were made, Chinese ancient musical instruments were put into eight different categories-- metal, rock, clay, leather, silk, wood, gourd and bamboo. They were called the eight musical sounds. Wudu belongs to the category of clay, and it was developed from the clay whistle, the earliest musical instrument in China.

The History of Wudu
In 476 BC, the Spring and Autumn Period in Chinese history, there was a piece of poetry called "Xiao Ya Good Fish in the South" which was collected in the Book of Songs, the collection of earliest Chinese poetries. The story was that the emperor made an inspection to the South by sea, a river fish jumped out of the water, so he had it cooked, and after eating the fish, he praised it as "good fish". So that place was called Jia Yu County (meaning "good fish"). And the "clay whistle" that was handed down from ancient times here is also in the shape of fish. It is said that its shape is from folk totem, with the meaning of thanksgiving. According to "the annals of Jia Yu County", it can be found that the clay wudu, called "Wudu" in ancient times, was invented by shepherd boys of Pai Zhou (in Wu Kingdom) at the Three Kingdoms Period. It was improved in the following times and became popular in the middle and lower reaches of Changjiang River.

Mr. Bi Yin-sheng's 畢寅生 contribution to Wudu
In 1985, Mr. Bi Yin-sheng started to unearth Wudu and did research on it. He widened its music range to the interval of 11 notes, with vigorous tone colors and mellow sounds. Mr. Huang Xiong Peng, who is from the Central Folk Music Institute, at the nationwide and examining board of culture, science and technology, pointed out that "Yu (also an ancient musical instrument) is without whistle, while Wudu has, it should keep its feature". Henceforth, Wudu was highly praised at the Third Chinese Art Festival. Mr. Bi had performed Wudu abroad many times with the groups of the state, enjoy high reputation in and outside China.

Wudu's Status
Wudu, "the primitive sound from mankind", besides performing movie and TV music, is also popular with the cultural relic lovers, historical relic collector tourists, and became one of the most typical ancient musical instrument and art collection. It becomes one of the local features of Hubei province.
http://www.s-o-n.net

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Chinese
• ocarina
• wu-du
• wudu
• whistle
• music
• musical
• wind
• instrument
• folk
• VCD
• orchestra
• ancient
• chimes
• zheng
• xiao
• Sound
• of
• Nature
• Asian
• oriental
• ethnic
• 畢寅生
• 嗚嘟
• 毕寅生
• 呜嘟
• 陶笛

[OoT94]

is that you playing the ocarina? :)

[soundofnature01]

This is the instrument maker Mr. Y.S. Bi playing the wudu.

[dbadagna]

He plays very well! How does the wudu differ from the xun?

[soundofnature01]

The wudu is similar to an ocarina in structure. There is a mouth piece on a wudu.

But a xun doesn't. So you play a xun just like playing a flute, by putting the blow-hole under your lower lip. You may learn more by visiting our site.

[rgsmess]

It has a very nice sound. I like this.

[soundofnature01]

I'm glad you like it. There is another wudu vid on our channel. Enjoy!!!

[katyj14ng]

<3 <3 so beautiful...sounds just like a human voice

thanks for posting...I just got one from my dad who came back from china today...are there any tutorials teaching how to play that you would recommend?

thanks for you time, appreciate it :)

[gariadara]

could do without the cheesy synthesized drum-n-bass-esque backing.

[chingyueong]

This is amazing!!! ^_^ I love it!!

[clarky2k9]

cool!

[kissing88]

Wow this is really great! A very mellow and soothing sound from the ancient Chinese ocarina!