"Happy Drum" (欢庆锣鼓) -- leiqin (雷琴) solo by Meng Zhaohua (孟昭华)

This piece, entitled "Happy Drum" (欢庆锣鼓, Huanqing Luogu), is performed by solo leiqin (雷琴), accompanied by traditional Chinese musical instrument ensemble.

In this piece, the leiqin imitates the sounds of percussion instruments used in luogu (锣鼓, traditional Chinese percussion ensemble music), as well as in Beijing opera, particularly the xiaoluo (小锣, small gong), whose pitch rises when struck, and the daluo (大锣, large gong), whose pitch drops.

The performer is Meng Zhaohua (孟昭华).

The leiqin was developed by the Tianjin musician Wang Dianyu (王殿玉, 1899-1964) in the late 1920s from the zhuihu (坠胡), an earlier, smaller instrument of similar construction. At first called "da xianzi" (大弦子, "big string instrument") or "dalei" (大雷, "big thunder"), it was officially given the name "leiqin" in 1953. The two instruments are among the very few types of huqin (胡琴, Chinese fiddles) that have fingerboards. The leiqin is often used to mimic a variety of opera singing styles, as well as human speech and vocal sounds such as laughing and crying, the calls of various kinds of animals, nature sounds, and other musical instruments of many types, making it a very entertaining instrument for audiences, in skilled hands.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• leiqin
• 雷琴
• 胡琴
• 中国音乐
• 锣鼓
• luogu
• Chinese music
• Huanqing Luogu
• 欢庆锣鼓
• Meng Zhaohua
• 孟昭华