"Happy Life" -- leiqin (雷琴) solo by Wang Chuan

This piece, entitled "Happy Life," is performed by solo leiqin (雷琴), accompanied by traditional Chinese musical instrument ensemble.

In this piece, the leiqin imitates the sounds of the suona (唢呐, Chinese oboe), as well as birds and farmyard animals.

The performer is Wang Chuan. The piece was composed by Wang Fuli.

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
• 唢呐
• Chinese music