"A Goddess Marriage" (天仙配) -- leiqin (雷琴) solo by Jia Yu (贾雨)

This piece, entitled "A Goddess Marriage" (天仙配), is performed by solo leiqin (雷琴), accompanied by traditional Chinese musical instrument ensemble.

In this piece, the leiqin imitates the sound of Huangmei opera (黄梅戏) singing, from the famous story of the Princess and the Cowherd. In the story, the Jade Emperor (玉皇 or 玉帝) has a daughter named Zhinü (织女, literally "Weaver girl"), who weaves colorful clouds in the heavens; after descending to earth with the aid of a magical robe to bathe, she falls in love with a lowly cowherd named Niu Lang (牛郎).

The performer is Jia Yu (贾雨), who serves as the vice president of the Leiqin Research Association (雷琴研究会会长).

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
• Chinese music
• 黄梅戏
• 黄梅调
• 贾雨
• Jia Yu
• 天仙配
• Huangmei
• Huangmei opera