Erhu

Introduction

The two-string bowed fiddle descended from the xiqin, leading voice of the huqin family

The erhu is a two-string bowed fiddle whose bow runs between the strings, with a python-skin face on one end of its sound tube; it belongs to the huqin family. Its forerunner, the xiqin, is described in Chen Yang's Yueshu of the Northern Song, sounded with a bamboo strip drawn between its two strings; it later became the bowed huqin. In the 1920s and 1930s Liu Tianhua fixed its tuning at D and A and wrote solo pieces such as Song of Illness, Beautiful Evening and Marching Towards Brightness, making it a solo instrument, and Abing (Hua Yanjun)'s The Moon Reflected on the Second Spring became widely known after it was recorded in 1950. Erhu art was placed on the national intangible heritage list in 2021.

Timeline

1. 1100OriginChen Yang's Yueshu, compiled at the end of the Northern Song, describes and illustrates the xiqin as music of northern peoples, sounded with a bamboo strip between its two strings, an early clear record of the huqin fiddles.
2. 1927EvolutionLiu Tianhua founded the Society for the Improvement of Chinese Music in Beijing in 1927 and between 1918 and 1932 wrote ten erhu solos, among them Song of Illness, Beautiful Evening and Marching Towards Brightness, establishing the erhu as a solo instrument.
3. 1950EvolutionIn the summer of 1950 Yang Yinliu and Cao Anhe recorded Abing (Hua Yanjun) in Wuxi playing three erhu pieces, including The Moon Reflected on the Second Spring, and three pipa pieces.
4. 2021ImpactIn 2021 Erhu art (the Jiangnan Sun-family erhu art), nominated by Fengxian, Shanghai, entered the fifth national list (II-184).

Heritage Listings

1. 2021National List of Representative Items of Intangible Cultural Heritage5th batch · II-184 Erhu art [Jiangnan Sun-family erhu art] · no. 1398 · nominated by Fengxian · Shanghai