Guangdong Region

Gaohu is the abbreviation of "Treble Erhu". It is also a member of the Huqin family. It was reformed on the basis of Erhu in the 1920s. But it is better than the erhu in terms of timbre and expressiveness. It can be said that "something is better than another"! Speaking of the emergence of Gaohu, we must first talk about Guangdong music, which is closely related to Gaohu. Cantonese music is a folk instrumental performance form popular in various parts of Guangdong Province. It originated from Guangdong Cantonese opera, Teochew opera cut-scene music, folk songs and folk art music in the late Qing Dynasty of my country.

Do you know? Gaohu is mainly spread in Guangdong, especially the Pearl River Delta.

Reference materials, may be useful:

In the "first generation" Guangdong music in the early 20th century, there was no such instrument as Gaohu, but Erxian and Dabanhu. Five musical instruments, including Sanxian, Yueqin and Hengxiao, are played in an ensemble. Therefore, people commonly call the early bands that played Cantonese music the "Five Head Bands". At the same time, because the second string, which serves as the lead instrument in the "Wujiatou Band", has thick strings and a hard bow, and a high-pitched and bright tone, people also call this combination of "Wujiatou" "hard bow" band". Around the 1920s, Mr. Lu Wencheng, a Guangdong music composer and performer, carried out bold reforms to the erhu. He changed the traditional erhu's silk strings to steel wire strings, improving the tuning of the instrument; at the same time, he also pioneered the use of two legs to clamp A unique method of playing by holding the appropriate part of the piano tube. The new instrument developed by Lu Wencheng was quickly praised by people in the music industry, and they unanimously agreed on its new name - Gaohu. In this way, Gaohu, with its bright and soft tone, joined the ranks of Guangdong music together with dulcimer and other instruments when it first came out, forming the "second generation" Guangdong music combination form - "Soft Bow Band" , and soon became the "soul instrument" in Guangdong music bands.

Gaohu is reformed on the basis of Erhu, so the structure, production and materials of Gaohu are basically the same as Erhu; however, there are still some differences in the shape of Gaohu and Erhu. : The qin tube of Gaohu is relatively thin and round in shape, which is different from the hexagonal shape of Erhu. The back opening of the qin tube does not have various styles of sound windows like Erhu. Because Gaohu came into being very late, musical instrument makers after Lu Wencheng had less worries and constraints when transforming Gaohu. For example, in the early 1970s, some musical instrument makers changed the round drum of the early Gaohu into an oblate shape based on the acoustic principles of the oval speaker, which broadened the frequency range of the instrument's sound and increased the volume. Increase. In addition, the strings of this new type of Gaohu are also thicker than before, and the piano rods have also been changed from round rods to oval flat rods. At the same time, some musical instrument makers also produced a three-string gaol. The front opening of this gaohu's piano tube is a flat octagon, and the rear opening is a regular octagon. The tube is equipped with a throat and a stereo sound window. , the newly added bass string expands the instrument's range downwards by five degrees. All in all, gaohu has the characteristics of crisp timbre, rounded bass area and bright treble area. Just like the soprano in a female quartet, it occupies a very prominent position in the band; therefore, gaohu is generally given to high-pitched voices in Chinese national orchestras. Hu is equipped with quite important seats. In addition, because Gaohu has particularly rich expressive power, it is suitable for playing lyrical, lively and gorgeous melodies. Therefore, it often accompanies the main melody of the music in the band's cadenza, and can change the main melody according to emotional needs. Decorate.