What is the origin of the suona

The origin of the suona is in the Persian and Arabian areas.

Suona, Chinese traditional double-reed woodwind instrument. As early as in the 3rd century AD, suona with the opening of the Silk Road, from Eastern Europe, West Asia around the introduction of China, is a member of the world family of oboe musical instruments, after thousands of years of development, so that the suona has its unique temperament and tone, has been a representative of China's national wind instruments.

The tone of suona is majestic, the tube body is mostly made of pear wood and sandalwood, conical, the top is equipped with a double reed made of reeds connected to the wooden tube body through a copper or silver core, and the lower end of the tube is covered with a copper bowl, and there are chromatic and treble keys in the suona, which expands the range of the instrument and increases its expressive power. In Taiwan, it is known as drum blowing; in the south, it is one of the "eight notes" instruments, and in Henan and Shandong, it is called trumpet, and the traditional suona has the classic repertoire such as "Hundred Bird Chaofeng", and "Yuxi Erbaiban", etc. The traditional suona is also known as "Bird Chaofeng".

Basic Structure of Suona:

The suona consists of five parts: the reed (whistle), the air disk, the core (called the flute needle in some places), the suona pole and the suona bowl. In the wooden conical tube with eight holes (seven before and one after), the upper end of the tube is equipped with a thin copper tube, the upper end of the copper tube is equipped with a double reed reed whistle, and the upper end of the wooden tube is equipped with a copper bowl-shaped megaphone. Although there are eight holes in the oboe, the seventh hole sound is the same as the tube tone overblow, and the eighth hole sound is the same as the first hole tone overblow.

In 1993, Mr. Guo Yazhi, a famous wind musician, invented the suona "living core" device, which made the traditional suona play chromatic and twelve-tone systems, enriching the expressive power of the suona.

The living core of suona has an inner tube with a gas plate and a gas nozzle with a bolt slot, a spring on it, which is inserted into the outer tube, and a threaded hole on the side of the outer tube, then a fine-tuning casing with a bolt and nut on it, which is screwed from the long hole of the casing through the threaded hole, and then into the bolt slot of the inner tube, and then the inner tube's expansion and contraction distance can be adjusted with the bolt and nut, and the inner tube's range is shortened by compression of the nozzle by the lips, and then each hole can produce a semitone, increasing the performance of suona. This increases the volume range of the suona and allows the suona to play a variety of tuned music.