Historical development of dulcimer

Dulcimer is an indispensable main musical instrument, which often plays the role of "piano accompaniment" in national instrumental ensembles and national bands. Below, I will share with you the historical development process of dulcimer. I hope I can help you!

According to historical records, before the Middle Ages, Assyria, Persia and other ancient Middle Eastern countries, a dulcimer called Santu Qin was popular. In the Ming Dynasty (1368~ 1644), with the increasingly close friendly exchanges between China and West Asia and East Asia, Sanduqin was introduced to China by sea, first popular in Guangdong, and then gradually spread to all parts of China. Later, after the transformation of China folk artists, Santu Qin gradually evolved into China dulcimer. Since the late Qing Dynasty, dulcimer has been used in Guangdong music, Jiangnan Sizhu, Yangzhou Qingqu, Guangxi Wenchang, Changde Sixian, Sichuan Qin Shu, Henan Qin Shu, Shandong Qin Shu and Yulin Xiaoqu.

Traditional dulcimer, the frame is colored wood, birch or elm, covered with white pine or paulownia panel, covered with plywood, and the speaker is butterfly or flat trapezoid. 90~97 cm long, 32~4 1 cm wide and 5.7~7 cm high. The left piano head is provided with a string hook nail, and the right piano head is provided with a string shaft. There are two circular sound holes on the panel, which are decorated with bone carving sound windows. There are two bar piano codes made of bamboo, mahogany or ox horn, with the high-pitched code on the left and the low-pitched code on the right. Peaks are used to support chords, and valleys are filled with chords of another code. There are straight or zigzag long mountain passes of mahogany on both sides of the panel for stringing. A sound beam is stuck in the sound box corresponding to the piano code on the panel, and there are four or five circular wind eyes on the sound beam to make sound waves convection. Steel wire strings, steel strings for treble and winding strings for bass. Zhu Qin, also known as Qin Bamboo Slips and Shaanxi Opera, are two kinds of elastic bamboo pestles. There are three commonly used dulcimers: eight tones (twenty-four tones), ten tones (thirty tones) and twelve tones (thirty-six tones). Also known as double eight, double ten and double twelve. The range is: octave F 1-C2, tenth degree D 1-D3, and twelve tones C-E3.

Dulcimer has been circulated and evolved in China for more than 400 years. During this period, musical instrument manufacturers in China developed many new kinds of dulcimers, such as high and low dulcimers, tuned dulcimers, Zheng dulcimers and electro-acoustic dulcimers. What is particularly worth mentioning is the electro-acoustic dulcimer, which consists of a piano body, a pickup, an amplifier and a sound box. When the strings vibrate, sound waves are converted into electrical signals through the pickup, beautified by the amplifier, and then emitted by the speaker. Electro-acoustic dulcimer can accompany and solo, so it has been popular with dulcimer players since it came out.

When playing, the piano is placed on the frame, and the left and right hands each hold a piano and a bamboo, and the strings on both sides of the bar code are tapped respectively. Bamboo method (that is, playing skills) includes monophonic, left and right dial, diphone (chord), wheel tone (dense bamboo), anti-bamboo, contrast, pause, arpeggio, plucked string, up and down slide, overtone and so on. Be good at playing lively tunes. Traditional music includes Lin Chong running at night, Su Wu herding sheep, Yingshanhong, Lisao, your legend, Rainbow Ridge.

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