Day 4: What is an Erhu?

I was in Seattle, WA for the weekend of the 21st visiting my aunt, and on that Saturday I wanted to go Pike Place Market. We sampled all sorts of honey and jelly, had tea and shrimp. We saw paintings, clothes and jewelry. Anything you could image they probably had. They even had election coins that were really old and were $35. Inside it was cramped, and loud. Everywhere you look there was a person practically touching you, but outside there was space and music. On the street corner there was a Chinese man playing a strange violin.


The man was playing an erhu, a two stringed violin, dating back to over 1,000 years ago, to the Song Dynasty. Precursors of the erhu were called a huqin during the Song Dynasty, and the ji qin, during the Tang Dynasty. The resonating part of the erhu is covered in snake skin, more specifically python, and the body is usually sandalwood or ebony. Because pythons are now an endangered species, it is illegal to import and export erhus. Now a new synthetic cover has been devised to save this musical instrument from extinction as well.
Image by Abbie Clark
The strings are typically tuned to D and A, creating this beautiful sound commonly associated with the Chinese culture. As someone new to what the culture is behind the land mass fourteen hours away by plane, when I heard it at the marketplace I immediately thought of China.

The erhu is commonly found as a solo instrument or mixed with an orchestra, and has been used in many Cantonese operas.

I also believed it to be an odd-version of the horse-head violin.

Here is an example of what the erhu sounds like:

If you would like to learn more about the erhu, there is a wonderful website.

Making Moose antlers and dancing to the erhu until tomorrow!