The succession of notes in the first octave resembles that of the ancient Phrygian mode and that church mode in which Thomas Tallis's famous service is composed. The exact measurements of the intervals heard at the Health Exhibition are to be found in Mr. A.J. Ellis's Paper On the Musical Scales of Various Nations, published in the Journal of the Society of Arts, London, 25th March, 1885.
Mr. N.B. Dennys, in his valuable notes on Chinese Musical Instruments read before the North China Branch of the Asiatic Society, 21st October, 1873, gives the name of the three-stringed instrument in the drawing, with a long neck like a tamboura, as San-hsien, with which Mr. Van Aalst agrees. The Peking musicians called it Sien-tzê (pronounced like Shen-zy). Like the Japanese Siamisen the San-hsien has no frets. The drum-like body is covered on the upper side with snakeskin, the under side being left open as in a tambourine or banjo. The three strings were tuned ascending a minor tone between the first and second, and a fifth between the second and third strings: the outer strings being consequently a major sixth apart. The strings were plucked by two bone plectra extended like claws beyond the ends of the fingers, and the player stopped a Pentatonic or five-note scale, thus: [[audio/mpeg]] nearly in just intonation.
The P'i-p'a, according to Dennys and Van Aalst, or Balloon Guitar (the Peking musicians called it Phi-pe), has a body nearly a foot in diameter, from which it takes its English name, and four strings played usually with the fingers and tuned as fourth, fifth, and octave from the lowest note. The large semi-elliptical frets above the finger-board were not used by the player at the Health Exhibition; he restricted himself to the twelve frets upon the finger-board. The P'i-p'a is usually played by men who, in the South of China, are hired as minstrels or ballad-singers. The stopping of this instrument was pentatonic, as with the San-hsien, and the scale began upon the same note, but the tuning of the fretted instrument was less good than that noted of the unfretted one. Mr. Van Aalst informs us that the notes are reiterated by rapidly passing the long finger-nail or plectrum backwards and forwards across the string, to produce an effect of sostenuto similarly sought for in Europe for the Mandoline, Bandurria, and Dulcimer. These instruments belong to the Music Class Room of the University of Edinburgh.
PLATE XLV.
CHINESE TI-TZU, SO-NA, YUEH-CH’IN.
JAPANESE HIJI-RIKI. CHINESE LA-PA.
