THE Ti-tzu to the left in the Plate is the Chinese flute. It is usually bound round with waxed silk and ornamented with tassels. It has seven holes besides the embouchure, that nearest to the latter being covered with a thin membrane as in the Provençal galoubet, taken from the sap of the bamboo and melted at the moment it is applied, intended to make the quality of tone more reedy. The remaining six holes are stopped by the fingers. According to Mr. Van Aalst, twelve notes in a diatonic succession, beginning upon the A of the violin, form the compass of this instrument, but with much uncertainty of intonation, which may be as much due to the measuring for boring by the instrument-makers as to the peculiarities of an ideal Chinese scale. The scale played at the Health Exhibition, South Kensington, in 1884, by a native ti-tzu player, was a B flat scale with the third rather sharper than the minor but less than the major third, that is, a neuter third, which, as we have seen, is frequently met with in Eastern non-harmonic scales. However, there is great difficulty in determining wind instrument scales accurately, from the power the player has to alter intonation by blowing differently.
The Chinese So-na is a copper wind instrument—a kind of oboe—played with a double reed. On account of the shortness of the reed there is a disk below it to protect the lips of the player. There are two small pierced copper spheres like those in the trumpets in Fra Angelico's paintings, beneath which are the seven finger-holes in the front and two thumb-holes behind the pipe. A loose brass cone of considerable size covers the lower end and is fastened to the upper by a string. This instrument is possibly the Indian Soonai. There are nine notes, as in the Scotch bagpipe, which the So-na somewhat resembles in quality of tone, but it is more strident and disagreeable. The scale, as played by a native at the Health Exhibition, gave intervals of whole and three-quarter tones resembling the bagpipe, but as the performer succeeded in playing with other instruments that apparently differed in scale, the accommodation in blowing must be credited with the approximately satisfactory result.
The Yueh-ch'in, or Moon Guitar, so called from the shape of the sound-board, has four silk strings tuned as fifths in pairs. The strings are struck with the finger-nails, which the Chinese wear long, or a plectrum. The strings are sometimes of copper instead of silk. The instrument is chiefly used to accompany the voice, and the repetition of a note, as in the P'i-p'a, appears to be a favourite effect.
The next wind instrument in [Plate XLV.] is the Japanese Hiji-riki, a conical pipe with a double reed inserted in the larger end. From this cause the instrument sounds about an octave lower than a pipe that is cylindrical. The Hiji-riki is of bamboo, the interior being covered with a bed of red lacquer. It has seven finger-holes and two thumb-holes at the back. The scale, as given by Mr. Victor Mahillon, from whose Catalogue Descriptif et Analytique du Musée Instrumental du Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles, I have been glad to borrow, here and elsewhere, is diatonic, with the occasional insertion of a sharp fourth. This interval is frequently heard in Chinese music, when there are ascending seven-note scales. The disk suspended at the top of the pipe is adjusted, when the Hiji-riki is played, to protect the player's lips—a precaution due to the shortness of the metal reed.
The long trumpet is the Chinese La-pa, with a sliding tube on the trombone principle. It gives four notes, the octave, twelfth, super-octave, and seventeenth, but not the prime. As may be imagined, it is a military instrument, but Mr. Van Aalst informs us it is a privilege of itinerant knife-grinders to blow it in the streets to announce their whereabouts. A La-pa, with the bell bent back, is used at wedding processions.
The instruments drawn in this Plate belong to the Music Class Room of Edinburgh University.
