I decided to do this blog post on the Chinese Sheng because Jeremiah's post got me interested. The sheng is a mouth organ made of metal, wood or a gourd with a blowpipe and at least 17 bamboo or metal pipes extending from the top of the bowl. The elegant symmetrical arrangement of the pipes represents the folded wings of the mythical phoenix. Inside the bowl, each pipe has a hole covered by a metal tongue that interrupts the air current to produce a strikingly clear, metallic sound. Western harmonicas, reed organs and concertinas use the same basic acoustical principles. Mouth organs similar to the sheng are first mentioned in Chinese texts dating from the 14th to 12th centuries B.C.E. Today, the sheng is used primarily to play Chinese classical music with other traditional Chinese instruments, such as the pipa and erhu.
Here is a video of a Hu Tianguan playing Dance of Lusheng.
There are four main ranges of keyed sheng, soprano, alto, tenor, bass. Each sounds as you would imagine, with the soprano being highest and the bass being lowest.
Here is a demonstration of the soprano sheng,
The alto. As you can see, this type is far less portable and has to stay stationary to play.
This video of the tenor sheng is interesting because there are two very different models. One is more stationary like the alto, and the other is basically a larger version of the soprano.
Here is the last size-the bass sheng. As you can see, it's massive. I just think it's incredible.
YOU GUYS THIS GIRL IS PLAYING THE SUPER MARIO BROS THEME SONG ON THE SHENG.
Moral of the story, I have found my new favorite instrument and I have extreme respect for people who can play it.
http://www.silkroadproject.org/ensemble/instruments/sheng
YouTube
The fact that she is playing Mario Bros is the coolest thing I've seen today. I looked it up because I was also curious after watching some of the videos. So they play this thing by alternately blowing and inhaling so that theres a continuous sound. Really cool.
ReplyDeleteThat was great! I didn't know that the sheng came in all those sizes--I've only ever seen the soprano one. I noticed that the demonstrator only played one or two notes at a time on the bass sheng. I expect that's because it takes a TON of air to sound the pipes. The Mario Bros. performance was amazing. That could have been the original soundtrack. You might almost think that 8-bit sound was designed to imitate the sheng.
ReplyDeleteCan we get funding for a Sheng ensemble? If not how about two shengs so that Tori and I can learn duets? Such a unique instrument. I think my tuba training would transition nicely to a sheng. Also i agree that the 8-bit sound mimics the sheng very well and might have some history there.
ReplyDelete... Mario Brothers on the Sheng might be my favorite thing I have seen all day. The techniques for this instrument is pretty crazy though. It seems like it is basically a giant harmonica or melodica.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was researching for my Silk Road project, by far my favorite instrument that I encountered the Sheng. The Sheng player in the Silk Road ensemble is Wu Tong, and he is a legitimately awesome guy. He was a Chinese hardcore vocalist who picked up the Sheng and became a master. Very cool instrument.
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