The historical origin and development of the flute

367 views · Organized by 棠舟 on 2022-02-10

Mouth flute, a bamboo musical instrument, originated in the Yellow Emperor period. It was invented by Mr. Yu Xunfa, a bamboo flute player, in early 1971.

The historical origin and development of the flute

During the Yellow Emperor period, that is, about 4,000 years ago, a large number of bamboos grew in the Yellow River Basin, and bamboo was used as a material to make flutes. The "Historical Records" records: "The Yellow Emperor ordered Ling Lun to cut bamboo in Kunji, cut it to make a flute, and blow it to make a phoenix. "Ming", the use of bamboo as the village material is a major improvement in flute making. One is that bamboo has better vibration than bone, and the pronunciation is crisp; the other is that bamboo is easy to process.

During the Qin and Han Dynasties, there were already seven-hole bamboo flutes, and two-headed flutes were invented.

In ancient times, the flute was called a "chi". In the Han Dynasty, Xu Shen's "Shuowen Jiezi" recorded: "a flute, seven holes, and a bamboo scorpion".

In 1978, two bamboo flutes were unearthed from the tomb of Marquis Yi Zeng in Suixian County, Hubei Province, and two bamboo flutes were unearthed from the Han Tomb No. 3 in Mawangdui, Changsha, Hunan Province. Except for the entry and exit, the other shapes are exactly the same; the unearthed flutes are the same as the records, and the words "chi" are written on the bamboo tube in the tomb, which is obviously an ancient bamboo flute. The ancient Chi and the flute are very similar. Points, said to be the same musical instrument, are actually different.

It can be seen from the unearthed chi and flutes: Chi, with 6 holes, closed mouth, can play five tones plus one changing sound, and the whole body is painted (xiū) lacquer; flute, 7 holes, open, can play seven tones plus two changing sounds, no Paint.

During the Warring States Period, the chi was one of the main melodic instruments played in worshipping gods or banqueting pavilions, and the flute was also very popular. Qu Yuan's student Song Yu's "Flute Fu" also mentioned the flute in the south at that time, which is very similar to today's flute. Before the Han Dynasty, the flute was played with many fingers. Since the Qin and Han Dynasties, the flute has become the common name of the vertical flute and the horizontal flute, and has continued for a long time. During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Zhang Qian introduced the horizontal flute to the Western Regions, also known as "horizontal blowing". It occupies a very important position in the advocacy music of the Han Dynasty. The two bamboo flutes unearthed from the Han Tomb No. 3 in Mawangdui, Changsha, Hunan Province are both horizontal flute instruments. During the Northern Dynasties, flutes were not only extremely common, but also developed, with great changes in shape, length and thickness. In the Northern Zhou and Sui Dynasties, the name "Hengyu" began to appear. In the late Sui Dynasty, a ten-hole flute that could play the chromatic scale appeared. Since the Tang Dynasty, the flute has the difference between the big horizontal blow and the small horizontal blow. At the same time, the chi that is blown vertically is called the xiao, and the chi that is blown horizontally is called the flute. In the Tang Dynasty, Lu Cai made "shakuhachi", blowing it vertically, and introduced it to Japan; in the Zhengcangyuan in the ancient capital of Nara, there are four horizontal flutes made in the prosperous Tang Dynasty in my country. Among them, there are one toothed flute and one carved stone flute, and two bamboo ones. They are of different lengths, but they all have 7 oval sound holes. Liu Xi made a seven-star pipe flute, and was the first person to add a film to the flute. In the Jin Dynasty, there was a recorder, blowing the head and adding a piece of wood to make the air pass through the gap and shoot to the edge of the two sentry holes to pronounce. Song flutes are made in various ways, such as fork hand flutes, dragon neck flutes, small horizontal flutes with eleven holes, large horizontal flutes with nine holes, and jade flutes with seven holes. Similar to the flute in the late Yuan Dynasty, due to the vigorous development of opera, the flute has become an accompaniment instrument for many operas, and is divided into two categories according to the type of accompaniment: bangdi and qudi.

In the 1960s, Zhao Songting invented the pan flute. By tying 2 to 4 flutes of different tunes together, the sound range can be expanded by more than three octaves. The music is full of changes and easy to play. Dizi is a widely popular wind instrument in China. Because it is made of natural bamboo, it is also called "bamboo flute". The flute is made of a bamboo tube with knots in it. There are a blow hole, a membrane hole and six sound holes in the tube body. The blow hole is the first hole of the flute, through which the air is blown in, which makes the air in the pipe vibrate and sound. The membrane hole is the second hole of the flute. It is specially used for sticking the membrane of the flute. The membrane of the flute is mostly made of reed membrane or bamboo membrane. Although the flute is short and simple, it has a history of seven thousand years. About 4,500 years ago, the flute was changed from bone to bamboo. At the end of the 1st century BC, when Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the flute was called "horizontal blowing", and it occupied a very important position in the advocacy music at that time. Beginning in the 7th century, the flute has been improved again, adding membrane holes, making its expressiveness a great development, and the playing technique has also developed to a very high level. In the 10th century, with the rise of Song Ci and Yuan Qu, the flute became the main musical instrument to accompany the lyrics and sing. It was also an indispensable musical instrument in folk operas and bands of ethnic minorities.

The expressive power of the flute is very rich. It can not only play a long and high-pitched melody, but also express a vast and broad mood. However, the expressive power of the flute is not only in the beautiful melody, it can also express the various sounds of nature. Such as imitating various bird calls. Dizi is not only rich in playing skills, but also has a variety of varieties, such as qudi, bangdi, tuning flute, plus key flute, jade screen flute, seven-hole flute, eleven-hole flute, etc. Two factions.

Reference materials and contributors
口笛(百度百科)

Involving musical instruments

Mouth flute (Pinyin: kǒu dí) is a bamboo musical instrument. In 1971, Mr. Yu Xunfa, a famous bamboo flute player, invented and created the mouth flute, which is suitable for solo, ensemble and accompaniment.

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