BCCPAM000M29-5-25000000000000

CHINESE MUSIC. 65 Thern is a slight difference between the instruments made in the South and those manufactured in Peking; the former are of better workm,anship, but the fingering and the music are everywhere the same. On the neck table there are I I or 12 frets, intended to guide the player. The strings are tuned : C, F, G, C, or as the Chinese say, ho ( 1}), shang (.l.), ch'ih CR), l-iii C 1')- This instrument being chiefly used on j oyful occasions in connexion with the flute, the strings are of course tuned after the pitch of the flute; but in private the performer tune it to the pitch which pleases him best. In the South, the p'i-p'ci is the instrument preferred by troubadoms who are hired to sing ballads, songs, etc.; and in the North it is generally played by men. The performer has to exercise gieat dexterity of finger and lightness of hand, for not only is the music always of animated movement, but nen.rly all the notes are played in trernolo, which effect is obtained by passing the nail or the plectrum rapidly forward and backward on the string. By pressing the first string successively over all the frets the following scale is produced:- J , II Open string, 1 st fret, 2nd, 3rd, 4 th, 5th (the others are not used). 'Die second string produces :- , J , #• I , , Open strino- 0' 1st fret, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, wth, nth. The third string produces :- Open string, ISt fret, 2nd, 3 rd, 4 th, sth, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, roth, r 1th. The fourth string produces :- Open string, rst fret, 211d, 3rd, 4 th, 5th, 6th 7th, 8th, 9th, 1 oth, r Ith.