Chinese instruments and perception,
Part 3 : the Pipa and Ruan families
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By Michael Timpson  | Published April 2008

Ruan

In the last two articles, we explored prominent zithers in Chinese music, guzheng, guqin, and Yangqin; the next Chinese instruments we discover are two other plucked string instruments: the pipa and ruan. These Chinese instruments closely resemble popular western instruments such as the guitar, banjo, lute, mandolin, or ukulele, having a long narrow fi ngerboard extending the strings beyond the hollow soundboard body. Another characteristic these instruments share with these western equivalents are tuning pegs at one end and frets placed across the fi ngerboard and body. Both the pipa and ruan have four strings.

The pipa has a prominent place in Chinese musical literature, both as a solo instrument and as accompaniment. Like the other Chinese instruments, it has ties to Middle Eastern instruments, in this case the Arab oud. This connection relates the pipa to other instruments such as the Western lute and Japanese biwa. Like the lute, the pipa has a pear-shaped body with a short neck and similar tone quality. However, the nature and construction of the pipa projects sound much louder than the lute. Instead of being played horizontally, the pipa is played in a vertical upright position; it also has no soundholes in the body, and greatly raised frets. This allows for expressive extremes that are an integral part of Chinese music through the use of TIMBRE. As discussed in previous articles, in Chinese music, the effecting of TIMBRE or tone color of an instrument plays equal or greater importance in performance than even pitch. The pipa is a fi ne example of such expressive extremes. Two typical playing styles are a melodic, more sedate, “lyric style” and a fi erce, highly variable, “battle style.”

The “lyric style” of the pipa refl ects is very subtle and nuanced, not unlike zithers and can often refl ect a mood of RITUAL. The raised frets allow for a great variety of bends and pitch GESTURE that is intertwined with the instruments control and wide range of TIMBRE. The pipa is plucked with nails on the fi ngers of the right hand producing several different possibilities for tremolo or roll on the strings.

Pipa

TIMBRE is more greatly exaggerated in pipa’s “battle style.” Here the instrument accomplishes extremes that few western instruments are capable. The pipa’s warrioresque strums and other extremes are more percussive in nature than melodic. Often the TIMBRE of the “battle style” employs techniques that would be considered ugly or unrefi ned on western instruments; however, in Chinese music, these techniques are considered an important extension of beauty and refi nement. Although the basic tone color of the pipa is similar to the lute, its plethora of expression and TIMBRE possibilities could be considered far more parallel to the color possibilities of electric guitar, but on an acoustic instrument with far more grace, history, and refi nement.

It is interesting to note that the name pipa was originally used for a very different string instrument, now called the ruan. This instrument has a long neck and moon-shaped body with soundholes. While the large round soundboard gives resemblance to the western banjo, the ruan sounds very similar to the guitar, but with louder projection. Unlike the pipa, which is played vertically with the fi ngers, the ruan is played horizontally with a plectrum that resembles a guitar pick. Originally used for the accompaniment of vocal performance, ruan has become both a solo instrument and an important member of Chinese ensembles and orchestras; this is in partly due to doubling fl exibility of the ruan performer. Doubling, where the performer is capable of playing more than one instrument, is natural for most ruan performers because of its shared playing techniques with related instruments. The ruan, known more specifi - cally as the zhongruan, is a tenor instrument that has been overtaken in signifi cance by the daruan, the bass version of the ruan. The predominance of the daruan in the Chinese ensemble is from its capability to perform bass melodies at a louder and more virtuoso level than other Chinese instruments.

Many other ruan siblings exist, including the gaoyinruan (soprano), xiaoruan (alto), and diyinruan (contrabass) ranges and the ancient yueqin a shorter necked version with no soundholes. However, the other most common double of ruan players is a piccolo string instrument related to the pipa called the liuqin. This instrument’s diminutive size and higher melodic range resembles the western mandolin but with a much brighter tone quality and louder sound. While some pipa techniques of TIMBRE are used on the liuqin, the instrument is actually played horizontally like the ruan using a plectrum, (this makes it a natural double for ruan performers.) Being small in size not withstanding, the liuqin’s strong and bold TIMBRE has made it a vital member of the Chinese orchestra.