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Explainer | The history of Chinese musical instruments and how they fit in modern orchestra – overview

We look at China’s earliest musical instruments, how Chinese instruments fall into eight categories, and the modern four-section orchestra

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The Sounds of China: A beginner’s guide to Chinese musical instruments

The Sounds of China: A beginner’s guide to Chinese musical instruments
This article serves as an introduction to our upcoming series on classical Chinese instruments and the traditional Chinese music orchestra, in which we will show you how musicians play the eight different types of instrument and explore their history.
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China, Hong Kong and Asian countries with large Chinese populations such as Singapore and Malaysia all have professional orchestras specialising in Chinese instruments.

These instruments, and the classical Chinese music they play, sound quite unlike those of Western orchestras. How much do you know about them?

To fully appreciate the richness of classical Chinese music, it helps to understand its history, which stretches back more than 8,000 years.

Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra member Lu Yi with his sheng, a wind instrument dating to 1100BC. Photo: Jonathan Wong
Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra member Lu Yi with his sheng, a wind instrument dating to 1100BC. Photo: Jonathan Wong

According to legend, the person responsible for the invention of Chinese music was the Yellow Emperor – whose other reputed accolades include unifying all the Chinese tribes along the Yellow River, writing the first Chinese characters and originating indispensable parts of traditional Chinese medicine.

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