Tag Archives: musical instruments

Arachnophonia: How to Play Dizi, the Chinese Bamboo Flute – The Dongxiao

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Editor’s note: Arachnophonia (“Arachno” = spider / “-phonia” = sound) is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.

All links included in these posts will take you to either the library catalog record for the item in question or to additional relevant information from around the web.

Today’s installment of Arachnophonia is by student manager Tim (class of 2024) and features a book that teaches the basics of learning to play the Chinese bamboo flute. Thanks, Tim!

How to Play Dizi, the Chinese Bamboo Flute: The Dongxiao by H. H. Lee

The Dongxiao

The Dongxiao is a type of Xiao from the Chinese bamboo flute family. It has a history of over 8,000 years, dating back to the Neolithic Age in China. The entire flute is made of bamboo, and its length is usually over 32 inches. It is either carved with six or eight holes, with an additional “V”-shaped hole on the top serving as the mouthpiece (the blowing hole). Sound is produced by air vibration passing through the “V”-shaped blowing hole. It is primarily used in the Yangtze River Delta, especially in Jiangsu Province.

Unlike major Chinese musical instruments, the Xiao has its own unique cultural significance, closely tied to traditional Chinese culture. Due to its distinctive characteristics, the Xiao cannot project a very loud sound. Its unique timbre makes it an ideal instrument for solo performances or duets. Chinese scholars view the Xiao as an instrument for a Junzi (gentleman), and it is traditionally played by scholars to cultivate their minds, often for personal enjoyment or for a very small audience. The airy sound of the Xiao is considered “ambient.” In Chinese aesthetic terms, this “ambient” quality evokes a sense of vast space where people become mere ornaments, reflecting the vastness of nature and the smallness of human beings in comparison.

The book How to Play Dizi, the Chinese Bamboo Flute: The Dongxiao introduces Western readers to the world of the Xiao. It covers the types, structures, and key signatures of the Xiao, along with relatively simple instructions on how to play it and modern Chinese music notation. This book is especially useful for beginners or those interested in Chinese music and culture.

Arachnophonia: The Physics of Musical Instruments

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Editor’s note: Arachnophonia (“Arachno” = spider / “-phonia” = sound) is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.

All links included in these posts will take you to either the library catalog record for the item in question or to additional relevant information from around the web.

Today’s installment of Arachnophonia is by student manager Brianna (class of 2023) and features a book about how physics applies to music. Thanks, Brianna!

The Physics of Musical Instruments
by Neville H. Fletcher and Thomas D. Rossing

The Physics of Musical Instruments

This book is an amazing introduction into the physics of acoustics, as well as all types of musical instruments. It may come as no surprise that scholarship on the physics of instruments has become much more popular as technology has been developed that allows us to answer questions about instruments in detail. Fletcher summarizes this scholarship in a cohesive and reader-friendly way, providing the physical background information needed to understand topics such as the physics of a horn, how a bowed string behaves, the importance of the violin body, etc. I find this to be a great example of the way that music interacts with all subjects and how applications of sciences to the musical arts allows us to have a deeper understanding of what we are doing when we play an instrument.

sound waves

Arachnophonia : Benjamin Britten “The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra”

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Editor’s note: Arachnophonia is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.

All links included in these posts will take you to either the library catalog record for the item in question or to additional relevant information from around the web.

Today’s installment of Arachnophonia is by student worker Colin (class of 2021) and features Benjamin Britten‘s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra. Thanks, Colin!

Benjamin Britten

The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra

YPG Britten

“I expect you all know the sound of trumpets. And I expect most of you know about a trumpet player’s personality as well…”

The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, composed by Benjamin Britten, is an educational piece of music that combines the second movement of the Abdelazer suite, “Rondeau,” with commentary by Eric Crozier describing the instruments within an orchestra. Originally commissioned for a British educational documentary titled Instruments of the Orchestra, this piece is unique for its use of a common theme throughout each instrumental section and the conductor’s description of each section aloud before they play the theme.

Britten - Young Person's Guide

Not only does each section in the orchestra perform its own perception of the theme, every individual instrument is highlighted in multiple variations throughout the 17-minute piece. Variation C is led by the clarinets when the narrator states “clarinets are very agile. They make a beautifully smooth, mellow sound.” In accordance with the description, Variation C is played in a moderato tempo where the clarinets have many slurred sixteenth-note runs to emphasize their smooth sound. The piece continues to highlight each instrument individually and multiple sections in pairs until it culminates in a triumphant ending led by the piccolos and flutes. The brass begins to play in half time, 6/8, compared to the rest of the orchestra playing rapid eighth notes in a 3/4 pattern, creating a dynamic between fast and slow that ends the composition in a glorious fashion.

Benjamin Britten

Portrait of British composer Benjamin Britten circa 1949

Young Person’s Guide was also featured in the coming-of-age film by Wes Anderson, Moonrise Kingdom. The piece is played throughout the film to add to the values of wonder and adventure present in the movie, and synonymously contribute to the performances of the child actors.