The ''gehu'' ( 革胡;

pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese fo ...

: géhú) is a Chinese instrument developed in the 20th century by the Chinese musician Yang Yusen ( 杨雨森, 1926–1980). It is a fusion of the Chinese huqin family and the

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C2, G2, ...

. Its four strings are also tuned (from low to high) C-G-D-A, exactly like the cello's. Unlike most other

musical instruments A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person who pl ...

in the ''huqin'' family, the bridge does not contact the snakeskin, which faces to the side. There is also a contrabass ''gehu'' that functions as a Chinese

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

, known as the '' diyingehu'', ''digehu'', or ''beigehu'' ( 倍革胡). By the late 20th century the ''gehu'' had become a rare instrument, even within China, as the tendency for the snakeskin to lose its tightness increases with humidity. Today, it is used mostly in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...

and

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...

, although even there, the cello is beginning to become a popular replacement for it. There are also other Chinese instruments that are able to take on the role of bowed bass range instrument, such as the ''

laruan The ''lāruǎn'' ( 拉阮; also spelled ''la ruan'') is a relatively new Chinese string instrument blending the acoustics of the ''ruan'' with that of the Western cello. Its larger counterpart is the ''dalaruan'' (大拉阮), which corresponds to ...

'' (which uses the structure and acoustics of the

ruan Ruan may refer to: Buildings * Ruan Center, office building in Des Moines, Iowa * John Ruan House, historic mansion in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, t ...

), the '' lapa'' (also known as ''paqin'', using the structure of the

pipa The pipa, pípá, or p'i-p'a () is a traditional Chinese musical instrument, belonging to the plucked category of instruments. Sometimes called the "Chinese lute", the instrument has a pear-shaped wooden body with a varying number of frets ran ...

), and the bass ''

matouqin The ''morin khuur'' ( mn, морин хуур, morin khuur), also known as the horsehead fiddle, is a traditional Mongolian bowed stringed instrument. It is one of the most important musical instruments of the Mongol people, and is considered ...

''.

References

External links

Gehu page
from Paul and Bernice Noll Website
''Gehu'' page
(Chinese)

by Brandon Voo

Video

Video of a piece for ''gehu'' and Chinese traditional instrument orchestra, entitled 草原风情 ("Grasslands Character and Style")
performed by Dong Jinchi (董金池), from

CCTV Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signal is not openly ...

Rossini Duet for Cello and Double Bass, played by a gehu and diyingehu.
Chinese musical instruments Huqin family instruments Bowed instruments Drumhead lutes {{huqin-stub

See also

References

External links

Video