Bowed Strings Section

The bowed strings mainly consist of the huqin (胡琴) family of instruments, and sometimes the cello and double bass instruments, which provide the bass sound that traditional Chinese music lacks.

Huqin (胡琴)

The huqin series of instruments in common usage consist of the erhu (二胡), zhonghu (中胡) and gaohu (高胡). The gaohu (highest-pitched of the series) and zhonghu (lowest-pitched huqin) are proportionately fewer in numbers in the Chinese orchestra. The erhu forms the bulk of this section and is divided into distinct sections, known as erhu I and erhu II. The uniqueness of the huqin series lies in how music can be produced from two fine metal strings less than 2mm apart, without any frets or fingerboards. Well-known solo pieces for the erhu includes Sanmen Gorge Capriccio (三门峡畅想曲), Guang Ming Xing (光明行) as well as Lan Hua Hua (兰花花).

For NTUCO Bowed Strings Section, the Sectional Leader for Academic Year 2011-2012 Section is Yihong.