Konghou

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The konghou (Chinese: 箜篌; pinyin: kōnghóu) is an ancient Chinese harp. It went extinct sometime in the Ming Dynasty, but was revived in the 20th century.

The main feature that distinguishes the modern konghou from the Western concert harp is that its strings are folded over to make two rows, which enables players to use advanced techniques such as vibrato. The modern instrument does not resemble the ancient one.

The instrument was adopted in ancient times in Korea, where it was called gonghu (hangul: 공후), but it is no longer used there. Similarly, the kudaragoto (Kugo) harp of Japan was in use in some Togaku (Tang music) performances during the Nara period, but seems to have died out by the 10th century.

Contents 1 See also 2 External links 2.1 Video 2.2 Listening

[edit] See also

• List of traditional Chinese musical instruments

[edit] External links

• Konghou from About China site
• "Reflection upon Chinese Recently Unearthed Konghous in Xin Jiang Autonomous Region" by Xie Jin
• Ancient Chinese painting of a konghou (see top left)

[edit] Video

• Konghou video from The Musical Instruments E-book

[edit] Listening

• Konghou audio (click headphones to listen to individual tracks)