Saturday, September 6, 2008

Yu (percussion instrument)

The ''yu'' was a wooden percussion instrument carved in the shape of a tiger with a serrated back comprising 27 "teeth," used since ancient times in China for court ritual music. It was played by striking its head three times with a bamboo whisk made from approximately 15 stalks of bamboo, and then scraping it across the serrated back once to mark the end of a piece of music.

The ''yu'' is mentioned, along with another percussion instrument called '''' , in pre-Qin Dynasty annals, and appears in the ''Classic of History''.

The ''yu'' was adopted by the Korean court in ancient times, where it was known as ''eo'' , and is still used in Confucian ritual music.

No comments: