The sanxian is a Chinese lute—a three-stringed fretless plucked musical instrument. It has a long fingerboard, and the body is traditionally made from snake skin stretched over a rounded rectangularresonator. It is made in several sizes for different purposes and in the late 20th century a four-stringed version was also developed. The northern sanxian is generally larger, at about in length, while southern versions of the instrument are usually about in length.
History
It has been suggested that sanxian, a form of spike lute, may have its origin in the Middle East, and older forms of spike lute were also found in ancient Egypt. Similar instruments may have been present in China as early as the Qin dynasty as qin pipa or xiantao , which the Qinqin and Ruan also come from. Some thought that the instrument may have been re-introduced into China together with other instruments such as huqin by the Mongols during the Yuan dynasty, however, an image of a sanxian-like instrument was found in a stone sculpture dating from the Southern Song period. The first record of the name "sanxian" may be found in a Ming dynasty text. The instrument was transmitted to other East Asian countries, for example to Japan as shamisen.
Description
The sanxian has a dry, somewhat percussive tone and loud volume similar to the banjo. The larger sizes have a range of three octaves. It is primarily used as an accompanying instrument, as well as in ensembles and orchestras of traditional Chinese instruments, though solo pieces and concertos also exist. The sanxian is used in nanguan and Jiangnan sizhu ensembles, as well as many other folk and classical ensembles. Traditionally the instrument is plucked with a thin, hard plectrum made from animal horn but today most players use a plastic plectrum or, alternatively, their fingernails. This use of fingers to pluck the instrument often shares technique with that of the pipa and is most commonly used in performance of sanxian arrangements of works traditionally written for the pipa. This allows for pipa techniques such as tremolo to be used. Other techniques for sanxian include the use of harmonics and hitting the skin of the instrument with the plectra or fingernail. A closely related musical instrument is the Japanese shamisen, which originated from the Chinese sanxian. Even more closely related is the Okinawan sanshin, which is also covered in snakeskin. Additionally, the sanshin and sanxian share a structurally similar body partconsisting of a round-edged square of wood. In the Japanese shamisen, the body is made of four pieces of wood instead of one. The Mongolian shanz and the Vietnamese đàn tam are also very similar to the sanxian. In addition to its use in traditional and classical Chinese music, some popular and rock musicians have used the sanxian, most notably the singer He Yong and his father He Yusheng.
Tuning
Small sanxian: A-d-a or d-a-d1, Length:
Large sanxian: G-d-g, Length:
Notable ''Sanxian'' players
Li Yi
Xu Fengxia
Zhao Taisheng
Huang Guifang
Related instruments
Xianzi diminutive, either a dialect word and just the same as a normal sanxian, or a southern version with a shorter neck. But in Tibet the Chinese word "xianzi" refers to a 2-string version of the Chinese sanxian.
