Cantonese Opera Flute

Item number 2668/4 from the MOA: University of British Columbia.

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Description

Long vertical end-blown flute that has five evenly spaced raised ridges indicative of bamboo grass. There are several circular holes down the length of the flute as well as three sections of metal bands wrapped around the outside of the flute. One end is hollow and the other end is closed. There are characters in gold on the side of the flute.

History Of Use

In Cantonese opera, melodic instruments include the erxian (two-stringed fiddle), and the hudieqin or yangqin (butterfly zither) serve as the lead instruments. Other melodic instruments include the zhutiqin (bamboo fiddle), yueqin (moon lute), yehu (coconut lute), or sanxian (three-stringed lute) and wind instruments, such as the dizi (transverse flute) and xiao (end-blown flute). They are played together to accompany the singing onstage.

Narrative

The writing near the top/down the centre, means "prime time". Next to it is the date it was engraved; the writing in the centre of the flute says "Yue Sing" (Canton sound).