For the mythological animal from France and Switzerland, see Dahu

Dahu

The dahu is a legendary creature well known in France, Switzerland and the north of Italy.French pranksters often describe the dahu as a mountain goat-like animal with legs of differing lengths....

.

The dahu (大胡, pinyin

Pinyin

Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...

: dàhú) is a large bowed string instrument

String instrument

A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...

 from China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

. It has a large soundbox covered on one end with python skin. Like most other members of the huqin

Huqin

Huqin is a family of bowed string instruments, more specifically, a spike fiddle popularly used in Chinese music. The instruments consist of a round, hexagonal, or octagonal sound box at the bottom with a neck attached that protrudes upwards...

 family of instruments, it has two strings and is held vertically. The instrument is generally pitched one octave below the erhu

Erhu

The erhu is a two-stringed bowed musical instrument, more specifically a spike fiddle, which may also be called a "southern fiddle", and sometimes known in the Western world as the "Chinese violin" or a "Chinese two-stringed fiddle". It is used as a solo instrument as well as in small ensembles...

, and is considerably larger than the erhu. Its name derives from the Chinese word for "large" (dà), and the word hú (short for huqin

Huqin

Huqin is a family of bowed string instruments, more specifically, a spike fiddle popularly used in Chinese music. The instruments consist of a round, hexagonal, or octagonal sound box at the bottom with a neck attached that protrudes upwards...

). Its bridge is often placed somewhat above the center of the snakeskin to avoid stretching the skin.

The dahu was developed for orchestral use in the 1930s as the tenor member of the erhu family (the erhu being the soprano member and the zhonghu

Zhonghu

The zhonghu is a low-pitched Chinese bowed string instrument. Together with the erhu and gaohu, it is a member of the huqin family, and was developed in the 20th century as the alto member of the huqin family .The zhonghu is analogous with the erhu, but is slightly larger and...

being the alto member), but by the late 20th century it had largely fallen into disuse. Part of the reason for this is that it is unwieldy to play. Also, the fact that (like other instruments in the huqin family) the bow passes between the instrument's two strings means that playing pizzicato

Pizzicato

Pizzicato is a playing technique that involves plucking the strings of a string instrument. The exact technique varies somewhat depending on the type of stringed instrument....

 is difficult; thus, the larger gehu

Gehu

The gehu is a Chinese instrument developed in the 20th century by the Chinese musician Yang Yusen . It is a fusion of the Chinese huqin family and the cello. Its four strings are also tuned C-G-D-A, exactly like the cello's...

and diyingehu

Diyingehu

The diyingehu is a Chinese bowed string instrument in the huqin family. It was developed by Yang Yusen along with the gehu in the 20th century...

, laruan

Laruan

The lāruǎn is a relatively new Chinese string instrument blending the acoustics of the ruan with that of the Western cello...

, (or cello

Cello

The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...

 or double bass

Double bass

The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...

) are generally used in Chinese orchestras for the lower bowed string voices instead.

The dahu is sometimes also called cizhonghu. It is also referred to as xiaodihu, being the same instrument as the smallest of the three sizes of dihu

Dihu

The dihu is a large bowed string instrument from China. It has a large soundbox covered on one end with snakeskin. Like most other members of the huqin family of instruments, it has two strings and is held vertically...

(large huqin

Huqin

Huqin is a family of bowed string instruments, more specifically, a spike fiddle popularly used in Chinese music. The instruments consist of a round, hexagonal, or octagonal sound box at the bottom with a neck attached that protrudes upwards...

 instruments), the others being the zhongdihu and dadihu.http://www.soomal.com/gb/002/001/00000015.htm

External links

• Dahu page from Paul and Bernice Noll site
• Xiaodihu photo (xiaodihu on left; erhu on right for comparison)

See also

• Dihu
  Dihu
  The dihu is a large bowed string instrument from China. It has a large soundbox covered on one end with snakeskin. Like most other members of the huqin family of instruments, it has two strings and is held vertically...
  
  
• Huqin
  Huqin
  Huqin is a family of bowed string instruments, more specifically, a spike fiddle popularly used in Chinese music. The instruments consist of a round, hexagonal, or octagonal sound box at the bottom with a neck attached that protrudes upwards...
  
  
• Traditional Chinese musical instruments
  Traditional Chinese musical instruments
  -The Eight Sounds or Eight Tones :The eight categories are: silk, bamboo, wood, stone, metal, clay, gourd and hide. There are other instruments which may not fit these classifications. This is one of the first musical classifications ever.-Silk :...