The yunluo is a traditional Chinese musical instrument

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 :...

. It was also called yún'áo (雲璈) in ancient times.

The yunluo is a set of usually ten small tuned gongs mounted in a wooden frame, with each gong being about 9-12 cm in diameter, and the height of the frame being about 52 cm. The yunluos gongs are generally of equal diameter but different thicknesses; the thicker gongs produce a higher pitch. It is often used in wind and percussion ensembles in northern China

North China

thumb|250px|Northern [[People's Republic of China]] region.Northern China or North China is a geographical region of China. The heartland of North China is the North China Plain....

. Old drawings also depict a smaller yunluo with just five gongs, which was held by a handle by one hand and played with the other.

A modernised yunluo has been developed from the traditional yunluo for use in the large modern Chinese orchestra

Chinese orchestra

The term Chinese Orchestra can refer to either:* The ancient Chinese Orchestra, or* The modern Chinese Orchestra-The ancient Chinese Orchestra:...

. It is much larger with 29 or more gongs of different diameters. Its height is about 2m including its two legs on which it stands on the floor (the frame itself is about half its height); its width is about 1.4 m.

The traditional yunluo is sometimes referred to as the shimianluo (十面锣; literally "ten faced gongs") to distinguish it from the modern redesigned yunluo.

A very similar instrument called the ulla

Ulla (instrument)

The ulla is a traditional Korean percussion instrument comprising a set of ten small tuned gongs in a wooden frame. The gongs are struck with a beater.The ulla is derived from the Chinese yunluo....

 (hangul: 운라; hanja: 雲鑼 or 雲羅), which is derived from the yunluo, is used in the music of Korea.

The nhã nhạc music of Vietnam uses a similar instrument with three gongs, called the tam âm la (Sino-Vietnamese: 三音鑼).

External links

• Photo and description of yunluo (the picture is of a traditional yunluo)
• Photos and description of a redesigned yunluo and traditional yunluo (called shimianluo here)
• Yunluo and shimianluo

Video

• Video of an 18-gong yunluo, from The Musical Instruments E-book

See also

• 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 :...
  
  
• Music of China
  Music of China
  Chinese Music has been made since the dawn of Chinese civilization with documents and artifacts providing evidence of a well-developed musical culture as early as the Zhou Dynasty...