Xiao (flute)

The xiao (simplified Chinese: 箫; traditional Chinese: 簫; pinyin: xiāo; Wade–Giles: hsiao, pronounced [ɕi̯ɑ́ʊ̯]) is a Chinese vertical end-blown flute. It is generally made of bamboo. It is also sometimes called dòngxiāo (simplified Chinese: 洞箫; traditional Chinese: 洞簫), dòng meaning "hole." An ancient name for the xiāo is shùzhúdí (豎竹笛, lit. "vertical bamboo flute", [ʂûtʂutǐ]) but the name xiāo in ancient times also included the side-blown bamboo flute, dizi.

The xiāo is a very ancient Chinese instrument usually thought to have developed from a simple end-blown flute used by the Qiang people of Southwest China in ancient period.

Organology

Xiao are almost always made of bamboo, the best being 'purple bamboo' or 紫竹 (pinyin：“zizhu"). Sometimes, the xiao is made of solid wood that has been carved and hollowed out. They can either be made plain, or have a horn inlay at the end and/or various inscriptions along the shaft. Usually, nylon wire bindings along the shaft are wrapped on which attempts to stabilize the bamboo and prevent cracking. Some players tie a tassel to dangle from one of the lower sound holes, purely for decorative purposes.

Flute

The flute is a family of a musical instrument in the woodwind group. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening. According to the instrument classification of Hornbostel–Sachs, flutes are categorized as edge-blown aerophones.

A musician who plays the flute can be referred to as a flute player, flautist, flutist or, less commonly, fluter or flutenist.

Flutes are the earliest extant musical instruments. A number of flutes dating to about 43,000 to 35,000 years ago have been found in the Swabian Alb region of Germany. These flutes demonstrate that a developed musical tradition existed from the earliest period of modern human presence in Europe. Flutes, including the famous Bansuri, have been an integral part of Indian classical music since 1500 BC. A major deity of Hinduism, Krishna, has been associated with the flute.

Etymology

The word flute first entered the English language during the Middle English period, as floute, or else flowte, flo(y)te, possibly from Old French flaute and from Old Provençal flaüt, or else from Old French fleüte, flaüte, flahute via Middle High German floite or Dutch fluit. The English verb flout has the same linguistic root, and the modern Dutch verb fluiten still shares the two meanings. Attempts to trace the word back to the Latin flare (to blow, inflate) have been pronounced "phonologically impossible" or "inadmissable". The first known use of the word flute was in the 14th century. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, this was in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Hous of Fame, c.1380.

Western concert flute

The Western concert flute is a transverse (side-blown) woodwind instrument made of metal or wood. It is the most common variant of the flute. A musician who plays the flute is called a flautist, flutist, flute player, or fluter.

This type of flute is used in many ensembles including concert bands, military bands, marching bands, orchestras, flute ensembles, and occasionally jazz bands and big bands. Other flutes in this family include the piccolo, alto flute, bass flute, contrabass flute, double contrabass flute and the hyperbass flute. A large repertory of works has been composed for flute.

History

The flute is one of the oldest and most widely used wind instruments. The precursors of the modern concert flute were keyless wooden transverse flutes, similar to modern fifes. These were later modified to include between one and eight keys for chromatic notes.

Predecessors of the Western concert flute

The most common pitch for keyless wooden traverse flutes is "six-finger" D. Keyless traverse flutes continue to be used in folk music (particularly Irish traditional music) and in historically informed performances of Baroque (and earlier) music.

Flute (disambiguation)

A flute is a musical instrument.

Flute can also refer to:

Xiao

Xiao may refer to:

People

Other

Xiao (rank)

Xiao (校) (Wade–Giles: Hsiao) is the rank held by field officers in the military of both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China. The People's Liberation Army uses four grades while the Republic of China uses only three, with the rank equivalent to the fourth being treated as a general officer rank. This difference is found in other militaries as well. For example. in the British Army a brigadier is considered a field officer, while the equivalent rank in the United States Army, brigadier general, is considered a general officer. The PLA use the same rank names for all services, prefixed by Hai Jun (海军) (Naval Force) or Kong Jun (空军) (Air Force). While the ROC does the same for enlisted ranks and company-grade officers, it has distinct names for the higher naval ranks.

See also

Xiao (surname)

Xiao (simplified Chinese: 萧/肖; traditional Chinese: 蕭) is a Chinese surname. In the Wade-Giles system of romanization, it is rendered as Hsiao. It may also be romanized as Siaw, Siew, Siow, Seow or Siu.

A 1977 study found that it was the 20th most common Chinese surname in the world. It is said to be the 30th most common in China.

History

In mainland China

The Xiao surname originated from Xiao County in Anhui province, China. In the state of Song during the Spring and Autumn period of ancient China, the nobleman Daxin (蕭叔大心) was enfeoffed at Xiao, which became an attached state of Song. The people of Xiao later adopted the name of their state as their surname. Centuries later, Xiao He was the first prime minister of the Han dynasty. Later on, his descendant Xiao Biao (萧彪) moved to Lanling (兰陵), now Yicheng in Shandong province, due to political problems during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han. The Xiao people therefore also trace their origin to Lanling, and sometimes they are called Lanling Xiao (“兰陵萧”).