RUAN!

These few days i've been studying about the chinese instrument known as the 'Ruan'. in chinese its written as "阮". Here's a little about the Ruan, taken from Samuel Wong's "An Instrumental Guide to the Chinese Orchestra":

"The Ruan has become a staple plucked instrument in the Chinese Orchestra, capable of playing accompaniments and solos. As it is an 'invented' instrument, it cannot be found in folk music ensembles...

During the Jin Dynasty, the poet and musician 'RuanXian', who was one of the seven sages of the bamboo grove, was renowned for his virtuosity in this particular plucked string instrument. Due to his contributions to literature and his disdain for politics, the common fold of that time, out of respect, named the instrument after him...

(However) after the Tang Dynasty the development of the Ruan slowly deteriorated together with historical material that had records of Ruan scores...It was only after the liberation of China that the ancient instrument was resurrected...to fill in the gap of sound (as there was no equivalent lower-pitched instrument among the plucked string family in the chinese orchestra."

Here's some pics of it...


the instrument itself...


and my friend jonathan ngeow playing the ruan!

Yea u can hear Music for Ruan right here, written and performed by Liu Xing (劉星), who is one of the foremost Ruan players of the 21st century. :D