MUSI3041 Assignment#4——Zihao

Guzheng, an ancient Chinese traditional instrument, is one of the unique and important national instruments in China. It is popular all over China and can be used for solo, repertoire, accompaniment and so on. It is called " Eastern Piano" because of its wide range, beautiful tone, rich playing skills and strong expression. The guzheng is a plucked instrument with a rectangular shape, slightly raised in the middle and a flat base plate. The head and tail of the guzheng are equipped with brackets for easy support, and the strings are placed on the top of the wooden box. The guzheng usually has 21 strings, under each string, a shelf is placed, which can be moved from side to side to adjust the pitch and sound quality.

The quality of a guzheng depends on the texture of each part of the material and the manufacturing process, so making a guzheng is also a very high technology. Before making a guzheng, the raw material must be prepared first, and then the panel of the guzheng must be made first after the preparation. The selected wood has to be soaked, steamed and air-dried. The soaking time is about one month, then the steaming time is 72 hours, and finally the air-drying time is up to one year. After the material is finished, the main body of the guzheng is finished, and the last step is to carve, assemble and debug the guzheng. The top of the guzheng is mostly made of Chinese Yunnan platane wood, while the head and tail of the guzheng are made of some precious woods, such as rosewood, which are usually used to decorate the guzheng. Platane wood is a common material in our daily life. Platane tree grows quickly and is a suitable material for making musical instruments. And rosewood is a valuable wood that can be used not only for making musical instruments and furniture, but it can also be made into medicine with pain-relieving effects. In ancient China, people used rosewood to make some excellent furniture and crafts, which were only available to royalty, but for guzheng, rosewood was only used for decoration. The wide range of uses and powerful functions of rosewood have now led to a drastic decrease in the quantity of rosewood. There was a time in Chinese history when rosewood was almost completely harvested, which was ecologically damaging. As a result, for a long time, rosewood was one of the more depleted woods, and during this time, it became increasingly valuable.

I believe that the development of musical instruments and the ecological environment are inseparable. Musical instruments are the product of the environment, so the performance of musical instruments are in line with their environment. And once the environment has changed, it must be reformed to fit the new environment. Now, as the demand for rosewood grows and its rarity increases, it has been included in China's National List of Grade II Protected Plants and the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. In the 21st century, ecological sustainability has become an issue that cannot be ignored and everyone should protect the environment. Like rosewood, which is only used for decorating guzheng, I think we can use some other materials instead, such as pine, mahogany and so on. These woods are also suitable for carving and decoration, but they have an advantage over rosewood in that they are available in a wide variety of species and can be found everywhere. In the modern world, with the development of technology, I believe that other better materials can be developed to replace them, and the materials used to make musical instruments will become better in ecological and environmental terms.