Dong Xuehua's flute making experience

Tongliang Bridge in Yuhang, Zhejiang Province is rich in bitter bamboo. Bitter bamboo is a kind of white bamboo with hard texture and uniform inner diameter. Different from other kinds of bamboo, the bamboo node of bitter bamboo is usually a whole node, so it has been considered as the first-class material for making bamboo flute since ancient times. National musical instrument factories in Kangnan, such as Shanghai and Suzhou, as well as domestic flute manufacturers all admire Tongling Bridge to buy bamboo. It is said that in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the bamboo flute made of bitter bamboo in Tongling Bridge was once given to the court as a tribute.

Tongling Bridge is not only rich in bitter bamboo, but also the famous hometown of bamboo flute. Now there are more than 40 bamboo flute workshops in the local area, and Lingsheng Musical Instrument Factory is the largest among these 40 bamboo flute factories. Our factory inherits the traditional craft and selects the best bitter bamboo. The bamboo flute has won unanimous praise from experts in terms of intonation, sound quality and appearance, and has a far-reaching reputation.

In a residential area near lianhua bridge, Beijing, the reporter interviewed Dong Xuehua, the head of the Beijing office of Lingsheng Musical Instrument Factory. Dong Xuehua, 30, is not only the director of the office, but also a technician who makes flutes. His office is actually a workshop for making high-grade bamboo flutes. The reason why he set up an office in Beijing is as follows: "Flute players in both the north and the south prefer flutes made of white bamboo, while flutes made of white bamboo are just blank in the north." Smart Dong Xuehua was optimistic about this potential market, so he brought the skill of making white bamboo flute to Beijing. This will expand the popularity of "Lingsheng" bamboo flute in the northern region, and also facilitate your face-to-face communication with musicians in Beijing and the northern region, so that the products can be directly oriented to the market and targeted. Since the establishment of Dong Xuehua Musical Instrument Studio in Beijing, it has greatly facilitated professional musicians in Beijing, who often come to choose their own bamboo flutes at will. In his office and flute-making workshop, almost all of them are middle and high-grade bamboo flutes. He told reporters that all bamboo flutes here are top-grade materials selected from Tongling Bridge in his hometown and transported to Beijing for finishing.

Although Dong Xuehua is only 30 years old, he has been making flutes for 12 years. /kloc-when he was 0/8 years old, he studied flute making technology with Zhou, a famous flute player in Shanghai. While studying, Dong Xuehua also founded a small flute workshop to protect the exquisite bamboo on Tongling Bridge in his hometown. "The advantage is the first month. I can buy the best bamboo from the local people. Of course, my starting point is relatively high. " The so-called high starting point is that he met a group of professional flute players in Jiangnan under the introduction of Teacher Zhou. With the guidance and help of these professional actors, Dong Xuehua has avoided many detours in his flute making, and his flute making skills have been continuously improved. "Being in contact with performers helps me a lot, because they know flute best and can hear some feedback directly, so that I can directly improve my shortcomings," Dong Xuehua said with deep feelings.

In years of practice, Dong Xuehua has accumulated a lot of experience. He said that the key to making a flute is intonation. Because bamboo is a natural material, the inner diameter of bamboo is round and flat, large and small, and the inner diameter and outer diameter of big head and small head are different, which is not suitable for manual processing to the ideal size. If the inner diameter needs to be processed, the hard bamboo wall must be removed from the inner diameter of bamboo, but the sound made by bamboo flute will be dry and empty, and the good timbre effect will not be achieved. Therefore, a good bamboo flute can only be made by finding bamboo with a natural inner diameter matching. "I choose materials with the same inner diameter and outer diameter to make bamboo flutes, so that the melody will be more accurate." After long-term practice, Dong Xuehua has many original opinions on flute making. Regarding the timbre of bamboo flute, he said that it depends on the quality of the material and the processing method, such as the size, inclination, ratio of inner diameter to outer diameter and so on. If the bamboo wall is too thick, the sound will be dull; if it is too thin, the sound will float. The bamboo walls of flutes with good timbre are generally neither thin nor thick, and most of them are old bamboo, so the timbre of flutes made of this kind of bamboo can be unified, and it is most suitable to use 4-5 years old bamboo as flute material. Dong Xuehua said that bamboo used to make flutes usually needs to be dried for more than two years and naturally air-dried, so that the flutes produced by this method have good timbre and are not easy to crack. "Natural air-dried bamboo also contains moisture, so when baking bamboo, the heat must be controlled, not too dry, and not too much moisture can be left in it, so that the timbre of the bamboo made is round." When talking about the pitch of the flute, he said that because the climate and temperature change greatly throughout the year, the pitch of wind music will change differently with the change of temperature. The pitch in the north is very different from that in the south. According to Teacher Zhou's "Theoretical Materials of Flute Making", bamboo flutes were made, and the pitch specially required by the players was made, which was recognized and praised by many players. There are many kinds of musical instruments in Dong Xuehua Jingpai flute making workshop, including those with white bamboo skin and no paint, and those with natural and simple temperament, as well as those with high and middle grades, roots, interfaces and interfaces. His factory has technicians who specialize in processing and making copper mouths, and can make interface flutes that match the inner diameter of bamboo more accurately. Dong Xuehua said that if the interface flute doesn't match the inner diameter, the octave will be inaccurate and the treble will make strange noises. Another feature of Dong Xuehua's flutes is that each flute is engraved with different quatrains of Tang poetry, which is not only a simple decoration, but also makes bamboo flutes show elegant artistic taste. Among them, there are many bamboo flutes engraved with the names of famous flutes such as "Bangzi". Bangzi is a song written by Feng Zicun, a flute master of the North School. A few years ago, when the China Conservatory of Music held a concert to commemorate the 95th anniversary, some calligraphers displayed some inscriptions written by Mr. Feng as calligraphy, and carved them on bamboo flutes as a memorial to a generation of flute masters. Since then, this practice has formed the characteristics of flute making in Dong Xuehua, and received a good response. In 200 1, Dong Xuehua also made a keyed flute with a length of more than 3 meters, which can be played by one person, expanding the range of the bass part of the flute. This flute was later taken a fancy to by Liu Huanan of the Armed Police Art Troupe, and played repeatedly with this giant flute, which produced a good artistic effect.

Dong Xuehua told reporters that his father is now in charge of Lingsheng Musical Instrument Factory in Tongling Bridge, his hometown, where there are more than 20 skilled workers. In order to ensure the quality, the musical instrument factory also hired flute expert Zhou, famous flute player and music theory expert Tu Shipu as technical consultants. Dong Xuehua revealed that in recent years, the family contracted more than 20 mu of bamboo forest, but it still could not meet the demand of the factory. More than a dozen workers who know bamboo are needed to go directly up the mountain to select high-quality bamboo. He told reporters that their musical instrument factory produces nearly 30 thousand flutes every year, more than half of which are exported, and flutes are distributed all over the country and Southeast Asia.

The bamboo flute produced by Dong Xuehua Lingsheng Musical Instrument Factory is loved by many flute players. Mr. Zhao Songting, the late famous flute player, once wrote an inscription for the spiritual instrument: "Let's work together to promote national music"; Dai Ya, professor of folk music department of Central Conservatory of Music and flute player, wrote an inscription: "Spiritual instruments play the voice of China". A few years ago, Dong Xuehua co-authored an introductory flute textbook with the famous flute player Jiang Guoji. He revealed to reporters that he intended to manufacture and develop new musical instruments. I believe that Dong Xuehua and his Lingsheng Musical Instrument Factory will make greater contributions to the development and prosperity of national musical instruments!