Guan (instrument)

[1][2] The earliest use of the word guan can be traced back to Zhou dynasty records, where it refers to end-blown bamboo flutes such as the xiao or paixiao.

The earliest double-reed instrument appears in the late Zhou dynasty and is referred as hújiā (胡笳; 'reed pipe of Hu people') because it had been introduced from the northwestern region of China.

The guan was developed after the hujia in the Tang dynasty due to the flourishing music and art culture that were influenced by the Silk Road trade.

Like the hujia, it was likely adopted from whom the Chinese generally call the Hu (nomadic) people, and became an important leading instrument in the court and ritual music.

[citation needed] The guan consist of a short cylindrical tube made of hardwood in northern China, where the instrument is called bili.

Like the Cantonese houguan, it comes in three sizes, each of which has a small brass bell to increase its volume,photo Archived 2011-07-16 at the Wayback Machine and does not overblow, giving it a register of just over one octave.

Other than the "Houguan", other common bamboo guan include the "Yamudi" of Taiwan, the "Luguan" of Hunan, the "Bili" of northern China, the Uyghur "Pipi", and the "Xibili" of the Korean autonomous region.

While in theory these instruments can have a range as wide as the clarinet, they are generally considered to sound best in the lowest two octaves (due to the immense difficulty in controlling the Clarion register).