| www.euronews.com Wu Man plays an ancient instrument. She explained: "This is a historic Pipa. It was introduced from Persia and Central Asia, 2000 years ago through the Silk Road trade and this is why it fits very much in the Silk Road Ensemble." Kayhan Kalhor plays the Kamancheh. "My intrument Kamancheh is a bowed instrument," he explained. "The very different thing from other bow instruments is that you bow in one direction but you turn the instrument in order to reach different strings." Wu Man said the method of playing her ancient pipa has been brought up to date. "You use five fingers to play. You use fake fingernails which is a very modern way. This started in the 50s, with four strings and bamboo frets." Wu Man and Kayhan Kalhor are members of the Silk Road Ensemble in which musicians from different cultures come together. The project is named after the famous Silk Road, which allowed different cultures to mingle over 2000 years as it carried trade between Europe, central Asia and the Far East. Kayhan Kalhor spoke a little more about his kamancheh. "The way it looks is probably a little different from western violin but its basically the same concept," he said. "Somewhere along the road in the history this instrument came out of Persia and went eastwards to China and Japan and then westwards to Europe." The variety of instruments makes the ensemble unique. It was founded by the world renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma in 1998. It is all about exchanging ideas. Members of ... |
