Hear today's full episode by clicking "Listen" above or find "Intermezzo" from your favorite podcast app.
Welcome to Intermezzo from Interlochen Public Radio, where we take a few minutes to bounce some ideas around about classical music.
This week, Christy L'Esperance and her co-host, Bianca, celebrate Chinese New Year by exploring traditional Chinese instruments playing music related to horses — this year's animal in the Chinese zodiac.
So far, we've learned about the erhu and pipa. Today, we're learning about another stringed instrument: the ruan.
The ruan is an ancient Chinese plucked string instrument, often called the "moon guitar." Like the pipa, it’s been around for about 2000 years. Nowadays, there are both traditional ruans and modern, fully electric ruans. It has a circular body, frets on the neck, and four strings.
Listen to today's episode for some samples of ruan music!
"The Courtyard After Rain"
This week's Mystery Melody
It's time to test your ears. Each week we have a mystery melody that we have to figure out together. It relates to our topic. (We'll make the melody less mysterious each day.)
If you know the mystery melody, text your name and the title and we’ll give you a shout out on Friday. The number to text is (833) 490-4718.
