Listen to the xun
Tip: press play to see the sound's live frequency spectrum in blue over the waveform.
How the xun makes its sound
In the Hornbostel–Sachs system, which classifies instruments by how they produce sound, the xun belongs to the flutes (edge-blown): an air jet is split on a sharp edge, setting the air column vibrating – flutes, recorders, whistles and panpipes.
More broadly it is one of the aerophones (wind instruments), where sound comes from vibrating air.
Its timbre – the colour that lets you tell it apart from other instruments playing the same note – comes from the mix of overtones its body and resonator emphasise.
From Wikipedia
The xun (simplified Chinese: 埙; traditional Chinese: 塤; pinyin: xūn; Jyutping: hyun1) is a globular, vessel flute from China. It is one of the oldest musical instruments in China and has been in use for approximately 7,000 years. The xun was initially made of stone, baked clay, or bone, and later of clay or ceramic; sometimes the instrument is made with bamboo. It is the only surviving example of an earth (also called "clay") instrument from the traditional "eight-tone" (bayin) classifications of musical instruments (based on whether the instrument is made from metal, stone, silk, bamboo, gourd, earth, hide, or wood).
Other flutes
Frequently asked questions
What does a xun sound like?
Listen to 1 recording on this page. As one of the flutes, its sound comes from the way an air jet is split on a sharp edge, setting the air column vibrating.
What type of instrument is the xun?
It is classified as flutes (edge-blown) (Hornbostel–Sachs 421.221.42).
Sources & credits
- Recording of Xun by played and recorded by David290 – CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
- Wikidata Q839767 – CC0
- Wikipedia: Xun (instrument) – CC BY-SA 4.0
- Image by Leonhard Karl – Public domain