Sunday, April 12, 2009

Names of instruments of the Symphony Orchestra in Chinese

A good friend of mine and I agreed that we shall converse in Mandarin. This proved to be a challenge yet I shall do my best to keep up to the agreement where possible.

Interestingly, the education system in Singapore is such that English is the main language of instruction for most of the subjects that are taught in the schools here. As such, I realised that even when I converse with my peers in Singapore who are Chinese, I would tend to converse in English. What helped me maintain regular contact with Chinese is the fact that I read Chinese newspapers everyday.

When my friend and I were trying to have a conversation that required us to use Chinese terms to name a number of instruments of the Western Symphony Orchestra, it left me to realise that other than the instruments of the strings family, I don't particularly know the Chinese names of most of the other instruments!

For my general knowledge and to help me in my future conversations, I decided I shall list the Chinese names of the instruments of the Western Symphony Orchestra here:

Violin 小提琴
Viola 中提琴
Cello 大提琴
Double Bass 低音提琴/ 倍大提琴

Piccolo 短笛
Flute 长笛
Oboe 双簧管
Clarinet 单簧管
Bassoon 大管
Contrabasson 低音大管
English horn/ Cor Anglais 中音双簧管

French Horn 法国号/圆号
Trumpet 小号/ 喇叭
Trombone 长号
Tuba 大号

Timpani 定音鼓
Bass drum 低音鼓
Side drum 小鼓
Cymbal 铙钹, 钗(钹)
Castanet 响板
Gong 锣
Triangle 三角铁
Celesta 钢片琴, 钟琴

Harp 竖琴

Organ 管风琴/ 风琴

Source: http://www.iciba.com

3 comments:

Doreen said...

Some of the chinese terms are new to me too. Thanks for sharing. Singaporean generally quite good in Chinese I found.

pinkie said...

Chinese lesson!!!! Din know this > Double Bass 低音提琴/ 倍大提琴. Tot it's 大大提琴! :P just kidding.

oceanskies79 said...

Doreen: Yes, some were new to me.

Pinkie: This wasn't intended to be a Chinese lesson actually. Thanks for making me laugh. :P