Wen Wu and Music

Chinese Opera music and plots are divided into two broad categories – Civil Dramas (Wen) and Martial Dramas (Wu).

Some of the instruments of the traditional orchestra are found in both kinds of drama, but some are linked pretty strongly to a particular drama type. In general, the percussion instruments (and there are many varieties of them) are used for battle scenes, and lutes and flutes are used for the romantic stories.

Chinese opera music in general is based upon a pentatonic scale, and that simply means a five note musical scale. There are many pentatonic scales from which an orchestra can choose, and pitch relations tend to be at intervals that are similar to western music (whole and half intervals – using octave, fourths, and fifths as natural divisions). This makes it possible for a composer like Tan Dun to “translate” this music for western string and wind instruments, and even to fuse elements from JS Bach with Chinese scales and instrumentation.

Here are some of the musical instruments typically found in an opera orchestra, and a few that aren’t. I included some of this “extra” instruments because they were featured in scenes in ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA and KUNG FU HUSTLE (among others), and also because I love the way they sound!





  • The Pan is like a wooden clapper – pieces of wood threaded together with silk and played by hitting them against each other.
  • The Lo is a large, suspended gong.
  • The Tang Ku drum is used for military scenes. It has a loud, very deep sound, I think it is similar in sound to the western bass drum.
  • The Hsia Lo gong is held in one hand. There are many gongs and cymbals in an opera orchestra, and musicians have to switch between them as required by the scenes being played.
  • The Tan P’i Ku is one of the backbone instruments in the orchestra. It keeps the tempo throughout the drama.
  • The guzheng is a wen (non-martial) instrument that was played by Confucius to calm his mind. Ironically, it is a secret weapon in KUNG FU HUSTLE.
  • The Hu Qin is the general term for all bowed, stringed instruments in the opera orchestra. This one is a two-stringed instrument, and like its brothers and sisters, the bow is actually attached to the instrument.
  • The Erhu is the mellowest of the stringed instruments.
  • The Yueqin is a Chinese lute – associated with wen dramas
  • The pipa is a versatile four-stringed Chinese lute. It is a beautiful melodic accompaniment but can also emulate percussive sounds like falling rain and horses’ hooves.
  • The Dizi (bamboo flute) is rarely part of the opera orchestra. It is very similar to the western transverse flute.
  • The suona is considered the loudest instrument. It has a trumpet-like sound, but uses a reed. It made an appearance in several of the films.
Here is the Beijing Opera Orchestra playing a great set. You can see and hear many of the instruments shown in this video.
And here is an absolutely WONDERFUL short piece on the suona. We would all be lucky to have half as much fun as this guy!