YA-GWIN Sonorous Substances. Burmah. Cymbals.
YA-KOTO Plucked Strings. Japan. A development of the yamato-koto. It has eight strings. See koto and yamato-koto.
YAKUMO-KOTO Plucked Strings. Japan. The body is made of bamboo and has two strings being almost identical with the ni-gen-kin. See ni-gen-kin.
YAMATO-FUYE Transverse Flute. Japan. This flute has six holes. It is lacquered red inside and closely bound between the holes with string laid on with paste and after-wards fixed with lacquer. The string is a substitute for the strips of cherry bark formerly used. The top is plugged with lead wrapped in rolls of paper, fastened with wax, and finished at the end with wood decorated with brocade or highly finished metal ornaments.
YAMATO-KOTO or WA-GON Plucked Strings. Japan. This is essentially a national instrument and was originally made from six hunting bows tied side by side. The sounding-board is cut at one end by six long notches to perpetuate the idea of the bows. Through these notches pass six heavy cords from underneath the body. To the cords are attached the six strings, which are stretched over six movable bridges to the opposite end where they are fastened on the under side. The melody is plucked with the little finger of the right hand, a drone accompaniment being played with the finger tips and a slip of hard material. Despite the crude construction, the tone is sweet and mellow.
YANG-CH'IN Struck Strings. China. This may be in form of a rectangular, trapezoidal, or oval box. Herein is found a range of fine metallic wires disposed in sets of two, three or four to each note, decreasing in length from the bass upward and fastened at both sides with a peg. The two bridges are each perforated with seven or eight holes, over and through which the strings are stretched. The strings which pass over the first bridge have to pass through the opposite holes of the second bridge and vice versa. It is played with two strips of bamboo and is capable of extremely pleasant sounds when well played. It is some-times heard with the violin and guitar to accompany ballads.
YANG GUM Struck Strings. Korea. An instrument of the dulcimer type. The trapezoidal box is mounted with wire strings which are struck with two strips of bamboo. A specimen in the Metropolitan Museum of Art bears four-teen strings and is twenty-six inches long by eight inches wide. See dulcimer.
YANG'ONG Sonorous Substances. Siam. A bamboo instrument similar to the jew's harp. See jew's harp.
YAN-KIN or HYOKEN Struck Strings. Japan. An instrument resembling the dulcimer with fifteen double strings fastened at one end underneath and coming up through eyelets. It is said by the makers of instruments to have come from Italy to China, and thence to Japan. See dulcimer.
YAYOI-KOTO Plucked Strings. Japan. A long narrow body of wood, with a flat surface and having a bridge at either end. The strings are fastened at one end on the under side. Passing up over the two bridges, they are again brought to the under side through diagonally arranged holes and are fastened to pegs set in a circular depression at the opposite end.
YEKTAR Plucked strings. India. The body of the instrument resembles a wooden dipper and it has a single string. It is formed from a piece of bamboo to the under side of which a large gourd or hollow cylinder of wood is attached, having one end closed with a piece of parchment. In the center of the parchment is a hole through which the string, stretched from a peg in the end of the neck to the inside of the cylinder, is passed and is tied in a knot to prevent its slipping back. It is played with a plectrum. The yektar is associated with mendicants.
YING-KO -- Vibrating Membranes. China. This drum is called for in many ceremonies, and is suspended in a frame by four rings and beaten on the upper surface with two sticks. The shell is richly decorated with birds, dragons and flowers. One at the Metropolitan Museum of Art has a diameter of thirteen and a half inches and is twenty-four inches in height.
Yo-KIN Plucked Strings. Japan. A small Chinese koto with thirteen strings. See koto.
YOKO-FUYE Transverse Flute. Japan. A Chinese flute in use in japan. It has seven finger-holes. It is also called ryuteki or the dragon flute and was originally made of monkey bone, but now of bamboo. There are long and short varieties, the longer being made of thinner bamboo and producing more delicate tones.
YU Sonorous Substances. China. This is in the form of a tiger resting on a rectangular box. On its back are twenty-seven teeth resembling a saw. At the end of each strophe, the attendant strikes the tiger three times on the head and rapidly passes his stick three times along the projections upon the back. Formerly each tooth-like projection could produce a given note.
YUEH Vertical Flute. China. This is a short vertical flute with three finger-holes. It was formerly used by dancers in the temples, being occasionally sounded to indicate their movements. In the present ritual music the dancers hold a stick which is called by the same name.
YUEH-CH'IN Plucked Strings. China. The name means moon guitar and the instrument is so called because the usual shape of the body resembles a full moon, one variety, however, having an octagonal body. The neck is short and is furnished with frets. There are four strings which are sometimes made of copper though usually of silk. The yueh-ch'in is favored as an accompaniment to ballads and songs.
YU-HSIAO See yu-ti.
YUNG-CHUNG Sonorous Substances. China. A very large bell gradually decreasing toward the apex. This was kept in towers and was made to correspond with a very large drum used in temple music. The drum gave the signal for beginning the ceremony and the bell for closing. Neither is in use now, though both are still to be found.
YUN-LO Sonorous Substances. China. An instrument composed of ten little gongs suspended upon a frame of fine silk cord. The gongs are all of the same diameter but differ as to thickness. They are used at court, mainly on joyous occasions, and sometimes figure at weddings and funerals, but then only for form's sake as the player does not attempt to carry the tune of the other players. They can not be tuned successfully.
YU-TI, YU-HSIAO Vertical Flute. China. Two flutes constructed quite as the ordinary flute, except that the material employed is marble instead of bamboo which bet-ter preserves the sound of the lüs, or scale, changes in the atmosphere not affecting the marble.
