Product Review

The bawu (also ba wu) is a Chinese traditional wind instrument.
Although shaped like a flute, it is actually a free reed instrument, with a single brass metal reed. It is played in a transverse (horizontal) manner. It has a pure, clarinet-like timbre and its playing technique incorporates the use of much ornamentation, particularly bending tones.
The bawu made of a wood tube at one end. Near the closed end, a small square hole is cut and a thin reed of copper is fastened, with a low plastic mouthpiece around it. This reed is essentially a very thin sheet of metal with a long and narrow isosceles triangle cut into it, which is bent slightly outwards at rest.
The lowest part of the bawu range is very rich in upper harmonics, the lowest of which have amplitudes almost equivalent to that of the fundamental frequency.

The bawu originated in the Yunnan province of southwest China, it has become a standard instrument throughout China, used in modern Chinese compositions for traditional instrument ensembles. The instrument is also closely associated other minority cultures in southwestern China. It is typically used as a solo instrument, and is often featured in film scores; it is sometimes also heard in popular music recordings.

Although the bawu is still predominantly performed in China, it has in recent years been adopted by European composers and performers. Rohan Leach from England, Raphael De Cock from Belgium, Seán Mac Erlaine from Ireland and Herman Witkam from the Netherlands have all taken the instrument in new directions. The musician Guo Yue, who now resides in England, has long promoted the instrument and plays it on all of his recordings.