In 1999 archaeologists excavated a section of the Hellweg, a medieval road near the present city of Paderborn in northern Germany. In the rubble of the road, which was an important east–west trade route, the excavators found a Jew's harp, deposited in an archaeological context dating it to the late thirteenth century. The iron instrument was well preserved, except for the broken and partly missing lamella (figure 1). It had a distinct mark punched into its forged frame. Where did this musical instrument originate and how did it arrive at this site? Was it brought here by someone who played the Jew's harp or by a pedlar carrying this instrument among other goods for sale? Who had made it and where?

Jinghu is the lead accompaniment instrument in the Peking opera ensemble. Qinshi are the accompanists who play jinghu. Traditionally, jinghu was regarded as a male instrument; female qinshi first appeared in educational institutions subsidised by the People’s Republic of China in the 1950s. Nevertheless, till now, the-all-male jinghu performance history and standards influenced by the virile ethos have deeply influenced contemporary female qinshi’s performances and recognition of their musicality and contributions to jinghu performance. In this article, I explore the rise of female qinshi, their challenges to jinghu performance conventions, and their contributions to contemporary jinghu performance.

I would like to begin, if I may be allowed, upon a personal note. It has been my privilege to be a member of the International Folk Music Council since its inception in 1947 – a founder member in fact. In those twenty-two years, fellow members have become dear friends. To meet them, in the various capitals of the world over the years, has added a savour and an extra dimension to life which I would have been very sorry to miss. I would like to say what a delight it is to me personally to welcome you now to my native city of Edinburgh.

To this day Liszt's Des Bohémiens et de leur Musique en Hongrie first published in 1859 remains the only attempt to deal with the music of the Hungarian gypsies in a comprehensive manner. Despite its factual errors and romantic exaggeration, this enthusiastically and powerfully written study created a tradition that continues to exert a strong influence both in Hungary and abroad, often obscuring the results of a century of research in Hungarian music generally and that of the gypsies in particular. Only a few of the many papers written since Liszt's are thorough in their treatment of details. Hungarian musicohistorical works and publications on peasant music, especially those of Bartók, Kodály, Ervin Major, and B. Szabolcsi, however, provide some additional information. The modern point of view has been stated most clearly and categorically by Bartók, who in 1931 examined the question: Gypsy Music? Hungarian Music?

The earliest musical documentary sources of Bohemian folk music date from the fourteenth century; but up to the end of the eighteenth century the volume of such sources is small. Despite insufficient historical evidence, however, it has been possible to determine the main developmental trends of earlier times from studies of literary and iconographic evidence and, in particular, from the wealth of church hymns for congregational use.

From the beginning, folk music did not pursue a course separate from that of professional performance. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in particular, the inter-relationship between these two was highly beneficial to both. The range of folk-musical instruments was roughly the same as that required for professional performance. Only a few instruments—bagpipes and other rural types—were not used by both cultures. The gradual switch from the bagpipes and whistle-flutes, so popular in the Middle Ages, to the stringed instruments of subsequent centuries, affected folk and professional performance equally. Only the wind instruments of the gothic and renaissance periods failed to find their way into Bohemian folk music on a large scale.

Uzbekistan is a Central Asian country with a population of 27 million. It is bordered by Afghanistan to the south, Turkmenistan to the west, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan to the north, and Tajikistan to the east. There is also a large Uzbek population living in the north of Afghanistan (figure 1).