Erhu soloist added heartfelt tone to ‘Up in the Air’

In the Oscar-nominated film “Up in the Air,” audiences watch the familiar routines of contemporary airline travel while hearing the unfamiliar sounds of an ancient Asian instrument, thanks to erhu virtuoso Karen Hua-Qi Han.

Like the violin, the erhu is a stringed instrument played with a bow, but many of the similarities end there.

“It’s two strings, ‘er’ in Chinese means ‘two,’ ” Han explained. “ ‘Hu’ means it’s not really from China. It was from Tibet and Mongolia, that area, in the beginning. So they called it ‘erhu.’ ”

Han started playing the erhu as a 6-year-old living in a small city near Shanghai. Her father was her first teacher.

“He plays erhu, so he taught me for probably half a year, and he noticed that he couldn’t teach me anymore,” she recalled. “So he told me that we had to find the best erhu teacher in town to teach me. Then after a year, that teacher said, ‘I have to take you to the capital of the province, and you can go to that place to learn from the best teacher from there.’ ”

When Han was 10, she auditioned for the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and was one of two erhu players selected from thousands. She boarded at the school, and the government paid her expenses. By the time she graduated with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in performance arts, pop and rock music were all the rage in China.

“The door to the West had just opened,” she said. “So I felt I lost what I learned. I practiced eight hours a day, and what was I going to do if people only listened to pop music?”

In 1988, Han moved to Los Angeles, where Americans not only appreciated erhu music, but they were also willing to pay her to play it. She began performing at events, and a music contractor approached her about lending her talents to the 1993 film “The Joy Luck Club.” Since then, she’s worked on such films as “Memoirs of a Geisha,” “Kung Fu Panda,” “2012” and “The Hurt Locker.”

“Many composers, directors and producers are aware that this instrument can make their films more colorful,” said Han, who also plays piano, sings, composes and teaches. “So now I’m very happy and feel very blessed that I still can use my culture and my instrument working in Hollywood.”

Erhu 101: An erhu isn’t found in traditional Western orchestra pits. “Lots of people say it’s very humble-looking,” said Han. “It’s made of natural wood that’s completely black. You don’t need to paint it black. The wood itself is a black color. It has a small sound box with python skin. It has like a very long neck without any fret board. With the violin, you can take out the bow as you play. With the erhu, the horse hair is in between the two strings. It’s basically connected together. You can’t take it out, the bow. So you use your middle finger and fourth finger to push the bow in and out. Obviously, it’s different and difficult. I always tell violinists that my instrument is harder than theirs!”

A whole new world: On “Up in the Air,” Han was able to introduce the composer to the details of her instrument. “The main composer’s name is Rolfe Kent, and this is the first time he wrote for erhu,” she said. “He told me that he’s a guitar player. I love guitar too. In the beginning, he called to ask, ‘What is the tuning? What is the lowest note?’ I told him D and A. Inside string is D. Outside string is A. It’s a fifth. We have basically three octaves. And he asked me if can I make a trill sound. I told him I can. After he composed the music, he asked me if I needed to change anything [to make it work for erhu], but I didn’t think I had to. It’s very nice music.”

Heartstrings: “George Clooney’s character was walking inside an airport and having very complicated feelings,” said Han. “The composer used my instrument to express his feelings -- his sadness, his loneliness. Because I don’t have a fretboard, I can play more freely with my fingers and express the vibrato, and I can push deeper and just go with my heart. That’s also why lots of composers like to use this instrument. Some composers would say it’s more seductive and deeper than violin in a way.”

Almost human: Of all the instruments, Han feels that the erhu is the most similar to a woman’s voice. “One time, I was practicing in a hotel before a concert with a symphony,” she said. “I ordered food service, and someone knocked on the door, and I opened it. Right away, he said, ‘Thank you, your voice is beautiful.’ He thought I had been singing. So that’s how much that people can feel that the instrument is like singing. It’s a beautiful sound and a beautiful instrument.”

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