Improvement of Chinese Instrumental Music
Since the 20th century,the development of instrumental music in China has undergone a process from blind self-content to total negation to rediscovery and utilization,gradually moving from immaturity to maturity.
In terms of erhu music creation,in the first half of the 20h century,a group of musicians with Liu Tianhua and Hua Yanjun as the leading musicians appeared,from collecting,recording and collating folk music to beginning music creation.A Bing was an excellent folk artist of China.Absorbing and using the folk tunes in China,he created such erhu tunes as The Moon Reflected on the Er-quan Spring (Er Quan Ying Yue),Listening to Pines,Cold Spring Wind Tunes,and pipa tunes Great Tide Washes Sand Away,Zhaojun Going out of the Gate,and Dragon Boat.These works are very touching,expressing the boundless feelings in his heart.Er Quan Ying Yue is the most famous as it was written by A Bing after his eyes were blinded.
The tunes sound melancholic,but also reveal the strong will of the Chinese.It has become an immortal work of Chinese music.
Liu Tianhua was a national instrumental music composer,an erhu and pipa performer,also a music educator.He never studied western musical instruments and learned how to perform various folk musical instruments from monks in temples.He studied and drew on the strengths of violin performance and upgraded the erhu from an accompaniment instrument to a solo instrument,and adopted it into professional teaching in higher artistic colleges,laying the foundation for modern and contemporary erhu performance of China.He was committed to the improvement of Chinese music and established the Chinese music improvement society,and became the editor-in-chief of Music Magazine.Such erhu works as Singing in Disease and Pursuing Toward a Bright Future are said to be the most representative works of all his creations,and at the same time it reflects his understanding of the social life at that time and his vision,insight and aspirations for improving national music.
