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Tian-hua Liu is an extraordinary musician who raised the music status of Erhu significantly. He not only composed ten solo pieces and forty-seven etudes for Erhu, but also moved Erhu from accompanying instrument in folk music to solo instrument, and mad Erhu became one of the official courses in Training Institute of Music, Beijing University. Tian-hua Liu educated many elites through scientific methods, formed an innovative school of Erhu, and had great influence on the development of Erhu. Tian-hua Liu was born in an era of war. His process of learning music was full of obstacles. At Liu’s time, the musicians were either progressive who were fully Westernized or conservative who only mastered traditional music. Unlike most of the people, Liu grew up in a background of traditional culture and folk music but absorbed the strengths of Western music enthusiastically. His groundbreaking idea was seriously criticized in the beginning; however, Liu eventually created his own path through his perseverance and persistence. From Liu’s death 1932 till today 2011, the performance techniques of Erhu progressed immensely in less than eighty years. Significantly replicating the songs and practice routines from violin had improved the playing techniques of Erhu, but at the same time abated its folk distinctive features. Finding a balance between Chinese traditional music and Western music had been Liu’s goal. This paper uses “Birds sings in the deep and quiet mountain valley ”and“ Shaking red candle flame ”as examples, studies from Liu’s upbringing, era, music learning process and musical composition and concept, compares through modern contemporary aesthetics theories, form analysis and different versions played by various performance, to further understand how Tian-hua Liu incorporate diverse elements and composition techniques in Oriental and Western culture into his own language of music.
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