Erhu is used in both traditional and contemporary music arrangement, such as what?

China music in the 20th century has gone through a tortuous and arduous road full of hope.

The development of modern erhu art has also experienced a process from initial creation to gradual maturity. Over the past century, many erhu artists have made great efforts and contributions to the improvement and prosperity of erhu performance and creation. When it comes to the aesthetic value of erhu art, we can't help but mention three outstanding figures in the erhu field in China since the 20th century, that is, Hua, Liu Tianhua and Lv Wencheng.

In the eyes of rulers of past dynasties, erhu is a vulgar musical instrument, which can't be elegant even if it is played by beggars. As Liu Tianhua said in the article "Singing on a Moonlit Night": "When it comes to the musical instrument of the huqin, from the time when China music prevailed, it was regarded as a Hu Yue, and everyone despised it; Today, people mistakenly think that China music is generally regarded as a national music, and it is also implicated, so few people discuss it as a formal musical instrument, which is really the misfortune of Hu Qin "(Music Magazine, 1928 February). Therefore, in some people's eyes, erhu only helps begging, far from aesthetic value.

However, the appearance of the "Three Erhu Masters" in the 20th century changed the "unfortunate" fate of the erhu to a great extent, which made the erhu undergo historic changes, and the erhu art occupied an indispensable position in the music life of the masses.

Hua (,1893— 1950) is a talented folk musician. His accomplishments on erhu gave this ancient musical instrument new artistic vitality. His success is due to his immersion in the ocean of folk music. He absorbed rich nutrients from religious music, Jiangnan silk and bamboo, folk songs, traditional opera Tanquan, Quyi pingtan, talking about cause and effect, slight fever and selling pear paste sugar.

As early as when I was a child in China, I played bamboo flute, pipa, sanxian and percussion in Leizuntang, a Taoist temple in Wuxi, which was appreciated by Taoist priests and praised as "small" by my peers. His skills are particularly prominent in erhu performance and creation. The original folk erhu was mostly played in the original position, but A Bing often used it flexibly in the high position of the inner and outer strings. In particular, he gave full play to the deep timbre of the inner-string Magnolia officinalis and the tapping skills on the empty string, which can be appreciated in his performances such as Two Springs Reflecting the Moon, Listening to Pines and Cold Spring Breeze. His works have made great breakthroughs on the basis of inheriting traditional folk skills.

At the same time, A Bing is a highly skilled composer. However, many erhu and pipa music he created were not recorded in the score, but kept on the strings with his amazing memory. From some word-of-mouth materials, we can see that his artistic career can be divided into two stages: the early stage (about 1928, before he went blind at the age of 35), mostly Taoist music, Jiangnan folk music such as Sanliu, Walking in the Street, Sihe, Xiangjiang Wave, etc., as well as Little Peach Blossom and Seeing Your Hate from Listening to Records. Later (about 35 years old), I often play many songs that I have accumulated and pondered for a long time. But when people hear these unheard-of songs and ask him his name, he always says vaguely: "I played it blindly" or "I learned it from a rural family." However, in 1950, we can't find any similarity between Taoist music and folk music played by Mr. Yang and Mr. Cao Anhe, which shows that these songs are indeed written. Unfortunately, due to the rapid deterioration of A Bing's condition and his failure to grasp the recording work, many of his masterpieces were lost. Nevertheless, from A Bing's "Two Springs Reflecting the Moon" and other treasures, we can still know that he is an outstanding master of erhu art and has made outstanding contributions to the development of erhu art.

Liu Tianhua (1895-1932), a talented person in Jiangyin, is also an epoch-making figure in the development of erhu art. In the history of China music, he was the first person to introduce the national musical instrument-erhu into the teaching and concert performance of modern higher music colleges, and was the founder of the professional erhu school.

Liu Tianhua's perfection and development of erhu art started from two aspects: performance and creation. In playing, Liu Tianhua first learned erhu from Zhou Shaomei (1884-1938), and often played Buddhist songs with monks in Jiangyin Temple to learn the erhu performance of Buddhist music.

1922, Liu Tianhua applied to teach in Peking University Music Research Association. In order to improve and enrich erhu playing techniques, he studied violin with Russian professor Tonov for nine years, and consciously absorbed beneficial nutrients from western music.

During this period, he made innovations in the selection of materials for making erhu tubes, poles, axes, yards and bows, as well as playing techniques such as plucking strings, kneading strings and changing handles, which obviously improved the expressive force of erhu.

At the same time, combined with the improvement of erhu performance techniques, he began to compose Yin in the Sick in 19 15, and successively composed 47 erhu etudes and the music Moonlit Night, Empty Mountain Birds, Elegy, Enjoyment in Idleness and Good Night. From these pieces of music, we can see that Liu Tianhua is a composer with profound cultural tradition and national music foundation, and he is very good at skillfully drawing lessons from western music skills. His creation is original, the melody is smooth and vivid, the technique is simple and simple, the music structure is rigorous, and the image is vivid and touching. He pushed the erhu art to a new stage through creation and performance innovation, making it a professional solo instrument.

Lv Wencheng (1898— 198 1 year) is a musician with the reputation of "Dr. Erhu". He has profound attainments in erhu, Gao Hu, dulcimer performance and Cantonese music creation, especially in the reform and performance of erhu and Gao Hu. His famous songs such as Bubugao, Autumn Moon in Pinghu and Night of Fishing Songs have long been well-known at home and abroad. But in the past, we didn't pay enough attention to his achievements in erhu art, and certainly didn't pay enough attention to his historical position.

Lu Wencheng's achievements in erhu art are inseparable from the time he spent in Shanghai as a teenager. 190 1 year (3 years old) to 1932 and lived in Shanghai with his father. He likes music since he was a child. During his 30 years in Shanghai, he learned the erhu performance from others and mastered the erhu performance skills in Jiangnan silk and bamboo. And participated in 19 19 concert by famous artists in China. In the 1920s, he formed a Cantonese Opera Troupe with Guangdong musicians Yin Ziwei and Tai-so Ho, played Cantonese Opera in Shanghai, Beijing and Tianjin, and also performed on the same stage with violinist Stuart Meng Yan. These activities enabled Lu Wencheng to accumulate rich knowledge of traditional folk music and western music. On this basis, he reformed the erhu and broke through the limitations of the traditional erhu.

First of all, the traditional erhu is shortened properly, and the silk thread of the erhu outer string is changed into a steel string, so that the tuning of the traditional erhu is improved by four degrees, which is the same as the tuning of the second and third strings of the violin. He also expanded the range to the second and third positions, changed the handle freely, developed the techniques of sliding fingers, walking fingers and playing sounds, and created a new musical instrument-Gao Hu. The most outstanding thing is that he plays the pipa between his legs, because his legs can freely control the volume and timbre changes, which makes Gao Hu's style gorgeous and beautiful, and his timbre bright and crisp.

1926 When Lu Wencheng toured Guangdong, he played Cantonese music with his improved Gao Hu, which replaced the position of the second string in the original "five-frame head" of Cantonese music and became the main musical instrument, greatly developing Cantonese music. His music such as treading on thin ice was created to give full play to Gao Hu's playing skills. After 1930s, Lv Wencheng settled in Hong Kong, specializing in the creation and performance of Cantonese music. Through constant artistic practice, his skills have become increasingly mature and reached a perfect state. In the following decades, the Gao Hu created by Lv Wencheng's reform was widely used by national bands, which greatly enriched the band's expressive force. This is Lu Wencheng's indelible contribution to the development of erhu art, making him one of the "three great erhu masters" in China in the 20th century, keeping pace with China and Liu Tianhua.

The appearance of "Three Erhu Masters" is an inevitable phenomenon in the development of China folk music in the 20th century. The 20th century is a very important stage in the music history of China. The feudal society that lasted for thousands of years collapsed at the beginning of this century, which triggered a cultural transformation. During this period, great changes have taken place in music, which provided a historical opportunity for the emergence of "Three Erhu Masters". Although these three outstanding erhu figures are different in cultural environment, growth experience, teacher-student relationship and artistic activities. There are also many common factors that make them mature almost at the same time. These * * * are the same:

First, "Erhu Sanjie" 65438-2009 was born in the 1990s. When they realized something, they all experienced two major political events in the early 20th century. 1. The bourgeois revolution that shocked the world broke out in 19 1 1 (Xinhai) 10+00. The Revolution of 1911 ended the feudal autocratic monarchy in China for more than 2,000 years. Second, the great democratic revolutionary movement of China people against imperialism and feudalism broke out on May 4th 19 19. The May 4th Movement became the beginning of China's new-democratic revolution. China, Liu Tianhua and Lv Wencheng all accepted the influence of patriotism, nationalism, democracy, freedom and emancipating the mind to varying degrees in this historic change. This has a direct impact on their artistic career, including performance and creation.

What is particularly interesting is that although their lives are long and short, their mature and brilliant periods in erhu art were in the 1920s and 1930s. Liu Tianhua, who collected folk gongs and drums music in the early 1930s, unfortunately contracted scarlet fever and died young at the age of 37. Although Hua and Lu Wencheng lived to the age of 58 and 83 respectively, their achievements and masterpieces in erhu reform mainly came from this period. Especially the Erhu and Gao Hu songs created by the "Three Erhu Masters" reflected people's life, thoughts and feelings in this period from different angles. It can be said that China, Liu Tianhua and Lv Wencheng, who were baptized by the Revolution of 1911 and the May 4th Movement, all benefited from the times.

Second, after thousands of years of accumulation and development, China traditional music has great artistic energy. Musicians who have made achievements in every era will absorb rich nutrients from traditional music. The same is true of China, Liu Tianhua and Lv Wencheng. They have been directly influenced by traditional music since childhood. In particular, folk music and religious music played a key role in their growth.

Hua lived in rural areas and Taoist temples since childhood, and studied all kinds of traditional music with Taoist musicians and folk musicians. When teaching music in middle schools in Jiangyin and Changzhou, Liu Tianhua spent a lot of time learning erhu, pipa, guqin, sanxian opera and Kunqu opera from folk musicians all over the world, and often went to Yongta 'an in Jiangyin to learn Buddhist music. 1930, recorded singing for Mei Lanfang, a famous Peking Opera artist, and compiled a book "Mei Lanfang's Song Score". He died unfortunately because he went to Beijing Tianqiao to collect gongs and drums and died of illness. Lv Wencheng also grew up in the performance and singing of silk and bamboo, Cantonese opera and Cantonese opera in the south of the Yangtze River. He is not only good at erhu, Gao Hu and dulcimer, but also good at singing Cantonese opera The Queen of Purple. His songs, such as Xiaoxiang Qin Fen, The Swallow's Mansion and Heavenly Complaints, are touching and melodious. This directly influenced many Cantonese music works that he created and played by Gao Hu. In particular, we can hear some pieces of Cantonese music, many of which are absorbed from the melody of Cantonese singing, and some even developed from simulated singing.

Third, western music was introduced to China in the early 20th century. The integration of Chinese and Western music is one of the factors that promoted the music reform in China in the 20th century. The performance and creation of "Three Erhu Masters" are directly or indirectly influenced by western music to varying degrees. /kloc-at the age of 0/6, Liu Tianhua joined a military band in a middle school in Jiangyin, played the trumpet and began to get in touch with western music. As mentioned above, during his 10 years in Beijing (1922-1932), he never stopped learning the violin. At the same time, he also attached great importance to the study and research of western music theory, and tried to learn from the musical structure and expression methods of foreign music. In his erhu etudes and music, he obviously absorbed the experience of western music. Lu Wencheng changed the erhu into a Gao Hu, from changing the outer string into a steel string to raising the fixed string by four degrees, all inspired by the violin. It can also be seen from his music such as "Step by Step" that his musical form structure and melody development techniques draw lessons from western music. Although Hua has not studied western music directly, judging from his sensitivity and receptivity to new things, he may have been influenced by some foreign music and new music from his contact with records and music played on the radio at that time, and will be organically absorbed into his creation and performance.

The formation of these * * * characteristics of "Erhu Sanjie" is ultimately due to the times. In the surging tide of the times, starting from caring about the fate of the country and the nation, they devoted themselves to the cause of China's national music and exerted their intelligence, which made the erhu art develop unprecedentedly in the 20th century.

The contributions of three masters, Hua, Liu Tianhua and Lv Wencheng, to the erhu art in China in the 20th century not only left us a precious heritage of erhu art, but also brought up a group of talents engaged in erhu art under their direct cultivation or positive influence. The Erhu family, which grew up in 1930s and 1940s, became the backbone of the spread and development of Erhu art in this period. In the twenties and thirties, there were Chen Zhenduo, Chu Shizhu, Jiang Fengzhi, Liu Beimao, Lu Xiutang, Liu Tianyi, Zhu Hai and others. In the 1940s, there were Wang Yi and Ding. , Li Songshou,,, Zhu, Min, Duan Qicheng, Liu Mingyuan, Chen Chaoru and others. They directly or indirectly inherited the fine tradition of "Three Erhu Masters", not only made great achievements in erhu performance and creation, but also made many beneficial explorations in erhu teaching and trained some up-and-coming talents.

What is particularly striking is that the artistic level of erhu in China has been rapidly improved in the half century since 1950s. It can be said that this is the golden season for the overall transformation and all-round development of erhu art .. mainly in two aspects:

The first is the emergence of playing talents. The undergraduate and affiliated middle schools of the Conservatory of Music, the music departments of some normal universities, and even the provincial and municipal art schools have set up erhu playing courses. The teaching from etude to music is gradually standardized, which creates conditions for learners to lay a solid basic skill. After strict professional training, a number of talented erhu performers emerged in 1950s and 1960s, such as Tang Yubin, Niu Jugui, Xiang Zuying, Wang, Huang, Gan Bolin, Jiang Xunfeng, Chen Yaoxing, Xiao Baiyong, Shu Zhao, Zhou Yaokun, Min Huifen and Jiang Cairu. Since 1980s, a number of shining stars have appeared in erhu music, such as Yu Qiwei, Chen Guochan, Jiang Jianhua, Zhou Wei, Ou Jingxing, Seinfeld and Li Xiaoping. , indicates that erhu art successor, shine on you and better than blue.

The second is to create a large number of erhu songs. Some erhu songs in this period were created by erhu performers and some by professional composers. The former is like Tian Ye Xiao Qu (Wang Yi Qu), Da Liang Shan Fu (Duan Qi Cheng Qu), Cangshan Lyric Qu (Zhao Shu Qu), Bangzi Feng (arranged by Xiang Zuying), Swimming in Spring Water (Liu Tianyi Qu), Rivers (transplanted and adapted by Huang Haihuai) and Horse Racing. The latter are Liu Wen's ballad (Golden Melody), Sanmenxia Imaginary Melody (Liu Wen's Golden Melody), Erhu Concerto "Random Thoughts on the Frontier" (Liu Wen's Golden Melody), A Flower (Arranged by Zhang), Soldiers and Civilians (Arranged by Chen Geng and Tang He) and Camel Pull (once searched for music). ), Spring Poetry (Zhong Yiliang's song), mamie Zan (Wang's song), Spring Going to the Field (Jelly Lin's song), Test Horse in the Spring Suburb (Chen Deju's song), and Guzheng Trio "Spring Comes" (Thunderstorm) and so on.

On the one hand, the creation of the new erhu music has increased and accumulated the repertoire of erhu, on the other hand, it has also promoted the continuous improvement and enrichment of erhu playing techniques. Modern erhu performance has greatly improved and developed on the basis of inheriting the "three erhu masters", which is inseparable from the continuous emergence of new erhu music.

In the past hundred years, the "Three Masters of Erhu" and their successors have made great achievements in the development of Erhu art, which is fundamentally an aesthetic activity. Erhu art, the creation of aesthetic value, is a special productive aesthetic activity, whether playing or creating. From the perspective of aesthetic value, modern erhu art can be summarized as the following characteristics:

1. Strive to appreciate the art of erhu.

Traditional erhu is a musical instrument widely circulated among the people. Because of its simple manufacture and low price, it is easy to be mastered by ordinary people. Since the emergence of "Three Erhu Masters" in the 20th century, the art of Erhu has developed to a higher level, and a folk national musical instrument has since been pushed to an elegant stage.

In the past hundred years since the "Three Masters of Erhu", the art of Erhu has been deeply loved by the masses, mainly because it not only maintains the appearance of traditional "vulgar" music, but also has the aesthetic pursuit of "elegant" music, which makes the music that appeals to both refined and popular tastes merge in the art of Erhu, and the two learn from each other's strong points, cross-infiltrate and learn from each other's strong points, thus reaching a certain degree of integration.

There are many such examples. For example, The Moon Reflected in Two Springs was written by A Bing, a folk musician, and its success lies in its artistic charm of appealing to both refined and popular tastes. This piece of music is both popular and profoundly reflects the thoughts and feelings of the broad masses of lower class people. It has been well received by ordinary people when it was played in the streets and alleys of A Bing for many years. This song was recorded and published, and it spread more widely. By playing in concerts and broadcasting on radio and television, it has also aroused strong repercussions in high-level culture. People were fascinated by A Bing's music, and even the famous Japanese conductor Seiji Ozawa was moved to tears. He said: "This kind of music can only be listened to on your knees." It can be seen that the artistic appeal of "Two Springs Reflecting the Moon" is strong.

The music of Liu Tianhua, Lv Wencheng and Huang Haihuai has been circulated for a long time, which also proves that elegance and popularity permeate each other and serve each other in the development of erhu art, reaching the artistic realm where elegance and popularity are interlinked. Many outstanding erhu works that have emerged in this century have a common feature, that is, they strive to suit both refined and popular tastes.

2. Give full play to the singing characteristics of erhu.

Erhu has been circulated among the people for thousands of years, and has been on the elegant stage since this century. One of the important reasons is that it has the characteristics of singing. This makes the value of erhu art manifested as: winning people's love with its rich content and artistic appeal of singing. The works and performances of "Three Erhu Masters" are enduring because they are never tired of listening to them. First, the melody of the music is very strong, and the theme of the music is beautiful and beautiful, which makes the audience "listen"; Second, give full play to the singing characteristics of the two strings in playing techniques, and play human voices, causing * * *. The works of Huang Haihuai and many erhu writers fully embody this feature. On the basis of folk double pipe music of the same name, water was transplanted and adapted, and the characteristics of erhu were exerted. Whether it is the rubbing and reciting of fingering or the strength comparison of various bows, the musical image of the music is vividly displayed. That music seems to be the sad life of ancient women, shocking people's hearts. When his "Horse Racing" (the original) shows the warm scene of galloping horses in Inner Mongolia grassland, on the one hand, it uses complicated and changeable fast bows, jumping bows and bows in the first and second paragraphs, and at the same time, it pays great attention to playing melodious and comfortable Mongolian folk songs on the strings in the middle section, which not only enhances the contrast of music tightness, but also depicts the heroic character of grassland herders. On the other hand, we also see that the creation and performance of some erhu songs tend to be purely technical expression or even show off to varying degrees. The reason is self-defeating, not promoting erhu art.

3. Reflect the combination of rich national style and distinctive spirit of the times.

Many successful works of "Three Masters of Erhu" and their successors have done valuable artistic practice in this respect. In their works, they express the real life of each era with the music language that people like to see and hear, which shows that they choose the most meaningful theme from the inexhaustible source of life, and earnestly absorb nutrition from the colorful national folk music and develop into a unique erhu music language. And the list goes on.

As can be seen from the above, erhu art, like other sister arts, can only be transformed into realistic value when its value is appreciated, commented, truly tested and recognized, thus forming social effects.

The rapid development of erhu art in China in the 20th century benefited from the tireless spirit and constant innovation of many erhu artists, such as the "Three Erhu Masters". Of course, erhu needs to be constantly surpassed in order to achieve artistic perfection in the years to come. The aesthetic value of erhu art will be fully realized in this transcendence, sublimation and integration.