Chinese Music

Having fallen for some of the wonderful Chinese music I heard while on my travels in China a few years ago, I was drawn to a concert held the other day in the King's Hall, Newcastle. This featured Jie Xu who plays the two-stringed bowed instrument that I have always referred to as a Chinese violin but which I now learn is actually called an erhu. With him was Olivia Yan-Hua Lu who is an exponent of the pipa which is a four-stringed lute-like instrument.

Their performance featured traditional and more recently composed pieces which included 'The Ditty of Mount Yimeng', 'Beautiful Myth' and 'Dance of the Yi People'. A particular delight for me was a piece called 'Butterfly Lovers' which I fell in love with while in China and which I selected as a soundtrack to a photograph slide show I prepared. Consequently as I sat in the beautiful hall listening to that music, I was transported back to some of the wonderful scenes I had witnessed.

Of course it also reminded me of some of the music I heard and musicians I saw while on my travels. 

Such as these two erhu players I encountered close to a bridge crossing the Yangtse River near Stone Drum Village.

 
And this group who entertained us in Lijiang with a selection of Chinese traditional instruments including erhus and pipas. 

Many of them had begun playing as children and a couple were now in their 80's.


Wonderful stuff.










 

Here is a link to a performance of the 'Butterfly Lovers Concerto'.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOuPpyuqcOE