Liu Beimao

Liu Beimao (1903-1981), also known as Shouci, was born in Jiangyin, Jiangsu Province and is a famous modern erhu player, composer and educator. The son of Liu Baoshan, a scholar in the late Qing Dynasty, he was a brother of the poet Liu Bannong and the musician Liu Tianhua. Liu Beimao was a loyal successor and developer of Liu Tianhua's career. After Liu Tianhua's death, he inherited his brother's legacy of "improving Chinese music" and composed more than 100 pieces such as "Hanjiang Tide", "Little Flower Drum" and "Liu Fang Song". Erhu is a prolific composer in the history of modern music in my country and is known as the "master of national music".

Chinese name: Liu Beimao

Alias: Liu Shouci

Nationality: Chinese

Ethnicity: Han

Birthplace : Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu Province

Date of Birth: 1903

Date of Death: 1981

Occupation: Musician, Educator

Graduation School School: Yenching University

Main achievements: A generation of national music masters

Representative works: "Han Jiangnan", "Forward Exercise", "Song of the Wanderer"

Liu Beimao is the younger brother of Liu Tianhua, an outstanding Chinese national musician, a famous folk music composer, erhu performer and music educator. Due to the early death of his parents, he grew up under the care of his elder brothers (eldest brother Liu Bannong and second brother Liu Tianhua). Under Liu Tianhua's careful guidance, he mastered the playing skills of many Chinese and foreign musical instruments in his early years, and was particularly proficient in the erhu, pipa and other national musical instruments. Liu Beimao has shown his musical talent since he was a teenager. In 1927, Liu Beimao graduated with honors from the English Department of Yanjing University. He later worked in professional English courses such as "Selected Readings of Shakespeare's Works", "Poetics", and "Composition Guidance" at Shanghai Jinan University, Peking University, Northwest Associated University and other schools. Teaching and research. After Liu Tianhua's death, in order to inherit his legacy of "improving Chinese music", Liu Beimao, while insisting on teaching and researching English in literature majors, worked harder to learn erhu, pipa and other national musical instruments, and began to create music. His Erhu solos such as "Han Jiangnan", "Forward Exercise", "Song of the Wanderer" and "Little Flower Drum" sincerely and profoundly express the love of upright intellectuals for the motherland and the people under reactionary rule. and hatred of the enemy. During the ten years of turmoil, although he suffered personally, he still used great enthusiasm and perseverance to write the song "In Memory of Me", which deeply commemorates the older generation of proletarian revolutionaries, and "Liu Fang Song" which heartily praises the beloved Premier Zhou Enlai. , and "Ying Zhaohui" which enthusiastically praises the construction of "four modernizations", etc. In 40 years of hard creation, he has always insisted on inheriting the excellent tradition of national music and absorbed and learned from foreign music culture. The more than one hundred works he created have both distinctive national styles and innovative spirit.

His works are as simple and sincere as his person. Although Mr. Liu Beimao has left us, his outstanding qualities of pursuing truth and progress throughout his life, being courteous to others, rigorous in his studies, and striving for the cause of national music throughout his life are always worth learning and commemorating.

The road to art

Liu Beimao has a good memory and a strong ability to imitate. He learned English in a missionary school in elementary school and was a classmate of Lu Shuxiang, who later became a famous linguist. He taught English at the same school when he was in high school. In 1923, he was admitted to Soochow University and later to Yenching University as a transfer student. At the age of 29, he became an English professor at Peking University and became a renowned expert on Shakespeare.

After Liu Tianhua passed away, Liu Bannong said to him: "The second brother's children are still young, and there are not many students who are successful. It seems that you will inherit the second brother's career." From then on, Liu Beimao changed to music. In 1935, at the event commemorating the third anniversary of Liu Tianhua's death, Liu Beimao performed Liu Tianhua's top ten famous songs, which amazed everyone with his skills.

After the "July 7th Incident", someone encouraged Liu Beimao to serve as a senior secretary in the puppet Ministry of Education. He angrily rebuked them, determined not to do anything for the Japanese, and said he was sick and refused to go to class. After going through many hardships, he detoured to Hong Kong, Yunnan and other places to go to Chenggu, Shaanxi, an important position of anti-Japanese culture in the northwest. At the invitation of Mr. Xu Shoushang, a close friend of Lu Xun, he taught at the Northwest Associated University. This feat of Mr. Liu demonstrated his noble national integrity and patriotism.

In the late period of the Liberation War, the reactionary Kuomintang regime in Nanjing was in turmoil, but it was still unwilling to withdraw from the stage of history. Instead, it intensified its brutal rule on the people. Under such circumstances, Mr. Liu Beimao resolutely supported and actively participated in the rehearsal of the folk music ensemble "Spring Dawn on the Green Lake" by the people's musician Nie Er by progressive teachers and students, using progressive and revolutionary music to sweep away the decadent music in Nanjing's music circle at that time. , and at the same time gave great spiritual inspiration to the people in struggle. In April of the same year, the "April 1" tragedy occurred in Nanjing. The reactionary Kuomintang regime brutally suppressed the revolutionary actions of progressive students. Mr. Liu Beimao was so righteous that he went to the residence of the progressive students who had been expelled from the school, regardless of his personal safety, shook hands with them one by one, and performed a condolence performance. These actions showed Mr. Liu Beimao's noble character of clear love and hate. This was by no means a momentary impulse on his part, but a logical inevitability of the ideological development that he inherited from his late brother Bannong and Mr. Tianhua, constantly pursuing progress and hating darkness.

While hating the reactionary rule of the Kuomintang, Mr. Liu Beimao showed great love for the Communist Party of China and the revolutionary cause led by it and New China.

As early as the eve of the victory of the Liberation War, he longed for China's Prometheus and was full of yearning and great confidence in the inevitable victory of the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese revolution. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Mr. Liu Beimao was even more prosperous and rejoicing. His music creation, erhu performance and music education reached a new level. He used his passionate love and endless artistic talent to praise China's Communist Party of China. The Party praises New China, praises revolution and construction, and praises the hard-working and intelligent Chinese people. During the "Cultural Revolution", Mr. Liu Beimao also showed his noble personality and valuable qualities. On the one hand, he refused to expose the so-called "problems" of his leaders and colleagues. On the other hand, despite the shock and persecution he suffered, he still firmly believed that the social situation at that time was only a temporary phenomenon and that a bright future for social stability would surely come. He firmly believes in the party and the people, advocates seeking truth from facts, and will never sell himself for glory. He encouraged and spurred himself with the ideological state of "not afraid of clouds covering his eyes, just because he is at the top".

Mr. Liu Beimao is a music educator. He taught and educated people all his life and loved his students as his own children. He not only provided students with artistic influence, but also focused on shaping their personality. He educates students not only in words but also in teaching by example. In an atmosphere of emotional integration and heart-to-heart connection, he subtly cultivates one generation after another of talents in music education, research and performance. Mr. Liu first concentrated on cultivating formal students. He has been engaged in music education for 30 years and has trained a large number of outstanding musical talents. In particular, he has trained blind musicians such as Gamblin and Yan Shaozhang. The training process and the hard work of his husband often move people to tears. When Mr. Liu educates students, he focuses on educating people with emotions, transforming people with physics, and shaping people with art. Every time he teaches a piece of music, he always first explains the background, theme, melody, characteristics, techniques, etc. of the music. When students practice and return to class, he always guides them patiently and follows instructions, so that students can learn step by step and be sure-footed. Develop basic skills on the ground and pay attention to cultivating your own creativity. Not only that, Mr. Liu pays more attention to educating people with emotion.

During the three years of teaching in Anhui, it was a period of three years of economic hardship. He not only educated students, but also often provided food and clothing subsidies to students, helped students purchase necessary instrumental materials, and relieved students' urgent needs in learning. He often dragged his sick body and held a cane in his hand to find students on campus to come to his home for lessons. He was so moved that the students felt guilty and regretful. From then on, they worked hard and became outstanding musical talents.

Mr. Liu is responsive and caring to amateur music lovers. He has made friends with and trained a large number of music lovers, and some have even become professional music workers. What deserves special praise is that Mr. Liu Beimao used his holidays to give students extra classes, make up lessons for students, or provide guidance to amateur music lovers. Not only did he never take any money from him, but he also often provided them with tea, candy and meals. This kind of professionalism that regards educating people as their bounden duty seems to be more vigorously publicized and carried forward in the process of building socialist spiritual civilization today. Mr. Liu Beimao has educated countless students, who have become academic leaders and backbones of my country’s music industry, and many of them have become organizers and counselors of mass cultural activities. This has cultivated musical talents who can carry forward the past and open up the future for the development of my country's national music industry.

Main Works

In 1940, Liu Beimao published the world-famous erhu pieces such as "The Tide of the Han River", "Forward Exercise" and "The Song of the Wanderer". These works profoundly reflect the turmoil of the times during the Anti-Japanese War and the tragic and passionate fighting spirit of the broad masses of the people.

In 1942, on the way from Shaanxi to Shu, Mr. Liu Beimao composed the Erhu piece "Riding the Wind and Waves", which reflected the author's lofty ambitions and firm beliefs at that time.

During the Spring Festival of 1943, Mr. Liu Beimao was in a state of prosperity. In one go, he composed the Erhu song "Little Flower Drum". The song expresses the author's optimism in a difficult environment by describing the children's joyful singing and dancing during the Spring Festival. After the founding of New China, Mr. Liu Beimao gained a broad historical stage for music creation and unprecedentedly superior creative conditions. His artistic realm continued to sublimate. His music creations not only produced excellent works, but also became more mature in theme and art.

1950. Mr. Liu composed the erhu piece "Peasant Music", which was the author's first tribute to New China. Since then, Mr. Liu's energy has doubled, his talents have surged, and he has successively composed more than 20 erhu songs such as "Happy Dance", "The Sun Shines to the Frontier of the Motherland" and "Happy Song".

From 1958 to 1971, while seconded to teach at Hefei Art Institute and Anhui Normal University, Mr. Liu successively composed many poems such as "Beautiful Bao River", "Thousands of Miles from Huaibei to Jiangnan", "Watching Waterfalls at Huangshan Mountain", etc. Erhu solo pieces and dozens of erhu pieces for children.

From 1971 to 1981, Mr. Liu Beimao returned to Beijing from Anhui. Although he was seriously ill, he continued to write and composed "In Memory" and "Liu Fang Song" to praise the great achievements of Premier Zhou and other older generation proletarian revolutionaries. and "Ying Zhaohui" and other erhu songs that praise socialist modernization. Mr. Liu Beimao composed more than one hundred erhu works in his lifetime. The above are only his representative works from various periods. These masterpieces of Mr. Liu are important links in the history of the development of music in my country and are also shining artistic pearls in the treasure house of Chinese culture.

Research books

In 1957, the Music Publishing House published "Collection of Erhu Compositions" (Liu Beimao's Songs)

In 1960, Anhui People's Publishing House published "Beautiful Bao" "River" (Liu Beimao's music)

In 2002, People's Music Publishing House published "Liu Beimao's Collected Works in Commemoration" (written by Liu Yuxi)

In 2003, National Defense University Press published "Liu Beimao's Erhu Music Collection" ( Liu Beimao's music)

In 2004, the People's Music Publishing House published "Liu Beimao's Erhu Song Collection" (composed by Liu Yuxu)

In 2004, the People's Music Publishing House published "Liu Tianhua's Musical Career" (Liu Beimao's Narrative)

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In 2011, People's Music Publishing House published "Liu Fang Qu: Anthology in Commemoration of Liu Beimao's Centenary Birth" (written by Liu Yuxi and Feng Guorui)

Family Profile

Three Heroes of the Liu Family

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Brother Liu Bannong (1891-1934), named Fu, formerly known as Shoupeng, was one of the pioneers of my country's "May Fourth" New Culture Movement. Famous litterateur, linguist and educator. At the same time, he is also the founder of Chinese language and photography theory. His "Experimental Record of Chinese Character Sounds" won the "Constantine Prize for Linguistics". He is the first linguist in my country to win this international award.

Brother Liu Tianhua (1895-1932), formerly known as Shouchun, is the second half-farmer brother. He is a pioneer of modern Chinese national music, a composer, performer, educator, and a great master of modern Chinese national music. He was the first in the history of Chinese music to use Western staff notation to record and organize folk music, and boldly learned from "Western music" to improve Chinese music. Not only did he create immortal masterpieces such as "Yin in Sickness", "Liang Xiao", "Birds on the Empty Mountain", and "Bright Journey", but he was also the founder of the professional erhu school in the history of modern music in my country. He was the first to combine erhu and pipa. , flute and other national musical instruments are included in higher music education courses. He is an innovator of national musical instruments. He extended the traditional three-position erhu to five positions, bringing the expressive power of the erhu to an unprecedented level; he reformed the four-phase and ten-fret pipa into a six-phase and eighteen-and-a-half-fret system, making the pipa a The world's universal twelve-toned equal-tempered instrument. Giving new life to these two ancient national musical instruments.

In a historical span of more than 60 years from the "May 4th" period to the 1980s, the three Liu brothers succeeded one after another, constantly pursuing progress, and working hard to promote and develop the national culture of the motherland with a scientific and realistic spirit. , embodies the noble character of China's outstanding intellectuals and artists. Their immortal achievements have won people's respect and love, and they are known as the "Three Heroes" of the Liu family in Jiangyin.

Children

Mr. Liu Tianhua’s eldest son Liu Yuyi is the deputy chief engineer of Beijing Construction Engineering Bureau and a famous structural expert in China;

The second daughter Liu Yudun is an editor and reviewer of Shanghai Electrical Equipment Research Institute , son-in-law Gui Shaosheng, Ph.D. in the United States, first-level professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University;

Liu Yujing, wife Cheng Bi, professor at the Academy of Military Medical Sciences;

Liu Yuxi (1938-), male, Central Committee Violin professor at the Orchestral Department of the Conservatory of Music, master's tutor, and violinist. One of the first generation violinists trained by the People's Republic of China, in August 2002, he successfully held the first recital of Chinese musicians in Vienna, the capital of music, and Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. Over the years, in addition to busy teaching, he has persisted in pioneering and exploring the path of Chinese violin art;

Liu Yulun (1920-), pseudonym Wang Jingxuan, graduated from the Department of Electrical Engineering of National Southwest Associated University in 1944. He once served as a technician (technical assistant) at the Kunming Repair Station of the Telecommunications Machinery Factory of the Ministry of Military Affairs, a worker at the Xijing Power Plant, and a worker at the Northern Hebei Electric Power Company. After 1949, he successively served as deputy engineer and engineer at the North China Electric Power Administration Bureau, Northeast Electric Power Administration Bureau, engineer at the Suzhou Nuclear Power Research Institute of the Ministry of Water Resources and Electric Power, and the Nuclear Power Bureau of the Ministry of Water Resources and Electric Power. He is a professor-level senior engineer. Since 1993, he has enjoyed special subsidies issued by the State Council. Joined the Communist Party of China in 2001. He and his sister Liu Yudun were twins.

Character evaluation

Liu Beimao is one of the founders of Liu Tianhua's Erhu school. He is the most direct and outstanding inheritor and developer. After Liu Tianhua's untimely death in 1932 to 20 At this stage in the 1960s, Liu Beimao made contributions in Erhu teaching, performance, and creation, playing a role in connecting the past and the future for the school and Erhu art and filling the historical gaps. Liu Beimao should have an indispensable and splendid chapter in the history of modern Chinese music. He is the "Van Gogh" of the Chinese music industry. The value of its artistic achievements is far from being recognized by us. As time goes by and people with in-depth research work, its brilliance will become more and more apparent. Some scholars vividly say that Liu Beimao's large number of works are like a treasure house of Dunhuang art that has just been opened, with a dazzling array of musical wealth waiting for people to know and appreciate. Mr. Liu Beimao said during his lifetime: "Music and musicians first serve people who do not engage in music." This is the most precious portrayal of civilian music thought and humanistic spirit throughout Mr. Yu Beimao's life, and he is a well-deserved representative of a generation of nationals. Music master.

Mr. Liu Beimao has been engaged in the creation, performance and education of national instrumental music throughout his life and has made outstanding contributions. Mr. Liu's character is high-minded and upright, and he treats his children like his own children, which reflects the noble quality and personality charm of an upright patriotic intellectual.

We should inherit the traditional virtues of the Chinese nation under the new historical conditions, use the requirements of moral construction of patriotism, socialism, and communism to strengthen the construction of teachers' ethics and style, and emphasize that learning from high school is a teacher, and being upright is a teacher. Fan, "Economic teachers are easy to meet, but teachers are hard to come by." Overcome the desire for quick success and impetuous psychology, and resist the impact of the market economy tide on the sacred teaching, education and scientific research undertakings. Mr. Liu Beimao has been teaching throughout his life and has cultivated generations of foreign language and music talents with both ability and political integrity. Mr. Liu Beimao's music creation and performance practice not only inherited the creative ideas of his brother Mr. Liu Tianhua, but also created many contemporary music masterpieces and developed the performance function of the erhu, a national instrumental music. In terms of the creation and performance of erhu music, we should innovate and adapt foreign materials to China. On the basis of absorbing Western music, we should adhere to the path of music development with Chinese characteristics. This path of artistic development that integrates ancient and modern times, draws on both China and foreign countries, and takes comprehensive innovation is exactly what we should explore in the process of building a new socialist culture. Through the creation and performance of Erhu music, Mr. Liu Beimao inherited and developed the artistic ideas of Mr. Nai Xiong Tianhua, and promoted ancient folk instrumental music to the world's art palace.