Liu Tianhua and A Bing are two outstanding erhu performers in modern times.
Erhu: Developed from Huqin, it was once called Huqin or Nanhu Lake. Its popularity is unmatched by other musical instruments. With beautiful timbre and strong expressive force, it is one of the main stringed instruments in China and plays an important role in solo, national instrumental ensemble, song and dance and vocal accompaniment, local opera and rap music.
There are many taboos in China, and erhu was also banned in the early Qing Dynasty. According to legend, after Jiaqing succeeded to the throne in Qing Dynasty, Gan Long was honored as the emperor's father, and the court once formed a situation in which the two emperors ruled together. So things and names about "two emperors" are taboo. The "Huang Er" in the singing of traditional Chinese opera seems to allude to the "Second Emperor" and is regarded as disrespectful to Jiaqing. The two strings on the erhu-the old string and the sub-string, also called the Er (Er) string, provoked the "Two Emperors". What's more, if you break the old string or the sub-string while playing the erhu, it will be a great disaster. Therefore, for a long time, the erhu was banned, and it was not until the contradictions intensified in the late Qing Dynasty that the court had no time to take care of it, and the erhu sounded in the hands of artists in the pear garden.
Erhu is the most widely used national musical instrument, bowstring musical instrument, and also the instrument with the most China national musical temperament and characteristics. The importance of erhu and its position in the folk music team are the most prominent. Mainly popular inside and outside the Great Wall, the north and south of the Yangtze River, the Pearl River Basin, especially in the south of the Yangtze River. Erhu often refers to a solo and a folk band, such as the main instruments in Jiangnan Sizhu and Cantonese Opera. Erhu is widely used in southern China. In many local operas in the south, such as Yue Opera, Xi Opera, Shanghai Opera, Huangmei Opera, Huai Opera and Cantonese Opera, erhu is the main musical instrument. So erhu is also called "South Lake".
The predecessors of Erhu in Tang and Song Dynasties were Xiqin, Qinqin and Huqin. The Western Qin Dynasty was named after the northern nomadic Xi people. Ouyang Xiu's poem "Wen Xi Qin Zuo in the Examination Institute" said: Xi Qin was originally from people's joy, and people played with tears. The early Xiqin was a plucked instrument, and later a stringed instrument appeared. Chen Chang's "Le Shu" contains: Qin is a musician, and it looks like a string. Xi is very happy. Cover it and roll it between two strings with bamboo pieces, which are still used by the people today. As far as the attached drawings are concerned, it is a bamboo stem and a cylindrical tube, which have no weight and are the embryonic form of erhu in later generations. Mawei Huqin has appeared since the Song Dynasty. Shen Kuo's "Meng Qian Bi Tan" contains: "ponytails and cars with the Han Dynasty are hesitant and blame themselves." "History of the Yuan Dynasty, Rites and Music" describes its shape: "Huqin, like a fire without thinking, has a curled neck, two strings leading, and a ponytail tied with bow strings." In the Ming Dynasty, Hu Qin added 1,000 kilograms, and the chord length was fixed, which was roughly the same as today's shape. Since the late Ming Dynasty, stringed instruments have risen and become the main musical instruments in music activities (especially in traditional Chinese opera performances), and their playing skills are quite superb, showing unique charm. However, in the traditional music system, the status of bow-string instruments such as erhu is still very low, mainly used for accompaniment, rarely used in formal occasions, and there is no solo specially written for erhu. After the 20th century 10, Liu Tianhua, a famous national musician, devoted himself to the research, improvement and creation of national instrumental music (mainly erhu), absorbed some techniques of western violin, enriched the expressive force of erhu, and raised it to the position of solo and entered the elegant hall. He also brought the erhu into the teaching of music colleges and universities, set up the erhu specialty, compiled the earliest erhu teaching materials and a set of etudes, and created 65,438+00 erhu solos such as Yin in Disease, which opened a new era of erhu art. At that time, Zhou Wanchun, the owner of the instrument number, was a famous Chinese national musical instrument producer, Mr. Zhou Rongting (both Mr. Liu Tianhua and Mr. Zhou Rongting studied under Zhou Shaomei, in the 1930s. According to the requirements of Jiang Fengzhi, Lu Xiutang and other famous performers in the north and south, the stems and tubes of traditional erhu were discussed in collaboration, and Yangshan handle erhu (elbow this month) and Ye Fusheng erhu were produced, which laid the foundation for the later erhu reform in Suzhou. Since the 1960s, with the support of Mr. Zhou Rongting, then the technical director of Suzhou Minle Factory, after repeated argumentation by experts and exploration by all technicians, a more scientific new specification has finally been formulated for the present erhu.
At present, erhu has become one of the most popular musical instruments, and the sound of erhu can be heard everywhere, whether in the streets or in poor rural areas.