Zhang Shao (1927-2015) was a famous erhu performer, music educator, and professor at the Central Conservatory of Music. Former president of the Erhu Society of the Chinese Musicians Association and consultant to the Huqin Professional Committee of the Chinese National Orchestra Society. Born in April 1927 in Wujin County, Jiangsu Province. In 1946, he was admitted to the Nanjing National Conservatory of Music, where he was tutored by Mr. Yang Yinliu, and also studied Erhu under Liu Tianhua's disciples Chu Shizhu and Jiang Fengzhi. At the same time, he learned pipa from Cao Anhe, guzheng from Cao Zheng, and Kunqu opera and sanxian from Gao Buyun. In 1950, Professor Chu Shizhu and his students Zhang Shao and Jiang Yonghe held a concert in Changzhou. Zhang Shao demonstrated his musical talent with solo performances on three instruments: Erhu, Pipa and Guzheng. He passed away due to illness at his home in Beijing at 7 a.m. on January 22, 2015 at the age of 88.

Experience

After graduating from the Central Conservatory of Music, he first worked in the music section of the Central Conservatory of Drama until 1953, when he was appointed as the concertmaster of the Central People's Broadcasting Orchestra and an erhu soloist. In 1981, he was transferred to the Central Conservatory of Music to teach. . On the basis of summarizing national folk music, he extensively absorbed various styles and schools from the South and the North, pioneered a systematic and scientific erhu technique theory, and improved and developed the Liu Tianhua Erhu School. It had a profound impact on the development and teaching of bowed string instruments. In 1956, he was invited to hold Erhu broadcasting teaching at the Central People's Broadcasting Station and compiled the book "Erhu Broadcasting Lectures".

Zhang Shao

After this book was published in 1959, it became a model and important reference book for national music teaching materials. Since then, more than ten books have been published, including "Erhu Performance Method" and "Erhu Broadcast Teaching Lectures". With a total of more than 2 million words and more than 3 million copies published, it has greatly promoted the development of Erhu art at home and abroad.

Function

Zhang Shao has been committed to the reform of erhu during his sixty-year artistic career. From 1949 to 1950, he cooperated with Zhang Zirui and changed the erhu silk strings to steel strings. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, chrome strings, aluminum strings, Erquan strings, Han Palace strings, and externally wound strings were successively developed. In 1955, the wooden shaft was changed to a copper shaft, and in 1993, a fine-tuning fixed jack was developed.

Erhu (Pinyin: Erhu) began in the Tang Dynasty and was called "Xi Qin". It has a history of more than a thousand years. It is a traditional Chinese stringed instrument. Erhu, the two-stringed huqin, also known as "Nanhu" and "Omzi", is one of the main bowed string instruments (stringed instruments) in the Chinese national musical instrument family.

The famous Erhu songs include "Two Springs Reflect the Moon", "Good Night", "Listening to the Pines", "Horse Racing", etc.