Category: Culture/Art >> Instrumental Music/Vocal Music

Analysis:

Hua Yanjun (1893--1950), formerly known as A Bing. Folk artist. A native of Wuxi, Jiangsu. He studied music with his father when he was young. Can play a variety of folk instruments. He became blind in middle age. He makes a living by singing and playing musical instruments along the street. Liang Chenghe developed Jiangnan folk music. The music composed and performed include erhu pieces "Er Spring Reflects the Moon", "Listening to the Pines", "Cold Spring Wind", pipa pieces "Daliu Taosha", "Zhaojun Leaving the Fortress", etc.

Hua Yanjun is a Chinese folk musician. Known as A Bing, he is from Wuxi, Jiangsu. His father's name is Hua Qinghe. He is the head Taoist priest of Lei Zun Hall, a side hall of Dongxugong Taoist Temple in Wuxi. He is good at Taoist music and can play a variety of folk instruments. A Bing received strict training from his father since childhood and learned to play flute, pipa, erhu, drum and other musical instruments. He became an outstanding musician in Wuxi Taoist circles when he was 15 to 16 years old. Around 1918, Hua Qinghe passed away, and A Bing succeeded him as the head Taoist priest of Lei Zun Hall. At this time, he had a strong hobby and pursuit of folk songs, operas, etc. He became a teacher of many folk artists and learned and mastered a large amount of folk music. This had an important influence on the formation of his future creative characteristics and performance style. Around 1928, Abing became blind, and people at the time called him "Blind Abing." Due to social unrest and all the Taoist property being sold, A Bing began his wandering career as a performer. Most of his instrumental works date from this period. After the "September 18th" and "December 28th" incidents, under the influence of the anti-Japanese and national salvation movement launched across the country, A Bing often performed national salvation songs and composed and sang current affairs news in places such as Chong'an Temple in Wuxi. A Bing's wandering life exposed him to a large number of folk songs, silk and bamboo music, gong and drum music, Xi opera, etc. in southern Jiangsu, which provided a large amount of fresh and vivid material for his creation. But A Bing's creation is not a simple combination of these folk tones, but creatively enriched and developed, making it different from the folk music of the time. He composed three erhu pieces: "Cold Spring Breeze" was composed around the late 1920s, "Listening to the Pines" was composed around the early 1930s, and "Er Quan Ying Yue" was composed around the late 1930s. These works express A Bing's meditation on the bitterness of real life, and also express A Bing's love and longing for life. The three pipa songs left by Abing are "Zhaojun Leaving the Fortress", "Big Waves on the Sand" and "Dragon Boat".

Abing’s erhu playing is delicate and profound, simple and vigorous, and he is mostly good at short bows. His slide playing adds a unique charm to the melody; he also has deep knowledge in playing the pipa, touching the strings with his left hand. The right hand is solid, characterized by the thumb opening, and has a straightforward, rugged and strong temperament. Abing's own creation and performance (including arranging and singing new songs) clearly reflected the reality of social life at that time and expressed the thoughts, feelings and life wishes of the oppressed class in the old society.

Abing composed and performed a large number of instrumental music, but most of them have been lost. At the beginning of the founding of the Republic of China, 3 of his erhu pieces and 3 pipa pieces were recorded. , compiled "A Bing Qu Collection".