The violin concerto Butterfly Lovers was written by Chen Gang and He Zhanhao in 1959. Lina Yu, who was only 18 years old and still studying at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, premiered the violin concerto Butterfly Lovers, which became famous in one fell swoop.

Lina Yu's violin concerto "Butterfly Lovers" has a circulation of more than one million copies, which is the most widely distributed and influential record in China. For this reason, she won the first golden record award in China and made outstanding contributions to the study of China's performance style. After its premiere, the song has been well received by the music industry, and has been widely performed all over the world and in Hongkong, Taiwan Province and other regions.

This piece has been played by many world-famous violinists, such as Sheng Zhongguo, Lv Siqing, Xue Wei and Takako Nishizaki.

The violin concerto "Butterfly Lovers" is an inevitable product when China's culture has developed to a certain extent. It is a favorable attempt to express China's classical music by borrowing the advantages of western musical instruments, which fully embodies the feasibility of making foreign things serve China.

This song not only gives full play to the advantages of western music, but also gives full play to the characteristics of Chinese classical music, which is different from western symphonies. Until now, it is not easy for some famous orchestras in western countries to play Butterfly Lovers very well and appropriately. Because it is in the framework of western music, it is infused with the nutrition of China culture (Yue Opera).

This colorful, sincere and touching symphony with a strong flavor of life has made bold innovations and successful attempts in nationalization and popularization, and is called "our own symphony music". At the Third National Literary Congress in 196, together with other literary masterpieces, it was praised as "a stage, a symbol of a nation's artistic maturity." It has become one of the most influential masterpieces in the form of China's modern nationalized concerto.

Now Butterfly Lovers has flown into the world music forest and become a colorful butterfly active in the international music world.

Extended information

The violin concerto "Butterfly Lovers" was written by Chen Gang and He Zhanhao when they were studying in Shanghai Conservatory of Music. It was made in the winter of 1958 and premiered in Shanghai in May of the following year, with Lina Yu as a violin solo. The theme is a well-known folk story, taking the tunes in Yue Opera as the material, adopting symphonies and Chinese folk opera music expression techniques, carefully conceiving the layout according to the plot development, adopting sonata-style structure, single movement and subtitle. The main contents are "Caoqiao Becoming sworn", "Yingtai resisting marriage" and "become a butterfly at the grave".

The whole song is about twenty-six minutes. First, it narrates the love theme of Liang Zhu for five minutes, then it's a happy school life, and then it's sent to 18 parties. From ten minutes to the second paragraph, Zhu Yingtai went home and refused to get married, and finally he cried. The second paragraph is about the same length as the first paragraph, about eleven minutes. The last paragraph is become a butterfly, which is the theme reappearance.

The music begins with a few plucked strings followed by a flute, which seems to be like the feeling of being in the clouds, so as to kick off the curtain, just like overlooking the world from the sky, pulling the clouds aside, and the scene of the characters gradually becomes clear from obscurity. First of all, the theme is played by the violin, with two long and two short words and an ending sentence, which is long and faint, as if Zhu Yingtai were telling the story of the past beside him. Then repeat the theme in the bass and return to earth.

The orchestra always plays the theme, and the scene is completely understood. Liang Shanbo, the representative of cello, also appeared, and the two of them were affectionate. The big violin and Ming played the theme, and gradually the violin dominated the melody and introduced orchestral music to emphasize it again. When the music stops, the woodwind continues to fall slowly. The violin solo is deeply soothing and introspective, which shows that Zhu Yingtai has doubts about the future, but still firmly believes in himself. Brave enough to love! The mood is brisk, the flute is loud, and the cello is dancing, just like a beautiful spring outing in March. Violin shows skill, absolute beauty.

although it is good to get together, there is always a difference. After the happy mood, there is a farewell. Playing the theme variation slowly, like an inexorable step, has to leave after all. Big violin duet, closely combined and inseparable. At the end of this passage, the string plays the theme of crying for the first time, predicting the tragic ending, which constitutes the presentation part of the whole song, "Love".

there are three short sections in the second development section: strong, weak and strong, that is, fast, slow and fast. At first, the orchestral sound like a big wave represented Zhu Fu's opposition, and he continued to play a few bars, as if to say: No! No way! Violin fiercely competed with it, and the conflict between the two gradually rose. Finally, the whole ensemble played the theme of Liang Zhu to show the exposure of love, and waves of waves eventually drowned the theme.

The balcony will tell the feelings euphemistically with the violin and listen with the cello. It's the cello's turn to pour out love, and the violin is easy-going. Suddenly, the music took a sharp turn for the worse, and Liang Shanbo died of excessive sadness and despair by using the "tight beat and slow singing" method in the Yue Opera.

On the way to be married, Zhu Yingtai stopped at Liang Shanbo's grave to cry, and the violin cried in a piercing voice: Brother Liang! Broken, staccato sad melody, crying, kneeling, and some memory fragments. Gradually, the tears opened, the crying stopped, and my mind was made up. In the sound of grief and indignation, I threw myself into the grave and suddenly burst open, and the music reached its climax at the same time.

The final part of the music is the reappearance part "become a butterfly". Under the light and elegant strings, the subject of love reappears, and butterfly lovers turns from the grave into a pair of butterflies, dancing freely among the flowers and never parting.