The Erhu Concerto "Great Wall Caprice" was born in the early 1980s by Liu Wenjin, a composer with an important influence in the history of contemporary music development in China. The musical structure, creative techniques, instruments and strings of this work are very different from the erhu music of the past, which has become an expansive promotion of the art of erhu performance, and is also a milestone achievement in the contemporary development of erhu music.
On the evening of July 22, the all-media version of "Great Wall Caprice" held the launch ceremony of the new book at the Poly Grand Theater in Shanghai. Liu Chang, the son of Liu Wenjin and a professor at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, made a comprehensive compilation of the score of "Great Wall Caprice" and the score of Erhu and piano, which was first launched by Shanghai Music Publishing House. While reading, readers can also watch the performance video of erhu player Min Huifen and listen to the performance audio of Huqin performance artist Seinfeld.
With "The Great Wall" as the narrative theme, "Great Wall Caprice" is divided into five parts: "Overture", the first movement "Guan Shan Xing", the second movement "Beacon Exercise", the third movement "Loyalty Soul Sacrifice", and the fourth movement "Distant Look". The composer adopts a suite structure, in the form of erhu and orchestra concerto, expressing people's feelings when they climb the Great Wall.
Considered one of the most important works of erhu and national orchestras of the 20th century, Great Wall Caprice has inspired many contemporary composers to re-emphasize the enormous potential of erhu as a solo instrument to work with bands. At the launch ceremony of the new book, Liu Chang told the audience about the process of his father's creation of this work. In the late summer of 1978, Liu Wenjin visited the United States with the art troupe and saw a huge tapestry of the "Great Wall" in the Empire State Building in New York. Seeing the magnificent scenery of the motherland in a foreign country, the artist was shocked. At that time, Liu Wenjin and Min Huifen, who visited together, thought almost at the same time: We should use our ancient national instrumental form to express our feelings about the ancient Great Wall and praise the glorious history and reality of the Chinese nation. The following year, Liu Wenjin began to create "Great Wall Caprice", injected with strong patriotic feelings, and completed this work after three years of grinding a sword. In May 1982, "Great Wall Caprice" was performed by Min Huifen as an erhu soloist, and Qu Chunquan conducted by the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra at the "Shanghai Spring". In 1984, the work won the first prize of the Third National Music Works Award.
As a masterpiece of Min Huifen's performance, the story behind "Great Wall Caprice" is moving. At the time of the work, Min Huifen suffered from melanoma and underwent six surgeries and fifteen courses of chemotherapy in five years. Rao is so, she also wrote tens of thousands of words of "National Charm in the Broad Realm - The Experience of Playing the Erhu Concerto "Great Wall Caprice"" thesis, and played the magnificent "Great Wall Caprice". In an interview before his death, Min Huifen once recalled, "In the face of the resting symbol of life, under the careful treatment of active cooperation with doctors, I only have one thought: seize time!" Grab your life! Grab art! With my soul and my flesh and blood, I pulled up the composer Liu Wenjin's tailor-made "Great Wall Caprice" for me to catch up with the premiere of 'Shanghai Spring'. My weak body was mobilized by the excitement and passion of creation, and the motor of life turned rapidly, and actually pulled "Great Wall Caprice" from the 'Shanghai Spring' concert to Beijing, and then pulled out of the country and into the world. ”
For "Great Wall Caprice", Seinfeld is also full of memories. At the age of twelve or thirteen, she got a tape of Mr. Min Huifen's premiere of the work, and was able to play the whole piece from beginning to end without a score. "Music carries history, carries the common memory and feelings of the nation. "Great Wall Caprice" is a grand narrative erhu concerto, and the process of the performers constantly playing it on the stage is a transmission of energy. Seinfeld said.
Source: Author: Shi Chenlu