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Liu Tianhua

Erhu and pipa player and composer whose ten erhu pieces, including Liangxiao and Guangming xing, and systematic etudes brought the erhu into the conservatory and onto the solo stage.

Also known as Born Liu Shouchun

Liu Tianhua, born Liu Shouchun in Jiangyin, Jiangsu, grew up playing band and silk-and-bamboo music and later taught at the Peking University Music Institute and other schools while studying Western composition and violin. He gave the erhu a fixed tuning and a multi-position fingering system, wrote 47 erhu and 15 pipa etudes, and composed ten erhu pieces, among them Bingzhong yin, Kongshan niaoyu, Liangxiao and Guangming xing, as well as pipa pieces such as Gaijin cao and Xulai. In 1927 he founded the Society for the Improvement of National Music in Beijing with Xiao Youmei, Yang Zhongzi and others. He died of scarlet fever in Beiping in 1932, aged thirty-seven.

Life and times

  1. 1895 CEBornQingRepublican Era
  2. 1932 CEDied

Works

  1. Stage · Pieces5
    1. Autumn Moon over the Han PalaceDate unknown; in print by 1929A Chongming-school pipa classic that Liu Tianhua transcribed for erhu from a gaohu record in 1929.
    2. Soliloquy of a Convalescent1918An early erhu solo by Liu Tianhua, usually dated 1918 and originally titled Anshi.
    3. Towards Brightness1931Liu Tianhua's 1931 erhu march, written to show that Chinese music was anything but listless.
    4. A Fine Evening1928 CEImprovised by Liu Tianhua on lunar New Year's Eve 1928; first titled A Little Song for New Year's Eve
    5. Birdsong in the Empty MountainsBegun 1918 CE, finalised 1928 CEAn erhu solo Liu Tianhua began in 1918 and finalised for publication in 1928