White Snow in Spring Sunlight

Introduction

Each section opens on the first eight bars of Lao Liuban, and Wang Yuting's seven-section version is the Little Yangchun

White Snow in Spring Sunlight, also called Yangchun Guqu, is a large pipa piece that blends the lyrical and martial styles and paints the return of spring in bright, quick rhythms. It first appears in a manuscript pipa collection handed down by Ju Shilin of the Pudong school, under the title Liuban. Li Fangyuan of the Pinghu school printed it in 1895 as Yangchun Guqu in ten sections, and that version and Shen Haochu's later edition are known as the Great Yangchun. The seven-section version handed down by Wang Yuting, known as the Little Yangchun, is the one most often played today. Every section opens with the first eight bars of the folk tune Lao Liuban, and the title is borrowed from two ancient qin pieces with which it has no musical link.