Plum Blossom Suite

Introduction

Meihuacao is a purely instrumental suite from the pu repertoire of nanyin, and together with Four Seasons, Galloping Horses and Birds Returning to the Nest it forms the Four Great Suites. Wikipedia divides it into five sections whose titles evoke plum blossom braving the snow, smiling in the wind, scenting the water, bursting from the bud and opening in profusion. A master's thesis by Li Jingyi compares seven score collections, starting from the Wenhuantang collection, the oldest printed one known, and finds that the versions are of similar length and differ only in how they divide the sections. Zhang Huan compiled that collection in 1857. In the traditional Quanzhou rite for the patron deity of nanyin, the music played before the ceremony opens with the first two sections of this suite.