Chinese Instrumental Music · Chinese Works for Western Instruments · SE10102

The Cowherd's Flute

A bamboo flute on the piano

Introduction

He Luting's 1934 piano piece, first-prize winner in Alexander Tcherepnin's contest for Chinese-style piano music

The Cowherd's Flute is a piano piece written by the composer He Luting in 1934. That year the pianist Alexander Tcherepnin held a competition in Shanghai for piano music with a Chinese flavour, and He entered three pieces, winning the only first prize with this one and an honourable second prize with his Lullaby. The piano imitates the sound of a Chinese bamboo flute, and a tune in Chinese style is set in two voices that answer each other in the Western contrapuntal manner. He was then a student at the National Conservatory in Shanghai; Tcherepnin later played the piece in Europe, and it was published in Japan. It is often called the first fully mature Chinese piano piece.