Foreword

CUI Shiguang

About the Music

The Folk instrumental music throughout China often has an image title. Some titles are tips for the music content of the piece, some titles may be a condensed feature of cultural, or local languages of certain regions. Rolling Waves Wash Ashore has a lively style of folk rap music character in cities of the eastern China.

A virtuoso of Chinese music in the early 20th century, Liu Tianhua's(1895-1932) philosophy of "recognizing the essence of indigenous musical culture and learning the Western techniques of instrumentation" has greatly influenced his compositions for Er-hu. This, to me, continues to be an important perception in my contemporary piano compositions.

The piano suite, Liu Tianhua Impromptus, named after Liu's Er-hu pieces, does not merely transplant the tonal notes of Er-hu into simple arrangements. Certain melodic fragments are selected from the original Er-hu composition for free exploratory development in an particular pianistic manner and in a style that preserves and enhances the ambience of its predecessor:

Birds by the Hill - The harmony of man and nature is captured by the use of novel sonorities; created by combining traditional scales and expressions with modern compositional procedures and aesthetics.

New Year's Eve Serenade - Tranquility, contemplation, graciousness, piety, and a sense of caring portrait the domestic contentment on new year's eve. The expressive capacity of the piano, particularly its complement with the pentatonic mode, is amplified by the ingenious use of the sustaining pedal.

The Bright March - The first to compose a March for Er-hu, Liu recognized the instrument for its prized lyrical qualities. The original materials undergoes extensive colorful proliferation and transformation.

Regarding to the Pedalling

The way of Pedalling is closely related to the shape of the piano sound. If the same phrase with a different pedalling, the music image will be clearly in a different kind of tone picture. When a player began to build up the pedalling project as the eyes of an architect to look at the shape of a structure, the audio form naturally emerged. I have detailed marking of several uses in the damper pedal for Liu Tianhua Impromptus in four ways:

1. "Harmonic pedalling"- The reverse operation of the hand and foot movements (while pressing the keys, the pedals are also let go of the previous sound, and a new sound is obtained). The marks on the score are on the horizontal lines that are connected to each other.

2. "Rhythmic pedalling"- The pedal usage is shorter when the note value is shorter (usually the hand and foot movements are in the same direction -"pedal staccato"- to enhance the rhythm factor). The logo on the score is in units of each individual action.

3. "Melodic pedalling"- The melodic pedalling means that the melody line is dominant in the operation of pedal. Any other factors such as interval and harmony should be based on the principle of melody clarity.

4. A special long pedalling can be lasting number of bars to get certain tone picture, or music image. The pedalling mark may indicate the termination by the bar number.