Moment of Glory Reconstructed

PROGRAM INTRODUCTION


1970, Yin performed the piano concerto Yellow River .

The pounding sounds from his piano keys have evoked revolution passion for the countless Chinese people.

Half a century later, the first performers of the two masterpieces meet on the stage in Taiwan.

It is not just an encounter of two masters after 50 years, but also possibly the last performance before Yu seals her violin.

Two masters, true classics, the costar of Yu and Yin guarantees an unforeseen and unrepeatable music event.



PROGRAM


LIANG-HUI LU: TCO 30th Anniversary Commission, World Premiere

ZHANHO HE, GANG CHEN: Concerto for Violin and Chinese Orchestra Butterfly Lovers

YELLOW RIVER COMPOSERS' COMMITTEE: Piano Concerto Yellow River

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     The concerts will perform on this weekend, we rehearsed with two masters today. Both they can being a grandma and a grandpa, I mean, they are really old. The violinist is almost 70 years old, and the pianist is too. They were breathless when they played somewhere excited, it really made me nervous.
     Although their technique are not so fast or accurate, their interpretation are still excellent and moving. When I saw the expression in their eyes during the rehearsing, I can feel the emotions they conveyed, sometimes it was plaintive, and sometimes it can be resolute. I was much moved by their music, not only the sound, but also their attitude to music and life. Hope I can play liuqin during my whole lifetime, just as they are. But~ I do not consider that I can make it. It is toooooooooo difficult!

A Comparison of Two Instruments

A Comparison of Two Instruments

                                                                        by Doris 9721301

     There are two plucking instruments in Chinese music. Although they have similar outside, but there are huge difference between them. The left instrument called "pipa", it is a long history instrument. Pipa's shape looks like a pear. Likewise, the right instrument "liuqin" has the same shape but dimidiate of pipa. They have equal head and axle on the top, and both use four strings. Pipa's skills of left hand are similar to liuqin's, such as push, press, pull, slip the string. However, pipa differs greatly from liuqin in other side.

     One difference is tuning. Pipa's string pitch are la, re, mi, la (A,d,e,a), and liuqin's are sol,re,sol,re (g,d1,g2,d2), this shows the range of pipa's voice is much lower and wider than liuqin, because of the bigger body and longer string.  

     The second area of difference is the playing way. Pipa plays by using five fingers of right hand, players plaster fake nails on gummed tape then wind it around their fingers. On the other hand, because liuqin is much smaller than pipa, the space between liuqin's strings are narrow, and the strings are much shorter and tougher, so liuqin plays by using a pick. In contrast, pipa's skills of right hand are much more abundant and complicated than liuqin.

     Finally, there are many differences in musical composition's style. For example, pipa music's style is close to ancient melody, it is slow and having an aroma, the variation is plentiful. Moreover, pipa can also plays some pieces with powerful and fight strength, such as the famous one "Ambush on All Sides (十面埋伏)". Therefore, pipa has an extensively expression. Liuqin's music style is close to world music. Because it was reformed in 1960s, from two strings to four strings, and from accompaniment of traditional opera to a solo instrument, it's history is much shorter than pipa's. After the reform, liuqin's gamut is similar to violin, so it often play violin's composition. As for liuqin itself's composition are affected by the harmony conception of Western music, it is not convention as pipa. Moreover, liuqin's composition usually appear happy feelings.

     To sum up, there are similarties between pipa and liuqin are about the outward appearance and skills of left hand; and differences betweem them are about tuning, the playing way, and music's style. We can appreciate them both in different point of view. All in all, pipa and liuqin are both superior Chinese plucking instruments.

   

It is not real me!

    The picture was shot on Feburary by Ching Hua bridal art, after this Chinese new year.    
     As a liuqin player, it is much closer to be a professional performer now. Hope I can play my music exquisitely, just like this picture, to become a great soloist.

sorry for the absence

     I am sorry for that I did not go to the English class yesterday, because this morning was the opening ceremony of The 11th Asian Physics Olympiad in 2010, and I had a performance for that. Yesterday afternoon was the performance's final rehearsal, so I was absent in English class.
     Today is a busy day. I am so tired. First of all, I went to the opening ceremony of The 11th Asian Physics Olympiad in 2010 for performance in the morning. The vice-president attended, too. So we arrived the performance location very early for the security check. There were many teams performed for the opening ceremony, and there were a lots of foreign vistors, so all of the teams prepared the show were around the characteristic of Taiwan. For instance, we performed a song named "Dancing of Harvest Festival", which is composed of folk songs of Taiwan indigenous people. Other teams performed folk songs of Hakka...etc. Hope the guests enjoyed.
    And next, the Taipei Chinese Orchestra had a music concert named "The Floating Musical Notes" tonight, so I reheared the play whole afternoon, then performed in the evening.
    This is the poster of the concert.

     This concert consisted of Chinese orchestra, pantomime, violin, and Nan-guan dance. It mixed many kinds of arts, and showed a great cooperation of different arts. I like the way about art-mixing, and I enjoyed the performance, too.

    I am busy with performance recently, because of the Taipei Traditional Arts Festival and other music concerts. Although I don't have free time and holidays, I still enjoy working. At least, it is better than nothing to do.

   

Who is Doris Ma?

Doris Ma is Hsin-Yu Ma. She plays liuqin.
Here she is!

Liuqin／Hsin-Yu Ma
Hsin-Yu Ma is a guaduate student. She is currently studying at Graduate School of Chinese Music, National Taiwan University of Arts. She majors in liuqin and had been taught by several famous musicians such as Bow-Hsiu Liu, Ching-I Hsu and Feng-Yu Ku.

She won the second prize at Youth Division in 2003, and the first prize at the National Music Competition College Division of liuqin solo in 2005. In 2007, she was selected to be “The Young Stars” by National Theatre and Concert Hall. In recent years, Hsin-Yu Ma performed in many concerts and she also starred as a soloist in many performances.

In the future, she will make efforts in introducing liuqin to much more people, and also continue to show her perfect performance for popularizing and teaching liuqin music.

Qualities of a Good Musician

Qualities of a Good Musician

     There are thousands upon thousands of musicians in Taiwan, but most of them can only be called as  “music players” or “music teachers”. Just a few people have such ability and fame to make themselves become a real “musician”. Why is it so difficult to be a good musician? There are several essential factors to show what these musicians must have.

     First of all, the most important factor is talent. People must have enough musicality to make their music profound and heart-stirring. Musicality includes two parts----rhythm and melody. A good musician must have a strong sense of rhythm and sentence of melody from their heart. Many people consider that they have talent of music, but most of them are showed by teaching, not from inherency. Therefore, if someday they get a complete new piece of music, they probably can not play it very well, because they do not catch the spirit of melody.

     The second factor is having a good teacher. A good teacher not only teaches  musical notes or skills, but also teaches students how to find out the music's tone color. When we can differentiate the tone color from bad to good by ourselves, the music we play will convey our unique style. This is why there are so many famous violinists and pianists in the world, and we can not judge which one is better or worse, beacuse every musician has their own style. On the other hand, if someone's music just sounds like the other, that means it does not have special form about the music. As a result, a good teacher should lead us to find our characteristic of style, but not just copy others' music single-mindedly.

     Third, the factor that musician should have is effort. This is the easiest factor of being a good musician, but it is also the most difficult one to accomplish. Everyone knows many kinds of art all need to practice hard unceasingly, such as learning dancing, painting, sporting... and so on. It is the same for music. To increase great skills and maintain an above average level both needs to practice. Someone said :"No pain no gain". Only striving can let us have skill good enogh to express music our mind.

     Moreover, the fourth factor to be a good musician is luckiness. It decide someone's opportunities to perform or to work. There is no denying that even though we have a talent for music, a great teacher, and practicing very hard, we are still waiting for somebody who appreciates our music, and also waiting for an opportunity to perform in a concert hall. Whose fortune may even have a great effect than their musical abilities upon the future of musicians' life. Therefore, what we can do is to do our best, and wait for the right time to come.

     All in all, qualities of a good musician is not a simple matter. There are four factors to be that one, the talent, having a good teacher, effort, and luckiness. These factors are all indispensible parts for a good musician. If we can enjoy the joyful and the touch moment that music bring to us, it is more important than being a succesful musician.

I have to go.

    I have a performance tonight.

    bye