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Deborah
Koh's Page Dedicated to the Folk Music of China
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Deborah's school orchestra in front of the Dragon's Gate
(Long Men). Deborah was 17 when this group photo was
taken.
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Visit Deborah's MP3 Page of Great Chinese Music
Hello, I am Deborah Koh and
I am from Singapore, where about 70% of the population is
made up of Chinese people who are descended from Chinese
immigrants many decades ago. The majority of the Chinese
have a pretty good grasp of both Chinese and English, since
the government made English the first language and Chinese
the compulsory Mother Tongue for all Chinese.
I study the piano and the
traditional Chinese instrument, the erhu. When I was
in secondary school, I joined the school's Chinese Orchestra
as my co-curricular activity, and have never regretted doing
so, despite the demands that it made of my time. It would
not be a far stretch to say that we are possibly one of the
best secondary school Chinese Orchestras in my Country, if
not THE best. We have clinched the title of Best Secondary
School Chinese Orchestra for three times in a row now, and
make biannual trips to China for performance tours. So far,
I have performed in Nanjing, Jiangyin (hometown of Mr. Liu
Tian Hua, a a famous erhu player) Suzhou, the town of
beautiful gardens, and Henan, famed for having the Yellow
River flowing throug it. The experience was truly wonderful!
The
Erhu
The Erhu is a most fantastic instrument. Most people
here have the mistaken notion that an erhu produces a sound
like " a cat's wail," and their ignorance always
saddens me.
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As for the erhu, it used to be that it wasn't very well
designed, and was used only in opera with a range of one
octave.
This was until Liu Tianhua came
along. With his education in the violin, he further
refined and standardized the design of the modern erhu,
using the method of shifting the hand downwards to
increase the range, also introducing a myriad of different
performance techniques.
Liu
Tianhua revolutionized the erhu, and when he first
performed Guang Ming Xing, it was a milestone in
erhu history. For the first time ever, people saw the
range and potential of an erhu. It's popularity as a solo
instrument surged.
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Right now, the modern erhu has a history of about 500 years, but
people never forget that it was Liu Tianhua who brought the erhu
to where it is today.
Liu Tianhua composed kong shan niao
yu
and zhu ying yao hong plus a few other pieces. Even after so many
years, his pieces still enjoy great popularity. The Erhu is
similar in principle to the violin, but wow, the tone is
certainly unique.
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Visit Deborah's MP3 Page of Great Chinese Music |
