The Tune of Meihu

Chinese musical instruments have an incredibly long history, and the oldest Chinese musical instrument is a flute made of crane wing bone uncovered in Jiahu, Henan province, hence the name Jiahu bone flute, dating back to eight thousands years ago. Our featuring artist, Tuqiang Zhang will be playing the Erhu for the Australian Premiere of Tune of MeiHu, a Chinese instrument first appeared in Tang Dynasty dating back to one thousand years ago. Erhu belongs to the Huqin family, a type of stringed instruments  popular amongst Hu ethnic groups in northern ancient China. A movement from the 50s in the 20th century for teaching Chinese instruments at tertiary level saw Erhu become one of the major instruments appeared at the Music Faculty of North West Arts School (predecessor of Xi’an Conservatory of Music), alongside with instruments such as Pipa and Yangqin, which will also be featured in our CNY concert. One of the first graduates from the Music Faculty, Rirong Lu, composed Tune of MeiHu in 1958, and the erhu concerto version is what we know todayy. As an alumnus of Xi’an Conservatory of Music, Tuqiang Zhang was the first lecturer to teach both Erhu and guitar at professional level at the Conservatory for over two decades, before moving overseas to teach at the Auckland Conservatory of Music, and he now calls Australia home.