(-- Chinese Classical Music --)
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Butterfly Lovers
The music of Liang Zhu, or "Butterfly
Lovers", is undoubtedly the best well-known and most popular in all of China. It
is also one of few Chinese pieces that have often appeared on international stage.
Almost everyone in China can hum a few lines of the violin concerto, which can be
traced to a Chinese folk legend "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai". According to the
legend, Zhu Yingtai assumes a male identity so she may travel to study in Hangzhou,
a southern city in China, where she meets Liang Shanbo. In the course of their studies,
Zhu and Liang become very good friends. From a Confucian perspective, the notion
of "Junzi" is a well-exemplified ideal in Chinese history and its quality and characteristics
are well expounded upon by Confucian scholars. Basically, this implies the highest
integrity, morality and demeanor, coupled with well-refined abilities and skills
both in martial arts and academia -- the kind of relationship that Zhu and Liang
had achieved. When the time came for Zhu to return home, the pair is overcome with
much suppressed sadness. Zhu offers her younger sister's hand in marriage and entreats
Liang to visit her residence to discuss the issue with her parents. Liang is unaware
that Zhu is female nor that she does not have a younger sister. (She is, in fact,
offering her own hand in marriage.) A year passes before Liang makes his way to
Zhu's residence. He is overjoyed to realize Zhu's true identity and that she is
in love with him. However, happiness turns into sorrow as the two soon discover
that Zhu has been betrothed to another man. In great sadness, the two lovers meet
at the tower and lament their great misfortune. Upon his return to Hangzhou, Liang
falls ill in his great misery and dies. When Zhu hears of this on her wedding day,
she flees to his grave. There, legend has it that her tears move the heavens so
much that the clouds themselves shed tears over Zhu's grief. Then, the earth beneath
her cracks open and the ill-fated Zhu commits suicide by jumping into the open grave.
Miraculously, the pair is transformed into butterflies. Arising into the sky, they
flutter and dance side by side among the flowers, never to be separated again. Butterfly
Lovers was composed in 1958 by Chen Gang and He Zhanhao who were studying at the
Shanghai Conservatory of Music. The pair was exploring the feasibility of setting
Chinese music to a (Western) symphonic medium, incorporating borrowed devices from
Chinese folk theatrical music as well as vocal techniques of Zhejiang's Yu Theatre.
The end result was a free-form concerto for the violin in one movement. Remaining
true to the legend, the concerto may be divided into three sections as follows:
- Part I
describes Liang and Zhu's meeting (Liang is represented by the cello and Zhu, the
violin), their joining hands in brotherhood, the blossoming of their love; their
study and sad separation when Zhu goes home.
- Part II
portrays their resistance to the arranged marriage, their meeting at the tower,
and the eventual deaths of the lovers. The violin's free rhapsodic sounds incorporate
many syncopated chords (Zhu and her resistance to marriage) pitted against the orchestra
(Zhu's father forcing the marriage) into a dramatic play. The meeting at the tower
is exemplified by the interplay between the cello solo (Liang) and the violin solo
(Zhu). The ensuing section employs borrowed theatrical devices to bring across the
Liang's illness and death and further drama in Zhu's suicide (Chinese gong and reprise).
- Part III
wraps up the saga as the flute and harps spark the mystery of the imminent metamorphosis.
The play of the butterflies is heard following a recapitulation of the love theme
and mortals echoing their happiness.
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