Lü Wencheng ( 吕文成,

pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...

: Lǚ Wénchéng, or ''Lui Man Sing'' in

Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding are ...

) (1898 in Zhongshan - 1981 in Hong Kong) was a Chinese composer and musician. He composed '' Autumn Moon Over Calm Lake'' () in the 1930s, one of the best known works of

Cantonese music ''Cantonese music'' may refer to: *The music of Cantonese-speaking peoples, especially: **Music of Guangdong **Music of Hong Kong ** Music of Macau *Cantonese language music, especially Cantopop Cantopop (a contraction of "Cantonese pop mus ...

. He also played the ''

yangqin The trapezoidal yangqin () is a Chinese hammered dulcimer, likely derived from the Iranian santur or the European dulcimer. It used to be written with the characters 洋琴 (lit. "foreign zither"), but over time the first character changed ...

'' and was a

Cantonese opera Cantonese opera is one of the major categories in Chinese opera, originating in southern China's Guangdong Province. It is popular in Guangdong, Guangxi, Hong Kong, Macau and among Chinese communities in Southeast Asia. Like all versions of Ch ...

singer. His music shows a strong influence of the traditional music of the Shanghai area as a result of living almost thirty years there.

Life

Lü was born in 1898 in

Zhongshan Zhongshan (; ) is a prefecture-level city in the south of the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong province, China. As of the 2020 census, the whole city with 4,418,060 inhabitants is now part of the Guangzhou–Shenzhen conurbation with 65,565,622 i ...

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

Province, but grew up in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

when at the age of three he and his parents moved to Shanghai. There he developed the

gaohu The ''gaohu'' ( 高胡; pinyin: ''gāohú'', ; Cantonese: gou1 wu4; also called ''yuehu'' 粤胡) is a Chinese bowed string instrument developed from the ''erhu'' in the 1920s by the musician and composer Lü Wencheng (1898–1981) and use ...

, composed and performed ''Guangdong yinyue'', and made recordings. In 1932, he moved to Hong Kong, where he lived until his death in 1981. His daughter, Lü Hong (吕红), is a professional singer, and the wife of Chinese musician

Lui Tsun-Yuen Lui Tsun-Yuen (; 1931 – January 8, 2008) was a Chinese composer and teacher of Chinese classical music. He is known for his compositions and recordings of the pipa and guqin, and is recognized for bringing Chinese music to Western audiences. ...

Works

Lü is considered to have been a master of

(''Guangdong yinyue'') and

folk music. He developed, or co-developed,co-invented by Lü and his teacher Situ Mengyan (司徒梦岩), according to Du, Yaxiong. ''Traditional Music Composers'', article in Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture p.843, edited by Edward L Davis, Routledge 2005. the

in the 1920s from the ''

erhu The ''erhu'' (; ) is a Chinese two-stringed bowed musical instrument, more specifically a spike fiddle, which may also be called a ''Southern Fiddle'', and is sometimes known in the Western world as the ''Chinese violin'' or a ''Chinese two-s ...

'' by raising its pitch and using steel strings instead of silk, and changing its playing position from on the thigh to between the knees. He composed '' Autumn Moon Over Calm Lake'' () in the 1930s that remains to this day one of the best known works of Cantonese music. His piece Tiger down the Mountain () is quoted in the Chinese Rhapsody by

Xian Xinghai Xi'an ( , ; ; Chinese: ), frequently spelled as Xian and also known by other names, is the capital of Shaanxi Province. A sub-provincial city on the Guanzhong Plain, the city is the third most populous city in Western China, after Chongqing ...

Compositions

Lü composed over 100 pieces, including: * bù bù gāo () Higher step by step * chén zuì dōng fēng 沉醉东风 Intoxicated by the easterly wind * jiāo shí míng qín 蕉石鸣琴 * luò huā tiān 落花天 Flowers falling from sky * píng hú qiū yuè () Autumn Moon Over Calm Lake * qīng méi zhú mǎ 青梅竹马 Happy childhood * qí shān fèng 岐山凤 Phoenix of Mount Qishan * xǐng shī 醒狮 Awakening lion * yín hé huì 银河会 Meeting in the Milky Way * yú gē wǎn chàng 渔歌晚唱 Fisherman's song at dusk * xià shān hǔ 下山虎 Tiger down the Mountain

Audio sample

Performance of Lü Wencheng's Autumn Moon Over Calm Lake (平湖秋月)
by Jiyang Chen
78 RPM recording of Lü Wencheng's Tiger down the Mountain (下山虎)
performed by Lü Wencheng

References

;Sources *Du, Yaxiong. ''Traditional Music Composers'', article in Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture p. 843, edited by Edward L Davis, Routledge 2005.

External links

1898 births 1981 deaths People's Republic of China composers Musicians from Guangdong Republic of China musicians People from Zhongshan 20th-century composers {{china-musician-stub