Peng Xiuwen (; 7 February 1931 – 28 December 1996) was a noted Chinese conductor and composer. He was a native of

Wuhan Wuhan (, ; ; ) is the capital of Hubei Province in the People's Republic of China. It is the largest city in Hubei and the most populous city in Central China, with a population of over eleven million, the ninth-most populous Chinese city an ...

Hubei Hubei (; ; alternately Hupeh) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, and is part of the Central China region. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Dongting Lake. The ...

province, in central China. Peng learned to play 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- ...

'' beginning at age seven. In 1956, he became the conductor and director of

China Broadcasting Chinese Orchestra The China Broadcasting Chinese Orchestra (; also called Central Broadcasting Traditional Instruments Orchestra) is a major Chinese orchestra based in Beijing, comprising a large group of traditional Chinese musical instruments. It is a consolidatio ...

, an orchestra of Chinese traditional (and modernized traditional) instruments, based in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

. Peng Xiuwen arranged numerous traditional music pieces for the Chinese orchestra. Among these is a piece of orchestral music inspired by

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdom ...

poet Zhang Ruoxu's famous poem "Spring River in the Flower Moon Night" (''Chun Jiang Hua Yue Ye'', 春江花月夜) first written by Liu Raozhang (柳堯章) in 1925 based on an older tune for pipa. It has since entered the classical repertoire for the traditional Chinese instrument guzheng. He also adapted music pieces originally written for a Western orchestra to be played in a Chinese orchestra, such as ''

Dance of the Yao People ''Dance of the Yao People'' (simplified: 瑶族舞曲; traditional: 瑤族舞曲; pinyin: Yáozú Wǔqǔ; sometimes translated as ''Dance of the Yao Tribe'') is one of the best known and most popular Chinese instrumental compositions of th ...

'', as well as

Bizet Georges Bizet (; 25 October 18383 June 1875) was a French composer of the Romantic era. Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death, Bizet achieved few successes before his final work, '' Carmen'', which has become o ...

's '' Carmen suite''.

References

External links

Peng Xiuwen interview
(in Chinese) 1931 births 1996 deaths Chinese male composers Chinese conductors (music) People's Republic of China musicians Musicians from Wuhan 20th-century composers Chinese composers 20th-century Chinese musicians 20th-century conductors (music) 20th-century male musicians {{conductor-stub