Plain Musical Language And Deep National Sentiments

Professor Huang Hu-wei, a famous composer and ex-director of the department of Sichuan Conservatory, has dedicated himself to the composition of China's piano music. Consequently, he has successful created a series of music works among which PICTURES FROM BASHU is his master piece. The themes of his piano music mostly derive from China's folk music, especially the folk songs of Sichuan. Even his original music is characterized by China's national music. Meanwhile, after a careful study of traditional composition theories of the West and the brief course of China's piano music composition, Professor Huang has so ingeniously combined Western composition techniques with China's national music that he can make great achievement in the composition of China's national piano music. Over the past thirty plus years after PICTURES FROM BASHU was born, Professor Huang has composed new works after works which have been widely recognized by professionals and loved by audiences. His works have not merely been used in solo concerts or piano competitions but are very good to be used in piano textbooks. Some of his works have been introduced and performed by many famous pianists and made into video records and written into some dictionaries and history books of music. His works have also been transplanted by musical performers both at home and abroad. Today China's piano music is badly in need of development. However, there has been very little theoretical study of ProfessorHuang's works. After many visits to Professor Huang and some artists who know him well, this writer has obtained some first-hand information about Professor Huang's musical composition which can help us better appreciate his artistic view and the charm of his personality. With the matter-of-fact writing principle, the paper introduces Professor Huang's life story, composition theory and techniques. And Analyses the artistic features and performance style of his works. The paper also studies the function and status of his works in the development of China's piano music.