Imagination And Association In Erhu Performance

This article explains the ways to improve performers’ expressive ability and audiences’ appreciative ability by using imagination and association. Imagination and association have been widely applied in literature and arts, especially in musical art.Creation of the composer, recreation of the performer, and appreciation of the audience can all involve imagination and association. In erhu performances, the differences among performers lie not only in the level of proficiency in terms of basic skills and performing techniques, but also in the expressive ability, in the capability of helping the audience feel the connotation behind the piece of music, expressing the rich emotion in it. Erhu performance involves imagination induced from techniques,tones, and stage performances, expression of emotions, depiction of artistic concepts,and development of figures. This article demonstrates imagination and association in erhu performance of different works and different styles of music based on the author’s experience and her tutor’s direction. Usage of rich and reasonable imagination at right places and timings can help performer improve their artistic expressive ability and merge them into the piece so as to fully express the rich emotions and connotations waived in the piece by the composer.