Three Personalities for erhu and dizi by Hong-Da Chin; erhu, Amely Zhou; dizi; Hong-Da Chin

​ @hong-dachin4620  0:00 First movement: Introduction 5:20 Second movement: Ricochet 8:43 Third movement: Harmonics Erhu, the Chinese fiddle, possesses multifaceted personalities. This work is written for Amely Zhou Jiali for the lyricism and superb skills of her erhu playing. It draws inspiration from her three favorite erhu personalities and techniques - the lyrical nature of the erhu, ricochet and harmonics. The lyricism displayed by the erhu resembles that of the poignancy of the human voice. There are three techniques that characterize the lyricism in the first movement. There are the pitch bend, wide vibrato and legato bowing. The movement title "Introduction" is used in many Chinese traditional repertoire to set the tone for the music. The ricochet technique on the erhu is commonly used to imitate horse galloping in traditional erhu repertoire. In this movement, the erhu and dizi take turn to"gallop" and the other soars through the ricochet gestures with a melody. The third movement highlights the harmonic glissandos on both the D string and A string of the erhu. This movement takes on an improvisatory nature with the erhu gliding through the harmonic series while the dizi improvises using the notes on the harmonic series in a sporadic nature. I would like to thank the James Wu Studio and the Chinese Instrumental Music Symposium for providing the video.