Title: Battle against the Tai Hang Mountain : Tai Hang's children : Erhu and orchestra

Arranger:Tong Leung-tak

Year: 1978

Genre:

• Concerto
• Original composition
• Concerto (Erhu)

Call No.: SC453

Description: Based on excerpts from the score Wang Liping (1941–) composed for the 1971 documentary film Hong qi qu ("The Red Flag Canal"), "Battle Against the Tai Hang Mountain"-also known as "Tai Hang's Children"-is a piece for solo erhu with the modern Chinese orchestra. It was first arranged in 1975 by Tong Leung-tak (with revision completed in 1978) as a piece consisting of four named segments: qushui benliu ("water splashing through the canal"), kuchou beifen ("bitter vengeance and indignation"), yishan zaotian ("moving mountains and creating farmlands"), and rending shengtian ("humans shall prevail"). Musically, the piece modulates three times and calls for a full Chinese orchestra with a robust percussion section. The second segment of the piece in particular is notable for a solo erhu playing a slow, lamenting passage against a sparse accompanying backdrop. However the piece refers specifically to the story of the people of Lin county (now Linzhou city) who built an irrigation canal on a rough terrain across the Taihang mountains. It is sometimes confused with the song Taihang ernü xuedazhai ("The Children of the Taihang Mountains Learn from Dazhai in Agriculture"), which tells a similar story but focuses on Dazhai-located in the western region of the Taihang Mountains-being a commune officially acclaimed for its agricultural development during the first half of the 1960s. The score of SC453 is especially prepared for this project's recording based on the extant instrumental parts whereas SC453a is an earlier version probably prepared by Mr. Tong himself, which is however slightly different from the extant parts.

Note:

• Arrangement of part of the music from the documentary "Hongqi Canal" by Wang Liping
• First arrangement in 1975. Second arrangement in 1978.

Instrumentation: erhu (solo) (1), bang di (1), sheng (1), suona/haidi (1), yangqin (1), liuqin (1), pipa (1), zhong ruan (1), da ruan (1), sanxian (1), zheng (1), timpani (1), xiao gu (1), large cymbals (1), small cymbals (1), erhu (2), zhonghu (1), banhu (1), cello (1), double bass (1)