The Development of Regional Musical Styles for the Erhu in China

Erhu music has developed over a long period of time and has gone from rural to temple, from folk to professional, demonstrating the general trend of time: from folk culture to modern culture. In the historical process of continuous specialisation and modernisation, erhu music has gradually developed a number of diverse regional styles and corresponding cultural patterns. In addition to common features and qualities, regional styles of erhu music have certain local characteristics (in particular, erhu music based on instrumental vocal cadences; based on the works of ancient literati, etc.). The article considers the significance of Liu Tianhua's project «Perfection of Traditional Chinese Music» (1924), which served as a starting point for the transformation of erhu into solo inutrment. The peculiarities of the regional erhu schools: Jiangnan, Yu, Qin, and Shu are revealed. It is noted that the presented samples mainly represent the folk form of musical language and style, but not the way of existence. The object of the study is the process of formation and development of specific regional models of erhu music. The subject is regional styles of erhu music in China. The fundamental methods were the methods of analysis, synthesis, which allowed us to identify the features of regional styles of erhu music, their style and genre features. It can be concluded that erhu music originated in ancient Chinese culture, and the customs of different regions gave erhu music distinct local cultural features. Overall, both the instrument itself and erhu music have undergone significant transformation over the past hundred years, reflecting different regional sound styles and their various cultural forms.