Guo Wenjing is a world-renowned Chinese composer. His works range from solo music, chamber music, concertos, operas, symphonies, symphonic poems, theater music, TV and film soundtracks, to choral music. Through Guo’s dizi concerto, “Chou Kong Shan” (Sorrowful and Desolate Mountain; 1991), this paper explores Guo’s composition concepts and techniques, as well as the influence of his works on future dizi playing techniques and development.

Literature review shows that Guo Wenjing’s works have not been studied by scholars in Taiwan. As a result, this paper refers to literature and interview data from China. Guo’s works are deeply influenced by his background and education. The elements of Sichuan music were frequently adopted in his early compositions. After entering the Central Conservatory of Music for professional composition training, Guo started to write different forms of music works.

Based on the paper, “Chou Kong Shan” consists of three movements, and the frequent using of 2nd intervals and three steps are regarded as the motive of the piece and transformed into various rhythms and pitches within both the solo dizi and orchestra sections. The first movement is presented in a long theme by solo dizi and responded by the orchestra through of 2nd intervals; the second movement features its strong and high-speed rhythms, and has applied metal percussions such as Mang Gong to flavor timber colors; The third movement utilizes the low range and tutti, making itself present a heavy and strong musical tension, and has presented a horizontal line by Banhu as a response to the solo di.

The piece was originally composed for an eight-hole di. After the refinement of time, the interpretations and adjustments of performers, now it can be played by both six-hole and eight-hole di. For the fluency of performance and consistent presentation of timber, the author has chosen the eight-hole di as instrument to express her musical interpretation and thoughts.