Jiangsu Province is home to erhus. Early erhu composers or players were all born here. Zhu Chang Yao, born in Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province, is a modern prominent erhu player and composer, whose works include Chinese Traditional Musical Instrument Ensemble, Erhu Concerto, etc. His musical pieces, mostly erhu solos, are all singable.

The paper explores two of Zhu Chang Yao’s representative works. One is The Tunes of Yang Zhou, adapted from local folk songs Picking Reed Catkins and Jasmine by Yao. The other is Spring in Jiangnan, whose musical composition was developed from the folk song The Fair Landscapes of Suzhou. Yao enriched the content of the musical piece and made it pleasant to listen to by subtly using folk songs as his materials of creation, keeping the rhythm and style of the folk songs and adding his new ideas.

The paper consists of five chapters. Chapter One expounds research motivation and objectives, research scope and literature review. Chapter Two delves into the overview of Jiangsu folk songs from their subject matters, classification and music features. Chapter Three first introduces the composer’s personal biographical sketch and then analyzes and explaines the way Yao interpreted The Tunes of Yang Zhou. Chapter Four examines and inquires into the way Yao interpreted Spring in Jiangnan. Chapter Five is the conclusion. This chapter summarizes the analyses and intrepretation of the two musical pieces and presents the conclusion as reference for the intrepretation of The Tunes of Yang Zhou and Spring in Jiangnan. The author hopes the paper will offer listeners and music performers a correct direction in terms of appreciation and interpretation of music.