Abstract

Red Cliffs, a Liuqin concerto composed by Zhi-Xuan Kong in 2015, which were delegated creating works to Bi-Yun Zhang for the Chinese Golden Bell Award for Music. Using the composing skill of the combination of Chinese and Western, Kong practiced the Program Music of Romanticism and the type of traditional chinese novels with captions for each chapter, then, described the Battle scene of Red Cliff in the Eastern Han Dynasty and used the motivation of idée fixe to compose.

Whether as an ensemble or as a solo instrument, Liuqin presents a sweet and light image in its tone. However, Kong learned from the composing concept of Pipa’s Military Music for composition basics and used lots of fancy skills to replace the impression of Liuqin’s sweet sound in this piece. As for Liuqin performance, it helps performers can interpret more through the difficult skills and the titles of every period in Red Cliffs.

Using the piece Red Cliffs as an example, this thesis delved into the creative ideas of the composer through individual interviews. Also, presented an understanding of composer's background and concluded the form, composing/playing skills, and how to outline the Battle scene of Red Cliff by Liuqin based on the understanding of image association from Battle of Red Cliff’s history. To this end, there is little specific guidance for composing the historical story of music in Liuqin. Not only did Red Cliff use narrative structure and technique as composing foundation, but also combined with the sound of a symphonic chinese orchestra to explore the musical expression of Liuqin.