Cloud is a three-movement piece composed by Wenjin Liu in 2012 featuring the Dizi commissioned by Dizi player Ya Dai. It’s also Liu’s final large orchestral piece during his composing career. This piece reflects not only the composition techniques and methods used in his later periods of composition, but also its rich implementation of musical materials. Therefore, further analysis is crucial. The inspiration of Cloud comes from the composer’s impressions on regional music in northwest China, which consists of Inner Mongolian Errentai music, Qinghai folksongs, etc. He also utilizes various techniques unique to the Dizi to describe the tune of the ever-changing ethnic characteristics in northwest China.

Although Cloud has garnered widespread attention from Dizi performers since its premiere, there are very few studies conducted regarding the piece and its composer Liu. Thus, this essay aims to organize and list out the musical experiences, composing background, and creative elements of Liu by collecting and summarizing documents and resources. Furthermore, it analyzes how Liu implements Mongolian Errentai music, Qinghai folksongs, and other traditional musical forms in northwestern China into his compositions.

The result shows that Liu did not directly transfer materials from Chinese traditional music. Instead, he incorporated unique characteristics of it, including commonly used melodies, essential modes, performance techniques, etc., into Cloud. This study analyzes and discusses the structure, melody, and implementations of technique in “Cloud”, through which a comprehensive musical analysis of the piece is achieved. The purpose of this study is to provide a useful reference for Dizi performers on this piece in the future.