Chinese folk music：Dance of the Yi people 彝族舞曲, Liu Fang pipa solo 劉芳琵琶

Very beautiful and elegant interpretation of the romantic “Dance of Yi People“ -with the purest sound and emotion from Liu Fang’s pipa playing. (Pipa is a traditional string instrument from China, in the same family as lute or guitar. ) It is upon listening to this piece (彝族舞曲) that I have become big fan of Liu Fang’s. The original music was composed by Wang Huiran (王惠然)in the early 60s based on some folk dance music of the Yi, one of the 26 minorities in the Province of Yunnan. The melody was used by an Chinese pop group so that it became known to many people (including myself) as a pop song called “Nine hundred ninty nine roses“. Later on I discovered that it is a pipa solo music. This piece is one of the most celebrated examples for compositions based on folk melodies, and indeed has become one of the most popular pieces of the pipa repertoire, even among the traditional repertoires, and is commonly regarded as one of the best classical pipa solo compositions ever created in the last century. I love Liu