Holding a concert is probably the best way for music teachers to celebrate Teachers' Day. On September 10, six renowned educators of Chinese instruments held a concert entitled "Heart of Silk and Bamboo" at the Grand Theatre of the Palace for Nationalities in Beijing.

Coming from the Central Conservatory of Music and the China Conservatory of Music, two established institutions in Beijing, the six educators are also some of China's best instrumentalists: guzheng (Chinese zither of 13-25 strings) player Zhou Wang, guanzi (cylindrical double reed wind instrument) player Hu Zhihou, yangqin (hammered dulcimer) player Li Lingling, guqin (seven-stringed zither) player Li Xiangting, pipa (pear-shaped plucked lute) player Wang Fandi and erhu (two-stringed bowed instrument) player Song Fei.

With a programme covering essential works from the Chinese instrumental repertoire such as guanzi solo "Three Verses at the Yangguan Pass" (Yangguan San Die), guqin solo "Flowing Water" (Liu Shui) and erhu solo "Moon Reflected by the Erquan Spring" (Erquan Ying Yue), the concert showcased the beauty of traditional Chinese music as well as the performers' great musical accomplishment.

Wang Fandi

Moreover, what was delivered through the concert was a deep respect for music educators.

"As a teacher I feel happy and honored today to perform at this concert," said 71-year-old pipa player Wang Fandi, a retired professor from the China Conservatory. "If I could choose again, I would still want to be a teacher."

Wang, whose merits as a performer include a gold medal at the 6th World Youth Festival in Moscow in 1957, became a faculty member at the China Conservatory in 1964. He has devoted most of his time to teaching pipa ever since.

Regarding students as the continuation of a teacher's artistic life, Wang brought up a great deal of talented pipa players. Wang was also the thesis adviser to China's first graduate student of pipa Li Jingxia from 1984 to 1987.

In his teaching Wang always leaves great space for his students to develop their own styles, for he believes that personality is the most important thing for a musician.

Last year, Wang and his students held three concerts to memorialize the 50th anniversary of Wang's dedication to music education. From the playing of his students, one could see Wang's influence, but no imitation of him.

"Though the duty of music teachers is the same for all teachers, we pay more attention to the students' spiritual lives, since music deals with the heart," said Wang.

Li Xiangting

Indeed, the relationship between music and one's spirit has always been emphasized in Chinese culture. A good example of this relationship is guqin.

Playing guqin is regarded as one of the four basic artistries of traditional Chinese literati: guqin, weiqi (a game for two, played with counters on a board that is ruled with 19 vertical and 19 horizontal lines), calligraphy and painting.

It is believed that one can not play the guqin well unless he has the comprehensive cultural qualifications.

Li Xiangting, a 64-year-old professor of guqin from the Central Conservatory, follows the tradition of Chinese literati. Apart from a guqin player, he is also a composer, poet and painter. As an artist he took part in the annual exhibition of the Chinese Artists' Association in 1988 and held a solo art exhibition at the University of London in 1989.

It is on the basis of his broad artistic knowledge that Li develops his improvisational guqin music. In his concerts, Li often improvises on subjects or poems assigned by the audience.

Although Li says improvisation can not really be taught, he always calls upon his students to pay more attention to Chinese culture, so that they may understand more about guqin music.

"To be a good guqin teacher one has to first be a good player," said Li. "Guqin music is not only skill in playing, but also composition."

Besides traditional Chinese culture, Li also believes modern and Western music education to be helpful to guqin players.

"To absorb the knowledge of other music is the demand of human beings' cultural development," said Li. "In teaching guqin I use both the Chinese notation and the Western staff notation, but I won't forsake the tradition of Chinese music."

According to Li, in the 1950s, there were only about 200 guqin players all over China, and now there are over 10,000. Besides guqin degrees, students of other Chinese instruments, Western instruments and composition in the Central Conservatory also select Li's guqin course.

"Guqin music is inspiring people to create new music," says Li.

Song Fei

If Wang and Li are two veteran music educators, 36-year-old erhu player Song Fei is a representative of the young-generation teachers of Chinese music. Wang and Li were both Song's teachers when she was a college student.

"It feels special to share the same stage with my teachers as I am also a teacher now myself," said Song.

Song used to be a very successful soloist with the Chinese National Orchestra. When she decided to become a teacher at the China Conservatory in 1999, many people could not understand why she did so at the height of her performing career.

Song answers that she has benefited from her teachers since childhood, and she feels the responsibility to help more students and contribute to the field of erhu.

"As a teacher I have the chance to deliver more of my thoughts about music, though not to as many people as in performances, but in a more in-depth way," said Song.

Since 1999, Song has taught over 10 erhu majors at the China Conservatory. However, when she gave a concert and lecture earlier this month in Changsha, capital of Central China's Hunan Province, she met hundreds of people who claimed to be her students, because they have studied with a VCD program of erhu taught by Song.

In December last year and July this year, Song and her students held two concerts in Beijing, which showed her achievement as a teacher.

Before the concerts Song told her students she did not really care whether they gave wonderful performances, but she cared whether they made progress.

One of the students did not perform in the first concert because she was not confident about her ability. Song believed her problem was psychological rather than technical.

Song told her to smile to herself in the mirror, humming the melody of an erhu tune and imagine herself to be on the stage, 10 times a day. The student followed the advice and later gave a very good performance.

"I hope to teach my students to express themselves through music, make friends with music and thus have a colorful life," said Song.

Like her teachers Wang and Li, Song never limits herself to the instrument of erhu only, but always studies music in a comprehensive way. In 2002, Song held a concert in which she played 13 kinds of string instruments, including guqin and pipa.

Based on her own exploration and experience, Song came up with a "double-language" system of teaching.

For traditional works, she teaches the students to adopt their "mother tongue" system, which includes such elements of Chinese music as linear development, tonal changes and various local characters.

Whereas for erhu works that are rearranged from or influenced by Western music, she lets the students adjust themselves to the Western system, which emphasizes a harmonic thinking and the relationship between notes.

After becoming a teacher, Song did not forsake performing, but made her performing and teaching interact with one another.

"Without the practical experience of performing, my teaching will lose its fresh content; without my rational thinking in teaching, my musical career will not be as integrated," said Song.

Song's words might bespeak the relationship between all the musician/educators' double role. With one foot in performing and the other in teaching, these musician/educators are contributing to the development of Chinese music in substantial ways.

(China Daily September 27, 2004)