Beauty is a feeling. Through vision, hearing and taste, the external image and characteristics of objective things or characters are tasted and associated, and the good things perceived are the feeling of beauty. Erhu is an auditory art. The feeling of erhu beauty lies in its timbre, melody and emotional expression and connotation. Through this auditory experience, associations are generated, and the connotation and artistic conception of the music are entered from the image thinking, so as to obtain a psychologically beautiful feeling. Beauty is the unity of image, thought and sociality. Many people like the erhu because the timbre of the erhu is very beautiful; some people like the erhu because of the charm of the erhu and the rich emotions expressed by the erhu. Erhu art is through technical means, according to the needs of music, adding emotional expression, entering the realm of music, making people feel the enjoyment of beauty with artistic connotation. The author will briefly describe the beauty of erhu tone from three aspects: the beauty of technique, the beauty of emotion and the beauty of artistic conception.

1. The beauty of vibrato technique

The sound of the erhu is good, and it comes from the basic timbre of the erhu. This is the essential feature of the erhu that distinguishes it from other musical instruments. Just like a person's voice is very nice, but this is the basic timbre that has not been trained, processed and modified by vocal music, which is called "capital" by the vocal music industry. The timbre of the sound is good, although it is a kind of congenital and essential beauty, but it is not contagious and has no artistic beauty. The basic sound of the erhu can only be more expressive after technical processing, decoration and processing. Erhu's vibrato skills can play a role in processing, decorating and beautifying the basic sound. The erhu's various vibrato techniques are like painting its basic tone with rich colors and wearing various styles of clothing, so that the erhu tone has a technical aesthetic element.

Tumble. Rolling kneading is to make the finger surface roll slightly on the string through the up and down movement of the palm and the bending and extension of the finger joints, so as to change the length of the string, and emit a regular sound wave with varying heights. Among all vibrato, tumbler is the most used in erhu performance, and its timbre is also the most beautiful. Tumbling is like a singer's voice, very singing and expressive. In addition, the basic timbre of the erhu is very close to the human voice, just like the national singing method, which is very pleasant to the ears. The modern vibrato technique draws on the vibrato technique of the violin, and the traditional vibrato is centered, making a balanced rolling with a rolling period slightly below to slightly above the primary note, and improved to a rolling period from the primary note to a little lower than the primary note The unbalanced vibrato makes the sound more beautiful. Many erhu masters have made innovations in tumbling, combining traditional tumbling techniques with modernly developed tumbling techniques, making tumbling more personalized and artistic. When playing transplanted violin works, modern pop tunes and songs, there are new changes that further enhance the beauty and charm of the erhu tone.

Press and knead. Kneading is a traditional technique. It uses fingers to press the strings to change the tension of the strings, so that the strings vibrate one by one, forming sound waves similar to singing. Large-scale pressing and kneading has a special charm, and the sound waves emitted have a passionate, broad and rough beauty. However, reducing the intensity of pressing and kneading and slowing down the frequency of the kneading will make the sound waves have the effect of being detached, and there is a smell of reverberation around the beam. Controlling the strength and range of pressing and kneading, combined with the technique of rolling and kneading, increases the elasticity of rolling and kneading, which has a unique charm and is widely used in performance. For the little finger that is inconvenient to achieve tumbling, a kneading or tumbling combination is essential.

Slip and rub. Compared with the above two kneading techniques, sliding kneading and pulling kneading are used less. It is only used in songs with special needs or expressing local styles. Slippery and rubbing can express cheerful emotions and have the humorous beauty of local style. Kneading can express grief and has a desolate beauty like crying and complaining.

In addition to kneading techniques, the glissando of the erhu is also rich and colorful. Techniques such as upward glissando, glissando, back glide, pad finger glide, and large up and down glissando can modify the erhu's timbre from multiple angles and multiple layers, which can express softness , lingering, brisk beauty, or expressing sadness, sadness, grief and anger.

2. The beauty of expressing emotions

The skill of erhu kneading adds various elements of beauty to its basic timbre, or it has the means and form to express beauty. This phoneme is discrete, independent, and purely technical. The form serves the content, and the means is the way to the end. In order to make these aesthetic phonemes have vitality and expressive power, they must be combined according to the requirements of the music, giving them emotional colors, that is, the performer will put his own understanding of the music into the scene of the music. , and load your own feelings and imaginations into your playing skills. At this time, the technique of vibrato has vitality, and the playing skills of the erhu penetrate and merge into the emotion of the melody, so that the timbre of the erhu has an emotional beauty. Joys and sorrows are intentional, joys and sorrows are all emotions. The rich emotional world contained in the things of the world and the destiny of life has opened up a vast world for the development and application of the colorful timbre resources of the erhu, and has also achieved the moving aesthetic picture displayed by the erhu timbre.

Feminine. For bowed stringed instruments, softness is the aesthetic feeling that best reflects the characteristics of the erhu. The soft and beautiful timbre is good at expressing natural harmony, poetic feeling, joyful, cordial and touching feelings. Beautiful melody, smooth bowing, delicate and soft rolling, blending into the beautiful emotions to be expressed in the music, often make people feel pleasing to the ear and imaginative. For example, the first and second stanzas in "Moon Night" have a melody and timbre like flowing clouds and water, showing the beauty of tranquility and serenity under the moonlight. This is a Chinese-style serenade. Another example is the Andante in "Spring Colors in the South of the Yangtze River" and "Spring Poems", which use delicate and gentle rolling techniques to show the beautiful and picturesque Jiangnan water town style, thus reflecting a fresh, soft and beautiful beauty. . This is unmatched by other instruments.

Magnificent. Although the erhu is an instrument with a low volume, it can still express a broad and magnificent beauty by using the method of contrast from weak to strong. The introduction of "Sanmenxia Imagination" shows the magnificent momentum of the Yellow River rushing thousands of miles, and it is not inferior. Using a large amount of rolling, pressing and rubbing to express the broad-panel piece in "Spring in the South of the Yangtze River", it makes people feel condescending and overlooking the whole picture of the water town. In the fifth paragraph of "Beacon Fire Exercise" in "Casual thoughts on the Great Wall", broad and full slurred bows and strong vibrato are used to express broad and heavy melody and desolate and tragic emotions, just like the horn of a hero before going on a battle, which makes people's blood boil. It fully expresses the magnificent emotion of Erhu.

poignant. Erhu is another musical instrument that is good at expressing sorrow and grief. Using the method of pressing, kneading and kneading, it can express the sadness and sadness of people, and the inner feelings like crying and complaining, showing a kind of poignant beauty. The famous "Jianghe Shui" is a classic. The introduction and the first paragraph of the music, with alternate pressing, kneading and non-kneading techniques, vividly express the miserable emotions of a woman who is looking forward to her husband without a home, sad and desperate. In "Autumn Moon in the Han Palace", pressing and kneading are used to express the sorrows and griefs of the maids who were imprisoned in the deep courtyard of the palace, which makes people feel sad.

Joyful beauty. Joyful and joyful emotions are also a sense of beauty. In the songs that sing praises to new life and new atmosphere, the brisk and singing vibrato expresses people's love of life and yearning for a better future, giving people a pleasant and sweet feeling. This smooth, songlike passage can be seen in many compositions.

The beauty of wit. The beauty of wit is like the jokes and burdens in a comedy sketch, which makes people happy. This kind of witty and lively passage is realized by the techniques of portamento, sliding and kneading, trembling bow, and bowing. For example, the first sentence of Allegro in "Going to the Market" refers to the glissando and the gliding vibrato; Especially in the erhu music of Shandong, Henan, Shaanxi and other local styles, there are more lively and witty phrases. The witty expression of the erhu is an alternative aesthetic sense, which makes the expression of the erhu more colorful.

The beauty of grief. Grief and anger are the most intense and heavy emotions in people's inner world, such as the eruption of a volcano or the rush of a flood, which shocks and pierces the heart. The representative work of erhu is Mr. Liu Tianhua's "Elegy". Strong, massive vibrato, big jumping bar. The swaying melodies such as glide notes release the author's inner excitement and anger. The four consecutive high-pitched "55553" phrases in "Erquan Reflecting the Moon" express the grief and anger of A Bing's life.

3. In-depth beauty of artistic conception

In erhu performances, the artistic conception is the most difficult to express. The emotion of the music can be expressed by using leisurely and familiar skills, but the high-level artistic conception cannot be directly expressed. Artistic conception is the sublimation of emotion and deep connotation. It is hidden behind the emotion of the music, and requires the performer to use the image thinking to feel, understand, and dig at the deep level of the music, so as to raise the expression of emotion to the expression of artistic conception. We can feel the mood of music by hearing, such as warm, cheerful, excited, sad and angry, melancholy, and so on. These are all changes in human emotions, and it is also an expression of emotions. This kind of emotion can be expressed by various techniques of erhu playing, mastering the speed, controlling the volume, and adjusting the strength of the intensity to express the atmosphere of various emotions. But the realm of music cannot be felt by hearing alone. The artistic conception depends on the communication between the soul and the music, and the heart is experienced. The expression of artistic conception not only requires superb skills, but also has to do with personal experience, knowledge, cultivation, imagination, creativity and understanding. Therefore, the beauty of artistic conception is high-level and deep-level. The beauty of this artistic conception cannot be seen or touched, and it is difficult to express in words.

Regarding artistic conception, Mr. Zhao Hanyang has a special article on it. He divided artistic conception into three levels: real, fantasy and virtual (Zen). From reality to fantasy, it is the transformation process that the performer feels the image thinking from the objective. The emotional beauty mentioned above also includes the transformation from emotional rendering to reality. But only in this process of associating things and scenes, the emotions revealed are still shallow. Only by working hard to improve their artistic accomplishments, continuously increase the accumulation of life and experience, have extensive exposure to real things, understand historical knowledge, deepen their knowledge, and enhance their own understanding, can the performers be able to deeply dig the composer's role in notes and emotions. The inner thought hidden behind it is elevated to the highest state of art through the player's mind. This is what Mr. Zhao Hanyang said about the virtual realm and the Zen realm.

Reality is the reflection of logical thinking, the association of actual scene. Illusion is the product of image thinking, and the illusory scene is surreal. The virtual state (Zen state) is the idea that goes beyond thinking and is a state of free will. At this level, the performer will forget about himself, surpass himself, and completely melt his heart into the music. The player can achieve the unity of the piano and the piano, the heart of the piano, and the sound and meaning. As soon as the idea moves, the sound of the piano will flow from the heart, and all the techniques, bowing, and fingering will move according to the heart, without any far-fetched obstacles. How wonderful is this realm!