The Butterfly Lovers' Violin Concerto (梁祝小提琴协奏曲)
Composer: He Zhanhao (何占豪) and Chen Gang (陈钢)
Date of publication: 1959
The Butterfly Lovers' Violin Concerto is one of the most famous Chinese orchestral works. It is a program music adaptation of an ancient legend, the Butterfly Lovers. The tale follows Zhu Yingtai, the daughter of a wealthy merchant travelling to Hangzhou to attend university. However, in order to do so, Zhu disguises herself as a man, since women were barred from higher education at the time. Along the way, she meets her future classmate and lover, Liang Shanbo. Once Zhu reveals her identity, the two fall in love, but are unable to marry since Zhu was already engaged. Liang falls into despair and dies shortly after. On her wedding procession, Zhu visits Liang’s grave and filled with melancholy, prays they could be together. Her prayers are heard and the ground around Liang’s grave collapses. After her death, two butterflies emerge from the grave.
Written for an oriental orchestra, it features a solo violin, played with a technique that recalls the technique of an Erhu, the Chinese two-string fiddle. It is a one-movement programmatic concerto, with three sections that correspond to the three phases of the story: Falling in Love, Refusing to Marry, and Metamorphosis. Some melodies come from the Chinese Opera of the same name or from traditional Chinese folk songs. The solo violin portrays Zhu Yingtai and the cello part, Liang Shanbo. The concerto was written in 1959 by two Chinese composers while they were students at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Despite being more widely credited for the composition of the concerto He Zhanhao’s main contribution was only the opening theme, while most of the development was in fact written by Chen Gang.
Fun Fact: In many performances, the violin part is replaced by traditional Chinese instruments—the most common being the Erhu, Pipa, and Liuqin—with the soloist often being accompanied by an orchestra consisting of Chinese instruments.
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