He Liutang and Lu Wencheng

He Liutang and Lu Wencheng were both maestros of Cantonese music active in Hong Kong. They were of different generations and stayed in Hong Kong at different times, but their paths did cross in Hong Kong.

He Liutang (1872-1933), alias Sen and Yuxiang and nicknamed "Sen the Big Head", was active at a time when Cantonese music was at its inception. He was a native of Shawan, Panyu in Guangdong Province. His grandfather, He Bozhong, was a famous performer of pipa in late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Close to a hundred people in the He clan after the time of He Bozhong were engaged in the performance of Cantonese music and Cantonese opera. Since a young age, He Liutang had been nurtured, educated and influenced by his grandfather. Together with He Yunian and He Shaoxia in his family, he inherited the unique skill of playing the pipa with ten fingers. The trio was hailed as "three outstanding members of the He family".

He Liutang had a strong character. When he was young, he practised martial arts in addition to music. He had diverse interests and performed well in various fields. By virtue of his excellent archery skills, he passed the national civil examination at county level in the martial stream at the age of twenty. He was also renowned for playing the role of Zhang Fei, one of the famous characters in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, on stage.

Lu Wencheng (1898-1981) was one of the "four kings" of Cantonese music, the others being Yin Zizhong, He Dasha and Cheng Yuewei. He was also hailed as "king of erhu", renowned for his fingering techniques in the second and third positions on the gaohu (soprano erhu). A native of Zhongshan in Guangdong Province, Lu spent his early years in Shanghai with his father. While he learnt Chinese string and wind instruments, he was also exposed to western music. He pioneered the interpretation of Cantonese music with the huqin which has a soft timbre. To match the tone colour and pitch of the huqin with the style of Cantonese music, he took the revolutionary step of replacing the higher pitch outer string of the instrument with steel string (the lower pitch inner string remained in silk initially), and tuned the strings to G and D (sometimes A and E). During performances, he would hold the sound box between his legs for better control of the pitch and volume. This marked the birth of the leading instrument in Cantonese music - the gaohu.

In 1914, He Liutang went to Hong Kong and taught Cantonese opera and Cantonese music at the music section of the Lam Long Theatre, which had once been placed under a three-month ban by the Hong Kong Government. In the mid 1920's, he was involved in setting up the Chung Sing Benevolent Society to promote Cantonese music and Cantonese opera. During that period, Yin Zizhong and He Dasha participated in the activities of the Society. Lu Wencheng, active in Shanghai at the time, had, upon invitation, participated in fund raising activities of the Society. He Liutang was respectfully regarded as the master. Later when Lu Wencheng moved from Shanghai to Hong Kong in 1932, He Liutang had returned to his native place. The two maestros in Cantonese music did not have the chance to perform together again.

In the 1920s and 1930s, He Liutang was not only active in Hong Kong. He often performed, taught and made recordings in cities including Guangzhou and Shanghai and was very popular. The famous Cantonese pieces The Dragon Boat Race, Rain Spattering on Banana Leaves and Jingling Bells of the Hungry Horse, based on works included in the He family's "secret scores", became highly popular after He Liutang had rearranged them and performed them on radio using the pipa. He also created new works, including Seven Stars Accompanying the Moon, Three Variations on the Weeping Willows, Tipsy Fellow Trying to Scoop Up the Moon, Brocade with a Fret Pattern and Stairs Leading to the Clouds and the Moon. Such works were often creative in melody form, rhythm, mode, structure and style. In particular, the generous use of syncopated rhythms and dotted notes was unprecedented. He was also the first to introduce the suona into Cantonese music.

During the Japanese invasion days in the early 1930's, He Liutang wrote some Cantonese songs and nanyin works advocating the boycott of Japanese goods and advising against the abuse of opium. Later when he returned to his native Shawan, he got tuberculosis. Poverty-stricken, he died in 1933 at the age of sixty-one. His legacy includes a lot of famous tunes and a lithographic copy of his Pipa Scores published in 1931.

After leaving Shanghai, Lu Wencheng spent the rest of his life in Hong Kong, until he died from old age on 22nd August 1981 at the age of eighty-three. A virtuoso in music, Lu Wencheng was good at all types of musical instruments, particularly the gaohu and the yangqin. He was also a good singer and could accompany himself as he sang. At his time, it was common for a man to sing in a woman's voice. Lu also sang in a woman's voice, incorporating the erhuang and xipi tunes of Peking opera. The free flow in his sweet and melodious singing and his clear diction were refreshing, and engagements to perform overseas had been frequent.

For a long time, Lu Wencheng was an active figure in the recording of Cantonese music and Cantonese opera and the composition of music in Hong Kong. It is estimated that there are no less than 270 recordings of his instrumental and vocal performances. The Cantonese music recorded is mostly composed by himself. He wrote over 200 works throughout his life, a record probably unbroken to this date. Among his works, Autumn Moon Upon Placid Lake, Stepping High, Lion Dance, The Butterfly Loves the Flower, Young Love and Playing the Lute by the Plantain and the Rockery were particularly popular. Lu was a musician of great talent and was good at drawing reference from and incorporating the techniques of various types of folk music. The Cantonese music created by him, with melodious tunes and lively rhythms, gives full play to such techniques and incorporates the good qualities of western music.

The Cantonese music left to us by Lu Wencheng and He Liutang has become an important cultural legacy of Hong Kong.