Xu Lai

Traditional Chinese music played on the solo pipa, a 4-stringed lute. She has a light touch and a masterful style. The music is restrained, elegant and formal. But highly evocative, bringing to mind everything from rainstorms in a bamboo forest to cold starry nights. Really lovely but all quiet and rather similar.

1. Warm & deceptively simple w/light, tripping passages.
*2. Bright and bouncy w/a joyful quality.
*3. Slow and spare, then picks up. Light & warm.
4. Starts quiet then gets into some fast & intricate trills.
*5. Nicely melodic midtempo then varying ups and downs.
*6. Fast trills, dramatic then slower w/quiet drama.
7. Dramatic strumming, upbeat, then a slower suite.