No. 1: The video demo on play right now is called: King Chu doffs his armour (or Ba Wang Xie Jia), traditional repertoire, martial style, performed by Liu Fang, live recorded during the concert on March 27, 2002. The duration of the whole piece is about 10 minutes.

Liu Fang pips solo
"King Chu doffs his armour"
(classical tradition)

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The King Chu doffs his Armour (Chinese classical tradition): This masterpiece of pipa is a musical description of a tragic historical event: the defeat of King Xiang Yu who thought himself invincible. During the war which followed the foundation of the Han Empire (202 BC - 220 AD), Xiang Yu suffered a fatal defeat. The pipa depicts the scene of the battle, noises of the soldiers' flight, and the indescribable feeling of being defeated. The performance of this piece demands a whole range of complex techniques and virtuosity, with speed, precision and restraint.

No. 2: "Falling snow decorate the evergreen" - civil style (or lyrical style) of traditional pipa repertoire.

Using natural scenes or phenomena to describe inner feeling and determination is quite common in Chinese arts. This piece, derived from very old times, is like a Traditional Chinese painting, depicts the snowing in a evergreen forest, beautiful and harsh. Since the pine tree can resist extreme cold, it is a symbol of a strong self

No. 3: "On a theme to dance" (Ge Wu Yin), composed by Liu Tianhua (1895-1932), recorded live at Liu Fang's solo concert at TFF Rudolstadt festival on July 9, 2006. This clip is taken from the festival DVD with permission to use for demo purposes.

No. 4: "The dance of bonfire fest", composed by Wu Junsheng for pipa solo. Performed here by Liu Fang (pipa) and Ziya Tabassian (framed drum)

No. 5. "The ambush from ten sides" (classical tradition): With its highly virtuoso programmatic effects and tremendous power, this piece is regarded as the most representative of the "martial repertoire" of classical pipa solo. It describes the glorious victory of Liu Bang over Xiang Yu in 202 BC, the same theme as "The King doffs his Armour", however, from a totally different view point.