小时候，家乡广播电台每天的最后一曲便是《二泉映月》。我伴随着她的音乐声一天天地成长，从家乡到南京求学，再去首都工作，带着这把二胡，走遍了神州大地，奏响于世界各地。很幸运，我在这样的氛围中与二胡结缘。

美丽的江南名城－无锡，便是我的家乡。家乡是民乐之乡，这里拥有深厚的音乐文化积淀，古往今来大家辈出：早在春秋时期，季札听周乐而知“殷夏之风”，成为一代音乐鉴赏家；清代华秋苹创立新的琵琶流派“无锡派”，把琵琶艺术推向新的发展阶段；“刘氏三杰”刘半农、刘天华、刘北茂精彩亮相留下美名，而阿炳更是谱就了民乐绝响《二泉映月》，让世界仰视中国民乐的华彩；在故乡民乐的璀璨星空中，还镌刻着周少梅、杨荫浏、储师竹、朱勤甫、蒋风之、闵惠芬、王建民等诸多大家的名字。

民乐人才辈出的家乡，还为中国民乐的改革、创新、发展注入了清新有力的“无锡风”：华秋苹刊印了中国近代民族音乐史上第一部琵琶曲谱集，为我国的曲谱记载创造范例；郑觐文探索新的民乐组合形式，组成32人的新型管弦乐队以适应群众欣赏之需；刘半农开一代音乐考古之先风，刘天华改良国乐，改革乐器制作，创作二胡独奏作品，并把二胡纳入高等学府的课堂；王建民开创二胡创作的新纪元，二胡狂想曲大大推动了二胡的发展······民乐史上的诸多第一次都打上了无锡的烙印，而中国无锡太湖国际民乐展、中国无锡民乐博物馆的建立，中国音乐金钟奖全国二胡比赛的举办，则使民乐穿越时空，在故乡生根、开花和结果。

无锡是民乐之乡，也是二胡制作之家。在梅村二胡产业园，这里生产出诸多名胡，拥有为数众多的二胡使用者，全国百分之四十的二胡均产自这里，在世界各地都能见到无锡梅村生产的二胡。因此，唯有在这里，才能创下千人拉二胡的吉尼斯世界纪录。我曾是故乡众多二胡人口中的一员：9岁时，到邻居家串门，听到有老师在教孩子拉二胡，那悠扬婉转的琴声自此深入我心，从而开启了我的音乐人生。奇妙的是，每次回家乡演出，家乡与二胡常常能形成强大的气场，导引我进入演奏的最高境界。籍于二胡，我得以走向世界各地，走到音乐圣地维也纳，在金色大厅奏响中华民乐。每每在世界各地演奏，这把小小的二胡，因其与家乡道不明、说不清的缘分，成了我与家乡之间的纽带，承载着我的乡思与乡愁。

家乡给予我丰富的艺术养分和艺术生命，行进在二胡之路上，家乡永远是我的力量之源。中国音乐金钟奖二胡比赛落户无锡，开通了天下民乐聚太湖之渠，也为推介梅村二胡产业园搭建了平台。期待着家乡有更多的名家、名曲、名胡涌现！

A melody from Southern China and Affection for Home

My Hometown and Erhu

By Deng Jiandong

I luckily grew up nourished by the erhu masterpiece Moon Reflected on the Second Spring,which was played daily as the ending music of the Broadcasting Station of my hometown.With this earliest influence from erhu,I left my hometown first for Nanjing for study and later for Beijing for work. Later on,with an erhu in hand, I visited different places to play the erhu and bring the beautiful erhu music to people in China and over the world.I am very much blessed to be brought up in Wuxi,a place with rich erhu cultural legacy.

My hometown Wuxi,an exquisitely beautiful city in Southern China,is a land of Chinese folk music. Historically many great figures and musicians from Wuxi had made incomparable contributions to Wuxi culture. Early in the Spring and Autumn Period,Ji Zha,an outstanding scholar and a talented music critic from today's Wuxi,could intelligently figure out the social customs and practices of Yin and Xia dynasties simply by listening to the Zhou music.In the Qing Dynasty,Hua Qiuping developed a new school of pipa music: the Wuxi-style Pipa Music, starting a new stage of pipa art. The Three Talented Brothers:Liu Bannong,Liu Tianhua and Liu Beimao,left their cultural and musical legacy to their birthplace Wuxi and the world.Abing and his Moon Reflected on the Second Spring were among the brightest stars in the sky of traditional Chinese music. Other shining stars from Wuxi include Zhou Shaomei,Yang Yinliu,Chu Shizhu,Zhu Qinfu,Jiang Fengzhi,Min Huifen and Wang Jianmin.

Wuxi musicians have been very innovative in the reforming,creating and enhancing of folk music and developed a tradition of devoting themselves to the innovation and improvement of traditional Chinese music.Hua Qiuping(1787-1859)got published his Hua's Collection of Scores of "Pipa" Music in 1819,the first of its kind in China.Zheng Jinwen(1872-1935) explored new patterns of orchestra performance and formed an orchestra of 32 players to satisfy the need of audience.Liu Bannong was the first to do research on ancient Chinese music.His brother Liu Tianhua did more reformative work on the making of erhu instrument and the playing of erhu, more importantly, he initiated erhu education at institutions of higher learning. Wang Jianmin's composition Erhu Rhapsodies has been a milestone and stimulated an overall development of erhu art in the new age.Many of the “firsts" concerning erhu development took place in Wuxi.Added to the list were the opening of the Lake Tai International Folk Music Exhibition in Wuxi,the establishing of the Folk Music Museum of Wuxi, and the holding of Chinese "Golden Bell Awards"Erhu Competitions in Wuxi.These events have helped shape Wuxi what it is as a hometown for erhu,where erhu as an art form took root,grew up and got mature and fruitful.

Wuxi is a hometown for both erhu music and the making of erhu as a musical instrument.In Meicun erhu industrial garden, erhu instruments of top quality are being made for numerous erhu players. 40 percent of erhu instruments in China are produced at Meicun and Meicun's erhu instruments are frequently bought and used abroad. So there is no wonder that only in Wuxi could the Guinness World Record of One Thousand People playing the erhu be set in 2004. I was once one of the large erhu population in Wuxi.When I was nine years old,I visited my neighbor, heard an erhu teacher giving erhu lessons to the neighbor's child. The music enchanted me and opened me the door for folk music. Amazingly each time I return to my hometown Wuxi to give a performance,I will be embraced by an aura of comforting affection which makes me relaxed and brings my playing skills into full play. With Wuxi and erhu as two important attachments of my life,I went outside China to give a solo erhu performance in the Golden Hall of Vienna,introducing this magic Chinese art form to international audience.Wherever I go for a performance,the erhu music and instrument serve as a nostalgic link with my hometown Wuxi,conveying with them an affectionate homesickness.

I was nourished and nurtured by what Wuxi provided me in my music career. My hometown Wuxi has always been the source inspiration for my pursuit of erhu art. As the base for the Golden Bell Awards Erhu Competition,Wuxi is well on its way towards making itself a center of Chinese folk music and a platform for the trade of erhu instruments manufactured in Meicun,Wuxi.I sincerely hope that erhu making industry will get more flourishing with high-quality erhu instruments made by erhu making masters,and greater erhu music will be created by Wuxi's erhu musicians of high artistic attainments.