Newly Created Ensemble Works (Spring Moonlight on the Flowers)

Apart from the traditional ensemble pieces, 20th century composers have made re-arrangements of older works. The most famous of these is Spring Moonlight on the Flowers by the River, which is a re-arrangement of the pipa tune Flutes and Drums at Dusk by Liu Yaozhang, a member of Shanghai's Datong Music Conservatory. Since 1949, it has undergone many revisions, until now it is a highly polished piece. The intro has a background of musical harmony, and then a pipa is plucked faster and faster, giving out drumbeat-like notes. At the same time, deft fingering on a vertical bamboo flute produces the melody. The contrast between the two instruments,one producing pellet-like short notes by twanging, and the other producing long-drawn-out notes,conjures up a picture of a river in springtime. The technique, often used in folk music, of phrases repeated over and over, and seemingly chasing one another, gives a vivid impression of ripples on water. The understated melody, the fluid rhythmical meter, the ingenious subtlety, together with random orchestration, combine to paint a tranquil scene of a river on a moonlit night in spring, and is a paean of praise to the countryside south of the Yangtze River. Similar works are Beautiful Flowers and Full Moon, Purple Bamboo Melody and The Moon Is High.

The famous modern Chinese composer Nie Er also re-arranged some folk instrumental pieces, including Spring Dawn on the Emerald Lake and The Wild Dance of the Golden Snake. Nie applied many mature folk instrumental techniques in these works, such as the spiral crescendo structure, which entails a dialogue between contrasting upper and lower phrases, a step-by-step shortening of the beat until a crescendo is reached. In addition, intense gonging and drumming produces a heated and jubilant atmosphere.

The ritual music used to model characters and heighten the tension used in traditional operas was polished and refined over a long period of time, until it gradually emerged from being traditional qupai music into a pure instrumental ensemble form. Examples of this are the musical arrangements for the Peking operas Open the Door a Little, Deep in the Night and Audience With the Emperor.

Divertimento formed of pure percussion ensemble music is the most widespread form in traditional Chinese musical culture. Pure percussion qupai tunes are found in the music of every part of China. Moreover, the plethora of percussion instruments is one of the most remarkable phenomena in the history of Chinese music.

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