The melody presents itself like sturdy boughs of a pine tree and has an outstanding personality. The introduction is bold as the whistling waves of pine. The first and the third sections surround the middle thematic section, and use tremolo in pianissimo and detache to offer a bugle call melody. The middle section begins with lento poi accelerando . Its melody is made up of large leaps in interval, and ever-changing tempo.
Continual syncopation provides one high point after another.
The lead instrument, erhu, performs separate bowing and is forceful and clear on even the most rapidly moving sixteenth notes. Today he is by far the best known master artist, and most important scholar on the art and aesthetics of Chinese music, as well as the cultural acoustics and musical acoustics of China. His dual career in music and physics culminated in the development of cultural acoustics, a discipline addressing scientifically the cultural molding of our ears and brain when it comes to music. His teaching in North America and abroad has created a new understanding of music, its creative and social functions, and provides inspiration to a new generation of composers and music practitioners. Shen pioneered the teaching of cultural acoustics at Northwestern and Harvard.