中樂團
Some of the well-known pieces for Chinese orchestra were originally composed in the 1930s until the interruption due to the Second Sino-Japanese War and Chinese Civil War, and the period from the fifties until the mid-1960s before the Cultural Revolution disrupted cultural activities. Experimental pieces were composed in the early days of Chinese orchestra, an example of the earliest compositions for the Chinese orchestra with triadic chordal progression, Spring on the Lake (湖上春光), was composed by Tan Xiaolin (譚小麟) in the 1930s. Numerous compositions for a modern Chinese orchestra have been added to the repertoire since the 1980s. Such music composed generally follows the rules of traditional Chinese modal harmony, even if the music has become less pentatonic and more chromatic. One example of such modern compositions is The Great Wall Capriccio (长城随想, "Chángchéng suíxiǎng"), a concerto composed in 1981 for erhu by Liu Wenjin.