Since then many compositions have followed a similarly route.

"But most of these new-school compositions we hear at China's folk music contests have been unpleasant to the ear," he said. "Now it is time for musicians to consider coming back, to serve the public and create music that's more acceptable to the audience."

He says composers tried to maintain an intricate balance between their artistic and academic pursuits and the wish to create works rooted in Chinese culture that can be enjoyed by a mass audience.

Traditional Chinese music earlier mainly consisted of chamber pieces played by three to eight instrumentalists, Liu says. New systems and combinations have kept coming out, and Chinese chamber music now has more diversity in its structure than Western chamber music.

"You can bring together all the string or wind instruments in a piece, and even use a plucked instrument with any of them."

Ten pieces were played by instrumentalists from the SHCO at the finals of the contest, which were each rated and scored by the judges, members of the media and the audience. The names of the composers remained hidden until the final results came out, in order to ensure complete impartiality. Liu was pleased to find there were a combination of modern composition techniques and Chinese elements in most of the works. "Some are immature artistically, but you can understand the artist's efforts."

The Liu Tianhua Chinese Chamber Music Composition Contest was founded in 2002 by Tang Sifu, a playwright and journalist with the Shanghai-based Wenhui Daily. This is the sixth installment of the contest, and the first time it has been hosted by a professional Chinese orchestra.

"Folk music of China is deeply rooted in the people," says Tang, 77. "It needs to keep finding new expressions that are consistent with its original characteristics."

The contest was named after Liu Tianhua (1895-1932), a composer, virtuoso erhu player and musical educator. He was recognized for his efforts in reforming how traditional Chinese instruments such as the erhu and pipa were used, optimizing their sound tones and volumes, as well as transcribing traditional Chinese music into modern Western scores.