Wu-Hsiung Chen¡]b.1945-¡^is a Kaohsiung local composer. Although he never received any formal music education, he dedicates himself to creating Taiwanese songs. Chen started to compose when he was in his twenties. His early works were piano variations of Taiwanese folksongs. Several years later, he tried to write choral arrangements of Taiwanese folksongs, and he also found the Red Clogs Choir. In recent years, Chen cooperates with many Taiwanese local poets to create nearly one hundred choral songs. Chen hopes his songs could touch the local people¡¦s hearts and bring the awareness of Taiwanese language and culture.
Chen emphasized, ¡§If the lyrics cannot inspire me, I will not be able to compose.¡¨ Songs are the artistic extension of the poems. The author of this paper has been the conductor of Red Clogs Choir for ten years and worked with the composer since young. She synthesizes the composer¡¦s creative motives, the lyric writers¡¦ reactions with the musical works, and the audience¡¦s response and chooses eight representative songs written by eight different poets among Chen¡¦s numerous Taiwanese choral songs.
The first song, ¡§Four Seasons, Four Sentences¡¨, is a joyful panegyric on the four seasons in Taiwan. The second song, ¡§Spring Dream¡¨, strongly expresses a young man¡¦s yearning for love. The third song, ¡§Earthquake¡¨, emphasizes Taiwanese strong personality no matter how bad they have suffered from severe earthquakes. The fourth song, ¡§Beloved Four-leaved Clover¡¨, expresses the anticipation that four main ethnic groups of Taiwan can respect, and benefit from, one another and unite together as a clover. The fifth song, ¡§Rats¡¨, vividly portrays the old Taiwanese saying: Raise rats to bite your own sacks (which mean being betrayed by those whom you brought up). The sixth song, ¡§Night Scenery of Hsitzu Bay¡¨, represents the beautiful night view at Hsitzu Bay. The seventh song ¡§Taxi¡¨ depicts the lives of hard-working taxi drivers. Finally, the last song, ¡§Taiwan, My Country¡¨, speaks of Taiwanese people¡¦s praise and warm feelings for this island.
An obvious song-writing style can be found in these eight choral works. There is always a major melody in each song which matches the rhymes of the text. Chen likes to use jumping intervals with rhythmic change when he wants to display passionate, enthusiastic, heroic or spirited feelings. The harmony is generally in traditional Western style. Chen often uses syncopated rhythms to emphasize some lyrics and sometimes adds semitones to change the music color. He likes to use the piano accompaniment. It brings out the atmosphere, provides harmony, and helps the chorus to maintain its Taiwanese rhymes and poetic expressions.
This paper consists of six parts: the preface, Wu-Hsiung Chen¡¦s life, Chen¡¦s works, Eight Taiwanese choral songs, the characteristics of Chen¡¦s songs, and the conclusion.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NSYSU/oai:NSYSU:etd-0723108-030728 |
| Date | 23 July 2008 |
| Creators | Chen, Hui-fen |
| Contributors | Kheng K. koay, Chia-fen Weng, Jen-chieh Yang |
| Publisher | NSYSU |
| Source Sets | NSYSU Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive |
| Language | Cholon |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lib.nsysu.edu.tw/ETD-db/ETD-search/view_etd?URN=etd-0723108-030728 |
| Rights | unrestricted, Copyright information available at source archive |
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