Contemporary Echoes of Poetry and Song

Presented by the Asian Composers League Taiwan, “Music Taiwan 2021” seeks to open new horizons for contemporary music by bringing music together with Taiwan’s landscapes, culture, and people.

In this concert, Taipei Chamber Singers performs contemporary choral works by seven Taiwanese composers of the senior, middle, and younger generations, including three premieres. Chihchun Chi-sun Lee’s “Taiwan Songs · The Road of Life” (台灣歌.人生路) sets poems by Pastor 伍烱豪, who lives in North America, expressing the poet’s reflections, feelings, and hopes about Taiwan and about life; the imagery of the poems is rendered in two a cappella works rich in Taiwanese character. Young composer 張譽馨’s “Axis” (軸) was inspired by the poet 夏宇’s collection “Axis of the Spine” (脊椎之軸). Moved by the poet’s experience of long journeys on foot, the composer chose four poems from the collection and set them as three pieces—“Axis of the Spine, Lost in Reverie” (脊椎之軸、心神恍惚), “The Lizard Without a Second Thought” (蜥蜴不假思索), and “Throw the Luggage into the Fire” (行李丟到火裡)—as a resonant response to the collection. 連憲升’s “Morning River—This Murmuring Stream…” (晨河—這潺潺的溪水…) draws on the poem “Untitled” (無題) by the novelist 七等生. Through the rolling, flowing figures of the piano and the broad melodies of the cello, it seeks to portray the many forms of water and the joy people feel as they rise and fall with its currents. Local sentiment from “Elegy of the Sand River” (沙河悲歌)—the melody of “Mending the Broken Net” (補破網)—adds further emotional depth to the work, written in memory of 七等生, the composer’s drinking companion and friend across the generations.