Seeking the Hakka in Song: Selected Hakka Choral Works

Delicate voices trace the resilient spirit of the Hakka

In search of the simple, honest warmth of Hakka heritage

◎ Newly recorded by Taipei Chamber Singers in 2019

◎ The first Hakka-language choral album published by the Hakka Cultural Development Center

Thirteen classic Hakka songs, presented as “New Tunes” and “Ancient Sounds,” reveal the deep roots of Hakka vocal art and its long tradition of mountain songs. “New Tunes” gathers the Hakka stories of this generation, as six gifted contemporary composers write simple songs that carry the mother tongue and memories of home; “Ancient Sounds” inherits the melodies of earlier generations, newly arranged and interpreted to bring back moving scenes of diligent lives: labor in the hills and devotion at home.

“Seeking the Hakka in Song” (歌．尋客) leads listeners on a sonic journey that distills Hakka memory, as if visiting the Hakka homelands among the low hills to savor the beauty of the “nine tones and eighteen tunes” of Hakka song.

Advised by / Hakka Affairs Council

Produced by / Taipei Chamber Singers

Conductor / Yun-Hung Chen

Piano / Nai-Chia Wang

Performers / Taipei Chamber Singers

Clarinet / 林彥良

Percussion / 余沁芸, Ching-Yuan Huang, 陳昶嘉, 巫弈仙