Music Taiwan 2021 Composers’ Showcase: Contemporary Echoes of Poetry and Song

Music Taiwan 2021 Composers’ Showcase: Choral Concert “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.

Performance Information

Sat 20 November 2021, 14:30, National Recital Hall

Performers

Conductor / Heng-Yi Pao

Piano / Nai-Chia Wang

Guest cellist / 歐陽伶宜

Performed by / Taipei Chamber Singers

Production

Presented by / Asian Composers League Taiwan

Co-organized by / Taiwan Composers Association, Chai Found Music Workshop, Taipei Chamber Singers

Sponsored by / National Culture and Arts Foundation; Department of Cultural Affairs, Taipei City Government; Taiwan Business Bank; 財團法人常宏文化基金會

Program

Chihchun Chi-sun Lee: “Taiwan Songs · The Road of Life,” poems by 伍炯豪 (premiere)

Chung-Yuan Yu: “Three Poems of the Taiping Poetry Trail: Half a Day of Leisure, Meeting Barefaced, The Heart’s Path” (太平詩路三首：半日閒，素顏相見，心路), poems by 李潼

連憲升: “Morning River—This Murmuring Stream…,” poem by 七等生 (premiere)

張譽馨: “Axis,” poems by 夏宇 (premiere)

楊惠婷: “Scenes and Sentiments” (情景), poem by 李敏勇

賴德和: “Tongue-Twisting Poem” (咬舌詩), poem by 向陽

Xing-Kui Zeng: “Footprints of Spring” (春天的腳印), poem by 謝武彰

Tickets

Prices: NT$300 / 500 / 800

NTCH ticketing: 02-3393-9888

⊙Tickets: https://www.opentix.life/event/1440917329198268416