A Thousand Clear Voices Become One: Song of Gongs and Drums

A Thousand Clear Voices Become One: Song of Gongs and Drums – 2024 David L. Wen Choral Concert presents a selection of choral works of different kinds from across composer David L. Wen’s career. Beginning in the 1970s, Wen wrote many songs for the children of Taiwan, and in the 1980s went on to arrange them into choral works of various kinds. At this concert, Taipei HuaShin Children’s Chorus will perform six of Wen’s children’s choral works, and Taipei Chamber Singers will perform choral works Wen composed between 2007 and 2022, including works for women’s choir and for unaccompanied mixed choir, joined by jazz pianist 許聰義, saxophonist 楊曉恩, and a women’s vocal ensemble.

From 2005 to 2006, commissioned by Japan’s renowned TARO choir, Wen completed choral settings of nine works by Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu, premiered in Osaka and Tokyo. For this concert, Wen has specially chosen Takemitsu’s 1992 choral work “Sakura” to share with Taiwanese music lovers. Both of these outstanding Asian composers excel at vivid melodies and harmonies with a strikingly modern sound.

The concert also features two choral pieces by Taiwanese-American composer 魏志真, setting Wen’s own texts “Grasp” (抓) and “Let Go” (放). 魏志真 is one of Wen’s outstanding students, and this commission gives special meaning to the passing of the torch from teacher to student.

Through works for different forces, the concert presents choral music from different periods and styles of David L. Wen’s creative life, offering a complete portrait of the many facets of the composer’s choral output.