Breaking the Cocoon

Voices bear witness to a new era: imitating electronic music, chanting traditional percussion patterns
Stepping off the stage into undefined spaces, building theater, and cycling through ideas in “Wu” (無)
Breaking the Cocoon — a revolution in sound is under way

“Breaking the Cocoon” embodies the core spirit of the Music Unlimited project. Over ten years, the new works the Taipei Chamber Singers has brought to audiences have broken through the existing boundaries of the human voice from every direction. Music Unlimited has freed the boundaries between art forms: “Invisible Incantation” (無形咒) imitates electronic music with voices, while “Tsang Tse” (鑼鼓運動) reorganizes the patterns of Chinese gong-and-drum music through a contemporary Western lens. It has also reflected on and moved beyond conventional notions of time and space — the newly composed “Language of the Mountain” (山之語) evokes the bodily memories of mountain villagers, while “Shadow · Play Song” (影子‧戲歌) breaks free of the stage, with singers and audience listening to one another in an unbounded space. “Music Unlimited VI: Wu” (合唱無設限VI─無), selected for the 12th Taishin Arts Award, went further still, applying the concept of total theater to move beyond image, electronic sound, and stage design toward a profound and expansive view of life.

The idea of “Breaking the Cocoon” also meets and collides with a rapidly changing contemporary China. The Shanghai Conservatory of Music New Music Week — the largest contemporary music event in Asia and one of China’s three major new music festivals — has this year specially invited the Taipei Chamber Singers to restage its cross-disciplinary production “Music Unlimited VI: Wu,” and to take the lead in performing Madame White Snake (白蛇傳), the first contemporary opera by a Chinese composer to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music. In the spirit of “Breaking the Cocoon,” the Taipei Chamber Singers will continue to bring reflection, breakthroughs, and transcendence to contemporary art in Asia.