Taiwan on Music Theory Print

Arys Chien

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Arys Chien (born 1972) is a producer, songwriter and arranger in the Chinese music industry. He is also involved in soundtrack production, recording and mixing. Currently, he produces commercial and film soundtracks in Deepwhite Studio, and handles recording and mixing in Little White Fish Studio. Arys also co-owns a record label A Whiter Day Music, which distributes work for independent artists. In addition, he still releases music as a member in the duo “Deepwhite". Career Early career After graduating from the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at National Taiwan University in 1995, Arys joined Friendly Dog Entertainment as a production assistant. Since 1996, Arys Chien, Junyang Chen and Hua Chen began releasing work under the same pseudonym “Deepwhite”, with parenthesis behind to include their English for distinguishing one person from another. For example, Arys Chien’s work was signed as “Deepwhite (Arys Chien)”. Since 1997, Arys’s works have been selected multiple times for singers under record companies such as Linfair Records, What’s Music International Corp., and Warner Chappell Music. The artists include William Wing Hong So, Kelly Chen, IPIS, Where Chou, Chi

Chen Ta-ju

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Chen Ta-ju (; 10 February 1917 – 24 October 1992), also known by his style name Fa Sheng (), was a Taiwanese pop song lyricist born in , Taipei. He wrote about 300 lyrics in his lifetime, and his masterpieces include , , “Bitter Heart” (), “Youthful Sorrows and Joys” (), “Farewell by the Harbor” (), and . For his achievements, he was awarded the Special Prize of the 1st Golden Melody Awards in 1989. Biography Early life Chen Ta-ju was born near the Bangka Qingshui Temple in , Taipei during the Japanese rule in Taiwan. He received a Japanese education at a “public school” (kōgakkō), while his father also arranged for him to study Taiwanese Chinese at a private school. At that time, students in “public schools” would be severely reprimanded if caught speaking anything other than Japanese by their Japanese teachers. If they dared to talk back, they could even be slapped. As a teenager, Chen was deeply aggrieved by the way Taiwanese people was bullied. He resolved to diligently study Chinese every evening, a commitment he sustained for three years. Join Victor records In 1930s Taiwan, under the active promotion and guidance of the Columbia Records, Taihei (), In 1935, JVC hired Chang F

Chiang Wen-yeh

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Kang Bûn-iā, Chiang Wen-yeh or Jiang Wenye (; June 11, 1910 – October 24, 1983) was a Taiwan-born composer, active mainly in Japan and later in China. He was born in Dadaocheng, Taipei, Taiwan and died in Beijing. While often known in the West by renditions of his Chinese name, the three Chinese characters that form his name are pronounced Kō Bunya () in Japanese, and thus he is also known as Koh Bunya in the West. In his compositions, which range from for piano to choral and orchestral works, he merged elements of traditional Chinese, Taiwanese, and Japanese music with modernist influences. Due to the political turmoil surrounding his life, he came to be largely forgotten during the latter part of his life. After his death, however, his work has started to gain new recognition in East Asia as well as in the West. Biography Chiang was born in 1910 to Chinese parents in Tamsui, Taiwan – a Japanese territory at the time, and so his nationality was Japanese from birth. He is of Yongding, Fujian Hakka ancestry. In 1923, he went to Ueda, a small town in the prefecture of Nagano, Japan, to attend secondary school. He later proceeded to the Tokyo Engineering and Commerce Advanced School (

Hsu Tsang-Houei

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hsu Tsang-Houei (; September 6, 1929 – January 1, 2001) was a Taiwanese musician and music educator. As an ethnomusicologist, he has been called a “pioneering collector of Taiwanese folk songs.” Early life and education Hsu was born in Hemei Village, Changhua County, Taichung, Taiwan, in the period of Japanese occupation, and went to Japan to study at the age of 12, majoring in violin. He came back to Taiwan and studied at Taichung Municipal Taichung First Senior High School in 1946 after war, and then studied at Taiwan Provincial Normal College (now National Taiwan Normal University) department of music, serving as a violinist at Taiwan Provincial Symphony Orchestra (now National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra) after graduating. Hsu went to France to study at public expense in 1954, and attended the College of Frankfurt, after that he transferred to University of Paris, majoring in composition and studying under André Jolivet. In 1959, he chose the poem “Yesterday Someone Came from the Sea” and composed it into a soprano solo piece, which was selected for the competition of the Italian Modern Music Society, and then began his composing career. Career Hsu returned to Taiwan in 1959. Bes

Lu Yen

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Lu Yen (; 20 November 1930 – 1 October 2008) was a Chinese-born Taiwanese composer. Biography Yen was born in Nanjing, China, and was educated in National Taiwan Normal University, Mannes College, City University of New York, and University of Pennsylvania. He received Taiwan’s in 1993 and 1998. As a pupil of William Jay Sydeman, Mario Davidovsky, George Rochberg and George Crumb, Lu was well known of his atonal writings combining counterpoint skills. George Rochberg commented that Lu’s music “has a unique scent”. Lu wrote in his article “My Artistic Journey” that he wished to write “music praising mother nature’s great beauty and powers.” During 1967–2008, Lu wrote 6 solo instrumental works, 70+ chamber ensemble works (excluding art songs), 5 Chinese chamber works, 16 orchestral works, 1 Chinese orchestra piece, and 11 art songs. Among these works, there was a repeated theme about the sound of bell, which Lu always remembered from his childhood in the Jiangnan region of China. Two biographies were published in Taiwan, Lu Yen: A Cold Fire of Music, written by Taiwanese poet Chen Li (陳黎) in 1997 and A Poetic Journey of Nostalgia, by Canadian-Taiwanese composer Shyh-ji Chew () and Ta

Luming Lu

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Lu Lu-ming (; born 23 June 1982), also known as Luming Lu, is a Taiwanese film score composer. He won Best Original Film Song with the horror film Detention (2019) in the 56th Golden Horse Awards and Best Original Film Score with the drama film The Falls (2021) in the 58th Golden Horse Awards. Early life Lu was born on 23 June 1982 in Pingtung City, Taiwan. His father Lu Yong-hui was a lawyer and a member of the Pingtung Mediation Committee. He learnt to play the piano and violin at a young age. He considered himself deviant and rebellious during his school years and joined the rock music club. After obtaining a Bachelor of Science, he fulfilled his mandatory military service and worked as a math tutor at a cram school. He had also formed a band called Empty Space On a Chessboard, In 2016, he received his first film composing role in his sister’s drama film The Receptionist. He won Best Original Film Song at the 56th Golden Horse Awards and received nominations for Best Original Film Score and Best Music at both the aforementioned Golden Horse Awards and the 2020 Taipei Film Awards. He also became a frequent collaborator of Hsu. In A Leg, he used bass, double bass, and xylophone to

Pan Shiji

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Pan Shiji or Chew Shyh-Ji (; born 29 July 1957) is a Taiwanese composer, writer and music educator. Biography Pan Shiji was born in Taipei, and her family emigrated to Canada in 1974. She took piano lessons and studied composition with in Taiwan. In Canada, she studied composition with Robert Turner at the University of Manitoba from 1976 to 80 and then in America studying with Chou Wen-chung at Columbia University, New York, from 1980 to 1988. During this time, she worked at the Columbia Center for Ethnomusicology. In 1988, she returned to Taiwan and took a position as professor of composition at the National Academy of the Arts. Her manuscripts are housed in the Liu Collection, Institute of Chinese Studies, University of Heidelberg. Works Selected works include: Orchestra: *Dream World, 1979 *Music for Orchestra, 1980 *3 Pieces, 1982 *Raining Night, 1997–9 Vocal: *The Lodge Amid the Bamboos, 1980 *Paiju sanshou 3 Haiku , 1991 *3 Songs (Pan), 1996 *In the Dark (Pan), 1998 *Qiu Lu, 1998 Chamber and solo instrument: *Music for Hn and Pianoforte, 1979 *Music for Pianoforte, 1979 *Wind Quintet, 1979 *Brass Quintet, 1980 *String Quartet in 1 Movement, 1980 *Ensemble, 1981 *Hudson River

Shih-Hui Chen

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Shih-Hui Chen (; born 1962) is a Taiwanese composer who lives and works in the United States. Biography Chen Shih-hui (陳士惠) was born in Taipei, Taiwan, and came to the United States in 1982 to study for a master’s degree from Northern Illinois University and a doctoral degree from Boston University. After receiving her D.M.A. in music composition, Shih-Hui Chen took a position at the Shepherd School of Music, Rice University where she is currently Professor of Music Composition and Theory. Chen also serves on Asia Society Texas Center’s Performing Arts & Culture Committee and is the director of 21C: Classical, Contemporary, and Cross-Cultural Music Festival at Rice University. Chen Shih-hui’s work has been performed widely throughout the U.S. and abroad, including Taiwan, China, Germany, and Italy. In 1999, she received an American Academy in Rome Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2000, and a Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2007. In 2010, Chen received a Fulbright Fellowship to study traditional Chinese Music, Nanguan music, and music of Taiwanese Indigenous peoples. Work Musical style Chen Shih-hui composes for orchestra, chamber ensem

Yu-Hui Chang

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Yu-Hui Chang (Chinese: 張玉慧; born 1970) is a Taiwanese composer based in the United States. She received awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2009, and the Arts and Letters Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2017. She is the Victor and Gwendolyn Beinfield Professor of Music at Brandeis University. Education Yu-Hui Chang began studying music with a focus on piano, voice and music theory at six years of age. By the age of fourteen she was actively following a path toward a career in composition. She graduated from the National Taiwan Normal University, and in 1994 came to the United States to study music composition. She received her Masters of Music degree from Boston University and a Ph.D from Brandeis University. From 1996 until 2006 Chang was on the faculty of University of California, Davis. Career Chang composes for orchestra, chamber ensemble, vocalists and soloists. While at the University of California, Davis Chang co-directed Empyrean Ensemble where she as performed as a conductor or a pianist. In 2006 she was featured in the New York Guggenheim Museum’s Works & Process series. The Walter W. Naumburg Foundation commissioned Chang to compose After E