I’m afraid my question is very specific and most people will have no clue what I’m talking about. I’m trying to put together a collection of vocal music that fits under the genre heading, CHINESE ART SONG. That is any vocal literature composed after 1919/1920 to the present that is influenced by the western classical style. I’m in the U.S. now and won’t be able to get back to Taiwan until next year. If anyone knows of any printed music publishers to order from, websites, library archives, composers, song titles or anything, your help would be greatly appreciated. Sorry this isn’t a very fun topic,but I am desperate for any help that I can get. Thank you. If you just want to discuss music that would be cool too.
Thank you, Dionne Wang
The first thing to check should probably be the copy of Grove’s at your local library. Look under “Chinese”. Maybe something will turn up.
Other than that, there’s always Tan Dun, perhaps best known these days for composing the music to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Some of his works for voice are listed here: www.schirmer.com/composers/tan_works.html#chamber
Thank you for your help. I’ve also been in contact with the Chinese Music Society of North America, and I’ve sent letters to composers Chen Yi and her husband Zhou Long as well as ethnomusicologist Bell Yung. I’m able to get a hold of many of the sources/scores in the U.S., but many of the collections are in chinese and published by Beijing and Taipei publishing companies. I haven’t been able to figure out how to contact them and find out if much of the music is even in print anymore. I thought about contacting the school of music at Tunghai University. Are there any other reputable music schools in Taiwan? Thanks again, I’ll just keep trying.
I’m back. I have found several scores of chinese art songs and I can’t wait to begin learning to sing them, but I do have another question concerning recording companies/record lables in Taipei. Has anyone heard of Lucky Records, Four Seas Records or Golden Gate Records. All three used to be in Taipei but I haven’t found anything on the web with their name.
Anyway, I thought maybe we could also switch off of my rather dull topic for a while and make better use of this space. Are any of you musicians? or at least have a musical hobby that you still do or learned to do in Taiwan. Anything music at all? What ever you have to say, I’m interested. Are there any other music nerds or closet music geeks out there?!?!
Hmmm, this isn’t fully vocal, but the piece Ma You-you composed for HK’s reversion does have a chorus in it. I forget what it’s called, but should be easy to find.