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Music and childhood
My first piano teacher made a big mark on me. She was very crazy and dramatic. She loved music so much and didn’t feel shy to show it. She would jump from the chair and dance like a Gypsy when the students played well during the class. In fact, she was not only teaching us music but also “classical” attitude. She was teaching us a whole way of living as we would spend the weekend with her and she was very severe: she would teach us how to eat and how to sit. I didn’t feel comfortable with that. I was feeling too much pressure and, to me, it was also too artificial. My weekends were quite awful then but in hindsight I still appreciate the energy she gave me. Later on, when I was eleven I started to learn Yangqin 楊琴 ( a Chinese version of the cymbalum), and after middle school I went to NTCA (National Taiwan College of Art) where I studied in the Chinese music department, majoring in the Yangqin instrument.
Being a composer
I started to compose when I was 20; I originally wanted to compose some pieces that I would love to play and decided to start my career as a music composer. I wish I could make a living by composing, but currently cannot, so I have to teach music composition at university. Actually I like teaching, I like to help students discover and develop a sound in their mind and help them to turn it into a piece. In some ways, it is good for a composer to teach and compose at the same time. Now I am teaching at the Eternal-Life Christ College 永生基督書院 and at the Chinese Culture University 文化大學; I teach composition, music history, counterpoint and form analysis. My best advice for my students and people who want to compose their own pieces, is to start with a short piece: if you have many ideas, you shouldn't try to put all of them in one single piece; you can separate them and write different songs which have to be finished. Once you've learnt more or grown more mature, you can just work on expanding these pieces, bit by bit.
I usually compose instrumental music because it is the most familiar way for me in sync with my musical background. I usually sit at my desk and write music in the morning. My mind is the clearest at that moment as I have yet to talk to anyone or see anything after since waking up. The score which I am working on always lies on my composition desk so I can see and read it when I pass by during the day. Sometimes, an idea will come out the moment I glance at it. Thus, the score stays on the desk until I have achieved perfection. I also compose in a traditional way, taking my pen and writing down notes on musical paper though I'm becoming more and more interested in electronic music and I am considering progressively adding it to my compositions.
My inspiration
Music is definitively my way of expressing myself. I find inspiration from the stories I read, performances or unexpected ideas that suddenly pop in my mind while I'm walking. Once I have an idea (which can be a sound, a story, a dream or a picture…), I will try to picture it in my mind and write down the notes which can deliver this idea. So, to me, composing is a visual process that is also very personal. I don't really care about how my pieces will be received by the audience, being an artist is first and foremost being honest with myself.
I do not compose a particular style of music, I am more interested in sounds. Recently my way of composing is more like finding the right sound. That's why my music may sound a little bit abstract sometimes. Among the sounds I find beautiful in nature, I am now especially attracted by the whisper of fire, the sizzling sound of burning wood and I am working on that sound now.
About the piece 'Ikkaku Sennin' 一角仙人
This piece is inspired by a Noh performance called Ikkaku Sennin, a legend taken from Buddhist scriptures. The story is of a Rishi (Unicorn) born of human form though with a single horn and hoofs instead of feet, his deformities causing him to curse the rains in the kingdom which almost causes famine. This leads to a mission by the harlot Shanan to seduce the enraged Rishi, remove the curse and save the kingdom. Noh is one of my favourite types of performance because I feel a power beneath the static motion which I like to incorporate into my piece.
For me Ikakku Sennin is a tragedy, a monologue from a god with no self- respect. He is neither human, god, nor animal; alone and impatient; struggling to accommodate his desires, his body and his soul as if he is trying to escape his beast's body, his godly status or his human desires. His singing belongs to no language, so although I created Ikkaku a new poem, I weakened the words focusing rather on the phonetics and the sound produced thus making a new language belonging to Ikkaku which flows more naturally with his emotions.
The brand new poem was written by my friend Chenyi (陳逸). I first told him all my opinions and ideas about the story of Ikakku Sennin then asked him to write in the first person, imagining he was Ikkaku and using the poetic form to reinterpret this Buddhist tale. I wanted to give Ikkaku a new opportunity for emotional rehabilitation.
The piece was sung by the Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra's tenor Vicente Fortunato C. Moran. The recording was done over three hours, however much more time was put into expressing the poem with a focus on the pitch and vocal sounds rather than the deliverance of the words.
The lyrics are a new poem, composed after reading the story, written as a soliloquy of Ikkaku Sennin:
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柔軟香風 無如心動
rou ruan xiang feng wu ru xin dong
色四方重 雨湮神通
se si fang chong yu yan shen ton
(哀) 空愛慾戲
(ai ) kong ai yu xi
(唈) 生染著心
(yi) sheng ran zhao xin
境界 七日七夜 痴人瘦
Jing jie qi ri qu ye chi ren shou
戒邪 七日七夜 紅塵咒
Jie xie qi ri qi ye hong chen zhou
我我我我我 wo
空空空空空 kong
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also watch another video with Yaping
Another Kind of Comfort
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