Dissertation
Memories of home: Taiwanese solo piano music of the 20th century
University of Iowa
Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA), University of Iowa
Autumn 2021
DOI: 10.17077/etd.006313
Abstract
This project is a high-quality recording of seven works for solo piano by seven Taiwanese composers written in the 20th century. I have chosen to record music by Taiwanese composers for the project because it is underrepresented back home and globally, and I would like to support and promote the works by artists from my country. The featured pieces are Three Dances (1936) by Wen-Ye Jiang, Piano Suite (1954) by Chih-Yuan Kuo, Four Preludes for Piano (1979) by Yen Lu, Nocturne No. 2 (1985) by Mao-Shuen Chen, Memories of Home (1987) by Tyzen Hsiao, A Sketch of the Kuan Du (1999) by Shui-Long Ma, and Mountain Mist (1999) by Chi-Lien Hung. Kuo, Ma, Hsiao, and Jiang are considered founding and famous Taiwanese composers, and Hung, Lu, and Chen are newer or lesser-known. Each work represents the “signature” style of its composer, or one of the styles, if the composer has multiple stylistic periods. Overall, the selected repertoire exhibits various degrees of integrating traditional pentatonicism with contemporary compositional techniques, such as dissonant harmonies and tone rows. These seven works are only a partial presentation of these composers’ oeuvre, as well as Taiwanese solo piano music at large. By acknowledging these artists and showing a sample of their music, I hope that others would seek their other works.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Memories of home: Taiwanese solo piano music of the 20th century
- Creators
- Shu-Min Chang
- Contributors
- Ksenia Nosikova (Advisor)Rene Lecuona (Committee Member)Trevor Harvey (Committee Member)Uriel Tsachor (Committee Member)Alan Huckleberry (Committee Member)
- Resource Type
- Dissertation
- Project Type
- Recording Thesis
- Degree Awarded
- Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA), University of Iowa
- Degree in
- Music
- Date degree season
- Autumn 2021
- DOI
- 10.17077/etd.006313
- Publisher
- University of Iowa
- Number of pages
- vi, 53 pages
- Copyright
- Copyright 2021 Shu-Min Chang
- Language
- English
- Description illustrations
- music
- Description bibliographic
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 46-48).
- Public Abstract (ETD)
Memories of Home: Taiwanese Solo Piano Music of the 20th Century presents solo piano works by Taiwanese composers. It features four founding and famous Taiwanese composers (Chih-Yuan Kuo, Shui-Long Ma, Tyzen Hsiao, and Wen-Ye Jiang) and three newer or lesser-known composers (Chi-Lien Hung, Yen Lu, and Mao-Shuen Chen). The included pieces are Three Dances (1936) by Jiang, Piano Suite (1954) by Kuo, Four Preludes for Piano (1979) by Lu, Nocturne No. 2 (1985) by Chen, Memories of Home (1987) by Hsiao, A Sketch of the Kuan Du (1999) by Ma, and Mountain Mist (1999) by Hung. These seven "signature" works are only a small part of the compositional output of these composers. Most of these works have not yet been recorded professionally in the United States. They are overall short in length and have evocative titles, and while greatly varied, exhibit various degrees of integrating traditional pentatonic scale usage with 20th century Western compositional techniques, such as dissonant harmonies and tone rows.
This recording strives to bring more awareness to the works of Taiwanese composers who often remain underrepresented in the cultural scene in Taiwan and globally, and it gives a taste of existing rich and diverse solo piano repertoire in Taiwan that deserves to be known.
- Academic Unit
- School of Music; DMA Recording Thesis
- Record Identifier
- 9984210943402771
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