Memories of Taiwan

for cello and piano
(2024)

A PDF of this score (and cello part) can be purchased from Sheet Music Direct.
The premiere performance by Zora Nai-Chien Yo and Yu-Chen Hsieh can be heard here:
Memories of Taiwan

This piece was written for Zora Yo (尤乃仟), a former student who was inspired by Antonin Dvorak’s “Songs My Mother Taught Me” to commission music that incorporates Taiwanese songs her grandfather used to sing. She asked me to bring my own style and some “American” influences into the music. I ended up writing four movements, each one based on a different Taiwanese melody, but incorporating elements that aren’t part of Taiwanese folk music. The four movements are as follows:

Thinking (思念)
The lyrics of the song Si Xiang Qi (思想起), describe a person’s memories about where they grew up and the people there. I’ve heard different versions of this song, ranging from rough folk musicians singing in a freely expressive speech-like manner to smooth pop-song crooning. In one version, a woman sings the unaccompanied melody in a simple, non-sentimental way. That version made me think of the lyrics as pleasant reminiscing mixed with nostalgia. It inspired me to create an atmosphere of “thinking”, or reminiscing on the piano with the cello playing phrases that borrow freely borrow from the song’s melody.

Pig’s Foot (豬腳)
The playful song Dianzi Jiao (點仔膠) is about eating Taiwanese-style pork knuckles to drive away bad luck. The potential bad luck was caused by kids getting tar stuck on their feet. I’ve repeated the song’s short melody several times in this movement while adding meter, rhythm and texture changes. At times, I also let American blues (or even rhythm and blues) influence the music so that it becomes something quite different from the original song.

Memory in the Breeze (微風裡的回憶)
The lyrics of Wang Chun Feng (望春風) are about a young maiden dreaming of love, but too shy to express it. An important image is a springtime breeze. I combined that image with the idea of a lone elderly person looking back on the innocent days of youth. Like a distant memory, the song’s melody isn’t complete and it’s often unclear whether it’s even remembered correctly. Various phrases of the song drift through the piece, carried by the spring breeze that inspired the wistful reminiscing.

Dark Blue Clouds (深藍的雲)
Ti Oh-Oh (天黑黑) is a well-known song in Taiwan whose title literally means “Black Sky” or “Dark Clouds”. It is an upbeat song that, as was once described to me, is as much about relations between a husband and wife as it is about the weather. In this movement I often let my American accent surface as a syncopated accompaniment with blues-inspired chords and gestures.

Duration ca. 13 minutes.