Taiwanese Suite for piano trio (1998)
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Taiwanese Suite was written for Taiwanese cellist Ru-Ping Chen and her family piano trio. It was premiered on her DMA recital at The Ohio State University in April, 1998. A few months before the recital, the musicians presented me with several songbooks of Taiwanese folk songs, among which five were chosen for arrangement. The choices were based on the uniqueness of individual ones, as well as the similarity and contrast of mood and character among them. The suite consists of four movements.
I. The first movement contains two lyrical songs which are similar to each other: “The Watermill Maiden” and “Spring Longing”. The piano part first imitates the sound of zheng, a traditional Chinese zither, and then switches to Western piano style. The melodies are first presented in a straight-forward manner, and then varied a few times with new ideas added. Chromatic harmony is used extensively. The overall style is Romantic.
II. “Moonlight Sorrow” incorporated jazz harmony and rumba, a Latin American rhythmic pattern which was popular between the 1930s and early 1960s. The dance pattern was particularly chosen in memoriam of my mother who used to enjoy music of her time and who had just passed away in January 1998.
III. The title “Reflections” suggests the reflective mood of the music. The melody is presented in a four-part canon, where different parts reflect upon each other.
IV. “Under the Dark Sky” contains a sense of folk humor. The song lyrics depict an argument between an old couple over the taste of food in the kitchen. Finally, the wok is broken, and no one wins! The musical style is neo-Classical. Dissonance created by polytonality in the middle section is utilized to represent the argument.