Appreciation of Traditional Music in Taiwan (Han Music,IndigenousMusic, and Modern Chinese Music)To appreciate traditional music in Taiwan, firstly, i... (Read more)
Appreciation of Traditional Music in Taiwan (Han Music, Indigenous Music, and Modern Chinese Music)
To appreciate traditional music in Taiwan, firstly, it is necessary to grasp the diversified traditions, appearances, and cultural characteristics. Secondly, it is also necessary to perceive the interactive relevance between music and life.
In terms of performance, the 21st century is characterized by an abundance of music categories and modern development resources in Taiwan. Various solo instrumental performances are being cultivated. The orchestras established under the support of the public sector (the Ministry of Culture) include at least the orchestras in three municipalities: Taipei, Tainan, and Kaohsiung. Taiwan has pursued developments in modernism since the late 19th century; the development of the Chinese music thus constantly priorities the core values of modernism in the creation and practical experiences of performances, interpretation and citation of traditional materials.
The creative performance of Chinese music, emphasizing modernist principles, uses traditional music in Taiwan and aboriginal folk song. In response to changes in modern culture, some types of indigenous music were viewed as derived from a heterogeneous culture of mainstream culture, while others were directly created for arts market as consumer products. However, the growth of consciousness and re-identification of traditional values developed in recent years among local ethnic groups. The aboriginal music has come to serve as keys to cultural life through annual ceremonies. The stylish and traditional music of various ethnic groups (e.g., the Bunun Tribe’s polyphonic music, the Atayal Tribe’s singing of historical songs lmuhuw, and the Paiwan Tribe’s heritage and development of ancient tunes and the art of the nose flute) gradually deepened through the self-interpretation of cultural meaning.
The folk song culture, besides the indigenous music, is mainly observed in the living circles of the Hakkanese in their heritage of performance of Hakka folk songs. Moreover, instrumental music is mainly in the form of Hakka Ba-yin as performed in Hakka villages. In addition, folk tunes are divided into two major categories: those of wind and percussion instruments(chui-da) and those of string instruments(xian-suo). The tunes of xian-suo are decorative in nature and represent the characteristics of Hakka music.
In general, tranquil and passionate musical styles are associated with the musical characteristics of two categories of music, Nanguan and Beiguan. These two categories of music are different, as indicated in their names referring to “south” and “north.” The differences are not merely in tunes or musical type, but also in musical instruments, orchestra organization, and tone and structure. Tunes for such different musical forms as Beiguan opera music, yiu-kio (refined songs), ku-chui, and xianpu, are played with distinctive ensembles of musical instruments. For example, xinlu is used to play modern opera music, while jiulu is mainly used to play traditional music. Tunes played by wind and percussion instruments are also divided into tunes for flute or Suona. Although Nanguan is characterized by three types of tunes: zhi, pu, and qu, the basic organization of an orchestra is “Shangsiguan (four upper pipes)”, including pipa, xiao, san-xian, and er-xian, as well as paiban. When specific tunes are played, then more musical instruments are composed.