Scoring your film music with the fat man

Fan Zong-pei (范宗沛) took to the podium to receive the award for Best Original Score at the 1996 Golden Horse Awards (金馬獎) for his work on the movie Connection by Fate (超級大國民), the composer and cellist had no idea that he'd soon be dubbed Taiwan's "genius of the score."

This is a tag that the thickset cellist with the ever-present happy-go-lucky air brushes aside. But it certainly can't be denied him. Since his 1996 success, virtually all of Fan's television drama and film scores have been nominated for awards.

Aside from the Golden Horse, Fan's compositions have been singled out for distinction by judges at the Golden Bell (金鐘獎) -- the nation's TV awards -- the Asia Pacific Film Festival (亞太影展) and the Golden Melody Awards (金曲獎).

Not that he lets this success go to his head.

Ask Fan what it felt like to be the recipient of the 1997 Golden Melody Award in the category of Best Instrumental Album for his Sound of Armour (慾望的聲音), and he'll unassumingly brush over the subject with a "Oh, you know, it was OK."

Press him further, however, and he'll admit that the event was probably the turning point of his career. For the previous nine years Fan was the lead cellist with the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO, 國家音樂廳交響樂團).

"Obviously I was pretty nervous as to how my first album would be received. After all, it was my first such venture and I realized the future of my solo career depended upon it," explained Fan.

While Fan repeated his 1996 Golden Horse success last year for his work on the short independent flick Voice of Waves (那年夏天的浪聲), it was his work with Public Television Service (PTS, 公共電視) that turned the ever-jovial cellist into a household name.

In 1999, Fan scored a hat trick for the television channel with his music for the hugely successful Once Upon a Time (曾經), Boat in a Stormy Sea (汪洋中的一條船) and The General's Stone Tablet (將軍碑). For the last of these, Fan was nominated for a Golden Bell Award in the Best Sound Effects category.

With this year's Golden Bell Awards set to take place at Taipei's Chungshan Hall (中山堂) this coming Friday, pundits are already predicting that his latest work will be a strong contender for an award.

Fan still hasn't got used to all the accolades even though he has been nominated for some kind of award every year for the past six years.

"None of my scores have been what you'd describe as uplifting music. I set out to create moods with my scores and this sees me toying with slow, deep and quite gloomy melodies," he said.

"My most recent composition, because of its topic, was certainly no exception. I'd have to admit that it was one that warranted little, if any, joy."

Penning the score for a 20--episode PTS adaptation of Kenneth Pai's (白先勇) 1983 novel, Crystal Boys (孽子) -- a ground-breaking novel which focuses on gay culture in 1970s Taiwan -- Fan created a thoughtful, even morose, composition for director Tsao Jui-yuan's (曹瑞原) much-acclaimed TV drama. It is a work that Fan considers to be his most downbeat to date.

"After I record scores I like to give recordings to friends so that they can give me feedback. I felt pretty bad doing this for my latest project, though," stated Fan with a smirk. "I felt obliged to warn one close friend that if he was in any way depressed, he should not listen to it."

While eagerly awaiting the results of next week's award ceremony, Fan is enjoying a lull in his music writing career. He is instead taking the time to concentrate on a personal project -- one which looks set to see the classically trained cellist moving into the field of electronica in some rather unique ways.