The Taipei Philharmonic Chorus is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. Revisiting some of the chorus’ most significant milestones over the past four decades, the chorus, led by conductor Chiu Chun-chiang, featuring soprano Chen Mei-ling, and backed by the Taipei Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, will present a nostalgic concert titled “Passing on the tradition and revisiting classics.” The program includes US conductor Robert Whitman Procter’s (1927-1979) Choral Fantasia, an arrangement of Chinese art songs, and Taiwanese composer Chien Nan-chang’s Symphony No. 2 Naluwan.
Procter was recognized as a key figure in Taiwan’s choral and music education in the 1970s. His students include Taipei Philharmonic Foundation artistic director Dirk DuHei, composers Chien Nan-chang and Pan Hwang-long, and many other important contemporary Taiwanese musicians. Besides being a choral conductor and a composer, Procter was also an organist. To pay homage to Procter — who passed away at the early age of 52 — for his contribution to the art of choral music in Taiwan, the first half of tomorrow’s concert will present his Choral Fantasia, composed in 1978 and dedicated to DuHei. In this piece, Procter made arrangements of four famous Chinese art songs, namely “Homeland Nostalgia,” “I Live at the Headstream of the Yangtze River,” “Spring Moaning,” and “The Great Wall Ballad,” incorporating traditional Western harmonies and orchestration.
DuHei said that Procter’s Choral Fantasia uses the musical phrase of the lyrics “The Great Wall stretches 10,000 miles” from the song “The Great Wall Ballad” as a continuation of the chorale motif, and then based on the chaconne musical form, he gave the song a modern sound. DuHei said the last time Taipei Philharmonic Chorus performed Choral Fantasia was over a decade ago, because the piece is so difficult and complex.
Photo courtesy of Taipei Philharmonic Foundation
照片由台北愛樂文教基金會提供
Chien has worked with the Taipei Philharmonic Chorus for years. His work Symphony No. 2 Naluwan was first performed in 2006 and will be performed in the second half of the concert. It is another large-scale aboriginal choral symphony following The Maiden of Malan. The composition is based on Taiwan’s rich and diverse aboriginal music tradition, and Chien also added human voices mimicking the calls of various creatures and Chinese xiangsheng, or comic dialogues, adding an element of humor to the piece.
Both Choral Fantasia and Naluwan are based on songs. Although sections of the songs in each work are independent from each other, they are similar to movements in a symphony with strict compositional structures. The performance of the two works awakens a sense of nostalgia for the past 40 years, and shows the audience that after four decades, the Taipei Philharmonic Chorus remains full of vitality, passing on its art to the next generation.
In a separate event, the Taipei Philharmonic Foundation is to hold the nine-day 2012 Taipei International Choral Festival, with an opening concert featuring Chien’s large-scale choral and Chinese orchestral work titled The Twelve Signs of the Chinese Zodiac, having its world premiere at the National Concert Hall on July 28. Conducted by Cheng Li-bin, the Taipei Philharmonic Chorus will collaborate with the National Chinese Orchestra Taiwan to present the much-anticipated new work, the first work featuring elements of Chinese orchestral music in the festival. For more information, please visit www.tpf.org.tw or call 02-2773-3691.
(Lin Ya-ti, Taipei Times)
Photo courtesy of Taipei Philharmonic Foundation
照片由台北愛樂文教基金會提供
台北愛樂合唱團今年正值創團四十週年,為追憶這四十載別具意義的里程碑,明晚將於台北國家音樂廳,在指揮邱君強的帶領以及女高音陳美玲的加持下,與台北愛樂青年管弦樂團,一起帶來具有濃厚懷舊之情的「傳承與經典」音樂會。曲目有美籍指揮羅伯特‧惠特曼‧包克多(一九二七─一九七九)改編自中國藝術歌曲的《合唱幻想曲》,以及台籍作曲家錢南章的第二號交響曲《娜魯灣》。
回顧一九七○年代台灣合唱與音樂教育的貢獻,包克多可說是功不可沒。台北愛樂藝術總監杜黑、作曲家錢南章、潘皇龍,以及許多台灣當今重量級音樂家,多受過包克多的指導。除了合唱指揮與作曲外,包克多也是一位管風琴家。為感念英年早逝享年五十二歲的包克多,對台灣合唱藝術的貢獻,明晚音樂會上半場將演出包克多一九七八年提獻給杜黑的《合唱幻想曲》。該曲以正統西方和聲與管弦樂配器技法改編四首著名中國藝術歌曲,包括「思鄉」、「我住長江頭」、「春思曲」與「長城謠」。
杜黑指出,包克多的《合唱幻想曲》的「長城謠」,以「萬里長城萬里長」樂句為聖詠動機,再據夏康舞曲曲式發展,讓「長城謠」有了現代面貌。但因該曲困難複雜,上次演出已是十年前。
Photo courtesy of Taipei Philharmonic Foundation
照片由台北愛樂文教基金會提供
錢南章與台北愛樂合作多年,其首演於二○○六年的第二號交響曲《娜魯灣》是繼《馬蘭姑娘》之後,另一大型原住民合唱交響作品。該曲以臺灣多元、豐富的原住民音樂為素材,亦在其中加入人聲模擬及「相聲」,為作品增添一些幽默。
《合唱幻想曲》與《娜魯灣》皆由歌曲出發,雖具有各自獨立的段落,皆有著曲式結構完整的交響概念。台北愛樂藉由這兩首合唱曲目抒發四十年的懷舊之情,也讓觀眾看到台北愛樂歷經四十年後仍然充滿活力、傳承世代。
另外,台北愛樂也將自七月二十八日起舉辦為期九天的「二○一二台北國際合唱音樂節」,台北愛樂將邀請台灣國家國樂團,由鄭立彬擔綱指揮,在台北國家音樂廳舉行的開幕音樂會上,世界首演錢南章全新大型國樂合唱作品《十二生肖》,這是音樂節首度有國樂元素加入,令人期待。詳情請洽台北愛樂:www.tpf.org.tw或02-2773-3691。
(台北時報記者林亞蒂)
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