The soundtrack for the movie Ripples of Desire (花漾) composed by folk musician Chen Ming-chang (陳明章) won the best world fusion album award on Saturday at the Golden Melody Awards for artistic and traditional music in Taipei.
“Thank you director Zero Chou (周美玲), for giving me a chance to blend nanguan (南管) into a film,” the singer-songwriter-producer said after winning the award.
The album blends sounds from Taiwanese string instruments with those from nanguan guitars, lutes, dulcimers and oriental drums.
Photo: CNA
Nanguan is a Chinese classical music style that originated in Fujian Province, China.
The movie is about the life of two young courtesans on a remote island populated by merchants, pirates and other outcasts 300 years ago.
The Golden Melody Awards, billed as the biggest music awards event in the Chinese-speaking world, are divided into two ceremonies, one for artistic and traditional music and one for popular music categories. The award ceremony for the second category is scheduled to take place on July 6.
The jury award on Saturday night went to father-and-son pair Peng Shuang-sung (彭雙松) and Peng Wen-ming (彭文銘), who were praised for their dedication to the digital preservation of music for more than two decades.
Since 1975, they have purchased the copyrights to more than 6,000 albums, covering Hakka, folk and Aboriginal music and traditional instruments, and spent time categorizing and digitizing the albums, without ever making money from their efforts.
The best faith album went to Poetic Mantras by Ma Chang-sheng (馬長生), and the best folk music album and best musical arranger awards went to Limitless — The Circle of Seasons by the Chai Found Music Workshop.
Vali by acappella group SURE won the best singing performance and best album packaging awards, while The Rose in the Wilderness, which consists of piano pieces composed by the late Kuo Chih-yuan (郭芝苑), grabbed the best album producer award.
Award-winning singer-songwriter Huang Shan-liang (荒山亮), Canadian world music singer-songwriter Matthew Lien and Okinawan singer Rimi Natsukawa performed at Saturday’s ceremony at National Dr Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Taipei.
A total of 67 works were selected from 1,595 entries to compete in 15 traditional and artistic music award categories this year, according to the Ministry of Culture’s Bureau of Audiovisual and Music Industry Development.
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