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The works of Taiwan’s guzheng music keeps developing day by day with innovation in both materials and techniques. As time goes by, patterns and connotations of guzheng music have broaden and deepen. In recent years, in addition to using works from mainland China as references, new works from guzheng musicians in Taiwan have become more creative and diverse. Since 2000, guzheng music composers have applied a lot of local materials to their works, showing concerns for their homeland. It is worth noting that many of them chose to use Hoklo materials in their works. This paper aims at researching the use of Hoklo music material in the works of guzheng music in Taiwan after 2000.
This research classifies the materials into four categories: folk songs, narrative music, drama music and instrumental music. Several works are thus chosen: folk songs “Gu Cheng Zhi Yi (Reminiscence of An Old Town)” and “Tian Hei Hei (Cloudy Day)”; instrumental music “Chao Tian Zi (The Emperor)”, “Shang Si Tao (Four Short Pieces)”; narrative music “Ren Sheng, Ru Meng ( Life is but a dream)”; Taiwanese opera “Ge Zi Lian Zou (Song of Taiwanese Opera)” and “Ge Zi Xi Fu (Poem of Taiwanese Opera)”. The result of research shows that some of these works combined Hoklo music materials through textual research, alteration, rearrangement of different genres, or adding a variation using the complete music material, or using fragments of melody, taking its impression and adding some thoughts into creation. With the unique playing techniques of guzheng, vocal cavity and instruments are transformed into guzheng music.
After the composers absorb from Hoklo music, they instrumentalize it and reintegrate it with individual reflections, and then compose. It is not only the dialogue between the composer and the local culture, but also a form of self-reminder of the composer’s background and cultural experiences. Therefore, these works not only are meaningful in music themselves, but also bear more in the local culture and humanity, turning the development of guzheng music in Taiwan to a new leaf.
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