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Lin Daw-sheng is an important music educator and composer in Hualien. He went deep into the indigenous tribes to collect and transcribe traditional ballads. With this music as foundation, he composed chamber music, concertos and more. In 2012, Lin was awarded the Distinguished Contribution Award for Cultural Legacy in Hualien County. This honor confirmed his contributions in the preservation, continuation and promotion of indigenous culture. This essay presents the life history of Lin Daw-sheng as the object of study, attempting to understand this outstanding musician in the East Taiwan in order to find out how he became a musician through self-learning. Observing the historical context, this composer in the “War generation” adopted different strategies to fit in the time during different stages of his life in order to build up his own style of composition. This study suggests that since the 1950s, the core of Lin’s composition departed from nationalism and patriotic songs and finally settled down on atonal music with the introduction of modernism to Taiwan. Gradually, his style transformed into ethnic music within the Chinese cultural circle. Finally, his music developed into the “Ethnic music” with Taiwan as the core. These few stages are overlapping with, connected to and influenced by one another. Lin Daw-sheng’s music emphasizes the cultural implications of different racial and ethnic groups, communicating his concern for Taiwan through musical language. His progress in musical composition records the changes of Taiwan’s history of music. His diverse styles orchestrate everlasting music for Taiwan’s history of music.
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