Tyzen Hsiao - Music

Music

Tyzen Hsiao's rich tonal style has earned him an international reputation as "Taiwan's Rachmaninoff." His compositions include works for solo instruments and chamber ensembles, many works for solo voice, and large-scale pieces for orchestras and choirs with soloists.

Hsiao's most widely performed large-scale pieces include:

• Formosa Symphony, opus 49 (1987)
• Violin Concerto in D, opus 50 (1988)
• Cello Concerto in C, opus 52 (1990)
• Piano Concerto in C minor, opus 53 (1992)
• 1947 Overture for soprano, chorus and orchestra (1993)
• Ode to Yu-Shan (Jade Mountain) (1999)
• Ilha Formosa: Requiem for Formosa's Martyrs (2001)

Hsiao's art songs have become standard repertory in Taiwan. "Taiwan the Formosa" or "Taiwan the Green" has achieved status as the island's unofficial national anthem. The song appears as well in the 1947 Overture. Other well-known art songs include "The Fairest Flower", "Eternal Hometown", a Taiwanese-language setting of Psalm 23, and "I Love Taiwan." He has also won acclaim for his folk song settings, such as "Brother Andon Goes to Market" and "The Grasshopper and the Rooster." Many of Hsiao's songs also exist in orchestral song versions.

Hsiao's chamber music includes works for piano four hands, string quartets, piano quintets. The art songs form the basis of serenades for solo violin and piano as well as other chamber combinations.

Hsiao's music for solo piano was less well known in Taiwan until performances by Lina Yeh and others began to bring this repertoire into prominence around the turn of the millennium. Works for solo piano include suites, multi-movement "poetic echoes," etudes, toccatas, and instrumental settings of art songs and hymns. Hsiao remarked in his comments for the recording Memories of Home: "For me it is more than a musical instrument. Introduced to me by my Japanese-educated mother, it has become my guide, my companion for life, my most beloved instrument."

Hsiao credits Rachmaninov, Bartók and Frédéric Chopin as important influences on his style, along with Presbyterian hymnody and, above all, Taiwanese folk music. His songs combine the seemingly artless elements of folk song with romantic melodies and lush harmonies reminiscent of Canteloube.

Hsiao's fusion of Taiwanese and international music traditions has influenced a number of Taiwanese composers. Enthusiasm for his music runs particularly strong at institutions where Hsiao has served in the past as a teacher, such as the National Taiwan Normal University, the Tainan University of Technology and the National Kaohsiung Normal University. Hsiao's compositions have been the subject of graduate research at the National Sun Yat-sen University in his hometown of Kaohsiung, the Florida State University in Tallahassee (USA), and other institutions.