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Struggle for Recognition: Wen-Ye Jiang, Chih-Yuen Kuo, and Their Piano Music

YANG, SHUAN-CHEN

Abstract Details

2008, DMA, University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music : Piano.

Before the twentieth century, Taiwan kept its native music to itself, passing traditions of folk song and Taiwanese opera from generation to generation within the island. Beginning in the 1930s, however, Taiwan attempted to join the growing international stage of art music, sending some of its most talented young musicians to study in Japan. The choice to study in Japan was not only due to the imperial power's occupation; at the time, Japan was the only country in Asia where Western music was played and taught. Out of this came Taiwan's two most significant composers of the twentieth century-Wen-Ye Jiang (1910-1983) and Chih-Yuen Kuo (b. 1921). Upon completing their studies in Japan, Jiang and Kuo had developed methods that freely mixed Western and Eastern influences, and they wrote in a largely audience- friendly modernist idiom. Yet beyond Japan, their paths could not be more different. Tragically, their music has not reached as many Western ears as they should have, often falling victim to the cruel political circumstances of their time.

Because many musicians in the West are not familiar with Jiang and Kuo, they are also unaware of the importance of the historical events which affected their lives, careers, and even artistic influences. Although Jiang is eleven years older than Kuo, both composers matured in a period where Eastern and Western music began to exchange a great deal of ideas. Both, too, deserve recognition as composers from Taiwan. This paper will trace the different compositional directions of Jiang and Kuo, discuss how extra-musical events affected their lives, and shed more light on their music. It will then finish with the examination of four major piano works-two of each composer-that are representative of their styles and their times.

Frank Weinstock (Advisor)
94 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • YANG, S.-C. (2008). Struggle for Recognition: Wen-Ye Jiang, Chih-Yuen Kuo, and Their Piano Music [Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1219072963

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • YANG, SHUAN-CHEN. Struggle for Recognition: Wen-Ye Jiang, Chih-Yuen Kuo, and Their Piano Music. 2008. University of Cincinnati, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1219072963.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • YANG, SHUAN-CHEN. "Struggle for Recognition: Wen-Ye Jiang, Chih-Yuen Kuo, and Their Piano Music." Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati, 2008. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1219072963

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)