page_title: Tyzen Hsiao
section_title: Music
hierarchical_section_title: Tyzen Hsiao / Music
caption_attribution_description: 中文: 臺灣的玉山 Bân-lâm-gú: Tâi-uân ê Gi̍k-suann(Gio̍k-san) English: Yushan(Jade Mountain) in Taiwan
context_page_description: Tyzen Hsiao was a Taiwanese composer of the neo-Romantic school. Many of his vocal works set poems written in Taiwanese Hokkien, the mother tongue of the majority of the island's residents. His compositions stand as a musical manifestation of the Taiwanese literature movement that revitalized the island's literary and performing arts in the 1970s and 1980s. Hsiao's career in music included additional success as a pianist and conductor.
context_section_description: Tyzen Hsiao's rich tonal style 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 Taiwan'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 formed 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," études, 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 credited Rachmaninov, Bartók and Frédéric Chopin as important influences on his style, along with Presbyterian hymnody and, above all, Taiwanese folk music.
  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.
caption: Taiwan's highest peak, the subject of Hsiao's Ode to Yu-Shan (1999)
exif: {"Image Make": "Nikon", "Image Model": "Nikon SUPER COOLSCAN 5000 ED", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "4000", "Image YResolution": "4000", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Nikon Scan 4.0.0 W", "Image DateTime": "2005.07.20 20.09.54", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "226", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "4000", "Thumbnail YResolution": "4000", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "660", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5632", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2250", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1500"}