Water Sky Chant-Folk Song by Li Tai-Hsiang (水天吟-李泰祥)
I. Lyrics (translated from Chinese)
You walk to me.
I hold your hands with eyes to eyes.
The mountain is connected to water, and water is connected to the sky.
In my eyes, there are bright scenes.
In my heart, it is filled with warm and fragrant sentiments.
You and I walk into each other’s heart.
In there, there is also a resplendent eternity
As vague as a dream, as mellow as wine,
As pleasant as music; just at the moment of that gaze.
The ocean and the sky then gaze at each other forever.
At the moment of smile, the gate of heaven even opens up.
Theme of the Work:
When carefully analyzing “Water Sky Chant,” you can find that the melody adopts materials from a kind of Taiwanese Opera, “Luan-Tan.” “Luan-Tan” is a type of avocational Taiwanse opera. Songs I wrote at the time that contained matierlas from Taiwanese opera include “Answer” and “Tattoos By Begonia.” Besides, in “Egret” I also added in materials from Taiwanese opera’s “Luan-Tan.” Although melodies of these songs obtained materials from Taiwanese opera, because of different musical form and tonality, these songs express different musical feeling.
Summary / Story:
To tell the truth, I created works by using characteristics of local opera because of the unobtrusive and imperceptible changes and influences in my childhood. When I was in elementary school, I lived in Nantou. There were not many entertainments after school, so I always watched the Taiwanese opera in the neighborhood. At the time, Taiwanese opera’s crying theme impressed me very much. In a later time, I moved northwards with my family; I had even more chances to watch outdoor Taiwanese opera. I think that is one important factor of my integration of local opera’s hues into my creations as the consequence when I started to compose music after I grew up.
III. Manuscript
Early handwritten manuscript (page 1) of “Water Sky Chant in G major” for voice, pipa, zither, and suona horn
(1978)
Early handwritten manuscript (page 2) of “Water Sky Chant in G major” for voice, pipa, zither, and suona horn
(1978)