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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.

Lyrics written by Lo Men (羅門)

你向我走來
我握住你的手 四目相望
山連著水 水連著天
滿目都是光亮的風景
滿懷都是溫馨的情意
你我一同走進彼此的心
那裡也是一座華美的永恆
夢般的迷離 酒般的醇香
音樂般的動聽 就在那一望裡
海天便永遠的望在一起
就在那一笑裡 天堂的門都笑開了

Video
Lin Chien-Chun and Li Yi-Ching (林芊君、李奕青)


Audio
Chi Yu (齊豫)


Lin Wen-Chun and Hsu Chien-Chun (林文俊、徐芊君)


II.    About this Song

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)

     

IV.    Music Score

PDF: http://lth.e-lib.nctu.edu.tw/data/pdf/Nature%20Hym.pdf
MIDI: http://lth.e-lib.nctu.edu.tw/en/data/midi/Nature%20Hym.mid


To view the story of Li Tai-Hsiang, please go to Li Tai-Hsiang, the Native Musician of Taiwan.

Text and images are provided by The Native Musician of Taiwan-Tai-Hsiang Li Digital Archive, National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan