Ballade (2012)
for Vioin and Percussion

Instrumentation of Percussion:
Marimba (5-Oct), 4 Wood Blocks, 4 Bongos, Conga, Snare Drum, Tambourine, Bamboo Wind Chime, Glass Wind Chime, Kalimba

World Premiere:
July 8, 2012
Taiwanese Aboriginal Concert
Miaoli International Culture and Tourism Bureau Concert Hall, Miaoli, Taiwan
Yu-Hao Chang, violin; Sayun Chang, percussion

Duration: 10 minutes

Program Notes

Accepting percussionist Sayun Chang’s commission, I composed this single movement piece, Ballade for Violin and Percussion. As requested, this piece should be inspired by the tune of Taiwanese aboriginals to be performed in the Taiwanese aboriginal concert 2012.

This piece is based on the tune of Puyama tribe called Bulai Naniyam Kalalumyan (Beautiful Rice Grain). However, the quotations are the fragments of this tune, so a complete melody never appears and can be hardly recognized. This tune depicts that the tribal people celebrate the harvest festival and hope to convey the message of the harvest to their fellow people who fight at the frontline. In this piece, the violin serves as a narrator that carries different moods throughout the whole piece. The percussion here consists of many instruments to create multiple sounds. The snare drum implies a war, and the kalimba section, the very peaceful moment of this piece, indicates meditation. I titled this piece Ballade because the melody is just like storytelling. The musical form is mainly a ternary form (fast-slow-fast); in each tempo, however, lots of small sections are included to express different moods and to make this piece more complicated for the musical combination.

This is the world premiere recording.

接受打擊家張幼欣的委託創作，我譜寫了這個為小提琴與打擊的單樂章作品《敘事曲》。這個委託創作是為了在2012年的台灣原住民音樂會中演出，而且必須使用台灣原住民曲調。

這個曲子使用一個台灣卑南族曲調《美麗的稻穗》，然而我在此曲的引用手法都是這個曲調的動機片段，所以原本的曲調未曾完整出現，甚至很難被辨認出來。這個曲調描述著原住民慶祝著豐收，並要用著豐收的歌聲祝福著在金門打仗的親人。小提琴在此曲中猶如敘事者轉換著不同的情緒，打擊使用著很多樂器製造出不同的複合聲響，小鼓暗示著戰爭，拇指琴帶入全曲最平和的沈思段落。由於此曲具有著敘事的特質，也是提名此曲的原因，大致上曲式是三段體（快慢快），但在每個不同的速度裡，包含著很多不同情緒的小片段，讓此曲音樂段落的組合益形複雜。

– Feng-Hsu Lee (June 16, 2012 Yunlin, Taiwan)