(b Jilong, 17 July 1939). Taiwanese composer and music educator. He studied composition with Xiao Erhua at the National Institute of the Arts (1959–64). As a member of the Sunflower Group (1967–71) he was active in the early promotion of contemporary music in Taiwan. He took up graduate studies in composition with Oskar Sigmund at the Regensburg Kirchenmusikschule (1972–5). In 1981 Ma became head of the music department at the newly founded National Academy of the Arts in Taibei, creating there a much-emulated programme which offers students a grounding both in Western and East Asian music.
The combination of traditional Asian idioms and materials with Western techniques is the most distinctive trademark of his creative output, which has developed from a more conservative idiom to a distinctly experimental and contemporary one. In Yugang sumiao (1969) he translates the techniques of several Chinese instruments for the piano. The striking use of pizzicato, especially in the first movement of his String Quartet no.2 (1982–3), echoes the plucked instruments in China’s traditional ensembles. Pan (1976) for Chinese ensemble powerfully synthesizes traditional sonorities and modern musical techniques. In Dou E Yuan (1980) and Wo shi (1985) he incorporates Chinese vocal techniques into atonal sound environments.
(selective list)
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Stage: Liao Tianding (ballet), 1979 |
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Orch: Fantasia, fl, orch, 1974–5; Kongque dongnan fei [The Peacock Flies South-East], 1977; Wan Deng [Playing with Lights], 1977; Chenxi [Aurora], sym. band, 1979; Bamboo Fl Conc., 1981 |
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Chbr and solo inst: Classical Suite, pf, 1962; Sonata, pf, 1963; Sonata, vn, pf, 1964; Taiwan Suite, pf, 1967; Trio, fl, vc, pf, 1967; Yugang sumiao [A Sketch of the Rainy Harbour], pf, 1969; Str Qt no.1, 1970; Fantasia, fl, 1973; Sonata, pf, 1973; Duihua [Dialogue], vn, pf, 1974; Toccata and Fugue, org, 1974–5; Pan [Expectation], Chin. insts, 1976; Capriccio, vc, pf, 1978; Shuilong yin [Water Dragon’s Song], pipa, 1979; 32 Pf Pieces from Chin. Folk Songs, 1979–80; Str Qt no.2, 1982–3; Image and Idea, (xiao/shakuhachi), 4 vc, 1988 |
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Vocal: Ximu [Dusk], S, B, pf, 1963; 5 Poems from the Tang Dynasty, 1v, pf, 1964; Huaixiang qu [Nostalgic Melody], S, pf, 1970; Suona yu rensheng [Suona and Voice], 1v, suona, pf, 1976; Collection of Chinese Folk Songs, chorus, 1976–8; Lanse de xishui [The Blue Brook], chorus, 1978; Qing Ming [Festival] Chorus, bamboo fl, gong, 1979; 4 Songs, 1v, pf, 1979; Dou E Yuan [Lament of Dou E], 1v, suona, perc, 1980, rev. 1987; Wo shi [I Am], S, xiao, 9 perc, 1985 |
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MSS in C.C. Liu Collection, Institute of Chinese Studies, U. of Heidelberg |
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Principal publishers: Asian Composers’ League, Republic of China Committee |
Duiweifa lilun [Counterpoint] (Taibei, 1972)
Shi’er yin zuoqufa yanjiu [The method of composing with 12 notes] (Taibei, 1976)
Cong wuju ‘Liao Tianding’ lun wuyue zhi chuangzuo [The creation of ballet music: a view from ‘Liao Tianding’] (Taibei, 1982)
CC2 (Chew Shyh-Ji)
KdG (Schu-chi Lee)
Liu Dangmei: Xiandai Zhongguo gangqin yanjiu [Research on modern Chinese piano music] (Tainan, 1986), 181–96
Ho Dorian: The Solo Piano Music of Ma Shuilong: a Performance Guide (diss., New York U., 1989)
Chen Yawen: ‘Ma Shuilong de yinyue yuyan shijie’ [The world of Ma’s musical language], Yinyue yuekan, no.95 (1990), 36–8
You Sufeng: Taiwan jin sanshi nian ‘xiandai yinyue’ fazhan zhi tansuo 1945–1975 [Enquiries into the development of ‘modern music’ in Taiwan] (thesis, National Taiwan Normal U., 1990), esp. 147–56
Hsu Tsang-houei: Taiwan yinyue shi chugao [A first draft history of music in Taiwan] (Taibei, 1992), 345–7
B. Mittler: ‘Mirrors and Double Mirrors: the Politics of Identity in New Music from Hong Kong and Taiwan’, CHIME, no.9 (1996), 4–44, esp. 21–2
Luo Zhongrong, ed.: Xiandai yinyue xinshang cidian [Dictionary for the appreciation of new music] (Beijing, 1997), 348–9
B. Mittler: Dangerous Tunes: the Politics of Chinese Music in Hong Kong, Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China since 1949 (Wiesbaden, 1997), 304–48 passim
Liu Jingzhi (Liu Ching-chih): Zhongguo xin yinyue shilun [Essays on Chinese new music] (Taibei, 1998), ii, 709–10
BARBARA MITTLER