(b Miaoli, 5 Dec 1921). Taiwanese composer and educationist. Like many other composers of his generation, Guo received a Western-style musical education during the Japanese colonization of Taiwan (1895–1945). After attending a special secondary music school in Tokyo (1936), he entered university in Tokyo to study composition and the violin (1941). Returning to Taiwan in 1946, Guo served as a teacher and musical advisor, while at the same time composing film and vocal music. His Symphonic Variations, based on Taiwanese folk tunes, was the first orchestral piece by a Taiwanese composer to be performed in Taibei (1955). In the late 1960s he returned to Japan for further composition studies. Guo’s music is a typical example of ‘pentatonic romanticism’ in its setting of Chinese pentatonic melodic lines within a harmonic framework reminiscent of 19th-century Romantic music. One such piece is Minsu zuqu (1961), in which the composer makes use of early musical memories, juxtaposing elements of Wagner, Saint-Saëns and Chinese fiddle music with the rhythms of Chinese operatic music performed at temple festivals. He continued to compose in a pentatonic-romantic style in such later works as the Concertino (1972).
(selective list)
|
Stage: Niulang zhinü [The Cowherd and the Weaving Girl] (children’s op, Zhan Yichuan), 1974; Xu Xian yu Bai niangniang [Xu Xian and White Snake Lady] (operetta), 1984 |
|
Orch: Sym. Variations, 1955, rev. 1961; Gaoshanzu de huanxiang [Fantasy of the Mountain Aborigines], pf, orch, 1957, rev. 1970; Taiwanese Melody, 1960, rev. 1970; Minsu zuqu [Folk Suite], 1961, rev. 1973; Zhonghua song [Ode to China], 1969; Concertino, pf, orch, 1972; 3 Taiwanese Folk Pieces, 1973 |
|
Choral: Yuweng [The Old Fisherman], 1949; Chunqu qu [Spring has Gone] (Wang Jian), 1950; Fengqiao yebo [Stopping by Maple Bridge at Night], 1953; Poshansi hou chanyuan [Meditation Hall behind the Desolate Mountain Temple], 1954; Ge zai chuntian [Singing in Spring] (Tai Song), 1961; Weiren de yansheng [Birth of the Giant] (Shang Guanyu), chorus, orch, 1965; Fengliu [Drifting] (Wang Wenshan), 1974; Chunyou chengqinghu [Visiting Chengqing Lake in Spring] (Chen Shaohuai), 1975 |
|
Chbr and solo inst: Pf Suite, 1954; Taiwan guyue huanxiang qu [Fantasia on Taiwanese Classical Music], pf, 1956; Pf Sonata, 1963; Piano Pieces, 1964; Variation and Fugue on Taiwanese Classical Music, pf, 1972; Easy Piano Pieces, 1973; Sonata, cl, pf, 1974; 3 Movts, tpt/bn, pf, 1977; Taihu chuan [Boat on Tai Lake], pipa ens, 1977 |
|
1v, pf: Liangzhou ci, 1947; Chunri zuiqi yanzhi [Getting Drunk on a Spring Day and Speaking One’s Ambition] (Li Bo), 1955; Cailian qu [Picking Lotus], 1959; Jian Ai [Jane Eyre] (Zhan Yichuan), 1965; Anmo nü yu di [Massage Girl and Flute] (Li Sha), 1970; Shuangxi yuhuo [Light from a Fishing Boat at Shuangxi] (Chen Lianwang), 1970; Guohua song [Ode to our National Flower], 1971; Jiayuan hao [Home is so Sweet] (Wang Jingrong), 1971; Qingnian baoguo [Youth serve their Country], 1971; Zixing ge [Song of Introspection], 1972; Xiangchou siyun [Nostalgia] (Yu Guangzhong), 1973; Caicha [Picking Tea-Leaves], 1974; Nongjia nü [The Farming Girl] (Liang Ming), 1975 |
|
Folksong arr. collections, chorus: 1948, 1954, 1955, 1965, 1970, 1984 |
|
Children’s song collections, chorus: 1955, 1957, 1970 |
|
MSS in C.C. Liu Collection, Institute of Chinese Studies, University of Heidelberg |
|
Principal publishers: Asian Composers’ League; Tiantong |
Chen Jiu-wen Ginger: Selected Contemporary Taiwanese Composers and their Piano Works (diss., Northwestern U., 1995)
Liang Maochun: ‘A Composer Taking Root in Taiwan’, Music from China National Radio (1995), no.1, pp.13–15
BARBARA MITTLER